Cap goods, banks, metals drag Sensex 300 pts

Date: 27.02.12

The NSE Nifty fell 1.8% on Monday, extending last week's 2% decline, as high global oil prices revived concerns about inflation in the country that imports about 80% of its oil consumption.

The market witnessed heavy sell-off in sectors like banks (barring HDFC Bank), capital goods, metals.  The market breadth worsened; about three shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

The Sensex was down 304 points or 1.69% to 17,620 and the Nifty fell 1.8% or 97.5 points to 5,332.

Lenders such as ICICI Bank and bigger rival SBI led the losers on worry price pressures could make it difficult for the RBI to ease monetary policy.

Sesa Goa was the biggest loser among largecaps, falling 10% after Vedanta Resources' decision of merger between Sesa Goa and Stelite in last weekend.

Automakers and steel producers also fell as investors took profits after the main stock index posted its first weekly decline in 2012 last week.

Largecaps like BHEL, IDFC, Jindal Steel, Hindalco, DLF and L&T topped the selling list, falling 4-6%

Tata Steel, M&M, Hero Motocorp, NTPC and Tata Power were down 2.5-4.5%. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries dropped 1.6%.

However, Cipla, ITC, Bharti Airtel, HUL, Sun Pharma and BPCL bucked the trend, gaining 0.6-1%.

In the second line shares, Sintex Industries, IFCI, PTC India, HCC and SREI Infra fell 6-8%. Smallcaps like Spanco, Kalyani Steels, Bartronics, Gujarat NRE Coke and Emco lost 7-9%.

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