Indian share markets continued to slip in the post-noon trading session and are trading close to the dotted line. Barring FMCG and capital goods, all the sectoral indices are trading in the green with realty, power and oil & gas stocks being the biggest gainers.
BSE-Sensex is up 11 points and NSE-Nifty is trading 15 points up. BSE Mid Cap is trading 1.1% up and BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.8%. The rupee is trading at 60.1 to the US dollar.
Retail stocks are trading mixed with Shopper's Stop and Future's Retail being the major gainers whereas Koutons Retail and Titan Industries are trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, Titan Industries is set to benefit from the recent move by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow it to hedge its gold inventory as well as currency exposure in the international exchanges. Titan borrows to fund its international gold purchases and is subject to currency risk as well as fluctuations in gold prices. This is expected to reduce the net interest cost of debt to finance gold purchases and improve profit margins. As per the company, its effective interest cost will be 3.5%-4% from April as compared to 10% currently. For the December 2013 quarter, the company's sales were down by 11% and operating margin contracted by 0.6% to 7.8%.
Majority of the domestic pharma stocks are trading in the green with Ranbaxy Laboratories and Piramal Enterprises being among major gainers.Aurobindo Pharma and Dishman Phrama are among the few stocks trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, Lupin forayed into the Latin American market through the acquisition of a speciality pharmaceutical company Laboratorios Grin based in Mexico. Grin is engaged in the manufacture and sale of branded ophthalmic products and clocked revenues of around $28 m in 2013. The pharmaceutical market in Mexico is valued at over $13.5 bn and is growing at an annual rate of 9-10%. The company wants to bring its pipeline of ophthalmic products to build the Grin business as well as leverage their commercial presence to enter other potential therapy segments. Lupin's stock is currently trading up by 0.3%.
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