The Hindu Business Line : Weak global advice triggers downfall in domestic market

Weak sentiment in major Asian markets appears to have triggered the downfall in the domestic markets. The Indian markets that declined by about 3 per cent were among the top losers in the Asian region. The broking community appeared to have contributed to a large section of this downfall. Insurance and banks were among the net buyers in the market. A secular negative sentiment prevailed in the market with all the indices on the BSE shedding more than two per cent. Metals, FMCG, healthcare and the auto sectors took a large part of the beating.

Sector Watch

Metals stock took a pounding with the sector-oriented index on the BSE shedding about 5 per cent. 10 of the 13 constituents of the index shed more than 2 per cent. Bears appeared to have special liking for the non-ferrous space. Hindustan Zinc and Sterlite declined sharply by 9 and 8 per cent respectively. Hindalco the other non-ferrous major shed 5 per cent. Steel stocks also lost their mettle with Tata Steel, Ispat Industries, Jindal Saw and Jindal Stainless shedding significant value. Iron ore producer, Sesa Goa and JSW Steel were the only ones to close with modest declines. Other prominent losers in the metals space included Vesuvius, Madras Aluminium, Shree Precoated, ISMT and Mukand.

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Fuelled by declining prices bears ramped up their presence across the sugar sector. Triveni Engineering, Sakthi Sugars, Shree Renuka Sugars, Uttam Sugar, Mawana and Bajaj Hindustan were among the prominent losers.

Stock-Specific Action

Negative sentiment on tech counters appeared to be strong. Markets appeared to have ignored positive news flows from HCL Technologies and Venues Remedies.

In the early hours of trade HCL Technologies announced that it had reached an agreement with General Electric Company of the US for setting up and operating global development centres in India and China. The stock closed lower by about 1.7 per cent on the back of a four-fold rise in volumes.

Venus Remedies bagged an order for supply of anti-cancer medicines to Ukrainian Government. The stock which opened on a strong note, buoyed the positive information touched an intra-day high of Rs 382. However, with the bears wielding the upper hand Venus Remedies closed on a weak note. The stock ended the day's trade lower by 4.4 per cent at Rs 353.

Ranbaxy was another prominent stock in the pharma sector to take a significant beating. The company announced receipt of approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market Loperamide Hydrochloride and Simethicone tablets, which are used in the treatment of diarrhoea. Accompanied by a two-fold rise in volumes the stock shed 3.5 per cent to close at Rs 402.

Other Gainers/Losers

Hero Honda, Jet Airways, Vijaya Bank, Blue Star, United Western Bank, Cinevista, Magma, Jindal Drilling, Philips Carbon Black and Hotel Leela Venture were among the notable gainers. Prominent among the losers were IFCI, TVS Motor, Chennai Petroleum, MphasiS BFL, Cummins India, Polaris, ITI, NDTV and SRF.