Indian markets close higher

Wed, 12 Feb Closing

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Buoyed by gains in heavyweights, Indian equity markets closed the day in the green. The indices touched their highs during the afternoon trading session on account of positive cues from the US and absence of negative surprises in the Rail Budget. While majority of the sectoral indices closed the day firm, Metals and Consumer durables stocks witnessed some selling pressure. Underperforming benchmark indices, the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices closed flat but were up by 0.01% and 0.02% respectively. The BSE Sensex closed higher by 85 points and the NSE-Nifty was seen up by 17 points.

On the global front, all the Asian indices closed the day on an optimistic note and most of the European indices too opened the day on a positive note. The rupee was trading at Rs 62.04 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Barring few stocks such as Tube Investments, Hero Motocorp and Tata Motors, all the remaining stocks from the Automobile space closed the day in the red with Maruti Suzuki and Escorts witnessing the maximum selling pressure.

As per a leading financial news daily, India's largest utility maker, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is on a launch spree to revive its market share. The company has been facing tough competition in the compact utility vehicle segment from its close rivals viz., Maruti Suzuki, Renault and Ford. The changing competitive dynamics in the utility vehicle segment has prompted the company to change its approach. Hence, it is planning to launch new soft-roaders and several multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs). These new utility vehicles are expected to feature an all new design and the thrust would be on delivering quality. These products are expected to hit markets post 2015-16. M&M faced severe pressures during 9mFY14. The sales for the company declined by 18% YoY and the market share fell to 41% during 9mFY14 from 47% a year ago.

Stocks from the consumer durables sector closed the day in the red with selling pressure witnessed in stocks like TTK Prestige. Whereas stocks such as Bajaj Electricals and TTK Prestige closed the day in the green.

The stock of Bajaj Electricals touched its 52-week high today on the back of the company announcing a strong set of results. The company's revenues grew by 18% YoY during the quarter, led by an 82% growth in its engineering and projects (E&P) business. The bounce back in revenues in this segment was largely due to the company looking to quickly complete its non-profitable projects to make way for new ones. The other segments of lighting and consumer durables were a disappointment during the quarter as weak sentiment and an inadequate product portfolio hurt growth. Further, the company's operating margins improved on the back of lower losses posted by the E&P segment. Segmental margins for both lighting as well as consumer durables also came up on the lower side. Bajaj Electricals' profits shot up by 72% YoY on account of strong operating performance and lower interest charges.