ADVERTISEMENT
Sensex Falls; Rail Stocks Volatile Amid Rail Budget Speech
26 Feb 2015, 01:19 PM IST 
The Sensex fell in the afternoon trades taking cues from the ongoing Rail Budget speech.
The 50-share Nifty was trading below its important psychological level of 8,750 led by selling in heavyweights like ITC, SBI, Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever.
Among a lot of measures being announced, the Railway Minister said that pension funds and multi-lateral banks have evinced interest of investments in Railways. He also announced that priority would be given to improve capacity on high density network in next five years.
Indian Railways which is considered as the lifeline of Indian economy needs to undergo a makeover so that it can contribute to country's growth, analysts said.
Railway stocks fell as much as 7 per cent in the afternoon deals. Stone India was the top loser from this sector. The stock slumped 8 per cent to Rs 78. Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman, Texmaco and Simplex Casting declined 3.5-5 per cent each.
However, Hind Rectifiers gained over 2 per cent.
Most of the Nifty stocks were facing the heat of selling pressure as 39 were declining while 11 were advancing. BHEL was the top Nifty loser, down 2.1 per cent to Rs 268. Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, Bank of Baroda, Coal India, ITC, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and HUL were also among the leading laggards.
Selling was visible across the sectors. Healthcare, FMCG, auto, banking and capital goods were the prominent losers.
At 12:50 PM, the Sensex fell 154 points to 28,854 and the broader Nifty fell 45 points to 8,722.