Banks help make it two in a row

Wed, 23 Mar Closing

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For the second day in succession, the benchmark indices remained remarkably stable once they got into the positive and this led to the Indian stock market having yet another strong outing. The BSE-Sensex closed with gains of around 220 points whereas NSE-Nifty gained around 70 points (up 1.2%). BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices also performed well, gaining by 1% and 0.6% each respectively. On the Sensex, around 9 stocks gained for every stock that closed in the negative.

Most Asian indices closed the day in the positive whereas Europe too is trading in the positive currently. The rupee was poised at Rs 44.9 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Indian stocks bucked the trend seen in other major Asian markets like Japan and Hong Kong and edged higher for the second day in succession. News of radioactive iodine found in taps in Tokyo was not seen having an impact on Indian stocks as correlation between the two did not turn out to strong enough. Furthermore, investors in India took comfort from the fact that some of the banking reforms might finally see the light of the day and this led to buoyancy in most banking stocks and in the overall sentiment as well.

Aurobindo Pharma, the mid cap pharma company, closed with gains of more than 1% on the bourses today. The buoyancy seemed a result of news in a leading daily that the company has received final approval from the US health regulator to market Famciclovir Tablets in the American markets. The tablets, it should be noted, are used for treating herpes simplex infections in HIV-infected patients. As per the IMS data, the product had a market of US$ 175 m for the twelve months ending September 2010.

Voltas, another fast growing company but in the engineering space, also traded quite strong today and closed with gains of more than 3%. With summer already upon us, buzz around the counter is understandable as the company gears up to cash in on the buoyant air conditioning market. As per news, the company is expecting a 50% jump in air conditioner sales by the end of FY12 at around 1.2 million units. It is expected to close FY11 at around 8 lakh units. Besides, the company has also set up a target to sell around 3 million units by the end of FY15. It is ramping up production capacity as well as ploughing back more money into R&D. In another development, the company announced the setting up of a JV with Germany’s KION Group GmbH to develop and make forklift trucks and warehousing equipment in India.