Bloomberg/Mumbai

Tata Motors’ Nano model vehicles are parked in a line at the company’s manufacturing plant in India. Tata Motors Ltd, the country’s biggest truckmaker, fell to a two-week low yesterday
India’s stocks dropped for a fifth day yesterday, the longest stretch of losses in more than two months, as the nation’s industrial production growth unexpectedly slowed and commodity costs climbed.
Tata Motors Ltd, the country’s biggest truckmaker, fell to a two-week low. Factory output in February rose 3.6% from a year ago, the government said today. The median estimate of 30 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a 5.1% climb. S&P’s GSCI Index of 24 materials climbed 2.1% on April 8, a seventh day of gains. Oil jumped 4.5% last week.
The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, lost 188.91, or 1%, to 19,262.54 at the 3.30pm close in Mumbai. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange dropped 1% to 5,785.70 and its April futures settled at 5,798.
The BSE 200 Index dropped 0.9% to 2,380.04. The markets are closed tomorrow for a public holiday.
“A slowdown in growth is a concern,” Aneesh Srivastava, who oversees about $355mn as chief investment officer at IDBI Federal Life Insurance Co “Crude, inflation, interest rates and a lack of government initiatives are responsible for the slowdown. The government is making efforts to put its house in order and the numbers may improve from April.”
The rupee depreciated the most in more than six weeks on speculation refiners stepped up dollar buying to pay for costlier crude imports.
India imports almost 75% of the crude it uses. The rupee strengthened 1.2% last week, the most since the five-day period ended December 3, as global investors bought $1.5bn more Indian shares than they sold through April 7.
The rupee declined 0.7% to 44.389 per dollar at the 5pm close in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Oil companies are in the market buying dollars, which is putting pressure on the rupee,” said Naveen Raghuvanshi, a Mumbai-based currency trader at Development Credit Bank Ltd “The downtrend may not be sustained” because of capital inflows into the country, he said.
Offshore forwards indicate the rupee will trade at 45.06 to the dollar in three months, compared with expectations of 44.74 at the end of last week.
The Reserve Bank of India has increased rates eight times since March 2010 to ease price pressures from growing consumer demand and oil prices. While the nation’s industrial output growth moderated, other data including the purchasing managers’ index, car sales and credit growth have signaled that consumer demand is stoking price risks.
Tata Motors, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, dropped 2.7% to Rs1,219.55 and its April futures were at Rs1,213.50. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, the nation’s largest maker of sport-utility vehicles and tractors, shed 2.7% to Rs710. Bajaj Auto Ltd, the second-largest motorcycle maker, lost 2.5% to Rs1,382.1.