Markets in red on RBI's rate hike

Tue, 26 Jul 11:30 am

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

   Closing   

Indian stock market crashed on sell off in heavy weights over the last two hours of trade. The crash seems to have been triggered by a greater than expected rate hike of 0.5% announced by the RBI. Stocks from the realty and banking space are the biggest losers while stocks from the consumer durables and IT space have lost the least.

The BSE-Sensex is trading down by 260 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 82 points below the dotted line. BSE-Midcap index is down by 0.7% while BSE-Small cap index is trading 0.4% below yesterday's closing. The rupee is trading at 44.27 to the US dollar.

Energy stocks are trading weak led by MRPL and Essar Oil. Reliance Industry Limited (RIL) released its 1QFY12 results. The company's top line grew by 37.2% YoY to stand at Rs 836.8 bn. This growth was on account of higher prices and volume growth. While higher prices accounted for 32.7% of top line growth, higher volumes accounted for the balance 4.5%. On the other hand, bottom line grew slower than top line during the quarter. Net profits for the quarter rose 16.7% YoY to stand at Rs 56.6 bn. This was on account of fall in gas output. For the quarter, RIL's gross refining margin stood at US$ 10.3 per barrel as against US $7.3 per barrel in the corresponding period last year.

Engineering stocks are trading weak. Key losers include Jyoti Structures and Crompton Greaves. As per a leading financial daily, Larsen and Toubro has bid for Rs 10.25 bn Tamil Nadu- Karnataka power link along with 17 others including the likes of Reliance Power, Adani Power, GMR Energy, Sterlite Energy etc. A few foreign companies have also put in their bids for this project. Power Finance Corporation is looking after the bidding process of the build-own-operate project. The project is about laying two high capacity 250 km transmission lines to connect Nagapattinam with Madhugiri in Karnataka.

It is interesting to note here that the government has revised the bidding norms some time ago. Earlier a bidder needed to have experience in setting up an infrastructure project of one-fifth size of the transmission project. But, now the requirement is that the bidder should have set up a project worth the same amount. The government has identified a few more such transmission projects that will be awarded to private companies in future.