Capital goods lead among gainers

Mon, 25 Nov 01:30 pm

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   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

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Backed by persistent buying activity across index heavyweights, Indian markets continued to trade in the green during the post noon trading session. Barring stocks from the IT sector, all the sectoral indices are trading in the green. Stocks from capital goods and banking sectors are witnessing maximum buying interest.

BSE-Sensex is up by 205 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up by 65 points. While BSE Mid Cap is trading up by 0.63%, BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.79%. The rupee is trading at 62.62 to the US dollar.

Majority of the food & tobacco stocks are trading in the green with United Spirits and VST Industries being among the major gainers. As per a leading financial daily, ITC is leveraging on latest technologies to increase distribution reach in the Indian markets. ITC has mapped more than 20 lakh stores that include organized retail as well as neighborhood kirana stores across India. With near real time information on the availability of its FMCG products in these retail outlets provided to consumers on an online platform, the company aims to increase its customer engagement and push sales of premium products. ITC's product basket consists of a large number of premium offerings such as Dark Fantasy, Choco Fills, Delishus cookies, Aashirvaad multi-grain atta and Fiama Di Wills shower gels that are available in select outlets. To provide consumers easy access to its products, ITC's store locator application has mapped stores across 150 towns and cities. The company plans to link its inventory billing at the outlets to the network to get the correct inventory position in the stores. The store locator service has been test launched in May and ITC wants to promote the service more extensively. ITC stock is currently trading up by 2.2%.

Most of the MNC pharma stocks are trading in the green with Pfizer India and Sanofi India being the major gainers. The board of directors (BOD) of Indian subsidiaries Pfizer Ltd and Wyeth Ltd has approved the merger proposal of both the companies. The BOD of both the companies has also announced an interim dividend of Rs 360 per share for Pfizer shareholders and a dividend of Rs 145 per share for Wyeth shareholders. As per the Scheme, the shareholders of Wyeth India will be issued shares of Pfizer India at a swap ratio of 7 shares of Pfizer India for every 10 shares held by the shareholders of Wyeth India. Based on the proposed merger, Pfizer India will issue approximately 15.9 m new equity shares to Wyeth India shareholders, as consideration for the merger. The said merger will expand Pfizer's drug portfolio and also help in realizing better operational synergies. Pfizer India is currently trading up by 7%.