Sensex plunges over 300 points on weak global cues; railway stocks down

MUMBAI: The Sensex witnessed sharp selling pressure in line with other global peers on Tuesday as inconclusive election results in Italy raised concerns of global economic recovery. The proposal by railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal to hike freight rate in the rail budget also dampened sentiment, said dealers.

Stocks of railways-related companies fell sharply even as railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Railways Budget in the Lok Sabha. Kernex Microsystems, Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman etc ended in the red.

The 30-share index ended at 19,015.14, down 316.55 points or 1.64 per cent. It touched a high of 19,293.49 and a low of 18,976.94 in trade today.

The Nifty closed at 5,767.50, down 87.25 points or 1.49 per cent. It touched a high of 5,838.85 and a low of 5,748.60 in trade today.

The BSE Midcap Index fell 1.76 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index was down 2.43 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Oil & gas Index was down 3.07 per cent, the BSE Auto Index was 2.76 per cent lower, the BSE Capital Goods Index declined 2.44 per cent and the BSE Metal Index slipped 2.30 per cent.

The BSE IT Index was up 0.89 per cent.

ICICI Bank (2.14 per cent), Tata Motors (2.06 per cent), Bajaj Auto (2 per cent), Maruti (1.93 per cent) and Hindalco (1.87 per cent) were among the top Sensex losers.

Bharti Airtel (3.60 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (1.29 per cent), ITC (0.94 per cent), TCS (0.88 per cent) and Infosys (0.84 per cent) were among the top gainers.

Shares of Bharti Airtel surged after the Department of Telecom said it has not received applications for GSM spectrum auctions in 1800MHz and 900MHz bands.

“Failed auction fuelled expectations that the government would have to cut the reserve price in the auctions of remaining airwaves,” said analysts.

The market breadth was negative on the NSE with 318 gainers against 1,116 losers.

(All figures are provisional)