The announcement of its 10 crore game show failed to have any positive impact. Zee's "Sawal Dus Crore Ka" is in reply to the Star Plus popular game show, "Kaun Banega Crorepati" (KBC). Hosted by Anupam Kher the game show is likely to be launched during the last week of this month.

The unbelievable success of KBC has affected the ad-inflow at other channels in the prime time slot, and being the most popular Hindi channel, Zee was the most hit channel. As a result, the viewership declined in recent months.

During the first quarter (April-June) of the current year, the company posted a net profit of Rs 26.7 crore, and the total revenue stood at Rs 70.67 crore.

While the past performance of the company has been impressive, with a decline in viewership, the revenue may get affected. Even if the company manages to repeat its past growth in profits, for stock market, the main concern is the declining love for media stock.

Zee Tele which gave one of the highest recent during 1998-1999, received a sharp beating during the current year, and valuations have gone down substantially.

The fact that investors who have invested in early part of this this year have burnt their finger badly, will continue to haunt the price discounting for the stock.

In the short-term, the success of "Sawal Das Crore Ka" can give a boost to its viewership but even if the game show is successful it would be very difficult to take back its viewers from KBC.

With the overall market looking weak, the signs of reversal are not visible for Zee Tele at this juncture.

From technical point of view too, the stock appears extremely weak. With a turn from Rs 455, the stock formed yet another lower top, and broke its medium term supports last week. This is not healthy for its medium term health.

For those who have a long positions, the level of Rs 350 can be used as stop loss. In case of recovery, the stock is likely to face strong selling pressure at around Rs 450. The next major hurdle for the stock is at around Rs 570.

Deepak Singh Tanwar