Maruti investors brace for long closure after riot

[July 23, 2012]  MUMBAI, India (AP) -- Shares of India's top car maker Maruti Suzuki have plunged after the company said it would impose an indefinite lockout at a factory consumed by a deadly labor dispute last week.

Investors bracing for a weeks long closure drove the stock down over 5.6 percent Monday.

Analysts say the closure could cost the company $18 million a day and erode its market share.

A mob of workers killed one manager and beat scores more with metal bars Wednesday. Nearly 100 managers and supervisors, including two Japanese nationals, were hospitalized.

The violence threatens to further damage India's waning investor appeal and deepen divisions within the country as companies flee to states seen as business friendly. The auto sector had been viewed as a bright spot on India's troubled path to industrialization.

[Associated Press; By ERIKA KINETZ]

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