Indian shares trade 4 percent lower; Reliance, ONGC, ICICI lose heavily UPDATE

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Indian shares slumped about 4 percent Monday, but were a little off the day's lows, as Asian shares followed Wall Street's spectacular slide Friday after crude oil prices soared to a new record near $140 and the latest U.S. jobs data showed a steep increase in unemployment there.

Hemen Kapadia, chief executive of Chartpundit.com said, "We have shed about 1,000 points in a few trading sessions, which suggests that if foreign institutional investors (FII) continue to sell in the present challenging situation, then the downside is not yet fully attained."

At 12.02 pm local time, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensex was 3.56 percent or 554.32 points lower at 15,017.86. The National Stock Exchanges's 50-share S&P CNX Nifty, shed 3.59 percent or 165.95 points to trade at 4,433.10. The Nifty hit a new annual low by breaching previous low of 4,448.50.

Kapadia suggested breaching the 15,300-point level was a significant development today and added that the Sensex will find crucial support at 14,700, 14,400 and 13,800 during the next four to six weeks.

Regional markets are trading lower even though crude oil took a breather in Asian trade amid a call among consumer nations for a production increase and warnings of a global recession. So soaring crude oil prices have made 'caution' the buzzword among most traders today.

Crude's biggest ever single-day leap of nearly $11 per barrel, and the jump in the U.S. unemployment rate to 5.5 percent in May from 5.0 percent in April, dragged the Dow Jones industrials down by nearly 400 points Friday.

On the domestic front, state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. shed the most among stocks in the broader markets today, and was trading 9.58 percent down at 192.20 rupees. Infrastructure company Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. shed the most among the Sensex 30 stocks, and was 7.14 down at 182.50 rupees.

Sensex heavyweights were trading deeply in the red. India's most valuable company Reliance Industries Ltd. shed over 4 percent to trade at 2,148.00 rupees, a level last touched in September 2007.

Biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank Ltd. lost 2.69 percent to trade at 731.55 rupees, a near 21-month low. State-run oil explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. slumped 5.81 percent to trade at 884.00 rupees, again a multi-year low.

Tech stocks were also in negative territory. Bellwether Infosys Technologies Ltd. shed 2.65 percent to trade at 1,940.00 rupees, while heavy engineering firm Larsen & Toubro ltd. lost 3.13 percent to 2,597.95 rupees.

Several stocks including Reliance Power Ltd., the power company controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, and India's largest realty company DLF Ltd. touched life lows today.

The Reliance Industries Ltd. stock has seen 1.1 billion rupees turnover so far, the largest turnover in early trade, followed by Cairn India Ltd., a unit of Cairn Energy PLC. with a turnover of 929 million rupees so far.

Among the 13 sectoral indices, realty was battered the most, with the index down 8.11 percent, followed by the power index, which shed 5.11 percent. No single sector or Sensex-30 component gained in today's trade.

Broader markets too were bearish, with 89.25 percent of the 1,814 traded stocks in the red. TFN.newsdesk@thomson.com kbo/ran/kbo/ran

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