The Indian stock markets gained momentum led by continuous buying from index heavyweights during the previous two hours of trade. Banking and power stocks are leading the pack of gainers.
The BSE Sensex is trading higher 113 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading higher 38 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.7% and the BSE Small Cap index is trading up 1.2%. The rupee is trading at 60.17 to the US dollar.
Majority of telecom stocks are trading higher today. Himachal Futuristic and Bharti Airtel are leading the pack of gainers.
As per a leading business daily, mobile carriers in Africa plan to sell their telecom tower assets. The move is to reduce their exposure to reasonably expensive infrastructure in building mobile network. Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel is planning to sell its 15,000 telecom towers across 17 countries in the African continent. The tower assets is valued in the range of US$ 2 bn to US$ 2.5 bn. The other companies that also plan to offload the tower assets in the continent include MTN Group and Orange SA. Notably, tower assets are more expensive to run in the African continent as compared to other parts of the world. That's because, the need for backup generators and batteries to guard against power failure is a common phenomenon in the African region. For instance, telecom tower and allied infrastructure account for about 60% of the entire expenditure to build up a mobile network.
Indian pharma stocks are trading on a mixed note. While Panacea Biotech is trading higher, Biocon and Dr. Reddy's are trading weak.
As per a leading business daily, fresh trouble looms for Sun Pharma on the Taro Pharma's front, its Israelian subsidiary. The Indian drug maker plans to get two of its nominees re-elected as independent directors to the Taro board. In this regard, Sun Pharma is expected to face major opposition from the minority shareholders. The re-election on voting came up at the Taro's extraordinary general meeting. The extraordinary meeting has come up following a lawsuit filed against the company by BlueMountain and IsZo Capital, two of the company's largest minority shareholders. Notably, there has been various oppositions from minority shareholders ever since Sun's offer of US$ 464 m to acquire Taro during 2007.
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