Indian share markets fell further in the post-noon trading session. Barring realty & auto, all the sectoral indices are trading in the red. oil and gas and IT stocks are the biggest losers today.
BSE-Sensex is down 131 points and NSE-Nifty is trading 37 points down. BSE Mid Cap is trading 0.3% up and BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.1%. The rupee is trading at 63.44 to the US dollar.
Majority of the energy stocks are trading negative with Indraprastha Gas and Gujarat Gas being the biggest losers. As per a leading financial daily, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has announced plans to invest Rs 68 bn in capacity expansion and improvement in fuel quality at the Gujarat refinery unit. The company would be investing Rs 50 bn in scaling up capacity from 13.7 m metric tonnes to 18 m metric tonnes. The balance Rs 18 bn would be spent on making the refined end-product compliant with low-sulphur Bharat Stage (BS IV and BS V) norms. Even the new capacity being added will be compliant with the latest fuel norms. The capacity expansion project will be completed by 2020 while the fuel quality enhancement project will be completed by April 2017. The shift towards cleaner fuels is likely to boost the company's gross refining margins. IOC stock is presently trading down 2.4%.
Domestic pharma stocks are trading mixed with Torrent Pharma and Cadial Healthcare being the biggest gainers whereas Biocon and Panacea Biotech are the biggest losers. As per a leading daily, Cipla has won an order valued at 2 bn rand for HIV drugs from the South African government. The order has been bagged by the company's South African subsidiary Cipla Medpro. The three year contract is part of the South African government's 2015-17 National ARV tender. The contract will be implemented from 1st April 2015. This is the third tender won by Cipla Medpro in the last one year. The company had earlier bagged a R280 million state therapeutic drug tender in August 2014 and a R345 million national respiratory tender in June 2014. Cipla stock is trading up marginally.
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