Rail stocks slide 4% ahead of Rail Budget

Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail lead decline, shedding 4.06% and 3.27%, respectively on BSE

Shares of most of the railway sector related companies declined as much as four per cent ahead of presentation of the first Rail Budget subsumed in the General Budget tomorrow.

Titagarh Wagons settled 4.06 per cent down at Rs 115.90 on BSE today, while Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) ended 3.27 per cent down at Rs 113.95 from the previous close.

Texmaco Rail & Engineering lost 3.22 per cent and closed at Rs 106.65. Stone India went down by 2.94 per cent to settle at Rs 69.30.

Kernex Microsystems tumbled 3.27 per cent and was quoted at Rs 39.90 at the end of today's trading session.

The 30-share barometer BSE Sensex today slumped 194 points ahead of the budget -- to be presented tomorrow -- to a one-week low of 27,656 after the Economic Survey projected a lower growth of 6.5 per cent for 2016-17.

A safety fund of Rs 20,000 crore for railways reeling under a series of deadly derailments, development of new lines, station redevelopment and setting up of Rail Development Authority and High Speed Rail Authority will be in focus as Arun Jaitley will present the Rail Budget.

Jaitley is likely to give more focus on infrastructure development such as new lines, doubling, station redevelopment and safety upgradation.

The Budget will also give a fillip to non-fare revenue exercise and monetising assets like vacant land, estimated to be about 48,000 hectares including redevelopment of stations with private participation.