Indian stock markets continued to trade strong during last two hours of trade after opening on a positive note. All sectoral indices are trading in the green except IT stocks.
The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 145 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up by 48 points. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading up by 1% and 1.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 50.56 to the US dollar.
FMCG stocks are trading in the green led by Archies Limited and Colgate. According to a leading financial daily, Marico is looking at a stake sale to raise money for its acquisition of Paras Pharmaceuticals' personal care portfolio. Marico wants to offload 5% to raise Rs 6 bn for the said acquisition. During December 2011 quarter, promoter holding in the company stood at 62.78%. Marico may issue fresh equity shares as part of this transaction. Private equity players like Apax, KKR, Khazana, TPG, ChrysCapital and GIC are said to be interested in this transaction. It may be recollected that in February, Marico had expressed desire to buyout Setwet, Livon and Zatak along with a few personal care products from Reckitt that owns Paras.
Pharma stocks are trading strong led by IPCA Lab and Biocon. According to a leading financial daily, Ranbaxy Laboratories has resumed exports of finished drugs to the US with the commencement of shipping of cholesterol lowering drug, atorvastatin calcium oral tablets after being banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for four years. In 2008, Ranbaxy had to suspend export of medicines in dosage forms to the US following ban imposed on 30 generic generic drugs produced at its Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh units by the US FDA citing gross violation of manufacturing norms. The anti-cholesterol tablets meant for the US market will be produced at its SEZ plant in Mohali and not at the units banned by the US health regulator.
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