Persistent selling hits indices

Tue, 7 Dec Closing

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   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

Indian indices languished in the red for a larger part of the trading session today. Although, there were some attempts made in the afternoon session to push above the dotted line, these proved futile and the markets closed into the red in the final trading hour. While the BSE Sensex closed lower by around 47 points (down 0.2%), the NSE Nifty lost around 16 points (down 0.3%). Selling was more pronounced in midcap and smallcap stocks as the BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap racked losses of 2% and 1% respectively. Banking stocks were the worst hit while metals and oil& gas stocks managed to buck the trend.

As regards global markets, Asian indices closed mixed today while European indices have opened in the green. The rupee was trading at Rs 44.74 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Pharma stocks closed mixed today. While Piramal Healthcare, Sun Pharma and Glenmark found favour, Cadila Healthcare and Biocon closed into the red. As per a leading business daily, pharma major Glenmark and its partner Lehigh Technologies (LVT) have jointly received approval from the US FDA to market a line of controlled substance products containing ‘Oxycodone Hydrochloride.' As per IMS, for the twelve month period ending September 2010, ‘Oxycodone Hydrochloride' had total market sales of US$ 13 m. These products will be launched in the US both in the generic as well as branded forms. While Glenmark will market the product in the generic form, LVT will retain exclusive marketing rights for the branded form. This news comes as positive for Glenmark and will augment its revenues from the highly competitive US generics market. The added advantage is that controlled substances is a niche area and so the competition and price erosion will be lesser.

The Indian government expects India's GDP to grow at around 8.75% in FY11 and could even breach the 9% mark. The headline inflation is expected to ease to 6.5% by the end of December. In the review, food inflation has been pegged at 19.9% in the review, fuel inflation stands at 10.3%. The mid-term review sees budget deficit at 5.5% of GDP for the current fiscal. The RBI has been tightening its policy measures to keep inflation in check and is likely to do so till the same eases within the central bank's comfort range. The mid-term review has also talked about the pushing reforms which in turn would attract long-term investments from foreign investors.