Most of the technology counters witnessed marginal gains even though it was the last day of settlement on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Select scrips, however, posted a sudden rise.

The stocks which moved up on BSE on Friday included all the frontline IT counters like Satyam Computers (up 4.18 per cent), Infosys (1.53 per cent), Wipro (2.55 per cent), Visualsoft (12.29 per cent), Silverline Technologies (1.85 per cent), DSQ Software (2.31 per cent) and Digital Equipments (0.63 per cent).

It is believed that with the MSCI Index adopting free-float as a base, the weightages of most of the IT companies would get revised upward by the fund managers and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs). Under the free-float concept companies which have more floating stock in the market are likely to get more weightage in the index and vice-versa. It is also understood that companies which have higher investment limit for FIIs are expected to have more weigthage.

IT stocks are being re-looked as in MSCI India index, which constitutes 61 companies, IT sector has the highest weightage of 45 per cent. "With the free-float most of the IT companies are expected to get better valuation as foreign fund managers are likely to invest in companies which have a higher weightage in the MSCI Index," said Tower Capital & Securities Equity Analyst Sourabh Sharma.

Most of the companies which witnessed the rise in their price on Friday have increased the FIIs limit to 40 per cent. Companies like NIIT, Satyam Computers, Infosys Technologies, Silverline Technologies, Visualsoft have already increased the FII limit to 40 per cent. "There was some active buying in few of these counters by FIIs on Friday and the accumulation is being done by them ahead of the recast in the MSCI Index," Motilal Oswal Securities, Vice-President (Sales), Vijay Bhatia said.