Indian share markets pared some gains but remained above the dotted line in the post-noon trading session. Barring capital goods and realty, all the sectoral indices are trading in the green with metal, pharma and oil & gas stocks being the biggest gainers.
BSE-Sensex is down 84 points and NSE-Nifty is trading 28 points down. BSE Mid Cap is trading up 0.6% and BSE Small Cap index is trading up 0.2%. The rupee is trading at 62.2 to the US dollar.
Most of the food stocks are trading in the green with Golden Tobacco and Nestle being among major gainers. Agrotech Foods and Sterling Biotech are among the few stocks trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, Nestle has hiked the price of some its products including instant noodle Maggi, condensed milk Milkmaid and diary whitener EveryDay to pass on rising commodity prices. The company has raised the price of 450 gm of Maggi Hungaroo by 5.5% to Rs 58 whereas the price of 1,000 gm EveryDay dairy whitener was increased by 6.8% to Rs 395. The price of 400 gm Milkmaid has been hiked by 3.4% to Rs 92. Nestle has been battling slow offtake with majority of sales growth coming from better product mix and price-hikes. During 9mCY13, its revenues grew by 10.8%. However, net margin contracted by 0.6% YoY to 12.2% on the back of higher interest and depreciation outgo on expanded capacities and increased provisions for contingencies.
Barring a few almost all pharma stocks are trading firm. Cadila, Dishman Pharma and Cipla are leading among the pack of gainers while Ranbaxy is trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, Ranbaxy's wholly owned Canadian subsidiary has received approval from Health Canada to manufacture and market RAN Donepezil Hydrochloride tablets. The company would manufacture and sell the tablets in 5 mg and 10 mg dosage. These tablets are used for treatment of dementia in patients suffering from Alzheimer. As per IMS-CDH November 2013 statistics, the total market size of RAN Donepezil Hydrochloride (Aricept) in Canada is estimated at Canadian Dollar (CAD) 153.9 million and is growing at about 38 per cent per annum.
This comes as a positive move for Ranbaxy which has not been able to fetch approvals for its products on time. Further, there have been delays in launch of its products like Diovan. Above all, rising costs to resolve issues over its manufacturing facilities are bigger cause of concern and drag on its profitability.
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