Indian stock markets lose further ground

Fri, 12 Aug 01:30 pm

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   Closing   

   RoundUp   

The Indian stock market moved deeper into the red due to selling pressure in heavy weights over the last two hours. All sector indices are trading weak. Stocks from the software, banking, realty and auto are losing the most.

The BSE-Sensex is trading down by 188 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 57 points below yesterday's closing. The BSE-Midcap index is down by 0.3% while the BSE-Small cap index is trading flat. The rupee is trading at 45.41 to the US dollar.

Energy stocks have been trading mixed with Gujarat Gas, Indraprastha gas, Chennai Petroleum and Cairn India leading the pack of gainers. However, Castrol, Essar Oil and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) are trading weak. Gujarat Gas has announced its results for the second quarter of the calendar year 2011 (2QCY11). The consolidated net profit for the company grew 67% year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 962.8 m while the net sales numbers grew by nearly 41% to Rs 5.8 bn on year on year basis. As per the management, the high inflationary environment poses many challenges for the company. Also, higher proportion of RLNG (Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas) in its portfolio and the trend of increasing gas cost is a concern for the company. The company distributes approximately 3.5 million metric standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) of natural gas.

The Industrial Index of Production (IIP) numbers have been released for the month of June. As per a leading financial daily, India's industrial output growth jumped in June to 8.8% versus 5.9% in May. The growth was on account of recovery in the manufacturing sector and better offtake of capital goods. The factory output growth (as measured in terms of the IIP) stood at 7.4% in June last year. The numbers are better than street expectations. The IIP growth for 1QFY12 stood at 6.8%, as against 9.6% in the corresponding quarter last year. The manufacturing sector output (contributes to more than 75%) grew by 10% YoY in June 2011 versus 7.9% in June 2010. The offtake of capital goods was up 37.7% versus a growth of 3.7% in June last year. The electricity production also improved, by 7.9% in June 2011 as compared to a growth of 3.5% in June, 2010.However, growth in mining sector output declined to a mere 0.6% from 6.9 % for the same month last year. The non-durable consumer goods (FMCG ) production also saw a slowdown in growth to 2.1% in June, compared to 7.5% expansion a year ago, while growth in consumer durables output also fell sharply to just 1% from 21.2% a year ago. Meanwhile, the industrial growth number for May this year has been revised upward to 5.9% from the provisional estimate of 5.6%.