Mid, Smallcaps in the limelight

Wed, 6 Apr 11:30 am

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Indian stock markets pared their opening gains on the back of profit booking in heavy weights and traded in the red over the last two hours of trade. Stocks from the FMCG and IT space are trading weak, while stocks from the realty and consumer durable space are trading firm.

The BSE-Sensex is down by 69 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 26 points below the dotted line. BSE Midcap index is up by 0.3% while BSE Small cap index is trading 0.4% above yesterday’s closing. The rupee is trading at 44.25 to the US dollar.

Pharma stocks are trading mixed with Wockhardt and Strides Arcolab trading firm while Fresenius Kabi Oncology is trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, Lupin has filed a second suit against Ranbaxy Laboratories in the US. This suit has been filed to prevent Ranbaxy from launching Fenofibrate in the US. Finofibrate is a generic version of Antara, Lupin’s cholesterol lower drug. It may be recalled that last year Ranbaxy had challenged Antara’s patent that expires in 2020 and had sought approval from the American drug regulator to market its drug. However, last August Lupin sued Ranbaxy for infringing the patent. This second lawsuit pertains to a new patent which Lupin had received in January from the US patent authority. It may be noted that Lupin had acquired the rights to sell Antara in the US from Oscient Pharmaceuticals in 2009 for a consideration of US$ 38.6 m (approximately Rs 1.85 bn).

IT stocks are trading mixed with Mahindra Satyam and HCL Infosystems leading the pack of gainers. However, TCS and Wipro are trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, Wipro is now focusing on restructuring its operations. The software company under its new CEO T K Kurien aims to create a leaner organization focused on fewer strategic bets. The company has been reorganized into 6 verticals that will have more autonomy in dealings. Wipro plans to do away with any redundancies that existed earlier when the company had a joint CEO model. It may be noted that a lot of senior employees have exited the software major post the new leadership announcement.

With this restructuring, Wipro wants to regain lost ground in sectors like healthcare and banking. Its rivals Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Cognizant already have 40% of their revenue coming from these sectors. In this year, banking and healthcare customers are expected to outsource projects worth $25.5 bn. Wipro wants to cash in on this growing demand from customers such as Pfizer, Eli Lily, J P Morgan and Citibank. Its revenues from traditional pure technology customers fell by 3.5% in the last quarter.