Cement stocks turn weak

MUMBAI, NOV. 13. Cement stocks, which had made fairly good progress in the past few sessions, turned weak in extremely dull activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on selling pressure triggered by reports of cement price reduction as a result of a sharp dip in demand.

Larsen & Toubro, which led cement sector in the limelight consistently for the last few sessions on speculation that Ambanis were accumulating shares of the company, bore the brunt of the selling and showed a sharp fall.

Elsewhere, the activity was at a low ebb with speculators that took centre stage earlier were almost absent reportedly on account of Diwali vacation.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened steady at 3093.78 and later fluctuated in a narrow range between 3101.58 and 3059.42 before closing at 3077.19 against yesterday's close of 3094.14, a net loss of 16.95 points. The BSE-100 index fell by 9.55 points to 1436.83 from the previous close of 1446.38.

Dealers said the market took cognisance of reports that cement prices have taken a beating even as manufacturers attributed the dip in demand to a fallout of a slowdown in construction activity during the festival season.

Another factor that affected sentiment was the news of worsening slowdown in industrial production with the industrial growth falling to 2.3 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal compared with 5.7 per cent in the same period last year.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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