A slight relief for the Indian markets as the Sensex opens around 35 points higher at 16900 levels, while the Nifty is up 13 points at 5135 levels as market participants snap up beaten down scrips following Monday’s global selloff. But the gains are limited at the moment amid lingering worries over the eurozone debt crisis and the government’s ability to push through pending reforms.
The rupee, however, is at a three-week low as the euro and other global risk assets remained under pressure after Moody’s downgraded Germany’s sovereign outlook to negative.At 9:07 am, the rupee was at 56.02/03 to the dollar versus its last close of 55.9650/9750. It fell to as low as 56.10 in early trade, its lowest since June 29.
AFP
Globally, Moody’s Investors Service has revised to negative from stable the outlooks on the Aaa sovereign ratings of Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In addition, Moody’s has also affirmed Finland’s Aaa rating and stable outlook.
FMCG is the biggest winner so far among the sectoral plays due to strength in HUL while IT is the top loser after Wipro came out with muted earnings and guidance.
Wipro is the biggest loser on the BSE IT index, down 2.4 percent at Rs 347 after the company forecast subdued IT services sales for the current quarter after posting an 18 percent rise in quarterly profit that met market expectations on growth in outsourcing work.
L&T stock is up 0.7 percentt to Rs 1387 after the company posted a 16 percent rise in net profit on higher revenue and fresh orders.
Idea Cellular is down 1.3 percent to Rs 79 as its 32 percent profit growth falls short of estimates.
Hindustan Unilever has gained 2.3 percent to Rs 453 as its net profit for the quarter ended June more than doubled, up 112% at Rs. 1,331crore, aided by land deals.
RIL, Infosys, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Sterlite Inds, HUL are among gainers in Sensex and Nifty.
Wipro, Sun Pharma, Tata Power, TCS, HDFC,Hero MotoCorp are among losers in Sensex and Nifty.
The government might get some comfort on the political front as one of its allies NCP has put off its decision on pulling out of the government at the Centre for now.
Also one of the reasons that pulled the markets lower in last session, FDI in retail seems to be stabilizing on report that there is no change in plans of government to notify the cabinet decision taken last year on FDI in multi-brand retail due to the opposition.
There is likely to be some jitter in the derivative market as market regulator Sebi has hiked the benchmark liquidity level for any scrip to be eligible for trading in the derivatives segments.
There were some good result from the FMCG sector stocks and they may remain buzzing, HUL, Dabur and Colgate have reported 20 percent jump in their first quarter sales.
OMCs will be in lime light after they raised petrol prices by at least 70 paise per litre effective midnight.
Stocks in news
Coal India (CIL) has received the cabinet nod for taking over the closed unit of Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCI) at Talcher in Orissa, along with Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (RCF). Following this, FCI now wants to take an 11% stake in the entity in lieu of the assets at the unit.
Bajaj Auto is close to launching a third 100 cc bike – in addition to the Discover and Platina – to take on Hero MotoCorp’s bread and butter products, the Splendor and the Passion, as well as Honda’s new model at the entry level, the 110 cc Dream Yuga. Codenamed D-104, the bike is slated for launch in October-November and is expected to be aggressively priced at around Rs 40,000, a tad lower than its 100 cc and 110 cc rivals.
Pharma firm Lupin will challenge a US court order that prevents it from selling a low-cost generic version of Pfizer’s nerve pain drug pregabalin for six years. A court in the US state of Delaware had last week allowed Pfizer to retain the marketing monopoly of its two patents for pregabalin, sold under the brand Lyrica, until December 2018. The order threatens to derail Lupin’s plan to tap pregabalin’s fast growing market in the US.
Swift, one of India’s largest selling cars and a best-seller from the Maruti Suzuki’s stable, will soon run out of stock as the company is not expected to revive production at the violence-hit Manesar plant, its sole manufacturing facility, any time soon. The development is likely to further increase the waiting period for customers, affect suppliers dependent on the car, and hit sales. Swift outsold every single car in India and also overtook the largest-selling car Alto hatchback earlier this year as demand shifted to fuel-efficient diesel cars.
