Capital goods stocks lead gainers

Fri, 22 Nov 11:30 am

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After opening on a positive note Indian markets continued to inch upwards. Capital goods and Consumer Durables indices are leading the gainers. Auto and Metals indices are facing some selling pressure.

BSE-Sensex is trading up by 98 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up by 27 points. The BSE Mid Cap is trading up by 0.53% and BSE Small Cap is trading up by 0.69%. The Rupee is trading at 63.0 to the US Dollar.

Indian Pharma stocks are trading mixed today. J.B. Chemicals and Elder Pharma are leading the gainers. Sun Pharma and Wockhardt are leading the losers. According to a leading business daily, Cadila Pharmaceuticals has launched a new drug-Mycidac-C for lung cancer. The drug will be available in India by December. The company will also sell the drug abroad, including the US, Europe and Africa over the next five years as per its Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Modi. Mycidac-C is for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The test of the drug has shown that it can improve survival possibilities by 28% and prolonged survival period by 40%, on an average. Since the company does not have sufficient capabilities to market the drug in developed markets. It plans to market the drug in association with an American company. The drug will cost about Rs 40,000 for one dose of 10 injections. The drug has huge potential as the currently available drug for the similar treatment - Avastin; which is from Roche Pharmaceuticals cost around Rs 37,000 for a single vial; as per a PTI report. Also, according to a World Health Organization report, 1.25m people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year in the world. Out of which around 30% of them have squamous NSCLC. Cadila is trading 3.7% up today.

Most Software stocks are trading higher today. Wipro and Tech Mahindra are among the stocks leading the gainers. India's largest software firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that it would be increasing its employee hiring target for the year due to an improved business environment. TCS which currently employs 285,250 people had set a hiring target of 45,000 at the start of the year. It has now been increased to 50,000 (including trainees) on the back of improving business performance. TCS, which delivered a strong financial performance in 2QFY14, will now end FY14 with over 300,000 employees on its payroll. However the company is not looking at increasing salaries from the current levels of 3.15-3.50 lakhs p.a for new employees, as it would adversely impact its margins. Despite the fact that TCS has not increased wages significantly over the last few years, the company continues to enjoy one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry. Attrition for the September quarter was just 10.9% while the utilisation rate was 83.4% (excluding trainees). TCS is trading up 0.2% today.