10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai – Global market worries dragged stock index lower. L&T third quarter profit jumped 41%.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index fell on Monday with a loss of 1.1% or 208.88 to 18,152.78.

The market had slipped into the red in the afternoon but recovered during the late trading hours lifted by heavy buying in banking and auto shares and in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and L&T.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was down 109.25 points or 2.03% at 5,274.10.

On the BSE, 1,844 shares declined, 881 advanced, and 34 shares remained unchanged. Of the BSE 30-share Sensex index, 21 declined while the rest were up.

Turnover on the BSE was 3,901 crore rupees and on the NSE was recorded at 11,224 crore rupees. Reliance Natural Resources recorded turnover of 239.08 crore rupees followed by Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy, Essar Oil, and Reliance Petroleum.

Of the BSE stocks, Bajaj Auto advanced 6.2% to 2,405 rupees. It led the gainers was the top gainers in the Sensex index. DLF slipped 5.2% to 896 rupees. It led the losers in the Sensex index.

Maruti Udyog surged 4.4% to 866 rupees while Mahindra & Mahindra added 2.8% to 693 rupees.

Banking shares recovered from early lows, ahead of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)''s quarterly monetary policy review scheduled on Tuesday.

State Bank of India lost 4.3% to 2,302.9 rupees. HDFC Bank was down 2% to 1,570 rupees and ICICI Bank advanced 1.2% to 1,274 rupees.

Reliance Industries, The fourth largest oil refiner in the world, fell 2.07% to 2,555.5 rupees. According to local news reports, RIL plans to foray in engineering, procurement and construction business to reach turnover of 5,000 crore rupees during the first year.

Larsen & Toubro declined 1.6% to 3,830 rupees. During the market hours, the company reported 40.1% surge in net profit to 481.79 crore rupees on 53.48% rise in total income to 6,483.55 crore rupees in third quarter ending in December 2007.

Reliance Energy gained 2.1% to 2,073 rupees and ACC added 2.6% to 807.8 rupees.

Ranbaxy Laboratories was down 5.1% to 349.2 rupees and Bharti Airtel shed 4.9% to 870.05 rupees. Infosys Technologies lost 4.6% to 1,451 rupees.


5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo- Subprime fears and comments from IMF Chief led Tokyo stocks down 3.97%.

Stocks in Japan dropped as exporters declined on a strengthening yen and on observations by the IMF that global economic conditions will worsen.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 fell 3.97% or 541.25 to 13,087.91, while the broader Topix Index slumped 51.74 to 1,293.03. Market sold-off after comments from IMF Chief in Switzerland, worsening economic indicators, and worries that the U.S. stimulus package will not be enough to avert a recession in the U.S.

In first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 8.3 billion shares valued at 989 billion yen were traded and in the second section 493 million shares valued at 4.7 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 shares 5 rose, 216 declined, and 4 were unchanged. Dainippon Sumitomo led advancers with a rise of 3.17% followed by Meiji Seika climbing 1.12%.