Speaking to media persons in Bangalore on Tuesday Goldman Sachs managing director & head of Asian technology group of the investment banking division E Helge Weiner-Trapness said expectations in the industry is that the market may regain by the third and fourth quarter of the current year. "Though all are saying about a recovery in the later-half, nobody is giving any tangible factors for such an optimism", he added.

However, Mr Weiner-Trapness made it clear that, in the long-term, his bank remains bullish about the tech sector, especially, tech sector in Asia and India. Though Mr Weiner-Trapness refused to answer some of the pointed questions on the US slowdown's impact on major Indian IT firms, he maintained that outsourcing IT services and software from India is set to accelerate in the coming days.

The Indian capability in providing cost-effective IT solutions and software will be utilised by companies in the US and Europe as most of them will be on a cost cutting spree, he said adding that in a way India is fortunate that its firms have been involved in IT services and software than manufacturing.

Mr Weiner-Trapness said the days of irrational valuations and VC fundings are gone. In a way the letdown has helped to bring back rational business models into reckoning. The correction happening would only help the process.

The fall in the market has really hit the IPO market in a big way in the US market.

According to him, in the first two and half months of year 2000, the US markets witnessed 78 IPOs each worth more than $ 50 million. But in the same period during this year, this has come down to just five. It is natural that investors stays away from a market witnessing high-volatility and decreasing valuations, he added.