Mumbai, July 10: Profit-booking, mainly in infotech counters, ahead of a couple of key results pushed the markets down on Monday. Coming on the first day of trading in the new settlement on the BSE, market players were surprised at the sudden turn of events. With considerable selling coming in at almost all the software counters, the Sensex closed 38.5 points down at 4867.43. And the slide in the index was to some extent contained by the strong buying sentiment witnessed in old economy counters like ITC and Reliance.On Monday, Infosys and Satyam were the major losers, just a day ahead of its Q1 results. According to brokers, it seems every market player is trying to go one up on others. ``They are selling just ahead of the results since the undertone is extremely bearish.
In case, Infosys cannot meet the market expectations of around 100 per cent growth, we are likely to see a massive selling in the market on Tuesday,'' said a dealer with an institutional brokerage.
Infosys is expected to declare its Q1 results on Tuesday morning, before the markets open. On the other hand, Satyam is declaring its results after the markets close on Tuesday evening. These two apart, HDFC is also declaring its Q1 result on Tuesday.
While infotech counters witnessed all-round selling, old-economy counters like Reliance and ITC were strong throughout the day and also closed strong. More so in the Reliance counter, sudden spurt in activity was witnessed during the closing hours, with the scrip gaining almost Rs 9 to Rs 371 in about 20 minutes.
Zee scrip, after its Q1 results disappointed the markets, came under the hammer on Monday. Just within minutes of opening, the Zee scrip lost almost 5 per cent and went down further during the day.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.