Autos languish in a buoyant session

Thu, 19 Jul Closing

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The indices in Indian equity markets sustained momentum throughout the session today. Stocks across sectors, especially IT, consumer durables and commodities found investor interest. The unrest in Maruti's Manesar plant and the unlikelihood of another interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seems to have, however, dampened sentiments about the auto sector. The gains in BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices trailed that of the broader indices. While the BSE-Sensex closed higher by around 93 points, the NSE-Nifty today closed lower by 26 points.

As regards global markets, Asian indices closed higher today while European indices have also opened on a positive note. The rupee was trading at Rs 55.28 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Stocks from the telecom were trading cautious today ahead of the deferred Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meet on contentious issue of a reserve price for the re-auction of 2G spectrum on Friday. Crucial aspects like pricing of spectrum, one-time fee, terms of payment and the timeline for selecting the auctioneer, which were supposed to be taken on board for discussion on Tuesday, were deferred to Friday.

The 2G verdict has lead to the much needed consolidation in the sector. With players moving out, the level of competition is expected to come down. In the absence of hyper competition, the existing players would have the opportunity to increase tariffs too to be able to increase their profitability levels. However, companies would be cautious when it comes to increasing prices. Indian consumers are extremely sensitive to prices as a result of which price elasticity is high. Therefore so as to not lose out in terms of minutes of usage, operators would be careful when adjusting tariffs upwards.

Meanwhile, print major DB Corp announced the first quarter results of financial year 2012-2013 (1QFY13). The company has reported a 7% YoY increase in topline and a 28.7% YoY decrease in net profits respectively. Top line increased by 7% YoY during the quarter on a disappointing performance from the advertising segment that grew by a meagre 1% YoY. Subscriptions grew by 16% YoY. Operating expenses were up by 18.4% YoY largely led by an increase of 27% in other expenses. DB Corp's operating margins drastically shrunk by 7.7% during the quarter ended June 2012. A poor performance at the topline level and higher operating expenditure resulted in net profit fall of more than 28% YoY during the June 2012 quarter.