Mumbai, Sept. 17: 
Shares of tobacco major ITC plunged over five per cent as traders changed preference to risky assets. The stock closed at Rs 253.40 on Monday, down 5.48 per cent from its previous close on the BSE.
“Whenever the markets are moving up, there is always a switch to risky assets. The defensive plays like FMCG, pharmaceutical and IT stocks have not done so well today,” said Rikesh Parikh, Vice-President, Market Strategy and Product Development, Motilal Oswal Securities.
The FMCG index was down 3.6 per cent and was the top loser on the BSE, followed by IT and Teck indices. The BSE Sensex closed at 18,541, up 78 points.
Two weeks ago, the ITC stock had dipped on the announcement of global anti-smoking regulations. The worry was that global anti-tobacco marketing laws would come into force in India as well.
However, analysts said these regulations and laws on uniform packaging were only a “partial” reason for the stock of India's largest maker of cigarettes to decline. About 75 per cent of the cigarettes are sold loose, so packaging rules are not real threats, they said.

Referring to the above reasons, V. Srinivasan, FMCG Analyst at Angel Broking, said: “These were only partial reasons. There was some amount of profit-booking as the stock was priced at steep levels.”
Earlier, some brokerages, including MF Global, had assigned a ‘sell’ rating to ITC.

ITC insiders have also been selling shares in the company. On Monday, S.S.H. Rehman, Non-Executive Director, sold 30,000 shares. Last week, S.B. Mathur, Non-Executive Director, sold 12,000 shares. Company Chairman Y.C. Deveshwar has also been selling his stake in the company. He now holds 19.6 lakh shares against 54.51 lakh shares as of March 2011.