Indices lose more than two per cent each on continuing global weakness

Rex Mathew
13 October 2005

New Delhi: Most traders were expecting Tuesday's recovery to continue today as well, especially since both TCS and Infosys had reported excellent quarterly numbers. However, continuing weakness in the US markets and losses across most Asian markets in today's trade led to a sell off.

After opening weak and declining almost a per cent on the frontline indices, the markets made a smart comeback before noon and briefly went into the positive. The up trend was not sustained and the indices drifted into the red once again.

The selling gathered momentum by afternoon and the indices slipped substantially. The last hour saw the frontline indices losing more than a per cent each to close the day with losses of more than 2 per cent each.

Pharma stocks were among the biggest percentage losers today. Ranbaxy declined 7 per cent after the adverse verdict from a UK court. Dr Reddy lost over 4 per cent after maintaining a steady uptrend for most of last week.

Sun Pharma and Cipla managed to close marginally in the positive.
Metal stocks faced a major sell off on reports that commodity prices would decline substantially by next year. The steel companies Tata Steel and SAIL were the worst hit. Tata Steel lost over 4 per cent while SAIL closed more than 6 per cent lower.
Among the aluminium stocks, Hindalco lost over 3 per cent while Nalco declined well over 2 per cent.