Indian stock markets lost further ground after opening weak today. All sectoral indices are trading in the red except for pharmaceutical stocks.
The BSE-Sensex is trading down by 208 points and NSE-Nifty is trading lower by 70 points. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading down by 0.9% and 0.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 51.31 to the US dollar.
FMCG stocks are trading in the red led by Archies Limited and Henkel India. According to a leading financial daily, Marico will be raising Rs 5 bn through issue of shares. These shares will be issued to foreign investors namely Indivest and Baring India Private Equity Fund III. The company's board has approved to allot 29,411,764 shares of Re 1 each at an issue price of Rs 170 per share. Indivest would be allotted 22,058,823 shares amounting to Rs 3.75 bn. The issue size for Baring India will be Rs 1.25 bn. We may note here that Indivest is an affiliate of Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd and Baring is a Mauritius based firm. Marico has also decided to alter its authorized share capital. The company will cancel 50 m unissued preference shares of Rs 10 each and create 500 m equity shares of Rs 1 each.
Indian pharma stocks are trading strong led by Dishman Pharma and Ranbaxy Lab. According to a leading financial daily, Cipla is looking at the European inhaler market with generic drug launches in those markets. Cipla has a product pipeline of 11 products. However, at present it is mainly looking at a share in the Seretide drug. By 2013, CIpla will be launching Seretide in the European Union market. The other players in race for launching this drug in Europe include Teva, Mylan and Sandoz. Cipla has a market share of 70% in the inhalation therapy segment in India. Worldwide this market is estimated at US$ 34 bn and US and Europe are the major markets for this segment.
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