The Hindu Business Line : Tech counters suffer

THE US markets were mixed last week. While old economy stocks rose following better-than-expected job data for May and on soft oil prices, IT companies suffered despite Intel Corp's announcement that its sales this quarter may meet its top forecast.

The broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 gained 0.2 per cent to 1,122.50 this week.

According to Bloomberg, it was the index's first back-to-back weekly gain since the week ending March 5.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 per cent to end at 10,242.82. But the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.4 per cent to 1,978.62.

Back home, volatile conditions continued to hamper trading activity though the benchmarks ended in positive zone on low volumes; the BSE Sensitive index gained 1.10 per cent and the NSE S&P CNX Nifty 0.81 per cent.

Among the Indian ADRs, infotech counters ended last week on a weak note.

This was despite the Nasscom forecast that India's software exports may rise as much as 32 per cent to $16.3 billion for the year ended March 31, 2005.

For the year ended March 31, 2004 software exports grew 31 per cent to $12.5 billion, beating Nasscom's forecast of 28 per cent.

But Infosys finished lower at $81.75 against the previous week's close of $82.75.

Wipro closed at $42.77 ($44.4) and Satyam at $19.18 ($19.54).

MTNL finished the week higher at $6.27 ($5.83).

Reports that the Government may merge MTNL with BSNL appeared to have fuelled rally in the stock.

More Stories on : Stock Markets | ADR Watch

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Voter-investor discord

Rough road ahead for fund managers

Dalal Street likely to see narrow movement

Tech counters suffer

Keep a window open to watch the monsoon

NRIs urged to consider investment in derivatives

`State Street tie-up will widen our products' basket'