Tech stocks provided much of the cheer in the market on Tuesday and the focus was on frontline counters.

These stocks fuelled the rise on the BSE IT Sector Index, that by 11:25 IST, had risen 3.18%, or 33.21 points, to 1,077.35. The BSE IT Index has now risen 7.74% or 77.43 points from 999.92 on 30 April 2003.

But prior to that (between 7 and 30 April 2003), the BSE IT Sector Index had, in fact, shed a massive 29.5%, or 419.5 points, to 999.92 from 1,419.42.

All top five software stocks surged in mid-morning trades, with Wipro leading the rise (up 4.74% to Rs 925.50). Infosys Technologies (up 4.37% to Rs 3,065), Satyam Computer (up 1.05% to Rs 167.80), HCL Technologies (up 1.68% to Rs 145) and Digital GlobalSoft (up 2.35% to Rs 568), all advanced, helping the Sensex rise 23.39 points to 2,999.04 so far on Tuesday.

The buying in frontline techs is mainly coming from foreign institutional investors. These stocks had been badly battered over the last month following dismal results from several companies and a muted guidance from Infosys for the current fiscal.

Wipro, perhaps, has been the key bait for tech trading today as it was backed by talk of having received a huge overseas order. But dealers say tech stocks may come in for profit booking at every rally.

As per market buzz, Morgan Stanley was active in Wipro and Satyam Computer , while Alliance Capital was mopping up Infosys and Digital GlobalSoft. Yesterday, Jardine Fleming and CL Securities had pursued HCL Tech, Infosys, Wipro and Hughes Software.

A strong inflow of funds from foreign institutional investors has been witnessed over the last few sessions even though the market witnessed lacklustre overall activity and thin trading volumes. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers on Friday (2 May 2003), putting in a net Rs 64.60 crore, after an inflow of Rs 135.50 crore (Rs 1.35 billion) in the previous session (30 April 2003). Earlier, for the month of April 2003, FIIs pumped in a decent Rs 430.30 crore (Rs 4.3 billion), that was also more than their inflow of Rs 411.70 crore (Rs 4.11 billion) in March 2003.

Other IT stocks trading firm today are VisualSoft Technologies (up 4.54% to Rs 146.10), Hinduja TMT (up 3.38% to Rs 200.20), Polaris (up 2.81% to Rs 131.75), Infotech Enterprises (up 3.49% to Rs 112.70), e-Serve (up 3.54% to Rs 520), Hexaware (up 1.84% to Rs 105.15) and Geometric (up 1.77% to Rs 417.30).