Indian Markets Open Flat

Tue, 24 Mar 09:30 am

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   Pre-Open   

   01:30 pm   

   03:30 pm   

   Closing   

Asian markets are trading in the red as below than expected manufacturing PMI for China weighs on the Asian stocks. Chinese PMI came in at 49.2 compared to expectations of 50.6. Investors will be looking towards the manufacturing PMI data for Europe which is due to release in the second session. All Asian stocks are trading in the red. Japanese, Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Korean stocks are trading with 0.2%, 1.2%, 0.7%, 0.5% and 0.1% losses respectively.

Indian markets have taken signals from international markets and have opened with a flattish tone. BSE-Sensex is trading with a small gain of 35 points while NSE-Nifty is trading with slight gains of 10 points. Among the sectoral indices, Healthcare sector has gained the maximum while metal sector has been the biggest loser. S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap indices have gained marginally by 13 and 18 points, respectively.

Trading among commodities has remained flat. While the gold prices, per 10 grams, remained slightly in the green with gains of 0.02% or Rs 4; silver prices, per kilogram, lost Rs 53 or 0.14%. Gold is trading at Rs 26,100 levels while silver is trading at Rs 37,730 levels. Crude oil prices per barrel traded with moderate losses of 0.7% or loss of Rs 20. Per barrel, crude oil is trading at Rs 2,928 levels. Indian rupee declined by 0.20% or 0.07 and is currently trading at Rs 62.20 levels.

Pharma sector is leading with maximum gains today. Shares of Sun Pharma and Natco Pharma are the leading gainers. CCI, the government body which ensures fair trade practices, gave a go ahead signal to the merger between Shasun Pharmaceuticals and Strides Acrolab. The merged entity is expected to garner a sales turnover of Rs 25 bn catapulting it among the top 15 drug making companies in India. Shasun shareholders will be owning 26% of the merged entity. As per the ratio, Shasun shareholders would receive 5 shares of Strides for every 16 shares held by them. Shares of Shasun Pharma gained over 10% after such developments.

The infrastructure company, NCC, has shown optimism towards the revenue expected to be garnered. The company said that it expects revenue to be in the range of Rs 80 bn to Rs 100 bn for fiscal 2016. The topline growth is expected to be between 10% and 12%. For FY15, revenue of Rs 80 bn is expected. For the 9 months ended fiscal 2015, fresh orders to the tune of Rs 64 bn have been aggregated. Share price of the company, however, remained unchanged after these developments.