Market battered amid mega acquisition woes

The market was not prepared to accept the fact that Indian corporates can absorb the huge debts they are creating to acquire companies larger than their own size. The rising inflation and profit taking on every upmove also kept the market in negative territory. The Sensex began the trading session in negative territory at 14529 and fell sharply under sustained selling pressure. In the afternoon the Sensex plunged 357 points, but buying at lower levels saw the Sensex pare some losses. Profit booking dragged down the Sensex to an intra-day low of 14142. It closed the session at 14191, down 348 points. The Nifty shed 129 points and closed at 4058.

All the sectoral indices were battered on relentless selling pressure. The BSE Metal index dropped 5.46% at 8616, the BSE CG index lost 5.17% at 9426, the BSE CD index shed 3.80% at 3777 and the BSE Auto index fell 3.41% at 5554. The broader market was weak. Of the 2,668 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,307 stocks declined, 337 stocks advanced and 24 stocks ended unchanged. Among the major losers Hindalco tanked 13.74% at Rs149, BHEL tumbled 6.36% at Rs2,345, Gujarat Ambuja declined 4.79% at Rs132, Reliance Communications slumped 4.32% at Rs455, Reliance Energy fell 3.74% at Rs535, Tata Motors plunged 3.47% at Rs874, Bajaj Auto dropped 3.39% at Rs2,944, L&T slipped 3.30% at Rs1,659, HDFC was down 3.28% at Rs1,757 and Bharti Airtel lost 3.19% at Rs729. The other front-line stocks were down 1-3% each.

The metal and consumer goods stocks slipped sharply. SAIL tumbled 4.81% at Rs108, Hindustan Zinc slumped 4.17% at Rs636, Jindal Stainless dropped 4.14% at Rs116, Nalco declined 3.76% at Rs222, Sterlite Industries dipped 3.74% at Rs442, Jindal Steel fell 3.66% at Rs2,349 and JSW Steel was down 3.26% at Rs432. Among the consumer goods stocks Alstom Projects, Areva, Laxmi Machine Works, Kalpataru Power Transmission, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure and Bharat Earth Movers slipped 6-8% each.

Hindalco witnessed volumes of over 72.93 lakh shares on the BSE followed by IDBI (43.92 lakh shares), Cairn India (23.13 lakh shares), Reliance Communications (21.28 lakh shares) and Gujarat Ambuja Cements (18.89 lakh shares).

Value-wise Hindalco registered a turnover of Rs111 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (Rs97 crore), Tata Steel (Rs80 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs68 crore) and Suzlon Energy (Rs52 crore).