Satyam shares dip

HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Shares in India's Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO) edged lower on Tuesday, after jumping 44 percent in the previous session, as a new government-appointed board got down to the business of trying to put the software services exporter back on track after a damaging fraud.

In the absence of a quick-fix in the wake of India's biggest corporate scandal, there are hopes the government will help rescue Satyam, whose New York-listed shares (SAY.N) plunged more than 84 percent on Monday in the first trading since the firm's chairman resigned on Wednesday revealing a $1 billion (677 million pound) fraud.

"The board members have come in, so the message is quite loud and clear that the government is serious about Satyam. But we have to give them time as they need to understand things first," said Amabreesh Baliga, vice president at Karvy Stock Broking.

Satyam shares were down around 4 percent at 33 rupees in early Mumbai trade.

Trade Minster Kamal Nath has said the government was looking at all options to help Satyam. He did not elaborate further, but one option could be for a government or private sector bailout.

A share index for India's outsourcing sector .BSEIT gained nearly 4 percent on better-than-expected third-quarter earnings at second-ranked outsourcer Infosys Technologies. (INFY.BO)

Infosys posted October-December net profit of 16.4 billion rupees, beating a Reuters poll consensus for 15.4 billion rupees.

Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju resigned as chairman last week, saying profits had been falsified for years and about $1 billion, or 94 percent of the company's cash and bank balances at end-September, did not exist.

Satyam, which counts Nestle (NESN.VX) and General Electric (GE.N) among its clients, has seen its market value plunge to below $500 million from more than $7 billion last summer.