Sensex slaughtered amid global rout...Realty, IT plummet

Mumbai - 08 August 2011: The Indian stocks continue to be under tremendous selling pressure in late morning trade, as investors continue to flee risky assets like equities and commodities in the wake of the S&P's decision to downgrade US' "AAA" rating by one notch.

The BSE Sensex is down more than 450 points while the NSE Nifty remains below the 5,100 mark.

At 11:20 am (IST), the BSE Sensex was trading at 16,848, down 457 points or 2.65% over the last close. It had touched the day's high at 16,907 and day's low at 16,759 with the opening of Rs 16,907.

The NSE Nifty on the other hand was quoting 5,075, down 135 points or 2.61% after touching a high of 5,096 and a low of 5,054.

There is no place to hide and no place to run, with all sectoral indices and even the Small- and Mid-Cap counters taking a severe beating across the board. The market breadth is naturally unfavourable for the bulls. IT, Realty and Metal indices are pacing the decline so far.

The IT index on the BSE is down more than 5% amid concerns that a weakening economic landscape in the US and Europe will hit their earnings, which are closely linked to these markets.

The ADAG pack is also being pummeled out of shape, led by heavy losses in Reliance Power, RCOM, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Capital after the BSE removed RCOM and Reliance Infra from the Sensex effective today.

Meanwhile, select fertilizer stocks like RCF, National Fertilizers, Chambal Fertilizers and Nagarjuna Fertilizers have advanced after the Group of Ministers (GoM) on fertilizers on Friday approved decontrol of urea prices and allowed fertilizer companies to raise prices of the key farm input by up to 10% in the first year of the policy.

Shares of state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) like IOC and HPCL have also gained amid hope that a sharp fall in crude oil will help curtail their losses on sale of fuels at state-administered rates. BPCL, Gail India and ONGC are trading in the positive territory.

Shares of Wyeth Ltd. have posted decent gains after the company's net profit surged 59% in the quarter ended June 30, 2001 on net sales that rose ~20% from last year.

Shares of Wockhardt rose after the company and its subsidiary on August 2, announced the signing of agreements to divest their Nutritional business to Danone, one of the fastest-growing food company in the world. Its Board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to consider and approve the unaudited financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2011.

Shares of GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd. have risen in a weak market after the company registered a net profit of Rs 589.2mn for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011 as against Rs 339.2mn in the year-ago period.

source: IIFL