The upsurge in capital market, which hit a 29-month high last week, seems to have bypassed the information technology sector where the top 25 companies including Wipro, Infosys, HCL and NIIT, lost almost Rs 66,500 crore (Rs 665 billion) in market value since March 8, 2001.
The upward movement in Sensex to 3,884 was mainly due to the gain in old economy majors like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation with a m-cap of over Rs 75,000 crore (Rs 750 billion) and Reliance Industries Ltd with over Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).
In contrast, the IT, communication and entertainment (ICE) companies eroded almost 50 per cent of their market capitalisation from Rs 1,35,740 crore (Rs 1,357.40 billion) when the Sensex was at its previous high in March first week of 2001, to Rs 69,243 crore (Rs 692.43 billion) in the last week when the Bombay Stock Exchange index touched a new high.
Most of the K-10 stocks, which had once been the fancy of tainted broker Ketan Parekh, eroded by 80 per cent in m-cap, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy data reveals.
The ICE meltdown was reflected from the m-caps of Wipro, Infosys, HCL, NIIT, HFCL, Sterlite Optical, Hughes Software, SSI Ltd, Silverline Technologies and Satyam Computers.
Wipro's m-cap came down by Rs 29,234 crore (Rs 292.34 billion) [57 per cent] to end last week at Rs 22,351 crore (Rs 223.51 billion) in the last 28 months, while Infosys lost Rs 10,268 crore (Rs 102.68 billion) [30.4 per cent] of its value to finish with Rs 23,563 crore (Rs 235.63 billion).
The m-cap of HCL eroded by 62 per cent to Rs 5,146 crore (Rs 51.46 billion), while that of NIIT was down by 88 per cent to Rs 471 crore (Rs 4.71 billion).
In the telecom sector, HFCL witnessed further erosion in its market value by 75 per cent to Rs 780 crore (Rs 7.80 billion), while Sterlite Optical shed 86 per cent to Rs 325 crore (Rs 3.25 billion) after 29 months.
Media major Zee Telefilms lost marginally by 11 per cent with a m-cap of Rs 4,752 crore (Rs 47.52 billion), while Soundcraft Industries shed 84 per cent to Rs 127 crore (Rs 1.27 billion).
Hughes Software shed 57.4 per cent to end last week with a m-cap of Rs 991 crore (Rs 9.91 billion), while SSI lost 89 per cent to end with Rs 129 crore (Rs 1.29 billion).
Satyam Computers, Silverline and DSQ Software lost over Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) in m-cap during the last 29 months.
The other companies that witnessed severe erosion in their market value include Visualsoft Technologies, Global Tele, Digital Globalsoft, Polaris, Pentamedia Graphics, Mascon Global, Shyam Telecom, Rolta India, Aztec Software, Cyberspace and Shree Rama Multitech.
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