Indian stock markets, after opening on a strong note, shed gains in the last two trading hours but continued to trade well above the dotted line. Majority of the sectoral indices are trading positive. Capital goods, banking and power stocks are the biggest gainers. IT, realty and oil and gas stocks are among the losers.
The BSE-Sensex is trading up 78 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up 27 points. BSE Mid cap index is up by 0.25% whereas BSE Small cap index is down by 0.15%. The rupee is trading at 49.9 to the US dollar.
Majority of the steel stocks are trading negative with Maharashtra Seamless and Adhunik Metalik, being the biggest losers. As per a leading financial daily, Hindustan Zinc has suspended production at its zinc smelter in Vishakhapatnam. The smelter has a production capacity of 56,000 tonnes a year. Reportedly, the reason for the suspension has been rising input and freight costs that have made production at the smelter unviable. The zinc concentrate for the smelter is sourced from Rajasthan where the company has three more smelters. The stock is down 1.5%.
Majority of the automobile stocks are trading positive with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) and Tata Motors (Telco) leading the gainers. As per a leading financial daily, Hero MotoCorp wants to launch low-cost bikes in the mass segment, which has been the volume-driver contributing to more than 80% sale volumes for the company in April-December 2011. At its recently set-up R&D facility along with new technical partners namely US-based EBR and Austrian power train company AVL, the company is working on large engines for high-end models as well as small engines to make affordable bikes for the consumer segment that does not own a personal transport at all. The stock is marginally up.
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