Infotech stocks were hammered on rumours that the government was contemplating imposing tax on software exports. Pharmaceutical and multinational scrips were aggressively sold and the sharp fall reflected the decline in the Sensex. Reliance was again worst hit on all-round selling, while Pentafour Software fell sharply on disinvestment selling. Reflecting the trend, the BSE sensitive index opened higher at 3370.60, traded between a high of 3397.33 and a low of 3300.67, and finally closed at 3303.89. This was a fall of 51.03points from the previous close of 3354.92.

The BSE-100 closed at 1458.90, with a loss of 20.55 points from the last close of 1479.45. The BSE-200 closed lower at 337.60 and the Dollex at 132.56 from the previous close of 342.73 and 134.75, respectively. There was a lot of activity in the side shares which were also sold on profit-booking at higher levels. BPL, Crisil, Cummins, Dabur, Digital Equipment, Dr. Reddy's, ICI, Infosys, IPCL, Knoll Pharma, NIIT, Parke Davis, Novartis (I), Rhone Poulenc, Thomas Cook, TVS Suzuki and Workhardt all showed substantial losses. Burroughs Welcome, Cadbury, Glaxo (I), ISPL, SKF Bearings and Wartsila firmed up on speculative support.

The total turnover on the Bolt system was Rs 1382.35 crore. Pentafour was the top traded scrip with a turnover of Rs 238.57 crore, Reliance Rs 152.27 crore, Satyam Computer Rs 143.23 crore, ITC Rs 76.90 crore and Silverline Rs 62.62 crore. Pentafour Software slumped by Rs 64.50 to Rs 831.25, Reliance by Rs 9.70 to Rs 131.50, Satyam Computersby Rs 45 to Rs 925.25, ITC by Rs 10.75 to Rs 807.75 and Silverline by Rs 10.90 to Rs 238.40.