Persistent selling mars indices

Thu, 28 Apr Closing

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   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

Continuing with where they left off yesterday, Indian stock markets had a rather weak outing today as well. The indices languished in the red throughout the trading session today as persistent selling refused to abate. Pressure was relentless in the final trading hour too and caused the markets to close well below the dotted line. While the BSE-Sensex closed lower by around 157 points (down 0.8%), the NSE-Nifty closed lower by around 48 points (down 0.8%). Both the BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap were not spared either as they closed lower by 1% and 0.5% respectively. Losses were largely seen in IT and metals stocks.

As regards global markets, Asian indices closed mixed today while European indices have opened in the green. The rupee was trading at Rs 44.42 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Exide Industries announced results for the fourth quarter and the year ended March 2011. The company recorded a 21% YoY increase in revenues during the year. Exide has been focusing on the OEM segment for a while now. This is given the strong volumes off take that the auto industry has seen over the past one and a half years. But since the company is aiming to meet the requirements of the OEMS, Exide has been focusing less on the replacement market. Further, supply constraints also led to the company losing some market share in the replacement market. Exide's operating expenditure increased by 27% YoY as a result of which its operating profits grew by a mere 1% YoY during the year. The key factor behind the sharp rise in expenses was higher raw material costs, which rose by 30% YoY. During the year, raw material costs stood at 61.3% of revenues as compared to 56.8% in FY10. Prices of lead continued to remain high in the international markets and unlike previous years, the company was not able to entirely pass on this hike to customers. Net profits grew by 24% YoY during FY11 on account of extraordinary income received, higher other income and lower interest costs. The stock closed higher today.

Power stocks closed mixed today. While Coal India and Gujarat Ind. Power found favour, NTPC and Tata Power closed in the red. As per a leading business daily, Tata Power is looking to invest Rs 13 bn in FY12 to add 185 MW generation capacity from wind and solar energy. Out of this, the company is aiming to add 35 MW from solar in FY12 that will require an investment of Rs 5.5 bn. The ramp-up on both solar and wind energy is partly necessitated by regulatory environment which asks a power distribution company to source a certain percentage from cleaner sources. Plans on the anvil also include ramping up wind power capacity to 400 MW from the current 250 MW. Overall, Tata Power has set an ambitious target of sourcing 25% of its total generation from clean sources by FY17. The funds required for capacity addition will be met through internal accruals and debt.