Tech stocks zoomed in the special trading session on Saturday on huge buying support.
The three software scrips in the BSE Sensex - Satyam Computer (up 1.63% to Rs 208.80), HCL Technologies (up 1.63% to Rs 164.80) and Infosys Technologies (up 1.21% to Rs 4,458) spurted.
Non Sensex stocks like i-Flex (up 3.06% to Rs 944.15), Wipro (up 2.92% to Rs 1,415.20), Digital GlobalSoft (up 1.31% to Rs 659.80), Aztec Software (up 7.10% to Rs 19.60), Mascon Global (up 5% to Rs 10.50) and Mascot Systems (up 4.01% to Rs 114) were among the gainers.
Dealers said the buying support was purely on the reckoning that the ongoing US Iraq war may not last long, and also not disrupt the global economy significantly.
On Friday, US stocks soared, even as the country's armed forces staged a massive offensive against Iraq, on similar expectations.
The Dow Jones industrial average (up 235.37 points to 8521.97) rose by more than 2.8% and the S&P 500 index (up 895.90 to 895.90) added 2.3%. The Nasdaq composite index (up 19.07 points to 1421.84) posted small gains, adding 1.3%. Both the Dow and the S&P climbed back into positive territory for the year on Friday, joining the Nasdaq, which hit that milestone late last week. For the week, the Nasdaq gained 6%, while the S&P 500 added 7.5%.
The Indian IT sector receives over 65-75% of its export revenues from the US, and the hopes that the war will be short has boosted the stocks of companies in this sector. Also, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has said that a short war on Iraq will have no impact on India's information technology sector.
However, if the war is a prolonged one, Nasscom said there will be definitely an impact on the world economy, which may slip into recession. It also said that global companies were outsourcing to India because the country offered best proposition for outsourcing, with better quality and productivity at lower costs
Earlier, there were reports that IT spending by major US companies was sluggish in February 2003, with a rise of just 4.3%, which was below the December 2002 rate of 5%. This was significantly below the expectations of 6-7%.
On war jitters, India's Computer Software sector, comprising 124 large, medium and small companies, had shed 1.75%, or Rs 1,591.03 crore, in market capitalisation since the last one month.
