Pvt cos take lead IF you are already exasperated about the number of times the road in front of your house has been dug up, things are about to get a lot worse. On the first trading session, all the software stocks hit the upward circuit filters. Even the Sensex started its day with a gap of more than 200 points. The reason for this extremely bullish behaviour was euphoria because there was no major Y2K problem which could have given Indian software companies a run for their money. After a sharp retreat from an all-time high of 6,150 in early 2000 to around the 4000 level by the end of the year, the stockmarkets are eagerly awaiting a trigger for decisive trends in forthcoming months.
Trance is in.
And what a fall it's been ever since. After reaching an orgiastic high at the infotech counter, Dalal Street's busy ruminating on the Y2K scare. What the Bug failed to do to the hardware industry a year ago, the bears have done to software scrips aplenty. Call it the bug-bear of the new millennium or whatever you will, the New Economy lies in tatters. Debt scores over equity again DEBT has once again emerged as a preferred option over equity for mobilising capital in 2000.