Realty and IT push indices higher

Mon, 12 Jul 11:30 am

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After starting today’s session on a positive note in the morning, Indian indices have managed to hold on to their gains. Other key Asian markets are trading marginally in the green. Stocks from the IT and realty space are trading strong, while stocks from the healthcare and consumer durables space are trading flat.

The BSE-Sensex is trading up by around 107 points, while the NSE-Nifty is up by about 27 points. Buying interest is also being witnessed among mid and small cap stocks as the BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap indices are trading higher by 0.2% and 0.6% respectively. The rupee is trading at 46.68 to the US dollar.

Realty stocks are trading strong with Peninsula Land and Unitech leading the gains. As per a leading news daily, Anant Raj Industries is planning to buy land worth Rs 6 bn in the National Capital Region (NCR) to ramp up its residential foray. The company has already spent Rs 2 bn in 2010 to acquire land in Manesar and Sonepat regions of NCR. Anant Raj Industries mostly deals in commercial and retail real estate business. But now the company is also focusing on the residential segment to balance its overall real estate portfolio. It has recently acquired land in Gurgaon to develop residential projects. The company has Rs 6 bn of cash reserves. Out of that it has allocated Rs 1.5 bn for execution of projects and the balance Rs 4.5 bn for land acquisitions. The company is planning to deliver over 2 m sq ft of commercial and residential properties in the next two years. Management expects revenues of Rs 20 bn over the next three years from sale of housing projects with annual commercial rental income of Rs 1.6 bn by FY12.

IT stocks are trading well in the green with Rolta India, TCS and Patni Computers leading the gains. HCL Technologies has bagged a seven-year IT infrastructure deal from Al Majdouie Group. This client is based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The diversified company serves sectors such as automotive, retail, manufacturing and real estate. The operations of the deal will commence after two years of IT implementation and deployment by HCL. The deal value of the contract has not been disclosed; however HCL has stated that this deal is the largest deal for the company in West Asia in terms of value as well as services provided.

The scope of this commitment includes developing infrastructure, implementing Oracle e-business suite, managing and running the IT infrastructure. The agreement also includes commissioning and management of Data Centre and Disaster Recovery services. HCL opened its regional headquarters in Dubai this year in order to expand its West Asia footprint. The company seems to be seeing some fruits of its efforts to expand in this region. Growth in new regions would help offset some slowdown expected for the company in Europe.