A broker reacts while trading at his computer terminal at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai (Photo: Reuters)

Shares of Bharat Electronics (BEL), Vodafone Idea, Force Motors, Castrol India, InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) and Tata Communications have hit their respective 52-week lows on the BSE as the benchmark indices are trading lower for the sixth trading days.

Besides BEL, total five stocks, which include Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), Shipping Corporation of India and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) are state-owned companies hit 52-week lows on Wednesday.

Among the individual stocks, BEL tanked 16% to Rs 91.50 on back of heavy volumes. A combined 93 million equity shares representing 3.8% of total equity of BEL changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE.

Force Motors slipped 4% to Rs 2222, extending its past two days 6% fall, after the company reported a 25% yoy decline (24% mom decline) in total volume in August 2018. The manufacturer of commercial vehicles and utility vehicles sold 2,083 vehicles in August 2018 against 2,779 vehicles in August 2017 and 2,724 vehicles in July 2018.

At 01:01 pm; the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 0.72% lower at 37,881, falling 2.6% or 1,015 points from 38,897 levels on August 28, 2018. The index hit an all-time high of 38,990 on August 29, in intra-day deal.

High crude prices, weak rupee, and the resultant widening current account deficit weighed on market sentiment.

Despite nearly 3% decline in past six trading days, the Sensex has rallied 11%, while Nifty 50 index gained 8.5% thus far in the calendar year 2018 (CY18).

“India has stood out in CY18 with significant outperformance v/s other emerging markets given the context of global concerns around trade war, geopolitical issues, rising crude oil prices, rising US rates and broad-based depreciation in emerging market currencies. That this has happened despite no meaningful change in India’s earnings cycle underscores the resilience of domestic-focused Indian markets in an otherwise turbulent globe. At the same time, it has resulted in valuation premium expansion v/s other markets. The Nifty now trades at 21.4x FY19 EPS, not leaving much room for valuation expansion against the backdrop of rising bond yields,” Motilal Oswal Securities said in a client note.

The recently concluded earnings season has offered a glimmer of hope as far as asset quality woes of corporate banks are concerned. Commentaries from most corporate-focused banks have improved – they see moderation in fresh slippage generation and a reduction in provisioning costs going forward. This provides some succor to our FY19 and FY20 earnings estimates, the brokerage firm said.

Bharat Infratel, Can Fin Homes, IRB Infrastructure, South Indian Bank and Timken India were among 22 stocks from the S&P BSE 500 index touched 52-week lows in intra-day trade today.

[“Source-business-standard”]