Metal, realty stocks lead the rally

Fri, 28 Oct 01:30 pm

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The Indian stock market continued to trade firm on account of buying interest in heavyweights during the last two hours of trade. Except for the consumer durables, all sectoral indices are trading in the green. Stocks from the metal, realty, banking and capital goods sectors are leading the pack of gainers.

The BSE-Sensex is trading up by 507 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 157 points above Wednesday's closing. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading up by 1.4% and 0.9% respectively. The rupee is trading at 48.81 to the US dollar.

Software stocks have been trading mixed with Moser Baer (India), Computer maintenance corporation Ltd (CMC Ltd) and Tech Mahindra leading the pack of gainers. However, Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd (OFSS) and Wipro are trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, attrition rates are declining sharply in the Indian Software sector. Attritions have always been a problem for companies in this sector. However, this declining trend in the attrition level seems to project a cautious view for the sector. According to industry experts, employees are worried due to prevailing uncertainties in the global economic environment. Therefore, they are very cautious with regards to changing jobs. However, some experts feel that the growth in the sector is strong. Hence, the decline in the attritions is not related to the economic scenario.

After the recession when the global economy was recovering, the attrition levels went up because of a very low hiring during the recession. Therefore, the companies had no choice but to poach from each other. However, recent aggressive hiring by the Indian software companies led to some moderation in attrition. According to industry experts, attrition is now at realistic levels of 14-15%. It has still not fallen down to single digit levels. These levels were witnessed during the previous recession.

Auto stocks have been trading mixed as well with Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Escorts Ltd leading the pack of gainers. However, Maruti Suzuki and Eicher Motors are trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, demands for cars would witness their lows after the festive season. This would happen on account of constant hikes in interest rates as well as high petrol prices. According to the people in the industry, the demands have not been encouraging even during the festive season. The people are postponing their plans to buy a car. Enquiry levels at the dealerships are going down. It is expected that demand would only get worse in the near future to a situation where deep discounts and other promotional freebies would be of much help. As per the bankers, there is a very high chance that banks would increase the interest rates in the wake of recent key rate hikes. With the interest burden going up for home loan borrowers, disposable incomes at the hands of buyers are going down. All this spells a bad time ahead for the car companies.