Inching up towards the dotted line

Mon, 8 Feb 01:30 pm

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Despite several attempts to rise above the dotted line, the Indian markets continued to languish in the red during the previous two hours of trade. However, they managed to recoup some of losses witnessed early during the day today. Currently, the selling activity being witnessed in the metal, oil & gas, auto, IT and power sectors is weighing heavy on the indices. Consumer durables and capital goods stocks are the only ones managing to garner investors' interest.

The BSE-Sensex and the NSE-Nifty are currently trading lower by around 83 points and 27 points respectively. Stocks from the midcap and small cap spaces are currently trading in the red, with the BSE-Midcap and the BSE-Smallcap indices trading lower by 0.43% and 0.2% respectively. The rupee is trading at 46.80 to the US dollar.

According to a leading business daily, the finance ministry has shelved the idea about consolidating public sector banks on account of unfavorable views from RBI and political quarters. It may be noted that in December 2009, the ministry asked 5 public sector banks to analyse opportunities for mergers and acquisition among Indian state-run banks. However, no bank could come with any merger target or plan as yet. A lack of political will as well as opposition by bank unions resulted in the bad response. Even the RBI appeared averse to the consolidation plan as the central bank considered financial inclusion and not bank consolidation as the top priority for Indian banking sector currently. We believe though consolidation of banking system has its own benefits, the RBI is right in pointing out the real need of the hour i.e. expanding the reach of banking services to more Indians.

According to a recent BSE announcement, M&M group owned Mahindra Satyam has won two multi-million dollar multi-year deals in Latin America, strengthening its presence in the region. The company will deploy technology in the enterprise applications space for a global conglomerate and a leading logistics company's operation from Latin America. The company aims to become a leading player in this rapidly growing market which holds huge growth opportunities for IT companies. Tech Mahindra, which is the parent company for Mahindra Satyam expects to leverage its global delivery model in order to expand in the area of enterprise solutions as a strategy to diversify out of the core-telecom vertical.