Indian markets open in the green

Wed, 11 Feb 09:30 am

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   Pre-Open   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

   Closing   

The major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a mixed note with the stock markets in Japan (down 0.3% ) and Hong Kong (down 0.7%) leading the losses. However, the stock markets in China (up 0.1%), Taiwan (up 0.9%) and Korea (up 0.6%) have opened in the green.

The Indian share markets have opened on a positive note. All sectoral indices have opened in the green with the stocks in the capital goods and banking segments leading the gains.

The Sensex today is up by around 140 points (0.5%), while the NSE-Nifty is up by about 44 points (0.5%). The mid cap and small cap stocks have also opened in green with BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap indices up by 0.8% and 0.9% respectively. The rupee is currently trading at Rs 62.25 to the US dollar.

Auto stocks have opened mainly in the green with Maharashtra Scooters Ltd and Ashok Leyland Ltd leading the gains. However, Tata Motors Ltd and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd were facing selling pressure. As per the reports from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic car sales have risen by about 3.14% YoY (year on year) in January 2015. Of the 17 car manufacturers in the country, less than a third reported an expansion. It must be noted that likelihood of withdrawal of excise duty benefits had inflated sales at for most of auto makers in the previous month. The van sales in January 2015 have declined by about 6.93% YoY. However, there has been a considerable growth of 36.81% YoY in the sales of heavy, medium and light commercial vehicles during the month. Further, domestic two wheeler sales for the month witnessed a growth of 1.07% YoY. While motorcycle sales declined by 5.85% YoY, scooter sales were up 25.30% YoY. Weakness in the two-wheeler sales brought down the overall automotive market sales growth to 1.66 % YoY. While Maruti Suzuki and local units of Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and Nissan managed to clock positive growth, other players like Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and the Indian subsidiaries of Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen and Fiat, posted lower sales

Banking (Private) stocks have opened mainly in the green with J&K Bank and Axis Bank Ltd leading the gains. However, HDFC Bank and Karur Vysya Bank were facing selling pressure. HDFC Bank's promoters have diluted 0.7 % stake in order to raise around Rs 100 bn from selling American Depository Receipts (ADRs) and India-listed shares to qualified institutional investors. Of this, Rs 80 bn were raised through ADR route by issuing 22 million ADS to the global investors. The bank approved an issue price of US$ 57.76 per ADR to eligible investors. Besides, around Rs 20 bn have been raised through QIP (Qualified Institutional Placement) in the domestic market, the issue price for which is Rs Rs 1,067 per share to be allotted to eligible qualified institutional buyers. The bank has made a fresh issuance of 8.6 crore shares. As such, the total number of paid-up shares now stand at 250.35 crore, as compared to 241.74 crore shares at the end of December 2014. The promoters' stake has also come down from 22.47% to 21.7%. Promoters of HDFC Bank are Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd, HDFC Investments Ltd and HDFC Holdings Ltd.