After opening on a weak note; the Indian indices have remained below the dotted line in the morning session. Among the sectoral indices IT stocks are leading the gains while Engineering stocks are leading the losers.
The BSE-Sensex is trading down 40 points and the NSE-Nifty is trading down 14 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up 0.6% today. The rupee is trading at 59.96 to the US dollar.
Software stocks are trading mixed today. While Infosys is leading the gainers; HCL Technologies is leading the losers. India's third largest software firm Wipro, has won a large software contract from the leading Australian retailer 7Eleven. The contract is transformational in nature and it will involve both application development as well as infrastructure management. The engagement is aimed at paving the way for an organisation-wide retail process re-engineering at 7Eleven. The project will improve business efficiency at 7Eleven through the deployment of a consolidated, real-time transactional and reporting SAP based infrastructure. The retailer has been Wipro's client since 2012 and this contract will be separate from the work Wipro is currently doing for 7Eleven. The time duration and financial details of the contract were not disclosed. Wipro is trading up 1.2% today.
PSU banks are trading weak today led by United Bank and Oriental Bank. As per a leading business daily, lending major SBI is planning to hire about 7,200 employees as its 8,100 staffs are set to retire during FY15. The bank's management believes it will be able to manage with the planned hire although the retiring employee as it seeks to increase its dependence on technology for monotonous and routine tasks. For instance it plans to install cash deposit machines and cash recyclers which enable the ATM to withdraw deposited money and recognize fake notes. It may be noted that public sector banks are still vulnerable with respect to technology as compared to its private peers. However, the planned retirement of staff and increased emphasis in the technology will make them bit efficient. The stock is trading down 0.9% today.
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