Midcap and small cap in positive

Tue, 19 Feb 01:30 pm

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The Indian stock market continued to witness selling pressure and remained below the dotted line during the post noon trading session. Most of the sectoral indices are trading in the positive territory with realty, healthcare, and realty stocks being among the biggest gainers. Stocks in metal and capital goods sectors were among the underperformers.

Sensex today is down by 37 points and NSE-Nifty is trading down by 12 points. However mid and small caps are trading in the positive zone. While BSE Mid Cap is trading up by 0.22%, BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.35%. The rupee is trading at 54.30 to the US dollar.

Engineering stocks are trading are trading mixed with Opto Circuits and AIA engineering being among the top losers while BGR energy and KSB pumps are witnessing gains. As per the financial daily, Blue Star Ltd, one of the India's leading AC (air-conditioner) manufacturer, will be soon exiting from window AC market. The company has taken this step in order to meet the new norms of Bureau of Energy Efficiency. These norms are likely to be effective from Jan 2014 onwards, and will likely phase out one-star ACs. Reportedly, the implication of these norms will make window ACs costlier by more than 16%. The Korean multinational Samsung, who is the second largest player in AC segment, had stopped production of window ACs since last year. Even the other players likes of LG, Daikin and Hitachi, have been following the same trend. As split ACs account for about 80% of the AC market in India, the usage of window AC is expected to disappear and Split AC will drive the growth in the coming years. Blue star holds currently holds approximately 18% of the market share in the window AC market. In 2011, the company had sold around 40,000 units of window ACs and the market size of the segment is 225,000 units. Blue star stock is trading up by 1.45%.

Most of the Telecom stocks are trading in the red with Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications leading the pack of losers. As per a leading daily, there would be a third round of auction of spectrum after the upcoming round. The government had held its first round of auction in November 2012. Following the tepid response, it has decided to hold another round by March 2013 at a lower price. Now it has announced that after this there would be a third round as well. This third round would be to auction the airwaves that are expected to be vacated by operators whose licenses have been squashed. Just a few days ago the Supreme Court had stated that the operators whose license had been cancelled and who had failed to get spectrum in the November round have to shut shop. These operators had been allowed to continue operations till recently even after their license was cancelled in February 2012. Once they shut down their operations there would be available spectrum which will be auctioned in the third round. This would be held in 18 circles. As per the daily, the second round has already been finalized for four regions and hence cannot be changed in any way. This is why there is a need for the third round of auction.