Indian markets take a breather

Fri, 27 Mar 03:30 pm

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   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

   Closing   

Indian markets continue to trade in a volatile manner. The BSE Sensex is trading with moderate gains of 10 points while NSE-Nifty is trading with slight losses of 4 points. Among the sectoral indices, pharmaceutical sector and oil & gas sector stocks remain the biggest losers; however, banks have gained investor attention in the second half of the trading session. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap stocks underperformed in today's trading session. While the midcap stocks gained slightly; the smallcap stocks lost nearly 0.2%.

Commodities extended their losses after minting gains for most part of the week. While gold prices, per 10 grams, fell Rs 230 or 0.90%, Silver prices fell over 1% in today's trading session. Gold prices, per 10 grams, is available at Rs 26,570 levels while silver prices, per kilogram, fell about Rs 400 to Rs 38,172 levels. Crude oil prices fell over 2% and per barrel are available at Rs 3,183 levels. The value of US Dollar fell marginally by 0.15% or 0.09. Indian Rupee is available at Rs 62.58 levels against the US Dollar.

Telecom stocks underwent a sell-off in the send half of the trading session as Tata Communications and Idea Cellular fell over 2%. Idea Cellular got listed in the Nifty 50 exchange. Hence gained in the morning session, however, fell prey to the profit booking in the second half. The company invested about Rs 300 bn to acquire 270.7 mhz from the spectrum auction for pan India. The company said that it won 54 mhz from 900 mhz taking the total to 79.4 mhz from the current 9 leadership area it presently covers. This constitutes 73% of the total revenues. The company has also won a fraction from 1800 mhz and 2100 mhz that covers Kolkata and Maharashtra. The company plans to capitalize on the 3G and 4G services to contribute in Digital India. The company plans to make an upfront payment of Rs 77.32 bn and the balance in 10 equal installments in forthcoming 2 years. Shares of company fell over 4% owing to profit booking.

Banking stocks have gained the maximum today. Companies like United Bank of India and Andhra Bank gained more than 2%. India's largest bank, State Bank of India said that it would be diluting its ownership in SBI General Insurance by giving 49% to Insurance Australia Group. This development took place as a result of allowing FDIs in the Insurance sector from 26% to 49%. SBI General Insurance is formed because of a partnership between SBI and Insurance Australia Group. As of now SBI had a 74% stake in SBI general.