Indian indices remain firm

Mon, 16 Sep 11:30 am

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After a good start, the Indian stock markets have remained in the green in the morning session. All sectors except pharma and software are trading higher.

The BSE-Sensex is up 210 points while the NSE-Nifty is trading up 55 points. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading up by 0.5% and 0.8% respectively. The Rupee is trading at 63.63 to the US Dollar.

Most Information Technology (IT) stocks are trading lower today. HCL Technologies (HCL Tech) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are among the top losers. According to a leading business daily HCL Tech is considering the possibility of merging HCL Infosystems with itself. Both companies are owned by Shiv Nadar promoted HCL Corporation. As per the daily, the sales teams of both HCL Tech and HCL Infosystems have begun to work closely with each other by coordinating their activities and presenting themselves as one united entity. They have begun jointly pitching for new technology service contracts in India and the Middle East. Two companies are said to have shared their client details with each other.

HCL Technologies is focused primarily on the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions and has sales of Rs 257.34 bn in the year ended June 30, 2013. Revenues come mostly from Indian and Middle Eastern clients and comprises mainly of selling computing hardware to the Indian government and by acting as a national distributor for mobile phones, computers, laptops and printers. Due to the fact that margins are lower in the IT business sourced from India, the merger, if were to go happen, could adversely affect margins of HCL Tech. However it will strengthen its domestic presence and increase its revenues.

Indian Pharma stocks are trading mixed today. Panacea Biotech and Ipca Labs leading the gainers; while Wockhardt and Ranbaxy are seeing losses. The stock of Ranbaxy is down by over 20% today owing to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)'s import alert on its Mohali plant. According to a leading business daily, Form 483 was also issued to the company for its Mohali plant earlier. This indicates there were certain discrepancies in manufacturing practices which the US FDA had pointed out earlier. However, since the company failed to comply with those issues, an import alert has been issued. In November 2012 as well the USFDA had directed for the recall of its generic drug Lipitor; which was being manufactured at the same Mohali facility. It was reported that glass particles were found in certain lots of the drug. The company was supposed to be working with USFDA for the implementation of corrective measures.