Business Standard

Shares tank on monsoon warning

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Our Markets Bureau Mumbai
The warning of a deficient monsoon and the downturn in the metals market dampened market sentiments on Thursday, wiping out the two-day gains as the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex fell by more than 1 per cent to close the day at 6,655.56 points, down 74 points.
 
The Sensex had opened marginally better at 6,733.46 against yesterday's close of 6729.90 and rose further to a high of 6756.62. Thereafter, it fell steeply, touching an intra-day low of 6,647.36.
 
The forecast by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation that monsoon rains would be 34 per cent below normal in June triggered across-the-board selling. FMCG and metal stocks were the hardest hit with the BSE metal index losing over 2 per cent and the BSE FMCG index over 1.3 per cent.
 
In the 30-share BSE basket, only five ended in positive territory. Among the gainers were Larsen & Toubro, up 3.28 per cent to Rs 1,084.50, Zee Telefilms, up 0.79 per cent to Rs 140.95, and HDFC Bank, up 0.76 per cent to Rs 539.20.
 
Among the FMCG stocks, ITC lost the most with a 1.95 per cent fall to Rs 1560.25.
 
Hindustan Lever fell by 1.47 per cent to Rs 147.15. The other big losers were Ranbaxy (down 2.71 per cent to Rs 1084.20), Reliance Energy (down 2.62 per cent), Tata Steel (down 2.15 per cent), Maruti Udyog (down 2.13 per cent) and Reliance Industries (down 1.98 per cent).
 
Metal stocks slumped for the second consecutive day. Among steel stocks, Tisco was down 2.5 per cent to Rs 347, Sail was down 2.7 per cent to Rs 51.15, Bhushan Steel was down 6 per cent to Rs 177.55, Lloyds Steel fell 4.7 per cent to Rs 16.90, Uttam Galva Steel slipped 3.8 per cent to Rs 45, and Ispat Industries was down 3 per cent to Rs 19.45.
 
Brokers said steel counters suffered sharply on heavy offering following the decision by some steel majors to down steel prices with immediate effect along with firming up of the US dollar.
 
Surging global crude oil prices which shot up to above the $54-a-barrel mark also made operators cautious as they preferred to book profits at every rise, brokers said.

 
 

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First Published: Jun 03 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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