Index sees strong movement

Thu, 18 Oct Closing

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The Indian stock markets started the day on a positive note. The indices however slumped lower in the first half of yesterday's trading session. However towards the middle of the trading session, indices moves steadily upwards and continued trade higher till the end of trade today. Finally indices closed the day well in the positive. The BSE-Sensex closed in the green, higher by around 181 points (up 1%). The NSE-Nifty also closed higher by around 58 points (up 1%). The smaller indices also had a positive day on the bourses. The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap closed 1.2% and 0.9% higher respectively in trade today. FMCG and Realty and banking stocks saw a bulk of the gains today. Only healthcare stocks were were on the losing end in today's trade.

As regards global markets, Asian indices had a positive outing today. European indices opened the day on a mixed note. The rupee was trading at Rs 53.07 to the dollar at the time of writing.

HCL Technologies Ltd (HCL Tech) recently announced the first quarter results (1QFY13) of financial year 2012-2013, (year ending June). The company reported a 2.9% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth in sales and a 3.6% QoQ increase in net profits. There was a continued improvement in EBITDA margin as was witnessed during the last quarter. EBITDA margin expanded by 0.2% QoQ to 22.2% during the quarter as compared to 22% seen during the previous quarter. This was mainly because of the offshore shift in total revenues and increase in utilization. Net profit grew in line with EBITDA at 3.6% QoQ. The increase in net profit would have been even more had it not been for the effective tax rate, which increased to 23.5% in the current quarter from 22.8% recorded in the last quarter. Its total employee base at the end of June 2012 was 85,335. In IT services business, attrition rate came down slightly to 13.6% as compared to 14.0% seen at the end of the previous quarter (4QFY12). The company added 38 new clients during the quarter. The total number of active clients at the end of September 2012 was sequentially flat at 536. The stock closed 4% higher in trade today.

According to a leading business daily, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has renewed talks to buy US based aircraft maker, Hawker Beechcraft. M&M had earlier lost it's bid to acquire Beechcraft to Chinese firm Superior Aviation Beijing Co. Since talks with the Chinese firm have failed, Beechcraft is likely to invite bids again for a sale process. Superior Aviation Beijing had agreed to pay US$ 1.8 bn for buying Beechcraft. Hawker Beechcraft, part owned by Goldman Sachs' private equity arm had filed for bankruptcy in May. The company has US$1 bn debt on it's books and has accumulated losses of US$ 900 mn. M&M is currently a small player in the aircraft business. It had purchased majority stakes in aerospace supplier Aerostaff Australia and turboprop manufacturer Gippsland Aeronautics.