Indian equity mkts back in green

Thu, 7 Feb 11:30 am

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Indian equity markets have been back in green during the previous two hours of trade. The most noticeable upward movements have been witnessed in the software and auto sectors while metal and consumer durables have faced the maximum selling pressures.

The BSE-Sensex is up by 35 points and NSE-Nifty is up by 11 points. BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index are trading higher by 0.47% and 0.44% respectively. The rupee is trading at 53.32 to the US dollar.

Large software stocks are trading on a mixed note with Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra leading the gains while Info Edge and Moser Baer India are facing the most selling pressures. According to a leading financial daily, the management of Wipro and Infosys have engaged the consultancy and audit firm, Ernst & Young to reviews their current HR practices and the internal procedures within HR in order to protect themselves from legal problems that they have faced overseas recently. The need to reassess internal procedures has come about after a series of incidents in which the carelessness and ignorance of the large software companies, including Wipro and Infosys have been exposed.

Infosys is fighting allegations that it broke visa rules while sending engineers to the US. It is further envisaged that once E&Y's audit with respect to the existing procedures is complete, the consultancy's legal experts in each of the foreign locations would devise new procedures to make Wipro and Infosys fully compliant with the local laws. While most of the current troubles tend to be around sending employees to the US, in the near future, the same could be true for other markets as well. Wipro's share is trading up by 0.20% and Infosys's share is trading up by 0.59%.

Indian pharma stocks are also trading on a mixed note with Ranbaxy and Wockhardt leading the gains while Zandu realty ltd. and Strides Arcolab are leading the losses. Ranbaxy's shares have fallen by over 18% in the last month following its recall of the cholesterol lowering drug, Lipitor from the US in November 2012. Lipitor is a generic drug and the company was expected to restore supplies post the recall, however, it failed to do so in the indicated time frame of December 2012. The Company earlier indicated its objective of meeting the deadline, but after more than a month's delay in resupplying the drug in the worlds' biggest drug market, questions are being raised on the Company's efficiency and on the generic product, Lipitor with obvious negative impact on the Company's share price.