Ranbaxy tumbles

sharp sell-off in banking pivotals once again pulled the key
benchmark indices lower in early afternoon trade, derailing a sharp
recovery seen in mid-morning trade led by index heavyweight
Reliance Industries. Volatility was high. All the sectoral indices
on BSE, barring the Oil & Gas index, were negative. The 30-shares
BSE Sensex slipped 181.56 points from the session's high. Ranbaxy
Laboratories tumbled over 5%. Hindalco Industries slipped to a
52-week low of Rs 106.20 on BSE.




At 12:20 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 198.26 points or
1.42% to 13,796.70. The index shed 273.54 points at the day's low
of 13,721.42, hit in the onset of trading session. The Sensex fell
16.7 points at day's high of 13,978.26, hit in mid-morning.

The S&P CNX Nifty was down 52 points or 1.23% to 4,171.05.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.04% at 5,166.65 and the BSE
Small-Cap index was down 0.87% at 6,140.28.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 739 shares advancing as
compared to 1539 that declined. 75 shares remained unchanged.




Banking shares were hard hit on fears local banks may reportedly
suffer losses on their exposure to the US financial giants that
collapsed recently. ICICI Bank (down 2.64% at Rs 617.70), State
Bank of India (down 2.83% at Rs1522.30), and HDFC Bank (down 1.50%
at Rs 1278.20), declined. The BSE Bankex was down 2.18% at
6,947.66.

As per reports, nine of the country's largest commercial banks
including State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank
reportedly have exposure of $420 million (Rs 2,000 crore) in the US
financial giants. As per the government, banks other than SBI would
suffer losses of Rs 600 crore due to the crisis. SBI alone has
exposure of $170 million in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The public
sector giant's exposure in Lehman Brothers is estimated at $17
million.

The estimated losses are due to their ownership of securities sold
by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Lehman
Brothers Holding Inc, which have declined in value leading to
marked-to-market losses, the report said.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and
oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.66% at Rs 2071. The
stock came off session's low of Rs 2,000. Reliance Industries (RIL)
began production of crude oil at KG-D6 block of the Krishna
Godavari basin on 17 September 2008, the company said on 22
September 2008. RIL holds 90% participating interest in the block
while the balance is being held by Niko Resources.




India's largest drug maker by sales Ranbaxy Laboratories declined
5.24% at Rs 329 on reports the Canadian drug regulator, Health
Canada, issued a notice to Ranbaxy saying it will be particularly
cautious about drug marketing applications from Ranbaxy after the
US drug regulator blocked the sale of more than 30 generic
medicines made in two factories by the company. The stock had
declined 2.70% in the previous session.

India's largest aluminium producer Hindalco Industries fell 2.14%
at 107.45 after hitting a 52-week low of Rs 106.20 on BSE. The
company's Rs 5,050 crore rights share offering for subscription
Monday, 22 September 2008. The sale in a ratio of three shares for
every seven held at Rs 96 a share will close on 10 October 2008.
The company aims to use the funds to repay a bridge loan it had
taken to buy Canada's Novelis in 2007.

India's largest real estate developer by market capitalisation DLF
fell 5.77% at Rs 396.50. As per recent reports, the company is
retrenching around 300 employees across all its centres and
subsidiaries as it decides to slow down its project execution,
especially in Tier II cities, in the face of shrinking demand and
expensive borrowing.

Sterlite Industries (up 1.63% at Rs 467.50), Tata Power Company (up
1.13% at Rs 1032.25), and Reliance Communication (up 0.30% at Rs
370.45), were the top gainers from the Sensex.




Other major Sensex losers were, Jaiprakash Associates (down 4.96%
at Rs 123.60), Housing Development Finance Corporation (down 2.24%
at Rs 2272.50), and Tata Motors (down 2.24% at Rs 405).

Software shares declined on fears of decline in IT expenditure in
the US market due lingering worries of a slowdown. Satyam Computer
(down 4.20% at Rs 337.95), Wipro (down 3.83% at Rs 398.50), TCS
(down 1.375 at Rs 755.50), and Infosys Technologies (down 2.65% at
Rs 1584.70), declined.