Rail stocks derail; see losses of up to 20 pc

Share prices of companies that cater to the railway sector plunged as much as 20 per cent today due to profit-booking on a day when the Rail Budget for 2014-15 was presented.
Texmaco Rail & Engineering tumbled 19.84 per cent, while BEML dropped 5 per cent on the BSE.
Shares of Kalindee Rail Nirman lost 4.99 per cent, Titagarh Wagons (4.99 per cent), Kernex Microsystems (4.94 per cent), Hind Rectifiers (4.94 per cent) and Stone India (4.91 per cent).
Most of the railway-related stocks, which had seen smart gains in the past few days ahead of the Rail Budget, saw profit-booking as Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda presented the Budget.

"As the Rail budget for 2014-2015 was announced today, railway infra stocks reacted in red. All these stocks were rolling from past few weeks and few of them tested their 52 weeks high and this volatile reaction post rail budget can be looked after as mere profit booking," said Rohit Gadia, Founder and CEO, CapitalVia Global Research Limited.
Sparing passengers of any further fare hike, Railway Budget for 2014-15 proposes to attract private domestic and FDI in infrastructure projects and pursuing private-public partnership to boost the finances of the cash-strapped railways.
Having hiked fares to the tune of 14.2 per cent recently, Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda who presented the new government's first budget in Lok Sabha said he plans to leverage railway PSU resources by bringing in their investible funds in infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, the broader market also saw severe losses, with the BSE benchmark Sensex falling 517.97 points or 1.98 per cent to settle at 25,582.11.