Stock Slides For IT Services Firms

IT services firm Answerthink saw its stock hit hard in early morning trading, only to rebound somewhat in the first hour of the market's opening. The company, which is one of the few firms to weather the e-services fallout with a stock price that didn't drop less than a dollar, opened at $6.65 a share and dropped all the way down to $5.32 a share before rebounding somewhat to $6.20 a share by about 10:30 a.m.

Diamond Cluster International, another IT services firm that many analysts and industry watchers consider a prospect for long-term survival, opened at $10.20 a share and dropped to $9.90 before settling in at an even $10 a share.

Services firms born out of the Big Five, which have been holding steady in the double-digits for the past few months, also saw negative activity early morning. Accenture opened the day at $15.14 a share and fell more than 4 percent in early morning trading to $14.50 a share, while KMPG Consulting opened at $13.51 and dropped to just below $13 a share before rebounding somewhat to $13.04.