Indian markets open strong

Fri, 23 Oct 09:30 am

   11:30 am   

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   01:30 pm   

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The major Asian stock markets have opened the day in green. Stock markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Indonesia are trading up by 2.5%, 1.3% and 1.1% respectively. The major stock indices in Europe and US ended their previous session on an encouraging note. The rupee is trading at 64.81 per US dollar.Indian stock markets have opened the day on a firm note. BSE-Sensex is trading higher by 250 points (up 0.9%) and NSE-Nifty is trading higher by 65 points (up 0.8%). S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap have moved upwards. Both the indices are trading higher by 0.7% each. Major sectoral indices have opened the day on a positive note with stocks from oil and gas, banking and engineering sector witnessing buying interest. Biocon declared its results for the quarter ending September 2015. The company's revenue grew by 11.4% to Rs 8.6 bn on a YoY basis. Reportedly, the research service unit of the company named 'Syngene International Ltd' contributed around 33% to the overall revenues of the company. The net profit grew by almost 200% to Rs 3 bn on a YoY basis. The spurt in the net profit was due to an extra-ordinary item. The extra-ordinary item was in relation to the gain of Rs 2 bn from selling of shares in its research service unit 'Syngene International'. Even after excluding the extra-ordinary item, 'Syngene International' contributed to around 50% of the overall profits of the company.As per an article in Livemint, Biocon spend Rs 570 mn on research and development in the quarter. Reportedly the company's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) business grew by 4% to Rs 4.6 bn while its Indian branded formulation business grew by 3% to Rs 1.2 bn.Our pharmaceutical analyst, Bhavita Nagrani, recently released a detailed analysis of the company's results (subscription required) for the quarter ended June 2015. In the note Bhavita explains the tough times the company is facing in its biopharmaceutical segment and other initiatives taken by the company to fuel its future growth. If you are interested in the stock, then this is a must read! Tata Motor's recently stated that the company will launch the newer version of 'Range Rover Evoque' in the next month. Reportedly, the company has started accepting bookings for the same. As per an article in Business Standard, the models are priced between Rs 4.6-Rs 20.7 mn. The Jaquar Land Rover (JLR) president stated that the response to Range Rover Evoque has been exceptional across all geographies. Further he added that the tapered roofs, muscular shoulder and striking lines set the newer version apart from its other contemporaries. As per our auto sector analyst, Radhika Pandit, the September numbers for JLR are healthy considering that the last two quarters saw some slowdown in volumes. This was largely on account of the crisis in China, which for the last couple of years had been the fastest growing market for JLR and therefore an important growth driver. With the introduction of new models, Tata Motors expects JLR volumes to ramp up going forward. Click here for the detailed analysis of the company's results (subscription required) for the quarter ended June 2015.