Heavy institutional selling resulted in a slide in the Mastek share today which closed 6.05 per cent down at Rs 378.95.
Mastek came off an intra-day high of Rs 376.80 and over 43.83 lakh shares were traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and 74.82 lakh shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). As per market rumours, a Singapore-based fund management house was an active seller in Mastek today.
Last month, Alliance Capital Mutual Fund reported that it was hiking its holding in Mastek to 5.35 per cent. The fund, which is the Indian arm of Alliance Capital Management, US, acquired 3,40,000 shares or 2.43 per cent stake in Mastek on August 30, 2002, taking its total holding to 7,47,453 shares, according to NSE. Between September 12 and September 30, 2002, Mastek dropped 11.7 per cent to Rs 403.30 from Rs 456.70.
Analysts say Mastek is feeling the effects of the generally weak sentiment. Investors have taken a pessimistic view of the stock and the market in general, and therefore, are now offloading positions on a series of negative developments like political instability, weakness in global markets and depressing US corporate and economic reports.
One analyst said the market is cautious following concerns over war, which could slowdown the US recovery further. This will, in turn, prove telling on the domestic software companies. Indian software companies earn around 60-80 per cent revenues from the US.
