Selling pressure continued to push the Indian markets deeper into the red during the post noon trading session. Stocks across all sectors are trading weak with those from the oil and gas, realty and banking spaces leading the pack of losers.
BSE-Sensex is down 160 points and NSE-Nifty is trading 45 points down. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are also trading down by 0.6%. The rupee is trading at 61.93 to the US dollar.
Telecom stocks are not in favor today. Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications are leading the pack of losers. However, IDI Ltd and Bharti Airtel are marginally trading up. According to a leading financial daily, Country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel is looking at raising up to USD 415 million (about Rs 25.7 bn) by selling shares in its tower unit Bharti Infratel. As per the industry sources, the operator is raising the amount as it prepares itself for the upcoming spectrum auction, scheduled to start from March 4. Reportedly, shares will be sold in the price range of Rs 350-360 apiece. Bharti Airtel has 74.85 per cent stake in Bharti Infratel as of December 2014. Seemingly, Bharti Airtel has deposited Rs 43 bn as the earnest money for the auction, which is the second highest after Reliance Jio Infocomm's Rs 45 bn. The government expects to raise over Rs 1 trillion from the auction, which has airwaves in four bands on offer.
Barring Lupin Ltd and J.B. Chemicals, majority of the Indian Pharma stocks are trading on a negative note. Ranbaxy Lab and Torrent Pharma are trading the weakest. According to a leading financial daily, Pharma major Lupin has entered into a joint venture with Bangalore based clinical trial management firm Acceliant. Lupin will utilize Acceliant's clinical trial platform for its clinical research and trials across Lupin's research programs. Acceliant's platforms ensure smooth execution of clinical data management activities such as database design and various report formats for business intelligence. Lupin was trading up by 1.37% at the time of writing.
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