BANGALORE: Indian knowledge stocks went into a clean shave of 173 points off
the 30-stock Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index, taking it to 5,129 and
its impact was being felt even on Nasdaq.
Triggered off initially by year-end profit booking by dealers, the drop
gathered momentum after news broke that the Japanese economy had shrunk 1.4 per
cent during the fourth quarter. A pronounced weakness in technology stocks in
almost all Southeast Asian markets, as the party moved westwards and ignited the
disaster locally as well. With the drop, the aggregate market capitalization of
the BSE has fallen Rs 1,30,000 crore since Budget Day – Rs 11,00,000 crore
($254 billion) to an estimated Rs 9,70,000 crore ($220billion).
Stocks like Wipro, Digital Equipments, Silverline Industries, Reliance
Industries and a few other companies have led the post-Budget ’00 fall. On
Monday, Japan’s Nikkei fell 561 points to 19,189 and Hong Kong’s HangSeng
767 points or 4.3 per cent. In early trade, the Nasdaq fell 206 points or 4 per
cent to 4,842 while the 30-scrip Dow crashed 157 points. Indian markets, along
with major global markets, usually respond to movements on the tech-heavy
Nasdaq. Almost all Internet and tech indices in the USA were being beaten down.
Earlier in the day, Softbank and Sony Corporation from Japan and China’s China
Telecom crashed 4 to 8 per cent overnight on sizeable profit-booking on stricter
margin norms, said dealers.
The sentiment in the local market was also adversely affected following
rumors that two large Mumbai-based operators had taken opposite positions on the
Satyam Computer counter and were slugging it out. The combined turnover on the
Bombay and National stock exchanges totaled Rs 8,364 crore. Major losers
included Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Silverline, Global Tele-systems, Satyam
Computers and Penta Communications.