Nifty slides on weak European cues; HUL outperforms
31 Oct 2011
Indian equities were shying away from total recovery due to sell-offs across globe. Every market globally had rallied sharply last week, reacting to the approval of a Europe bailout plan. But today, European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 1-1.5%. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 17,731, down 73.67 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 28 points to 5,332.
Robert Parker of Credit Suisse Asset Management believes that scepticism will emerge in markets over the coming months. "Equity markets may see some setbacks towards year-end," he added.
Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC and BHEL were down between 1.5% and 2.5%. ITC and Wipro fell 1-1.5%. DLF dropped 3%.
Tata Motors and Ambuja Cements maintained their top positions in the selling list, falling 4% each.
Metal stocks melted down; Sterlite Industries and Hindalco tumbled 3-4%. JSPL and SAIL were down 2-2.6%. Coal India declined 1.4%.
However, HUL outperformed every stock in the benchmark index post strong numbers in Q2, rising 5.6%. The company's Q2 net profit jumped 22% to Rs 689 crore and net sales went up 18% to Rs 5522 crore.