Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Mkts: Auto, Realty, Bank Stocks Tumble; Sensex Recovers After A Big Fall - June 25, 2008

Stock prices tumbled on the major Indian bourses as a sharp rise of 50 basis points in CRR and Repo rates triggered a massive sell-off in early trade this morning.

The Sensex, which plunged by around 375 points to 13,731.54 in early trade, has recovered to 13,915.06 thanks to some strong buying at lower levels in a few blue chip stocks. Still, at its current mark, the Sensex is down with a big loss of 191.52 points or 1.36%. At 4151.10, around 58 points off a low of 4903.20 it had touched in early trade, the Nifty is 0.95% or 40 points behind its previous closing mark.

Shares from interest rate sensitive banking, realty and auto stocks are among the worst hit in morning trade. Mirroring the sell-off in these sectors, the Bankex (down 2.83%), Realty (down 3.38%) and Auto (down 2.2%) indices have plunged sharply this morning.

IT, PSU, capital goods, FMCG and power stocks have also taken a severe beating. Oil and metal stocks have not been spared either. Several stocks from midcap and smallcap segments too have declined sharply in opening trade.

Housing finance major HDFC slipped to a low of Rs 2136 and despite having recovered to Rs 2164, remains deep down in the red with a sharp loss of 4.5%.

Realty stock DLF tumbled by over 7% in early trade. At present, the stock is down with a loss of 3.7% at Rs 423.55. Banking sector heavyweights State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have lost 2.55%, 3.6% and 3.15% respectively.

Maruti Suzuki opened on a dismal note but has recovered some lost ground thanks to buying at lower levels. Still, at Rs 660, the automobile stock is down with a sharp loss of 2.75%. Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra are down by 1.6% and 1.7% respectively.

Ambuja Cements, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco, ITC, Infosys Technologies, Jaiprakash Associates, NTPC, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Satyam Computer Services, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro are down by 1% - 3%.

ACC, Cipla and Larsen & Toubro are also down in the red, albeit with less pronounced losses. ONGC and Grasim Industries are up with small gains while BHEL has notched up a gain of 0.65%. Reliance Industries has bounced back after a weak start and is up with a modest gain of 0.6% at present.

Hero Honda, HCL Technologies, Sun Pharmaceuticals, ABB, Tata Power, Punjab National Bank, Nalco, Power Grid, Unitech, Idea Cellular and Siemens are among the prominent losers from the Nifty index.

Tata Communications has gained 1.65%. Sterlite Industries, Suzlon Energy and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories have posted modest gains.

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