Nestle India closes marginally lower on bourses

Stocks of Nestle India on Monday defied the broader market trend and gained nearly 2 per cent in morning trade on the bourses.

The shares opened at Rs 6,100.00 and surged 1.76 per cent to an high of Rs 6,206.70 on BSE. On the NSE, similar trend was seen as the stock opened at Rs 6,078 and touched an intra-day high of Rs 6,208.75, up 1.93 per cent from its previous close. The stock closed 0.90 per cent lower on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock fell 0.93 per cent on close.

Nestle India plans to bring back the popular instant noodles brand Maggi back in the market by end of this year subject to certain clearances.

"We will try and target something that is better than that. My desire is to do it before that but let's see," Nestle India Managing Director Suresh Narayanan had told PTI in an interaction on Sunday.

He had said, as per court directives, this quarter it would go in for testing of Maggi samples at three independent laboratories in Punjab, Hyderabad and Jaipur which are accredited with National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

The surge in the Nestle counter assumes significance as the broader market witnessed bloodbath with the Sensex recording an intra-day fall of 1,153.16 points till noon-making it the biggest crash in about seven years and the fourth biggest ever for the BSE benchmark index.