Indian stock markets have lost the initial gains in last two hours of trade and are now trading in the red. Most of the sectoral indices are still in positive territory barring metal.
The BSE-Sensex is trading just below the dotted line by 8 points and NSE-Nifty is trading flat. BSE Mid cap and BSE Small cap indices are trading up by 0.4% and 0.1% respectively. The rupee is trading at 50.06 to the US dollar.
Energy stocks are mainly trading in the green led by Indraprastha Gas Ltd. (IGL) and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. As per a leading financial daily, Cairn India is seeking approval of Operating Committee (OC) to raise output from its largest oilfield in the prolific Rajasthan block from 125,000 barrels per day to 150,000 barrels per day. The OC comprises the Cairn India's and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC)'s representative. Post this approval, the proposal will go to the block oversight panel, called the Management Committee which is headed by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). As per some independent consultants, oil reserves in Mangala field support high output as well as the adequacy of surface facilities to handle higher production.
Engineering stocks are trading mixed with Engineers India Ltd. leading the gainers and Welspun Corporation trading the weakest. As per a leading financial daily, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is mulling over a possible bid to acquire Hexaware Technologies for building a strategic size for its services arm, L&T Infotech.
As per some familiar banking sources, the talk is at a very preliminary stage currently and may not lead to a firm bid for Hexaware. Earlier, the company had looked at Satyam Computer and Patni to scale up its Infotech business but things didn't materialize. Hexaware's stock price has seen sharp jump in the last two months, thus upsetting the plans of potential bidders. As of now, the company has NEC and a couple of private equity funds as contenders.
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