Indian indices languished in the red on profit booking over the previous two hours of trade. Stocks from pharma and IT space are trading firm while stocks from the auto and consumer durable space are trading weak.
The BSE-Sensex is down by 24 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 8 point below the dotted line. BSE-Midcap is down by 0.2% while BSE-Smallcap index is trading 0.1% below yesterday’s closing. The rupee is trading at 44.37 to the US dollar.
Auto stocks are trading weak led by M&M and Bajaj Auto. As per a leading financial daily, car sales in India rose by 30.4% YoY for September. Domestic passenger car sales increased from 129,684 units in September 2009 to 169,082 units. Motorcycle sales in the country during the month grew by 15.5 % to 778,352 units from 673,893 units. In fact, total two-wheeler sales in September increased by 19.9% to 1,005,162 units from 838,152 units in September 2009. Sales of commercial vehicles in September grew by 29.6 % to 59,455 units from 45,889 units in the same period last year. Total sales of vehicles across categories registered a growth of 21.6% to 1,329,086 units in September, as against 1,092,687 units in the same month last year. This strong growth comes on the back of the strong economic growth. In fact demand is expected to rise to peak in November. However, supplies from vendors are becoming a hurdle for automakers such as M&M and Maruti Suzuki.
Steel stocks are trading in the red led by JSW Steel. As per a leading financial daily, Steel majors Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Tata Steel, have reported high growth in steel sales for the quarter ending September 2010. SAIL reported a sale of 3.17 m tonnes for 2QFY10, a growth of 30.8% YoY. On the other hand, Tata Steel’s total sales for the quarter stood at 1.66 m tones, an increase of 14% over the corresponding quarter last year. This growth comes on the back of higher demand by the construction and manufacturing sectors. This was reflected in higher sales of products such as wire, rounds and bars, structurals, cold roll sheets/coils and galvanized items.
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