Late surge bolsters indices

Tue, 27 Mar Closing

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Indian stock markets traded in the green throughout today's proceedings although not without some amount of volatility. Trading remained largely rangebound in the morning session. In the afternoon session, profit booking at higher levels led the indices to shed some gains before buying once again intensified in the later hours to ensure a positive close. While the BSE-Sensex closed higher by around 205 points (up 1%), the NSE-Nifty closed higher by around 59 points (up 1%). The BSE Mid cap and the BSE Small cap, however, bucked the trend as both closed marginally lower. Gains were largely seen in consumer durables, FMCG and metal stocks.

As regards global markets, barring China most Asian indices closed firm today while European indices have also opened in the green. The rupee was trading at Rs 50.72 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Auto stocks closed mixed today. While Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) found favour, TVS Motors closed in the red. As per a leading business daily, two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp has outlined plans of setting up manufacturing plants in Africa. Although some growth markets have been finalized by the company, the details of the same have not been divulged. The company is currently eying new markets such as Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, and expects to generate 10% of total revenue from exports in the next five years. It must be noted that after having split with Honda Motors, Hero Motocorp has been keen on expanding its exports business. The significance of exports was amply evident in 9mFY12 for most auto companies. At a time when domestic sales volumes displayed poor performance on account of rising interest rates and fuel prices, most of the companies reported healthy growth in exports, which helped prop overall growth.

Telecom stocks closed firm today with the key gainers being Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices. As per a leading business daily, India's telecom regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is likely to recommend to the government that there is no need for an exit policy in the telecom sector for operators who want to get out of the business. This means that the entry fee paid by licensees will continue to be non-refundable. It must be noted that before the 2G verdict, the telecom sector was in favour of an exit policy given that price wars and competition had made the space unviable for many. Now that the Supreme Court has cancelled 122 licenses belonging to 9 operators, TRAI believes that an exit policy is not required especially since these licenses will stand cancelled 4 months from the date of the Supreme Court judgement.