1/3 of BSE 500 stocks hit 52-week low

Apart from real estate stock,infrastructure and power companies' shares also suffered.

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Turbulent market conditions have battered scrips of several well-known companies this year. With 58 companies hitting their 52-week low on Monday,the total number of BSE 500 firms to hit their years low has now touched 160. Thats 32% or nearly one-third of the scrips that are part of the index.

ABB,Mastek stock,Steel Authority Of India,Engineers India,Shipping Corporation Of India,Hindustan Copper,JSW Steel,EIH,NHPC,Bharati Shipyard,Hero Honda Motors,Apollo Tyres shares and Jaiprakash Associates stock are among the prominent companies to hit their one-year low.

About 75% of the companies in the BSE 500 belong to the mid-cap space and it is these stocks that have slid the most. According to DD Sharma,senior VP-research,Anand Rathi,the mid-cap space is dogged by liquidity issues. In a falling market,these stocks fall sharply due to panic selling and margin calls. Also,fresh buying generally doesnt happen until the market stabilizes, he said.

A number of realty stocks feature among the scrips that have hit the 52-week low. These include prominent developers such as DLF,Unitech,Ackruti City,Indiabulls Real Estate,Parsvnath Developers and Sobha Developers. The real estate sector has suffered primarily because of the interest rate hikes. The outlook for the sector will remain bleak for the next couple of quarters as the rising interest rates will dent the demand for the residential housing projects, said Sharma.

Apart from real estate,infrastructure and power companies have also suffered this year. Hindustan Construction,IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects,Reliance Industrial Infrastructure,GVK Power & Infrastructure are among the infra companies that have been laggards this year. Many of these companies were trading at PE (price-to-earnings) levels of around 20. Now,the valuations have rationalized somewhat and they are trading at a PE of around 10. In future,their stock prices will move in tandem with their earnings growth, said Sharma.

Power firms to hit the 52-week low include Tata Power,Reliance Power,Kalpataru Power Transmission,Jaiprakash Power Ventures and Torrent Power. Many power generation companies have suffered because of the decline in the merchant power rates. Valuations of these companies are quite attractive now, said Sharma.

The BSE Sensex is down about 12% for the year-till-date. The index has retreated mainly on the back of sustained outflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs). FIIs have sold shares worth about $1.3 billion this year compared with inflows of close to $30 billion in 2010.