Price war deals a body blow to HLL

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) lost ground on Thursday on aggressive selling amid concerns that the company's margins will be adversely affected after it announced a price war with P&G.

According to sources, select foreign institutional investors have turned sellers at the counter which led to a 4.04 per cent slide in the stock.

The share price of HLL has taken a beating on the bourses ever since the company announcement its fourth quarter results earlier this month. The stock lost nearly 20 per cent from Rs 199.45 on February 17, 2004, to Rs 158.05 on Thursday.

Select FIIs are believed to have reshuffled their portfolios replacing HLL with stocks such as ITC over the past few days, market sources said. More than 17.79 lakh HLL shares were traded on the BSE on Thursday.