Railway stocks hog limelight in dull markets

The market activity was almost a mirror image of the previous day. The Sensex was stuck in a tight range of around 150 points before ending at 16255, down 30 points and the NSE Nifty closed at 4861, lower by eight points. The mid-cap and small-cap indices ended marginally lower.

The much-awaited Railway budget turned out to be a damp squib. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee presented a rather populist budget.

She kept the passenger and freight rates unchanged, while cutting the freight rate for food grains and kerosene by Rs 100 per wagon. Railway stocks, which had risen between 1% and 3% in the morning, received a battering as a result.

Kalindee Rail Nirman Engineers and Kernex were frozen at the 5% lower circuit at Rs 183 and Rs 151 respectively.  Titagarh Wagons ended at Rs 374, down 7.5% and Stone India closed at Rs 59, lower by 6%. Container Corporation was the only exception, ending higher by 1.4% at Rs 1198.

Cement stocks rose and steel stocks recovered from their intra-day lows as the Railway Budget left the freight rates unchanged. ACC and Ambuja Cements in the cement space, and  SAIL and Hindalco among metals stocks edged higher. 

Auto stocks extended their previous day's losses on on excise hike fears. Mahindra & Mahindra ended lower by 2.4% at Rs 956 , while Tata Motors and Hero Honda shed around a per cent each at Rs 687 and Rs 1678 respectively.

New debutant, DB Realty recovered from its earlier weakness to end lower by 2% at Rs 455, compared to the issue price of Rs 468, on the BSE. The realty firm made its debut at Rs 430, which was a discount of 8.11% to the issue price.

The other listing, Emmbi Polyarns tumbled by 36% to Rs 28 against the issue price of Rs 45. The stock had listed at Rs 45.

Maruti topped the gainers list on the BSE. The auto major recovered from a low of Rs 1310 to end 2.3% at Rs 1368.  NTPC and L&T ended around a per cent up at Rs 204 and Rs 1499 respectively. 

And REC brightened post its FPO issue. The stock ended at Rs 223, higher by Rs 10 or 4%, on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,873 shares traded on the BSE, there are 948 advancing stocks as against 1851 declines.