Midcaps were battered in the stock exchanges today with stocks relating to the infrastructure sector coming under severe beating on the NSE today.
Out of the 50 stocks constituting Nifty Midcap 50 of the NSE, only nine stocks were in the green at the close, some of them barely. The rest of the 41 stocks slipped into the red with some of the infra players such as IVRCL Infra, NCC, HDIL and Punj Lloyd suffering pressure due to sustained selling.
“Given the moderation in industrial growth and demand environment, the robust revenue growth maintained by corporates so far could be at risk. Till now, the volume growth in consumer-driven businesses has been robust but signs of moderation are beginning to appear in consumer durables, and apparel manufacturing and retailing companies. Thus, the risk of earnings downgrades remains as analysts have factored in the margin pressure and higher interest burden but not fully taken into account the possible moderation in the volume-led revenue growth,” said Sharekhan in a research report..
The loss was not limited to any particular sector indicating the overall market weakness since the Midcap 50 is represented by some of the major sectors such as banking, health care, engineering, IT and infrastructure. But it was the infra sector that appears to have suffered the most.
Out of the 19 indices in the NSE, only CNX IT managed to stay in the green, that too barely, by 0.99 per cent. All the other 18 indices were in the red to varying degrees. The CNX Nifty Midcap 50 was one of the heaviest losers with the midcap index losing 2.39 per cent.
IVRCL was the biggest mid cap loser today in terms of percentage with the share shedding a huge 19.48 per cent, apparently because of the unimpressive first quarter results this year with the net profit slumping to a mere 15 per cent of the profit during the same period last year. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 4.21 crore during the first quarter of fiscal year 2011-12 compared with Rs 28.07 crore in the same period last year.
The stock was hammered in the exchange today with the scrip closing at Rs 38.85 (face value of share Rs 2) with a colossal trading volume of 1.05 crore shares on the NSE.
But in terms of value, the biggest loser was Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd (OFSSL) that lost Rs 77.45 a share to close at Rs 1,880.20 (share face value Rs 5), a loss of 3.96 per cent.
The other midcap stocks that lost more than 10 per cent of their value today were Patel Engineering (10.77 per cent) that closed at Rs 103.95, HDIL that lost 11.75 per cent (closing price Rs 103.30) and NCC, which was down by 13.12 per cent to close at Rs 54.30.
In terms of value, some of the heaviest losers were BEML that lost Rs 29.15 to close at Rs 452.50, Educomp Solutions that fell by Rs 16.40 ( Rs 271 closing price) and Divis Lab that was down by Rs 24.15 (closing price Rs 738.90).