Stock market analysts have maintained ‘Sell’ rating on SAIL to achieve a target of Rs 140 in today’s session.

The investors are advised to sell the stock to avoid loss, as there are full chances of a downward trend in this stock.

If the stock fell below Rs 132, it may see more weakness.

According to them, investors can sell the stock around Rs 147 with a strict stop loss of Rs 150.

Today, the shares of the company closed at Rs 145 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Current EPS and P/E stood at 14.81 and 9.66 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 186 and a low of Rs 55.25 on BSE.

According to reports, the country’s largest steel manufacturer, the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) announced that it will slash its workforce by around 15%, or 20,000, by 2011.

The cut will be achieved by not replacing retiring employees.

Chairman S.K. Roongta said that the company was planning to reduce 6,000 jobs in 2009, after cutting its employee strength by 7,000 during the last financial year to March.

SAIL is expected to slash its Rs 780 billion growth plans by 13% with the intention to save up to Rs 100 billion.

The company, on June 12, said that the said reduction in the capital expenditure is because of slump in worldwide steel usage.

According to governmental sources, the company’s directors will be meeting next week to settle on the same.

Previously, SAIL was planning to increase its steel manufacturing capacity from 14 million tons (mt) now to more than 26 mt by 2011-12. It had finalized its growth plan some years ago to promote itself to a company with worldwide scales of operations. It was supposed to have been finished by 2010-end, but was later changed to 2011-12.

SAIL and RINL, on June 09, have negotiated the existing fiscal’s long-term coking coal prices with international suppliers at $115-125 per ton that is more than 60% below than what the companies paid during the last financial year.

For May 2009, SAIL stated that its domestic sales have increased by 12% to around a million tons as against the year-ago period.

The company also said that its domestic steel sales in the first two months of 2009 stood at about 1.9 million tons, which is 21% more than the corresponding period of the last year.