As these were sectors which received major sops in the Union Budget, their stocks zoomed on the bourses to touch new highs. In less than a month, these stocks notched up impressive gains of as high as 120 per cent. And, with the onset with the political crisis at the Centre, operators have hammered these stocks in order to book profits in view of an uncertain future. The losses in the past week have been as high 27 per cent. As many as five scrips in BSE's Group A have lost more than 20 per cent.

The worst-affected scrip was the state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals. Bhel, a favourite of well-known BSE broker, has lost27.6 per cent from Rs 235 to Rs 170 due to heavy unwinding of positions. However, the power sector proved to popular with contrarians who picked up large chunks stocks. These stocks managed to withstand the political nervousness and even recorded gains.

These stocks rose on expectation of an improvement in earnings of power companies following the government's decision to delink the administered rate of return from the bank rate. BSES recorded a gain of over 7 per cent to Rs 160. Andhra Valley was up marginally by 2 per cent to Rs 45.05.

Marketmen feel the stocks of sectors like pharmaceutical, FMCG and information technology still have a bit to fall before they rebound and look up. ``These sectors were bound to face the brunt as stocks from these sectors, especially pharma and IT, had witnessed a blind run post-budget.

These stocks, at the current levels, offer reasonable returns over the pre-budget levels. With the defensive nature of the pharma and FMCG sector, these stocks have a potential oflooking up soon,'' said an analyst at a FII brokerage.

Despite a bonus notice being sent to the stock exchanges, Satyam Computers attracted heavy selling and lost close to Rs 310 or 18.2 per cent from a high of Rs 1,700 to the current level of Rs 1,390. Satyam's stock was the favourite of operators till a few days ago, but was sold heavily on Friday, the last day of the trading settlement on BSE.

According to market sources, a few big operators have still kept small positions as they hope to get a chance to square their position after the company's board announces a bonus on Tuesday, the last day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange. Excellent performance by three software companies, too, have gone unnoticed and have been hammered after the announcement of results.