Realty & banking, major losers

Mon, 23 Sep 01:30 pm

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Indian share markets continued to widen losses in the post-noon trading session. Barring consumer durables and IT, all the sectoral indices are trading in the red with realty, banking and capital goods stocks being the biggest losers.

BSE-Sensex is down 341 points and NSE-Nifty is trading 111 points down. BSE Mid Cap is trading dowm 1% and BSE Small Cap index is trading down 0.5%. The rupee is trading at 62.5 to the US dollar.

Majority of the IT stocks are trading in the green, with Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies being the major gainers and Gujarat NRE Coke and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) being the major losers. As per a leading financial daily, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has given HCL Technologies, a green signal to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit. The FDI limit in the company has been increased to 74% from 49%. In FY13, HCL Tech posted a robust 22.4% sales growth led by the growth in Infrastructure Management Services. Post the global financial crisis of 2008, HCL Tech was the first company to pre-empt that the spending pattern of clients was going to witness a massive change and accordingly it tried to create a niche by diverting its focus from core software to infrastructure management. The strategy has paid off handsomely as none of the larger Indian IT players have a marked presence in the infra segment and most IT clients are still concentrating on 'Run the Business' (RTB) projects rather than 'Change the Business' (CTB) projects. Armed with expertise and cost advantage, HCL Tech has been able to break through first generation outsourcing markets such as the Nordics and Germany in RTB/Infra.

Indian pharma stocks are trading mixed. Dishman pharma and Strides Acrolab are among top gainers while Glenmark pharma and Panacea Biotech are the leading underperformers. As per the financial daily, post United states food and drug administration (USFDA) ban on Ranbaxy’s Mohali facility, other drug regulators too are assessing the facilities. The Australian and European drug regulators are reviewing whether the drugs exported in their regions are of authentic quality or not. Reportedly, these countries regulators including the UK regulator have asked for the information from FDA about the lapses which led to import ban on the Mohali facility. Further, as per a spokesperson from Australia’s regulatory body, Therapeutic goods administration (TGA)said that the Australian agency will determine whether Australian drugs are getting impacted or not and then take any action if required. Even the European regulators will assess the information and take steps accordingly. Ranbaxy is currently trading up by 2.08%.