Realty, FMCG pull indices down

Fri, 11 Dec 02:30 pm

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The choppy Indian markets ventured further into the negative territory during the previous two hours of trade on account of extensive selling activity witnessed in realty, FMCG, banking and healthcare stocks. However, IT, consumer durables and power stocks are lending support to the indices.

The BSE-Sensex and the NSE-Nifty are trading lower by 48 points and 20 points respectively. The BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap indices are trading in the red, lower by around 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 46.58 to the dollar.

According to a leading business daily, Daiichi-owned Ranbaxy is planning to launch the generic version of a drug called 'Flomax' which is used for the treatment of urinary disorders. The drug is expected to be launched in March 2010 in the US as the company will aim to take the advantage of the first-to-file status it holds for the drug. It may be noted that this status grants the drug maker an exclusivity period of 6 months during which no other competitor can sell the copy of the same medicine. This will help Ranbaxy in making some early gains before the competitors come in and drag the prices down. This comes as a relief to the company which is facing a lot of compliance issues with the US Food and Drug Administrator (USFDA). In 2008, the FDA had imposed an import ban on 30 drugs of the company in the US due to violations of manufacturing practices at Ranbaxy's India based plants. Ranbaxy's stock is trading in the red.

As per a leading daily, the government has announced that the 3G spectrum auction will begin on schedule i.e. on 14th of January 2010. There has been a lot of uncertainty about the same over the number of slots to be auctioned. According to the latest decision, government will auction only 3 slots of the 3G spectrum amongst private telecom providers as against the previous plan of 4 slots. This implies that only 3 telecom private vendors will be accommodated in the auction. 1 slot is already reserved for state-owned BSNL and MTNL. The Defense Ministry's reluctance in vacating a part of its spectrum for commercial use has resulted in this move. The government previously was expected to gain atleast Rs 250 bn from the stake sale. However, this decision might deprive the government of more than Rs 50 bn of revenues. Moreover, this can mean that there can only be 3 winners in this race for riding the 3G wave. Stocks from the telecom sector are trading in the negative.