The Indian stock markets ended the day on a flat note, after witnessing marginally volatility throughout the day. The BSE-Sensex closed lower by 5 points, while the NSE-Nifty ended higher by 2 points. While stocks from realty space were in favour today, those from the automobiles and consumer durables spaces were the top underperformers. Midcaps and smallcaps however outperformed their larger peers as the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices ended higher by about 1.1% and 1.3% respectively.
Stock markets in other parts of Asia ended the day on a mixed note with China closing higher by 0.4% while Hong Kong ended lower by 0.3%. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.42 to the dollar at the time of writing.
Auto stocks ended the day on a weak note with Mahindra and Mahindra and Hero Motorcorp leading the pack of losers. Two wheeler major Bajaj Auto's total sales volumes for the month of October 2014 remained flat as compared to last year. This was despite a 3% YoY decline in sales volumes of motorcycles. As such, it was the higher export sales volumes that helped in balancing out the effect of lower motorcycles sales. Export volumes stood at about 159,000 units as compared to 138,000 units in same month last year, a 15% YoY growth. This is the highest export figure clocked by the company. With this, exports formed about 42% of the total sales volumes currently as compared to 36% a year ago. Further, sales of three wheelers also rose by a third during the month. The stock of Bajaj Auto ended lower by 1.5% today.
Stocks of jewellery companies ended the day on a weak note with Titan Company, PC Jeweller and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri Limited leading the losses. Titan Company had announced its results for the quarter ended September 2014 recently. The company reported a 57% YoY rise in revenues while profits rose by 29% YoY respectively during the quarter. The company's management shared its view on current market scenario as far as discretionary spending is concerned. It indicated that the improvement in consumer sentiment is not so visible in terms of consumer behavior as actual spending on the part of consumers has been low. The quarter was marked by the premature closure of golden harvest scheme and the big jump in sales was largely due to its customers preponing their gold jewellery purchases. Titan closed the day lower by about 3%.
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