Indian Markets Trade in the Red

Thu, 5 Nov 01:30 pm

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After starting the day on a bearish note, the Indian indices continued to trade in the red during the post noon trading session. Losses are led by banking, realty and pharma sectors.

The BSE-Sensex is trading lower by 82 (down 0.3%) and the NSE-Nifty is trading down by 30 points (down 0.4%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.6% while the BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.7%. Gold prices, per 10 grams, are trading at Rs 25,777 levels. Silver price, per kilogram, is trading at Rs 35,352 levels. Crude oil is trading at Rs 3,058 per barrel. The rupee is trading at 65.73 to the US$.

Most of the engineering stocks are trading in the negative territory with Jindal Drilling and Welspun Corp leading the losers. As per a leading financial daily, the construction arm of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has won orders worth Rs 20 billion across various business verticals in October 2015.

The company's power transmission and distribution division won orders worth Rs 7.5 billion in both domestic and international markets. Larsen & Toubro Saudi Arabia LLC, a fully owned subsidiary of L&T, has bagged orders from local players for the construction of four 132 kv substations in Riyadh. On the domestic front, the company's power unit landed an order from Power Grid Corporation of India Limited for engineering, procurement and construction of a 765 kv GIS sub-station package at Aligarh.

Furthermore, L&T's transportation infrastructure unit secured orders worth Rs 7 billion from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for construction of a six-lane elevated corridor from Chandigarh to Kharar in Punjab. The buildings and factories unit of L&T secured two orders worth Rs 5 billion, including add-ons during the month.

Notwithstanding, the company has pared its forecast of revenue growth and order inflows in the current year. It has trimmed its revenue growth forecast to 10-15% from 15% earlier and order inflows growth to 5-7% from 15% earlier.

Stock of Larsen & Toubro is presently trading up by 0.3%.

Banking stocks are trading on a discouraging note with Bank of Maharashtra and Dena Bank leading the losses. Public sector lender IDBI Bank has reported its results for the quarter ended September 30, 2015.

The bank's net profit witnessed a marginal increase of 0.8% at 1 billion for the quarter on a YoY basis. The hit on profitability was mainly on the back of a rise in bad loans and provisions towards the same. During the quarter, provision towards bad loans was up 49% YoY at Rs 10 billion.

Net interest income for the bank rose by 14.6% YoY to Rs 16 billion during the quarter. In absolute terms, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) were up 27.7% YoY while net NPAs were up by 19% YoY during the quarter.

The bank, commenting on the results said that over the last few quarters it has been consolidating and rebalancing its loans and liabilities and has seen qualitative improvement in earnings. It further added that the third and fourth quarters will see some further improvement in earnings.

Presently, the stock of IDBI Bank is trading down by 0.3%.