Some dead cat bounce likely
The markets today fell sharply with the benchmark BSE Sensex slipping over 2% and the NSE Nifty down over 3%. The bulls were badly beaten up as both the key indices traded in red throughout the trading session. Along with the frontline stocks the Mid-Cap and the small Cap stocks also took a beating. The Metal index was the major loser and lost 5.4% dragging the benchmark Sensex to hit an intra-day low of 14146.22. Finally, the 30-share benchmark Sensex fell 348 points to close at 14190. NSE Nifty lost 129 points to close at 4058.
Hindalco plunged as much as 14% after it agreed to buy Canada's Novelis Inc. over $3.4bn, 17% more than the closing price on February 9th. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs173 and a low of Rs147 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,00,000 shares on NSE.
Ansal Properties & Infrastructure declined nearly 5% to Rs745. The Board of Directors of the company would meet today for considering a bonus issue. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs799 and a low of Rs745 and recorded volumes of over 69,000 shares on NSE.
Essar Steel was down by 3% o Rs40. The company announced that they have entered in Venture with two Vietnamese Companies for Steel plant and would spend US $527mn to build plant in Vietnam. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs45 and a low of Rs39 and recorded volumes of over 5,00,000 shares on BSE.
Sterlite Optical slipped over 5% to Rs191. The company announced that it has been granted a patent by the Indian Patent Office for its invention of a novel Optical Fiber manufacturing process. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs202 and a low of Rs190 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.
FMCG stocks also witnessed heavy profit booking. Mid-Cap stocks were among the major losers. McDowell slipped 4.5% to Rs842, Colgate was down 3.2% to Rs333, Tata Tea declined 2.3% to Rs667 and Dabur dropped 2.2% to Rs101. However, HLL gained 0.3% to Rs203.
Pharma stocks also were in bad health. Glaxo slipped 3.4% to Rs1125, Wockhardt Pharma lost 2.4% to Rs335, Ranbaxy was down 1.8% to Rs409 and Sun Pharma lost 2.2% to Rs1012.
Capital Good stocks were among the major losers. The index lost over 5%. BHEL slipped over 6% to Rs2345, Punj Lloyd lost over 5% to Rs1007, L&T declined 3.2% to Rs1660 and ABB lost 3.7% to Rs3699.
Auto stocks also were in reverse gear on back of profit booking. M&M lost 4.2% to Rs880, Bajaj Auto was down 3.7% to Rs2948, Tata Motors slipped 3.1% to Rs875 and Maruti dropped 3.2% to Rs912.