IT, banks come to the rescue

Wed, 23 Jan Closing

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   01:30 pm   

With indices in the Indian equity markets doing a surprise U-turn right towards the close, they managed to close the day marginally in the positive. Thus, while BSE-Sensex edged higher by around 45 points (up 0.2%), NSE-Nifty closed just 6 points higher. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices however witnessed selling pressure and closed around 0.9% lower. The advance to decline ratio on the Sensex was pretty much even today.

Asian indices closed mostly in the green today with Europe too showing a positive trend currently. The rupee was trading at Rs 53.7 to the dollar at the time of writing.

With the quarterly results announcements at their peak, the same seems to be playing a key role in the movement of the indices. No specific trend however can be discerned from the results so far. With the Indian markets already having outperformed majority of the global indices in 2012, the key to any further gains could be how far India walks on its reforms promise. Any set back on this front and we could be moving sideways we believe. That said, there are still good quality stocks out there that look attractive from a long term perspective.

ITC, one of India's largest diversified companies, will invest around Rs 10 bn in the foods and consumer goods sector in the next 2-3 years. The company got the possession of a land parcel of 39 acres recently in the Howrah district of West Bengal for building an integrated food and consumer goods facility. This is in addition to the land parcel of another 18 acres the company is in possession of and where a similar integrated facility would commence. It should be noted that ITC put up a good show during the December quarter where both its topline as well as bottomline grew in the region of 20% YoY each. The investments mentioned above will ensure that the momentum in its growth continues.

Zee Enterprises, one of India's leading media and entertainment companies has put up a strong performance for the quarter ended December 2012. Consolidated bottomline was up 39% YoYon the back of a 26% growth in topline. Operating margins also came in marginally higher. What further aided performance was the subdued rise of a mere 7% in tax outgo. Topline growth came on account of growth in advertising revenues which jumped by 29% YoY on better economic scenario and prospects of better policy measures to tame inflation. Completion of phase 1 of digitization helped subscriptions register a growth of 26% YoY this quarter. The stock closed higher by 5% today.