FIIs Sell Stocks in India, Inflation Declines

123jump.com Staff
05 Feb, 2009
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai fell 1.2% after foreign investors continue to withdraw from the capital markets. For the year so far, foreign investors have sold nearly 4,500 crore rupees of shares. The latest measure of inflation in India showed a decline to 5.07%. Inflation is expected to dip to below 2%.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30 PM Mumbai – India inflation falls to 5.07% in the week ending January 24.[/R]

Indian stocks fell on weak global cues and heavy selling by foreign institutional investors.

Foreign institutional investors sold 26.97 crore rupees, while domestic funds sold 100.72 crore rupees today. Foreign funds have sold shares worth 4,435 crore rupees in calendar year 2009 so far.

In Mumbai, the BSE 30-share Sensex index fell 1.2% or 110.97 to 9,090.88, and the CNX Nifty dropped 0.8% or 23 to 2,780.05.

Of the stocks traded on BSE, 1,009 rose, 1,487 declined, and 61were unchanged.

Trading Statistics

Daily turnover on BSE declined to 2,580 crore rupees from 2,947.14 crore rupees yesterday.

Inflation Declines to 5.07%

Inflation in India fell to 5.07% in the week ended January 24 from 5.64% a week earlier as prices of metal products, vegetables and fruits.

Market watchers expect inflation to slip into negative territory by mid-year on falling commodity prices and demand.

The fuel index increased on the back of higher prices of naphtha 15%, furnace oil 2% and light diesel 2%.

Gainers & Losers

Reliance Industries dropped 1.6% to 1,286.75 rupees on profit taking.

IT stocks slumped after Infosys said software export growth will be lower than 16% in the fiscal year ending March 2009. The stock fell 1.8% to 1,260 rupees.

Wipro fell 1.9%, TCS declined 3.3% but HCL Technologies rose 0.3%.

Auto makers shed as demand fall on high interest rates and slowing consumer spending. Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 5.7%, Tata Motors shed 2.8% and Maruti Suzuki India lost 4.1% after its holding company Suzuki Motor cut its profit forecast on a stronger yen and falling demand.

Financial stocks gained. ICICI Bank rose 0.4% to 390.95 rupees, State Bank of India plunged 0.3% to 1,093.90 rupees. HDFC Bank shed 1.4%. In Larsen & Toubro dropped 3.1%.

Ispat Industries advanced 1.6% on news lenders have allowed the firm to defer payment of 586 crore rupees.

Sterlite Industries plunged 5.7% on news the company is close to acquiring US-based bankrupt copper miner Asarco LLC.

ACC rose 0.6% to 531.50 rupees despite reporting today that its net profit dropped 23% to 1,099 crore rupees in the financial year ending December 2008 from the same period a year ago.

Avaya GlobalConnect advanced 3.3% on news institutional investors and some high net worth individuals have demanded an open offer from the promoters.

Sahara One Media & Entertainment shed 7% after announcing that its promoters have pledged 7% of the total equity with IDBI Bank as collateral for loans.

Lanco Infratech dropped 0.3% after reporting that the company has pledged more than 1.89 crore share of the company.