Indian stock markets continue to rally

Fri, 20 Dec 01:30 pm

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Backed by persistent buying activity Indian markets continued to trade in green during the post noon trading session. Barring stocks from capital goods sector, all the sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks from auto and realty being among the leading gainers.

BSE-Sensex is up by 222 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up by 65 points. While BSE Mid Cap is trading up by 1.42%, BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 1.0%. The rupee is trading at 62.18 to the US dollar.

Majority of the investment & finance stocks are trading in the green with Bajaj Finserv and Power Finance Corporation being the major gainers. As per a leading financial daily IDFC , an infrastructure financing arm and applicant for a banking license, has said that it will work towards bringing down foreign shareholding to below 50% in the event of acquiring a banking license from RBI. As of 6 December 2013, the actual foreign shareholding in the bank was around 51.27%. As per RBI guidelines, the eligible promoters of the bank should be 'owned and controlled by residents'. The Board of Directors of the bank passéd a resolution on December 19 for a postal ballot to seek shareholder's approval for reduction in the foreign shareholding limit from 54% to 49.9% in various stages. The bank has also said that in the event on non-receipt of banking license from RBI, IDFC will take steps to reinstate the foreign shareholding back up to 74% subject to regulations prevailing at that time. IDFC is among the 25 applicants that have applied for a bank license likely to be issued next year. Other applicants include India Post, IFCI, Anil Ambani Group and Aditya Birla Group. Tata sons had withdrawn its application last month. IDFC's stock is currently trading down by 0.4%.

Most of the Indian pharma stocks are trading in green with Panacea biotech and JB chemicals being among the leading gainers. Few days back, Biocon Ltd had announced about the deal with Quark pharmaceuticals. As per an interview published in one financial daily, the chairperson and managing director Kiran Mazumdar shaw said, that the company does not expect any immediate benefit from the deal. This is because, the deal signed is for the development of biotech products which take longer time for development. Hence the upside from this deal will come after some time only. Further, the deal is signed for developing small interfering RNA (siRNA) based medicines. It is believed that, this is a new class of drug that will really revolutionize and address a large number of unmet needs. Biocon is trading up by 2.5%.