Indian markets open flat

Thu, 29 Oct 09:30 am

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   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

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The major Asian stock markets have opened the day in red, with stock markets in Indonesia (down 1.7%) and Taiwan (down 0.8%) being the top losers. The major stock indices in Europe and US ended their previous session on an encouraging note. The Fed left the benchmark rates unchanged. However they did not rule out a rate hike in the month of December. The rupee is trading at 65.18 per US dollar.

Indian stock markets have opened the day on a flattish note. BSE-Sensex is trading lower by 40 points (down 0.1%) and NSE-Nifty is trading lower by 19 points (down 0.2%). S&P BSE Midcap has opened down by 0.1%, while S&P BSE Smallcap is trading higher by 0.3%. Barring stocks from healthcare sector, major sectoral indices have opened the day on a negative note. Stocks from Telecom and Banking sector are witnessing maximum selling pressures.

Dabur India Ltd reported its results for the quarter ended September 2015. The revenues of the company grew by 8.7% on a YoY basis. The growth was driven by oral care business. The segment reported a growth of 19% YoY for the quarter. Sales of the brands like, Dabur Red and Dabur Meswak witnessed healthy growth. Further, hair oil and home care segments, reported a growth of 14% and 12% respectively.

Operating margins of the company grew by 1.1% YoY. Lower material cost led to increase in the operating margins. The net profit of the company reported a growth of 18.7% to Rs 3.4 bn YoY. Reportedly, growth from the rural market continued to be higher than that witnessed in the urban areas.

According to a financial daily, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has recalled an anti-allergic drug from the US market. The drug is named 'Loratadine' and it is a generic version of Bayer's Claritin. Certain checks revealed that the drug were 'out of specification' and 'super potent'. The drugs were recalled voluntarily by the company and was a Class III recall. Such recalls are generally not considered very serious by nature, as exposure to such a drug is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.

The drug was manufactured by Ohm Laboratories which is based at New Jersey. Ohm Laboratories is a subsidiary of the erstwhile Ranbaxy. Presently, all the plants in India of erstwhile Ranbaxy are under a US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) import alert.

It is imperative to note that drugs are recalled by drug makers or in some cases US regulator, if they find any defects in the product. While, such recalls may not have immediate impact on the company's revenues, but if such instances occur repeatedly, it may have negative repercussion.