Indian markets open firm

Thu, 8 Jan 09:30 am

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Barring China market (down 1.8%), most of the major Asian stock markets have opened the day on on a positive note. Japan market (up 2%) and Taiwan market (up 1.7%) are leading the pack of gainers. The Indian markets have also opened the day on a firm note with realty and power spaces leading the pack of gainers.

BSE-Sensex currently trading higher by about 232 points (up 0.9%) , while the NSE-Nifty is up by about 73 points (up 0.9%). BSE Mid Cap and smallcaps have opened the day on a positive note as well with their respective indices up by about 1.4% each. The rupee was trading at Rs 63.45 to the dollar.

Stocks of FMCG companies have opened the day on a positive note with Colgate, Nestle and Hindustan Unilever leading the pack. As per a leading business daily, FMCG major ITC is looking to invest Rs 250 bn over the next five years across verticals. These include cigarettes, hotels, agriculture, paperboards, FMCG and IT. As per the company, it is currently working on as many as 40 projects which are in various stages of implementations. A few days ago, it was reported that ITC Infotech is looking for acquisitions in Europe and North America as it strategy to build a mid-sized business. The company is believed to have identified targets and development on this front is expected over the next six months.

Over the past two years, the company has invested sums of Rs 70 to Rs 80 bn, with majority of spending going towards the cigarette, hotel, FMCG and paperboards businesses. As per the data in its FY14 annual report, about Rs 10 bn was spent in the cigarette division, followed by paper boards and FMCG with sums of about Rs 6.6 bn and 4.6 bn respectively.

IT stocks have opened the day on a firm note led by Hexaware Technologies, Wipro and Mphasis. IT major Wipro is amongst the top performing stocks amongst stocks forming part of the Sensex on news of the company winning a contract worth US$ 400 m from engineering giant ABB. As reported, the company will maintain the back end technology of Zurich based ABB. This is the second biggest contract won by the company after last year US$ 1.2 bn contract it bagged from ATCO, a Canadian utility. The stock of Wipro has been quite volatile in the past few months, especially after the latest results disappointed the market. While the company's revenues were up by 5% on a QoQ basis, its profit were down by 1% on a sequential basis, with operating profits falling by 3.5% QoQ. Margins took a beating due to the wage hike given from the month of June 2014.