Infosys Technologies has been witnessing alternate bouts of buying and selling on the bourses over the last few trading sessions, moving in a range of Rs 4,000-Rs 4,400.

Today, the scrip of the tech bellwether fell 2.3% to Rs 4,279 on BSE. Around 106,000 Infosys Tech shares were traded on BSE so far. The slide manifests after a rally over the last few trading sessions. In fact, the broad market witnessed a rally in the last few days on hope of a quick end to the US-Iraq war.

From Rs 4,040.30 on 31 March 2003, the scrip rallied 8.4% in the past five trading sessions to settle at Rs 4,382 on Monday 7 April 2003. Prior to that, the stock came off a high of Rs 4,450.80 on 22 March 2003 to Rs 4,040.30 on 31 March 2003.

A section of the market feels that the stock could continue its weak run today and tomorrow (as well) ahead of the announcement of the Q4 and FY 2002-03 results, due on Thursday 10 April 2003.

The market seems to be speculating over the possible guidance of the software bellwether. Infosys usually announces a future guidance along with its results declaration. While a section of the market feels that there won't be a muted guidance, others anticipate a cautions and muted guidance. The sluggish U.S. economy and the U.S.-Iraq war may be the two main factors why there's speculation as to the company's guidance coming in weak.

In a recent report, domestic brokerage Birla Sun Life Securities said that there is high probability of continued cautious muted guidance by Indian IT services companies, in the results in April 2003. "The key factors dominating a cautious guidance, in our view, will be the continued overhang of the U.S.-Iraq conflict and delay in closure of large size deals," it said.

As far as Q4 results are concerned, analysts expect sequential improvement in profit margins by IT companies on the back of one-time expenditure by these companies in the third quarter. For Infosys, analysts expect a 5% sequential growth in both sales and profits in Q4 to Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) and Rs 270 crore (Rs 2.7 billion) respectively.

BSE code: 500209