The relentless fall in the DSQ Software counter continues. The scrip in the past six sessions has shed close to Rs 320 or 50 per cent from Rs 674 on March 22 to the current level fo Rs 358. Most of the past six trading scrips has seen the scrip freezing at the lower end of the circuit filter, thereby preventing any major trading activity at the counter. The scrip on Monday witnessed a meagre volume of just 9,000 shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The scrip is being hammered after the company announced its plans to drop the private placement of its equity to foreign funds. The deadline for the equity placement lapsed on April 4 and this has given the bears a chance to have a strong grip of DSQ Software scrip. The company has already mentioned that it is not in a hurry to go ahead with the private placement plans and take a fresh approval at its EGM.

The market feels that it may not be long before the company goes ahead and takes a fresh approval for equityplacement. The likely names still being rumoured are Goldman Sachs and American Insurance Group (AIG), who were earlier close to picking up around 40 lakh shares of DSQ Software.

BHEL performance shocks market

Bharat Heavy Electrical's (BHEL) 20 per cent fall in net profit came in as a shock to the marketmen. The market was expecting a decent performance from this public sector electric equipment giant. Prior to the actual announcement of results on April 2, expectations were running high of a net profit in the range of Rs 675-750 crore. However, the actual performance fell well short of the expectations. The company announced a fall of over 20 per cent in its net profits at Rs 569 crore during 1998-99 on a turnover of Rs 6765 crore.

Although the financial performance has been disappointing, analysts expect the PSU giant to bounce back in 1999-2000 as the company has started the financial year with a huge order book position of Rs 10,000 crore to be executed in the coming year. BHEL's scrip afterthe announcement of results has dropped from Rs 238 to the current level of Rs 216.3. The scrip hit the lower end of the circuit filter on Monday.

Bonus expectation drives Archies up

A liberal bonus expectation has been driving the Archies Greetings stock northward. A nervous ridden market failed to deter operators' from extending support to the counter. The scrip was frozen at the upper end of the circuit for most of the day (Monday) at Rs 1147 before it closed the day marginally lower at Rs 1145 on the National Stock Exchange. The scrip also offered a huge arbitrage opportunity as it was trading at Rs 1180 on the Bombay Stock Exchange against Rs 1147 on NSE.

Initially the bonus expectations and now a liberal bonus are driving the stock. The scrip in the past three days has zoomed by around Rs 250 from around Rs 900 to the current value of Rs 1145.