Thursday, November 15, 2007

Dalal Street rally: IT investors richer by Rs 15,000 cr

The BSE IT index on Wednesday recorded its second-highest one-day gain in the past one year and investors' wealth in IT stocks rose by over Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion).

Riding alongside the fastest ever single-day rally on the Sensex, the BSE IT index rose by 4.5 per cent -- second biggest after a 4.9 per cent rise on March 6, 2007.

The index has been on a downslide for the past seven trading sessions and has gained marginally only on seven occasions in the past one month.

Following a gain of about four billion dollars today, the total market cap of all the IT companies rose to $91 billion (Rs 3,57,200 crore). But it is still over $10 billion away from a peak of Rs 4,58,000 crore ($103 billion) seen on February 19.

IT stocks, the star performers till a few years ago, have been battered hard on the bourses in the past one year with a sharp appreciation in rupee against the dollar and other foreign currencies eating into their profits.

Most of the domestic IT firms earn a major portion of their earnings from overseas and a weak dollar or pound lead to a significant negative impact on their total earnings.

The rupee has appreciated by over 13 per cent against the US currency in the past one year and is currently being quoted at about Rs 39.33 a dollar.

Such has been the downslide in IT stocks that not a single IT company appears in the list of ten most valued firms in the country at present.

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