Bulls bleed, Bears party
The Bears made their presence felt on Dalal Street as the markets plunged deep into red with benchmark Sensex losing 400 points and NSE Nifty falling 112 points. RBI hiked CRR by 50 basis points, which was among the major triggers that dragged the key indices lower. ICICI Bank, SBI were the major losers among the 30-share Sensex after RBI raised the amount of cash they must set aside to cover deposits in an attempt to curb inflation. The benchmark Sensex after slipping 173 points on Friday last week, today further lost ground by 400 points altogether losing 573 points in last two trading session.
Mid-Cap and the small Cap indexes also fell sharply The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.51% and small cap index was down 2.71%. SBI, Zee Telefilms and ICICI Bank were the top losers among the 50-scrips of NSE Nifty. Finally, the BSE benchmark Sensex lost 400 points to close at 13399. NSE Nifty slipped 112 points to close at 3849.
Infosys pared its intra-day gains on back of selling pressure, the scrip edged lower by 0.7% to Rs2179 as the company would be added to the NASDAQ-100 index, effective with the market opening on December 18, 2006. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs2235 and a low of Rs2167 and recorded volumes of over 14,00,000 shares on NSE.
Spice Jet surged higher over 8.5% to Rs58 as Tata Group is reportedly eyeing a stake in the company. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs64 and a low of Rs53 and recorded volumes of over 49,00,000 shares on NSE.
UTV Software lost 5.1% to Rs251. The company entered into an arrangement with Indiagames Ltd for acquisition of controlling equity stake in the Mumbai based mobile and online gaming company for Rs680mn. UTV would also be acquiring majority stake in Ignition Entertainment Ltd, a UK based company involved in developing console games for Rs600mn. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs267 and a low of Rs246 and recorded volumes of over 5,00,000 shares on NSE.
GAIL dipped by over 3.3% to Rs253. Singapore based Silver Wave Energy and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise have reportedly signed an agreement to explore off-shore oil and gas in Block A-7 off the southernmost coast of Rakhine state in Myanmar. The companies have signed a contract to share exploration, drilling and production of oil and gas in Block A-7. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs263 and a low of Rs251 and recorded volumes of over 9,00,000 shares on NSE.
RBI’s decision to raise Cash Reserve limit by 50 basis points dragged the Banking stocks down. Index heavy weights like SBI plunged by over 8.8% to Rs1235, ICICI Bank dropped over 7.5% to Rs814 and HDFC Bank slipped 4.8% to Rs1032. Among the Mid-Cap stocks Bank of India plunged 10.1% to Rs184, Bank of Baroda slipped 8.9% to Rs238 and PNB lost 8.4% to Rs507 were among the major losers.
Pharma stocks were in bad health. Ranbaxy dropped 3.1% to Rs375, Sun Pharma slipped 3.2% to Rs962, Dr Reddy’s Lab was down 1.3% to Rs763 and Cipla lost 1.7% to Rs242.
Auto stocks were in reverse gear. Tata Motor lost 3.2% to Rs839, Hero Honda slipped 2% to Rs730, M&M was down 3.6% to Rs801 and TVS Motor dropped 5.3% to Rs88.
Power stocks ended lower. Tata Power, Suzlon Energy and Reliance Energy were among the major losers.
Cement stocks were also on a southward journey. ACC plunged 6.2% to Rs1036, Gujarat Ambuja dropped 2.6% to Rs137, Grasim fallen 2.8% to Rs2682 and Mangalam Cement lost 4.2% to Rs197.
Telecom stocks were down on back of selling pressure. Index heavy weights Bharti Airtel dipped 4.3% to Rs603, Reliance Communication dropped 4% to Rs429, VSNL was down 5.6% to Rs401 and MTNL fell 3.1% to Rs130.