Rail budget out, Sensex down 202 points

The benchmark BSE Sensex retreated from record highs by falling 202 points to dip below the 26,000 mark in mid-session trade after the rail budget failed to impress investors. Besides a weak Asian trend and lower opening in Europe further influenced the trading sentiment, brokers said.

The BSE 30-share Sensex after hitting a new record high of 26,190.44 points in opening trade, retreated to 25,897.33, showing a fall of 202.75 points, or 0.77 per cent. Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 42.25 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 7,744.90 after hitting its life-time high of 7,808.85.

Share prices of companies that cater to the railway sector came under pressure and tanked up to 12.15 per cent despite important announcements made by Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda in his maiden rail budget.

Major losers were Texmaco Rail, Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman, Kernex Micro, Commercial Eng., BEML, Stone India and Bartronics.

The government proposed in the rail budget to attract investment from domestic and foreign players in infrastructure. Among BSE-30 shares, Sesa Sterlite fell 3.89 per cent, Tata Steel by 1.31 per cent, Hindalco by 0.95 per cent, Larsen and Toubro by 1.29 per cent, SBI 1.15 per cent and Reliance Industries 1.31 per cent, dragged down the Sensex.

Globally Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.10 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.14 per cent. European markets opened in negative territory.