Govt loses Rs 29,500 crore

The government made a loss of Rs 29,500 crore on its holdings in listed public sector undertakings (PSUs) following the bloodbath triggered off by the Left's opposition to disinvestment of profit-making PSUs.

Add to this the erosion of Rs 37,000 crore of value that the government holdings saw on May 14, and the total loss for the government in two trading sessions is Rs 66,500 crore.

The market capitalisation of public sector undertaking (PSUs) dropped by Rs 43,695 crore today.

The aggregate market capitalisation has fallen below the Rs 10 lakh crore after a gap of six months since October 2003.

The Sensex shares lost Rs 67,217 crore today as their aggregate valuation plunged from Rs 5,65,695 crore to Rs 4,98,478 crore.

Among PSUs, nearly 15 stocks lost over 15 per cent each. They include GAIL India, BHEL, RCF, Bongaigaon Refinery, Bharat Earth Movers, Chennai Petroleum and Engineers India.

Overall, the biggest single-day losers in market cap were ONGC (Rs 13,233 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 10,221 crore), Wipro (Rs 6,614), Hindustan Lever (Rs 4,678 crore), Indian Oil Corporation (Rs 4,608 crore), Infosys Technologies (Rs 3,697 crore) and State Bank of India (Rs 3,571 crore).

Among sectoral losers, refinery firms saw a Rs 20,167 crore dip in market cap, followed by banks (down Rs 16,284 crore), information technology (Rs 14,111 crore). diversified companies (Rs 11,760 crore), pharmaceutical (Rs 6,934), fast moving consumer goods (Rs 5,620 crore), and power (Rs 5,472 crore).