The Indian stock market continued to trade weak on account of selling pressure in heavyweights during the last two hours of trade. All sectoral indices are trading in the red. Stocks from the realty, capital goods and metal are leading the pack of losers.
The BSE-Sensex is trading down by 318 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 101 points below yesterday's closing. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading down by 1.5% and 1.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 51.79 to the US dollar.
Software stocks have been trading mixed with Moser Baer (India), Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are trading in the green. However, NIIT Ltd and Info Edge are trading weak. As per a leading financial daily, next year Indian software companies would be hiring less number of employees. This lower hiring number would be on account of weakening global demand environment which is leading to lower discretionary spending by the clients. This has further led to delay in start of the already awarded projects. All this would not only affect the overall hiring in numbers, it would also impact the salary hikes for the employees in Information Technology (IT) sector next year.
For the last two quarters, IT firms have witnessed a drop in their attrition rates. Besides, the companies have hired in good numbers during this year. As a result, they already have a healthy human resource capacity to capture the expected future growth. Hence, hiring is expected to be moderated in the coming quarters.
Most of the Energy stocks have been trading in the red with Gujarat State Petronet, Reliance Industries and Essar Oil leading the pack of losers. However, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is trading in the green. As per a leading financial daily, Petronet LNG Ltd will be finalizing an agreement to source Liquefied natural gas (LNG) very soon with Gazprom from Russia. Earlier in June, Gazprom had signed a preliminary deal with Petronet to supply 2.5 m tonnes of LNG per annum. It is currently in the process of raising its Dahej terminal capacity to 15 m tonnes and is keen on imports from Russia, which are expected to double to 4 m tonnes a year later. In a separate news, the company has expressed desire to explore participation in the natural gas projects at Doha congress. The stock of the company is trading weak.
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