Stay away from high beta for now, short IT instead: Experts

Moneycontrol Bureau

It was mayhem once again on Dalal Street with indices falling like ninepins. The NSE Nifty cracked below the all-important 5,000 mark as the dreadful opening in the European markets had investors running for cover.
As expected, the Fed on Wednesday said it would replace USD 400 billion of the shorter duration Treasury securities it holds with the same amount of 6- to 30-year Treasurys.
It went a step further than expected and said it would buy mortgage securities with the runoff from maturing mortgages in its portfolio. But it also talked about a slow recovery, slow improvement in unemployment and new risks from Europe.
Coupled with worry about Europe and Moody's downgrade of major banks, the Fed's Wednesday statement left markets dazed and confused.
Traders are concerned that the Fed's efforts will not result in much improvement to the economy.
If the politicians, if the G20 do not come out with any policy measures of significance then the markets could easily go down another 20% from here, warns Jeff Chowdhry, head of emerging equities at F&C Investments.
"There is enough pain within the banking sector both n Europe and increasingly in the US, that the politicians will realize that if they don