Nifty below 5400; Oil and Gas, IT, banks down

Mumbai: Indian equities gave up all of their early gains, with Nifty breaching the 5400 mark. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries continued to trade lower, down over 3 per cent. The oil and gas index was also down nearly 3 per cent along with IT, banks, power and pharma stocks.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, SP Tuslian of sptulsian.com said the recent development for RIL is definitely a serious case.

"Firstly, there is a lot of confusion in respect to the gas production. Earlier we heard DGH as saying that at 67 mmscmd and now the companies giving an estimate of less than may be 40 mmscmd," Tuslian said.

"If you take a call on FY12, the earnings per share (EPS) which is expected to be at Rs 62 for this year, and if you take the expected EPS of about Rs 72 for the next year, we will get offset for the lower production of the so-called gas production to may be about 40-42 mmscmd. If that happens, I think, this will be seen very negative and I won’t be surprised to see share falling may be about below Rs 900 as well," Tuslian added.

Another worry for the market is the ongoing catastrophe in Asian bigwig Japan. However, according to Nilesh Shah, president (corporate banking) at Axis Bank, "We have very limited trade with Japan and our only concern, though bit selfishly, will be whether Japanese investors who have invested so much in India will they redeem now."

"The appreciation of yen does give credence to the fact that money is returning back to the yen or Japan from the rest of the world. We will have to wait and see the trend how Japanese investors behave," Tuslian explained.

At 10.49, the Sensex was down 166.86 points or 0.92 per cent at 17983.01, and the Nifty was down 49 points or 0.90 per cent at 5397.65.

About 986 shares have advanced, 1262 shares declined, and 1122 shares are unchanged.

Reliance at Rs 997.90 down 3.25 per cent, BHEL at Rs 1,928.50 down 1.86 per cent, HDFC at Rs 627 down 1.62 per cent, TCS at Rs 1,082.50 down 1.55 per cent, Cipla at Rs 295.35 down 1.2 per cent were top losers on the Sensex.

Refinery major HPCL was trading at Rs 330.00 down 2.27 per cent from its previous close of Rs 337.65.

Most active shares on BSE were Reliance, Acropetal Tech, Tata Coffee, SBI and Rel Capital.

Top percentage losers on the BSE were down Anjani Fabrics, Tips Industries, Surana Corp, Cura Tech and Ad Manum Fin 8-15 per cent.