India shares down for 6th day; industrial data eyed

Enlarge Photo The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building seen in this May 22, 2006 file photo. REUTERS/Punit...

Mon, May 12 11:59 AM

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Monday morning, extending their losing streak into a sixth session as surging inflation, oil and commodity prices weighed on investor sentiment.

Analysts said investors were also cautious ahead of data due around noon), which is likely to show industrial output in March grew an annual 6.2 percent, slowing abruptly from the previous month as tight monetary policy continued to hurt demand.

Shares in Reliance Industries, India's top listed firm, fell 1.2 percent to 2,498 rupees, and No. 2 lender ICICI Bank dropped 0.9 percent to 866 rupees. The two stocks account for a quarter of the main index.

At 10:54 a.m., the 30-share BSE index was down 0.9 percent, or 151 points, at 16,586.07, with 21 components falling. It started 0.6 percent lower and dropped as much as 1.1 percent to its lowest since mid-April.

"The global markets are not supportive today," said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities. "Pessimism is still there in the market because of the global economic uncertainty and people are holding back their buying decisions."

The index fell 4.9 percent last week and is off about 22 percent from its record high in January.

Bharti Airtel, which said last week it was in exploratory talks with South African mobile operator MTN Group that may or may not lead to an acquisition deal, was down 0.5 percent at 837.80 rupees.

Singapore Telecommunications, which owns 30.5 percent of Bharti, was actively involved in the takeover talks between India's top mobile firm and MTN, a source told Reuters.

Brokerage India Infoline said the markets could see some recovery if the industrial production numbers were better than expected, but it advised clients to book gains on every rise.

In the broader market, 1,816 losers were ahead of 375 gainers on volume of 90 million shares.

Latin Manharlal Securities said in a report the market was below its 200-day moving average, and while 16,400 would be strong support, a breach of that would trigger more weakness.

It said the markets were likely to remain choppy, and would regain stability once the main index closed above 17,250.

Top engineering firm Larsen & Toubro was down 2.1 percent at 2,776.90, taking its losses to 11.6 percent since May 2, on worries that slowing industrial output would hit the earnings of capital goods firms, traders said.

The broader 50-share NSE index was down 1.01 percent at 4,932.40.

Elsewhere in the region, Karachi's 100-share index lost 0.18 percent to 14,202.93, and Colombo's All-share index was down 0.3 percent at 2,632.13.

STOCKS ON THE MOVE

* Wall Street Finance Ltd was up 7.1 percent at 46.80 rupees after 33.10 percent of the company's equity capital changed hands in a block deal on the BSE at 45 rupees a share.

Details of the buyer and seller were not immediately available.

* Granite tiles and slabs maker Aro Granites Industries Ltd fell 10 percent, its maximum daily limit, to 100.90 rupees after its quarterly net profit fell 67 percent to 10.14 million rupees.

MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME

* Reliance Petroleum Ltd on 5.4 million shares

* Reliance Natural Resources Ltd on 5 million shares

* IFCI Ltd on 4.7 million shares

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