Indian equity markets continued to trade in the green during the previous two hours of trade. Sectoral indices traded firm except metal and FMCG stocks.
The BSE-Sensex is trading higher by 61 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up by 17 points. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading up by 0.5% and 0.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 54.30 to the US dollar.
Steel stocks are trading strong led by Maharashtra Seamless and JSW Ispat. As per a leading daily, Tata Steel is planning to close down its technology centers in the UK over next 18 months. The steel company would shut down its 2 research and development centers in UK and shift them to other locations overseas. IT is expected to prefer Netherlands and India as the new locations of these centers. These technology centers are presently located at Teesside, in the north-east of England, and in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. This move is expected to result in the loss of 300-400 jobs in the UK. We may note here that Tata Steel is facing issues of high energy costs, falling demand and plummeting steel prices in Europe. The company is thus planning to shut down operations at a few sites resulting in 900 job losses.
Indian pharma stocks are trading strong led by Zandu Realty and Biocon Limited. As per a leading daily, Biocon is planning to launch psoriasis drug, Itolizumab branded as "Alzumab" in July. As per the management, this is a novel, first-in-class biologic for the treatment of psoriasis. The company will manufacture the drug at Biocon's bio-pharma facility in Biocon Park, Bangalore. We may note here that psoriasis is an inflammatory auto-immune skin disease that follows a typical relapsing and remitting course. The disease affects 2-3% of India's population. The drug finds huge market in India as well as abroad. Globally, the market size will be US$ 8 bn by 2016.
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