Suresh Prabhu fails to impress markets, railway stocks fall on profit booking

NEW DELHI: Shares of companies related to Railways pared gains and most of them slipped in red in trade on Thursday, as traders booked profits in companies which have rallied in anticipation of big ticket reforms from the railway minster.

Outlining his vision for Indian Railways, Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu in his budget speech talked about four main goals that PM Narendra Modi government will work on to get railways out of its abysmal state.

He said that the government will be working on 5-year plan to transform Railways and will invest up to 8.5 lakh crore in the same period.

The S&P BSE Sensex also plunged over 200 points in trade, led by losses in auto, banks, consumer durable, IT and oil & gas stocks.

Most of these stocks have already rallied sharply in the run-up to the budget in the last one year, and some bit profit booking was on expected lines, say experts.

Shares of Kalindee Rail Ltd which plunged pared gains and slipped as much as 6 per cent, followed by Texmaco Rail which was down 5 per cent and Stone India which dropped 6 per cent.