Pharma Stocks Take A Plunge
Overheated pharma stocks were the major casualties at bourses yesterday on profit-taking by speculators. Among the major losers of the day were Glaxo, SmithKline Consumer, Burroughs Wellcome and German Remedies.
"Glaxo and SmithKline shares had moved up sharply over the past few days on the news of merger between the two companies worldwide. This, even before the finer details of the merger was actually worked out.
With markets slumping towards the close of trading session, punters beat a hasty retreat from the scrip," said a BSE broker.
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On the Bombay Stock Exchange, there were only sellers in the scrip at Rs 365, down Rs 28 over the previous close.
The SmithKline Consumer scrip fell to an intra-day low of Rs 369 before closing at Rs 369.75, a loss of Rs 26 over the previous close.
Hindustan Lever Ltd witnessed a flurry of activity on rumours that Schroedders was an aggressive buyer in the scrip. It touched an intra-day high of Rs 1,418 on the BSE before closing at Rs 1,393, up Rs 29 over the previous close.
Auto major Bajaj Auto rebounded sharply in the morning but failed to sustain the initial rally. Marketmen said domestic institutions had absorbed the shares offloaded by foreign institutional investors the previous day.
The BPCL scrip too moved up sharply on renewed buying interest from domestic institutions. It closed at Rs 354, up Rs 14 over the previous close.
The BPL scrip saw a lot of activity early morning on news of excellent corporate results declared by the company. On the BSE, the scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 101.50 before closing at Rs 97.50. Digital Equipment continued to be at the receiving end with the scrip hitting the lower end of the circuit filter at the BSE and the NSE at Rs 107 and Rs 106 respectively.
Marketmen said the crash was primarily due to the unwinding of long position by speculators on the back of lower than expected results.
The East India Hotels scrip continued to witness fund-based selling with trading being frozen on the BSE at Rs 289, a new 52-week low for the scrip. Marketmen said FIIs were sellers in Indian Hotels and Asian Hotels.
In the depository segment, Reliance and Tisco were the most actively traded stocks clocking trading volumes of 44,950 and 26,700 shares respectively.