All major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a firm note with stock markets in Hong Kong (up 1.9%), South Korea (up 1.5%) and Taiwan (up 1.2%) leading the gains. The Indian stock markets have also opened the day on a firm note. Stocks in the capital goods and auto space are leading the gains.
The BSE-Sensex is trading higher by 201 points (1.2%), while the NSE-Nifty is up by around 64 points (1.3%). Mid and small cap stocks are also trading in the green with the BSE Mid cap and BSE Small cap indices up by 1% and 1.1% respectively. The rupee is trading at 51.07 to the US dollar.
Auto stocks have opened the day on a firm note with Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors (Telco) and Maruti Suzuki leading the pack of gainers. Hurt by a whopping 25% rise in the value of the yen against the Indian rupee, leading passenger carmaker Maruti Suzuki has resorted to hedging currency exposure on behalf of 25-30 of its vendors. These vendors together import Japanese components worth about Rs 50 bn every year. The hedging cost will be shared between Maruti and the vendors. The company had sought a special permission to buy forex cover on behalf of its vendors from the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) in June 2011. However, it exercised the hedge just recently.
Sintex Industries has announced its results for the quarter ended December 2011 (3QFY12). The company's consolidated sales were down by 2.1% YoY on account of lacklustre performance by the textiles and plastics division. Operating margins declined from 16.6% in 3QFY11 to 14.1% in 3QFY12. Poor operating performance coupled with high interest burden and depreciation charges led the bottomline to decline by 27.1% YoY. For the nine-month period ended December 2011 (9MFY12), sales registered a rise of 13.6% YoY. However, net profits declined by 26.1% YoY during the period. The stock of Sintex is currently trading in the green.
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