Indian markets failed to recover from the range-bound activity during the previous two hours of trade as index heavyweights continued to remain under pressure. While stocks across sectors are being subject to profit booking, stocks in the metals space seem to be particularly out of favour.
BSE-Sensex is trading lower by 241 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 79 points below the dotted line. BSE-Midcap Index is down by 1.5% while the BSE-Smallcap index is trading 1.7% below last week’s closing. The rupee is trading at 44.58 to the US dollar
According to a leading financial daily, P&G has filed a petition for contempt of court against HUL. This is the next round of the Rin-Tide advertisement face-off. The point in contention is the new advertisement being aired for Rin. Although, unlike the last advertisement for Rin, the name of the competing brand is not shown, the models used are the same. This is providing a clear association with the previous advertisement. It may be recalled that HUL launched its first combative advertisement with Rin openly challenging P&G’s Tide. P&G had filed a court case and had got HUL to stop airing the advertisement. It looks like the fight for the Rs 45 bn detergents market is set to become even dirtier.
HDFC Ltd. has renewed its teaser home loan offering with a dual rate scheme. This is seen as a step by the company to protect its market share. The company’s biggest competitor, SBI had previously extended its teaser home rates till end of April. It may be recalled that most banks had stopped the special home rate schemes in January when the interest rates had started showing a rising trend. However, SBI and HDFC had continued with these schemes.
HDFC has chosen a short tenor for its special loan scheme as it expects a policy hike to come through with the monetary policy being announced on the 20th April. Loan disbursement for HDFC has been its best in March 2010 making it the top private lender. Nevertheless, this teaser home rate may pressurise the company’s NIMs as well as having an impact on NPAs in the medium term.
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