Indian stock markets indices have shed initial gains during the last two hours of trade. consumer durables and capital goods stocks witnessed maximum buying interest while IT stocks witnessed maximum selling pressure.
The BSE-Sensex is up by 77 points, while the NSE-Nifty is up by 26 points. BSE Mid cap index and the BSE Small cap index are up by 0.85% and 0.65% respectively. The rupee is trading at 49.94 to the US dollar.
As per a leading financial daily, Index of industrial Production (IIP) accelerated by 6.8% YoY in January 2012 from 1.8% YoY increase in the preceding month. The pick-up in momentum has come on the back of an 8.5% rise in the output of the manufacturing sector that constitutes three fourths of the index. Even electricity recorded a robust growth of 3.2% but mining output declined by 2.7% in January. As per Use-based classification, basis goods output grew by 1.6% whereas capital good and intermediate goods saw production declining by 1.5% and 3.2%, respectively during the month. Consumer goods output recorded a steep jump of 20.2% on a 42% jump in consumer non-durables. On a cumulative basis , IIP expanded by 4% during April-January 2012 .
Pharma stocks have been trading mixed with Wockhardt and Torrent Pharma leading the gainers and Cipla and Glenmark Pharma trading the weakest. As per a leading financial daily, Biocon is planning to enter US markets from Financial Year 2013 by selling its anti-cholesterol drug- atorvastatin. The market for atorvastatin has recently opened up in US for generic companies. In doing so, the company is following footsteps of Watson and Ranbaxy, that have already launched their products in the US markets and are currently under six months exclusivity phase. The company has seen considerable growth in branded atorvastatin (Statix) and sales of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Besides, Biocon is also planning to tap the European market, where it has been selling atorvastatin with its partners. The company has a significant presence in emerging and unregulated markets with Statix. The stock was trading in the red.
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