Basket selling drags indices

Tue, 1 Feb 11:30 am

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After starting today's session on a negative note, Indian indices have lost further ground and are currently trading in the red. All the sectoral indices are trading weak with the major brunt being borne by IT and FMCG stocks.

Currently, the BSE-Sensex is down by 223 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 62 points below the dotted line. BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices are both down by 0.6% and 0.2% respectively. The rupee is trading at 45.91 to the US dollar.

Engineering stocks are trading mixed with Elecon Engineering and Everest Kanto Cylinder leading the gains. However, Jyoti Structures and ABB Ltd. are trading weak. Siemens AG Ltd. is planning to increase stake in its Indian subsidiary, Siemens India Ltd by making an open offer priced at Rs 930 per share. Pursuant to the culmination of open offer the parent's stake in Siemens India Ltd is likely to increase from 55% to 75%. Siemens AG Ltd is planning to increase its stake with the aim of further developing its business in India. The open offer is expected to open on 25 March and close on April 13.

On a different note, the company also plans to earn over Rs 61 bn from selling localized products within the next ten years in India. It may be noted that at present such products only contribute 6 bn to the annual turnover of Siemens in India. The company also plans to set up six new centers of competence in India for base level products and invest Rs 2 bn in Goa over the next few years to set up two manufacturing facilities for energy automation and medium voltage products.

Media stocks are trading mixed with Entertainment Network and Mid-Day Multimedia trading firm while Reliance Broadcast and Fame India are trading weak. Jagran Prakashan announced its 3QFY11 results. The company's top line grew by 26.1% YoY during the quarter. This was on the back of a strong growth in advertisement and circulation revenues. While the advertisement revenue grew by 31.3% YoY, circulation revenue grew by 7.2% YoY. Furthermore, Jagran Prakashan's event, outdoor and digital businesses recorded a growth of 23.6% YoY for the quarter, supporting top line growth. The average issue readership (AIR) for all the publication brands of the group stood at 17.7 m. Its flagship publication, Dainik Jagran, registered a 0.5 m increase in total readership during 3QFY11 over 2QFY11. Operating margin for the quarter rose by 2.6% to stand at 31.4%. This was due to fall in staff costs and other expenditure as a percentage of sales. Net profit of the company grew by 32.5% YoY. This was the result of higher operating income partly offset by fall in other income and sharp increase in interest costs.