Mumbai: Indian stocks fell for the first time in three days after the government held off any increase in orders for new railway wagons, fuelling concern more economic stimulus measures will be curbed in Friday's budget.
Tata Motors Ltd, India's biggest truckmaker and owner of Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, dropped the most in almost three weeks. Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, the builder of a mass rapid transit system in Mumbai, declined to a nine-month low. Indian Railways plans to acquire 18,000 wagons in the year beginning April 1, Rail Minister Mamata Banerjee said yesterday, unchanged from her budget speech on July 3.
"The railway budget shows the government will at least not increase its spending as growth has been strong in the Indian economy," said Kishor Ostwal, managing director of CNI Research (India) Ltd, a publicly traded equities research provider in Mumbai. "Investors are concerned that the government will roll back some of the stimulus" at the budget Friday.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell 30.35, or 0.2 per cent, to 16,255.97. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange lost 0.2 per cent to 4,858.6. The BSE 200 Index retreated 0.2 per cent to 2,045.51.
Tata Motors declined 2.2 per cent to Rs684.45. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India's largest maker of sport-utility vehicles and tractors, slid 2.4 per cent to Rs957.3. Reliance Infrastructure lost 1.2 per cent to Rs963.75.
