Indian share markets remain in green

Fri, 5 Jul 11:30 am

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Indian share markets have generally traded in green during the previous two hours of trade. The most noticeable upward movements have been witnessed in the realty and metal sectors while no sector has witnessed net selling pressure.

The BSE-Sensex is up by 153 points and NSE-Nifty is up by 46 points. BSE Mid Cap is up by 0.9% and BSE Small Cap is up by 0.8%. The rupee is trading at 60.28 to the US dollar.

Except Oracle Financial Services and Wipro, all Software (Large) shares are trading in green with Info Edge and Mphasis Ltd leading the gains. According to a leading financial news medium, Infosys Ltd, India's third largest software exporter, is expected to chalk out a strategic roadmap during the second half of the current fiscal. The IT major is expected to issue a revised outlook as well. The former CEO, NR Narayana Murthy was recalled, a few weeks after the company's guidance of 6%-10% for fiscal 2014, which stood lower than Nasscom's estimates, shocked the markets. Pressurized profit margins, lesser employee productivity, inability to win big deals, investments in Infosys 3.0 strategy, wage hikes and higher costs have led to pessimism over the Infy stock. That said, the management is taking steps to address these concerns. For instance, in its recently held AGM, Murthy has chalked out a detailed strategy that would refocus on outsourcing services which have been coming under tremendous pressure due to commoditisation and competition winning deals from Infosys at lower prices. With this changed strategy, the company is expected to improve its growth prospects and this coupled with the way they have decided to go after projects would result in winning more deals. Infosys Ltd's share is up by 0.2%.

Most of the Automobiles shares are trading in green with Escorts and Tube Investments leading the gains. Among the few, which are trading in red, Force Motors and Ashok Leyland are facing the maximum selling pressures. According to a leading financial news daily, Maruti Suzuki has discontinued production of its two top- selling models, the Swift premium hatchback and Dzire compact sedan at its Gurgaon plant from mid-June. This move comes in the light of monthly volumes decline for both models on the back of falling demand and competition from aggressively-priced rivals like the Honda Amaze, Ford EcoSport and Chevrolet Sail. These two models will now be made solely in Maruti's Manesar facility, which for the past two years were being produced at both plants intermittently. Lower demand and rising inventory levels has also led the car market leader to shut its Gurgaon and Manesar plants several times in the last few months. In the past, both Swift and Dzire have claimed the top spot in the Indian car market. However, monthly volumes have taken a hit this year. The month of May has witnessed a 13% drop in volumes of Maruti that commands around 40% market share. Among competitors that ate into Maruti's stronghold, the Honda Amaze has observed volumes uptick steadily since launch in April on the back of aggressive pricing. Also, the newly launched Ford EcoSport in June has proved to be a troublemaker for the Maruti sales. Maruti Suzuki's share is up by 0.06%.