Andhra stocks take a drubbing

The rout of the Chandrababu Naidu government has made the stocks of the Hyderabad-based companies more jittery than the indices.

The stocks like Dr Reddy's, Divi's Laboratories and Aurobindo Pharma lost 4.95 per cent, 3.96 per cent and 5.99 per cent respectively on the National Stock Exchange, more than the loss of the exchange's index "� Nifty which fell by 3.94 per cent.

The Satyam Computers' scrip witnessed a loss of 2.58 per cent on Nifty. The Bombay Stock Exchange's index, BSE Sensex, came down by 4.14 per cent.

The Dr Reddy's scrip closed today at Rs 840.40 against the overnight closing of Rs 884.15 on NSE while the scrip of Divi's came down to Rs 1,460 from Rs 1,520.20. Satyam fell to Rs 296.90 from Rs 304.75 and the Aurobindo scrip slipped to Rs 395.65 from Rs 420.85.

Analysts said the defeat of Chandrababu Naidu, who loved to call himself the CEO of the state, was perceived to go against the industrial development of the state, particularly in the fields of IT and ITES.

"The competition among the states has been fierce to draw investments now. There is no denying the fact that Chandrababu had been successful to attract investment into Andhra Pradesh. His defeat may create a vacuum which might be grabbed by other states," said R Agarwal, a technical analyst.

West Bengal, which has emerged as a competition to Andhra Pradesh, has already decided to hold a road show in the second week of June to grab the opportunity which is being created by the change of guard at the Andhra Pradesh administration.

Analysts opined that many other states would follow suit and try to draw investments which might head to Andhra Pradesh, had there been the Naidu government.