Markets rally on metal

Mon, 6 Sep 01:30 pm

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Indian indices continued their northward journey on buying in heavy weights over the previous two hours of trade. Stocks from metals and oil & gas are seeing the maximum buying interest while stocks from the FMCG and consumer durable space are seeing the minimum buying interest.

The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 300 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 89 point above the dotted line. BSE-Midcap index is up by 1.3% while BSE-Smallcap index is trading 1.7% above Friday's closing. The rupee is trading at 46.45 to the US dollar.

FMCG stocks are trading mixed with Archies and Paper products trading firm while Nirma and P&G are trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, Tata Global Beverage (TGB), formerly Tata Tea is planning a foray into processed foods. The company plans to accomplish this through the acquisition route. However, the company's officials have not disclosed the intended acquisition targets for the foray into foods.

In may be noted that earlier the company had indicated that its strategy is global in nature rather than local and the company is looking at innovation product execution which is global in nature. An example of such a product is SUKK, a jelly based tea drink being tested marketed in UK. The company has also indicated that the products being developed by the JV between PepsiCo and TGB will be functional, good-for-you beverages and would not be restricted to India.

Auto stocks are trading mixed with Force motors and Bajaj Auto trading firm and Hero Honda and Escorts trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car manufacturer is planning to build a manufacturing plant in Manesar. This would be the company's fourth manufacturing facility. The company's third plant is expected to be operational in 2011. After that, the company expects to start building the fourth plant. Presently, the company is working on a project survey for this plant. It may be noted that the new plant is expected to have a capacity of 250,000 units. Maruti expects the capacity to reach 1.25 m units per annum after the third plant is commissioned. After the fourth plant becomes operational, the capacity of the company will be 1.5 m units per annum. This is more than half Suzuki's global output forecast for 2010 of 2.68 million units. The reason for this rapid ramp up is that Maruti expects the Indian passenger car market to double in the next five-six years. In fact, the Managing Director and CEO of Maruti, Mr Nakanishi believes that there is an outside chance of a China-like boom in the Indian car market.