MUMBAI: Indian equities continued to extend losses on Monday in line with other global peers. Benchmark indices were at their day’s low as investors exited markets on fears of slowing global economy and recession in the US and the UK.

At 10:20 am, National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 2,448.35, down 5.25 per cent or 135.65 points. The 50-share index touched a low of 2,446.30 in trade so far.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was down 4.25 per cent or 369.71 points at 8,331.36. The index touched a low of 8286.62 in early trade.

“Sensex has already fallen 32 per cent this month. In absolute terms, the benchmark fell 4159 points, which is more than 162 per cent of the entire fall seen during Harshad Mehta’s time. When we have seen a fall of such magnitude, it is possible to see some short covering emerging in the next few sessions, but a sustained recovery is not on the cards and if we do see one, lightening commitments may be the order of the day,” said Anagram Stock Broking note.

“The settlement for today as well as tomorrow (Muhurat trading) will be held on the same day, so stock bought today cannot be sold tomorrow unless you have separate arrangments for delivery. That makes ‘options’ a very interesting proposition for Muhurat Trading this Diwali as their rates are slightly more than the stop losses you are accustomed to put in. The settlement is on Wednesday. Volumes should dwindle further today,” the note added. Second rungs stocks fell in line with the frontline stocks. BSE Midcap Index was down 3.98 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index fell 3.10 per cent.

Fall in crude oil prices have taken its toll on share prices of oil exploration companies like Cairn India and Reliance Industries. Both were hovering at their 52-week lows.

Crude oil prices fell to 17-month lows at $63 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors weighed Friday’s OPEC output cut against growing evidence of a severe global economic slowdown that would undermine crude demand.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 32 cents to $63.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore.

ABB (-15.14%), Cairn (-13.94%), Tata Power (-12.61%), State Bank of India (-12.58%) and Power Grid (-11.69%) were the major Nifty losers.

Gainers included Unitech (34.19%), Suzlon (4.67%) Reliance (0.54%) Idea (0.41%) and Ambuja Cement (0.33%).

Shares of Unitech and Suzlon Energy were one of the worst hit in Friday’s trade and were witnessing short coverings and fresh buying at current levels. Analysts expect a lacklustre second quarter performance from Tata Power. It is forecast to report a revenue growth of 45 per cent year-on-year t
o Rs 1,960 crore in the September 2008 quarter, while net profit is expected to rise a mere 4 per cent y-o-y to Rs 170 crore.

Robust results by the banking major State Bank of India did little to lift investor sentiments. The stock was one of the major losers on the indices.

Banking major State Bank of India, on standalone basis, has posted a net profit of Rs 2259.72 crore for the quarter ended Sep 30, 2008 against Rs 1611.42 crore in the same quarter of 2007. Interest earned stood at Rs 15566.50 crore against Rs 11616.28 crore previous year. Interest expended was Rs 10111.15 crore against Rs 7853.36 crore same quarter last year. The scrip was down 2.73 per cent at Rs 1133.

Shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories hit a 52-week low of Rs 173.3 early on Monday. The company will declare its results on October 31. The pharma company is expected to report 17.5 per cent year-on-year growth in topline for the September 2008 quarter, led by double-digit growth in both emerging markets and the US. However, mark to market forex losses of about Rs 80 crore in the last quarter, is forecast to result in its profit after tax to decline 10 per cent y-o-y to Rs 1.7 billion in the September 2008 quarter.

Market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1457 declines and 357 advances.

Asian markets continued to remain under pressure. Hang Seng fell 4.22 per cent, Shanghai Composite was down 3.61 per cent, Taiwan Weighted plunged 5.12 per cent and Nikkei average was down 2.89 per cent.

source: Economictimes

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