New Delhi, May 12: Equities extended their losses following a major-sell off by FIIs amidst winding up of positions by domestic players on the last session of settlement on the DSE on Friday and closed at recent times lower levels.Reflecting the downward trends, the DSE benchmark index ended 16.60 points, or nearly 2 per cent down at 864.87 points following free-fall in stock prices.
Marketmen said reports that FIIs have been net sellers during the past three trading session was a major factor behind the slide.
They said weakening of rupee at the forex market which quoted lower at Rs 43.92 against Thursday's closing of Rs 43.87 to a dollar further dampened the sentiments.
Fears of a hike in the interest rate by US Federal Reserve also cast its shadow on the market sentiments, they added. The market commenced on a cautious note as players were not interested in creating any fresh positions in view of ending settlement but stocks started declining after players indulged in squaring-up their positions particularly in IT, telecom and media company stocks.
"Stocks of IT companies were badly hit and hit another downward circuit-filter of price bands", said a broker adding that "I don't see any significant recovery in the near future".
The prominent losers in the infotech segment stocks were SSI Ltd at Rs 2292.25 (2604.80), DSQ Software at Rs 637.45 (724.50) and HCL Infosystems at Rs 342.40 (371) on sustained nervous selling by FIIs and other players.Infosys Tech shares too remained distinctly weak and lost Rs 350, or nearly 5% to close at Rs 6850 while Wipro down Rs 100 to Rs 2460 on persistent selling.
Silverline Tech lost Rs 32.25 at Rs 357.75, Rolta Rs 24.25 at Rs 282, Aptech Rs 6 at Rs 749, NIIT Ltd Rs 105 at Rs 1660, Digital Equip Rs 56 at Rs 627 and Satyam Comp Rs 46 at Rs 2760.
Telecom major stocks Himachal Futuristic and Global Telesystems finished sharply lower at Rs 777.10 and Rs 932.30 against last closing of Rs 883 and Rs 1059.40 respectively large-scale selling.
ACC declined by Rs 7.35 to Rs 113.05 and L&T fell Rs 280 at Rs 220.45 for want of necessary buying support.
Reliance Ind stocks were down by Rs 2.95 at Rs 317, SBI by Rs 5.15 to Rs 186, Tata Steel by Rs 2.60 at Rs 100, Tata Loco by Rs 10.55 at Rs 127.55 and MTNL by Rs 2.75 to Rs 192.05 on sustained selling.The undercurrent at close remained weak and volume of business also dropped.
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