Another poor day for the markets

Thu, 4 Apr Closing

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

There was no respite from selling pressure for indices in the Indian stock market. They continued to drift lower during the closing hour and consequently, ended the day deep in the red. Thus, while BSE-Sensex lost around 290 points, decline on the NSE-Nifty came in at around 100 points (down 1.7%). BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices also performed poorly, edging lower by 1.8% and 2% respectively. Nearly four stocks closed lower for every one that finished the day on a positive note on the Sensex.

Asian indices closed mostly lower today while Europe was trading mixed when reports last came in. Rupee was trading Rs 54.8 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Today's decline led the drop in the past two days to more than 500 points, certainly not a good sign. With most of the indicators flashing a red sign, further decline cannot be ruled out. But the more it declines the more it will benefit the long term investor who will then be ready to pour money into fundamentally strong stocks run by able managements. No time is too bad for scooping up such companies on the cheap we believe. One just has to ensure that the company one is investing in is a value buy and not a value trap where most investors end up sinking their teeth in.

As per reports, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), India's largest power equipment manufacturer has tied up with Japan based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries so that it receives an environment friendly technology for its manufacturing units. The agreement is a license based one and involves acquisition of FGD system technology that finds its application in fossil fuel power plants. The new technology based equipment will be manufactured at BHEL's Ranipet unit in the state of Tamil Nadu. Some of the upcoming power projects could be the first ones to receive this technology. BHEL closed lower by around 3% on the bourses today.

Enthused by the good response to its electric car e20, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) now plans to raise the stakes a bit by launching an electric version of its entry level sedan Verito within one year. The company plans to invest a corpus of Rs 1.5 bn to develop electric versions of its three existing vehicles, Gio, Maxximo and Verito. It should be noted that only last month the company launched its first electric car which had led to a lot of interest and queries. As per the company though, the conversion from interest to actual purchase is currently on the lower side. The company also plans to export e20 to overseas markets with the Scandinavian countries making some enquiries. The stock closed marginally higher on the bourses today.