Retail stocks dip as stalemate continues over FDI

The shares of retail companies fell for the second consecutive day on the bourses today, amid the ongoing political logjam over the government's decision to open up the sector for foreign investors.

The political upheaval over FDI in retail business failed to subside even after an all-party meeting today, and a united opposition, joined by some UPA constituents like Trinamool Congress and DMK, stalled the Parliament proceedings with demand for an immediate rollback of the government decision.

Amid the political opposition, shares of retail companies like Pantaloon Retail, Trent, Vishal Retail, Koutons Retail, Shopper's Stop and Provogue fell by as much as 12%. An overall weakness in the stock market added to the downtrend of the retail stocks.

The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty fell by about 1% each.

In this backdrop, investors continued to stay away from the retail shares and Kishore Biyani-led Future group's Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd plunged 11.89% to close at Rs 196.80, while Shares of Tata group's retail venture Trent Ltd lost 3.78% to Rs 985.90.

Koutons Retail plunged 7.26%, Provogue (India) closed down by 3.46%, while Shopper's Stop ended 2.78% lower and Vishal Retail fell by 1.23%.

Retail stocks had lost value yesterday also, while bucking the overall uptrend in the stock market amid the political slugfest over the FDI issue.

Before the political opposition had intensified, the retail stocks had recorded smart gains on Friday following the government decision to allow 51% FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the multi-brand or supermarket retail business, and to do away with the present 51% cap for FDI in the single-brand retail business.