 "Markets close in red; sugar stocks soar on decontrol news")
The Indian stock markets closed in the red, hitting a new low for 2013, as investors turned edgy ahead of Union Budget.
The Sensex closed at 19468.15, down 0.15 percent and the Nifty at 5887.40, down 0.16 percent.
India will have to pursue domestic policy initiatives to help achieve any near-term improvement in its current account deficit as global growth may only be slightly better in 2013 and commodity prices are unlikely to ease sharply, Moody’s said today.
[caption id=“attachment_626971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shares in DLF closed 2 percent down. Reuters[/caption]
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday saying that mobile phone carriers in India whose permits were revoked last year must stop operations immediately unless they have won new rights to airwaves, according to three lawyers on the case.
The court last year ordered 122 permits held by eight carriers including the Indian units of Russia’s Sistema and Norway’s Telenor, as well as India-based Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices to be revoked after a massive scandal over the permits sale process in 2008.
IT stocks including Infosys (1 percent) TCS (0.44 percent) and HCL Tech (1 percent ) closed down on account of profit booking.
Stocks in news
Shares in DLF closed 2 percent down, a day after India’s largest listed real estate developer reported a net profit of Rs 285 crore, which missed market expectations.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories closed down 3.20 percent after it reported a larger-than-expected 29.2 percent fall in quarterly net profit on Thursday.
Sanofi India closed up 4 percent after the High Court ruled that parent Sanofi need not pay tax in India.
Kingfisher Airlines extended losses and closed down 5 percent even after the company has decided to use the proceeds from the Diageo deal to cut debt.
The Centre is likely to take a decision on giving freedom to the Rs 80,000 crore sugar industry to sell the sweetener in the open market in the next 15 days, Food Minister K V Thomas said on Friday. Sugar stocks including Balrampur Chini (8 percent), Shree Renuka Sugars (4 percent) closed up higher.
Shares in Tata Motors recovered from early losses and closed up 2.4 percent on expectations of better sales and margin at subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover, traders said.
Suzlon Energy closed down 9 percent after the wind turbine maker said its quarterly net loss had widened to Rs 1155 crore.
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