Due to persistent selling in index heavyweights, Indian share markets slipped deeper into losses in the last two trading hours. Barring FMCG, all the sectoral indices are trading negative with metal, capital goods and banking stocks leading the pack of losers.
BSE-Sensex is down 125 points and NSE-Nifty is trading down 42 points. BSE Mid Cap is down 0.2% and BSE Small Cap index is down 0.1%. The rupee is trading at 55.9 to the US dollar.
Majority of the large software stocks are trading negative with Info Edge and Oracle Financial Services being the biggest losers. Moser Baer and Tech Mahindra are among the few stocks trading in the green. As per a leading financial daily, Tech Mahindra has acquired 100% stake in Hutchison Global Services (HGS) for an upfront payment of US$ 87.1 m. HGS is one of the largest captives in the telecom domain and provides customer lifecycle operations to clients in UK, Ireland and Australia. The acquisition will expand the company's scope in customer management space and enable it to expand its existing services to the other parts of the Hutchison Group. According to the deal, the clients of HGS have committed to procure services valued at US$ 845 m over a five-year period and have agreed to HGS being their exclusive provider of certain agreed services in India.
Most of the oil & gas stocks are trading in red with Castrol and Reliance Industries being the biggest losers. Essar Oil and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) are among the few gainers. In its latest report, India's top auditor Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) for supplying cheap gas to private power producers against a government directive. As per the report, GAIL extended undue benefits worth Rs 24.6 m to the private power firms that sold electricity at commercial rates. CAG had earlier raised an audit objection that a revenue loss of Rs 22.7 m was incurred because GAIL sold cheap gas to seven private companies between 2006 and 2010. However, it is said that the state-run firm continued the practice despite CAG's audit objection. CAG has also criticised Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for hiring a rig from Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in an 'opaque and irregular manner.' GAIL and ONGC stock prices are down by upto 0.5%.
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