Sensex Opens Higher; Oil & Gas Stocks Gain

Wed, 24 Apr 09:30 am

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Asian stock markets are lower today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares fall. The Shanghai Composite is off 0.3% while the Hang Seng is down 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 is trading flat. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq registered record closing highs after a broad-based rally on Tuesday, as a clutch of better-than-expected earnings reports eased concerns about a slowdown.

Back home, India share markets opened on a positive note. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 110 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 24 points. Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.2%.

Except consumer durables, healthcare and IT stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in green with telecom stocks and energy stocks leading the gainers.

The rupee is currently trading at 69.77 against the US$.

After the dream bull market of 2017, 2018 turned out to be a wet blanket.

But since March 2019, the Indian markets have rallied sharply. As a result, India managed to outperform most of the other major economies during the second half of the financial year 2018-19 (H2: 2018-19).

The chart below shows the performance of the some of the major world economies during H2: 2018-19 in dollar terms.

Indian Stock Markets Outperform Most Peers

From October 2018 to March 2019, the BSE Sensex increased by 6.8% in rupee terms and 11.7% in dollar terms.

Brazil, Indonesia and China are the only other major economies that did better than India during this period.

Will the trend continue going forward? Let's wait and watch...

Cement stocks opened the day on a mixed note with Mangalam Cement and Heidelberg Cement leading the gainers. In the latest development, Cement maker ACC reported a 38.2% increase in its consolidated profit at Rs 3.5 billion for the first quarter ended March 2019, helped by increase in sales volume.

The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 2.5 billion in the January-March quarter a year ago.

ACC's total income during the period under review was up 11% to Rs 40.8 billion as against Rs 36.7 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The company, which follows January-December period as financial year, reported its total expenses at Rs 35.6 billion as against Rs 33 billion, up 7.8%.

ACC's cement sales volume was up 5.6% to 7.5 million tonne in the January-March quarter as against 7.1 million tonne.

During the quarter, revenue from cement segment was at Rs 35.9 billion, up 6.9%, as against Rs 33.6 billion in the year-ago period.

ACC's earning from ready mix concrete business was also up 18.5% to Rs 3.9 billion as against Rs 3.3 billion.

On the outlook, the company said, predictions of a normal monsoon augur well for the rural economy. The government's continued thrust on infrastructure development as well as 'Housing for All' initiatives are expected to invigorate the construction sector and stimulate cement demand.

ACC share price opened the day down by 3.4%.

Moving on to the news from pharma sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, the US health regulator has cautioned Lupin that the firm's Pithampur facility may be subject to regulatory or administrative action. Hence, it may withhold approval of any pending applications or supplements in which this facility is listed.

The company has received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) classifying the inspection conducted at its Pithampur (Indore) Unit-2 facility in January 2019 as Official Action Indicated (OAI).

Lupin, however, said it does not believe that the classification would have an impact on disruption of supplies or the existing revenues from operations of this facility.

Now how this pans out going forward remains to be seen.

Earlier, the USFDA had classified the inspection conducted at its Somerset (New Jersey) facility in December 2018, as OAI, which means approvals of pending applications or supplements from the site maybe withheld.

To know more about the company, you can access to Lupin's Q3FY19 result analysis and Lupin's 2017-18 Annual Report Analysis on our website.

Lupin share price opened the day down by 2.4%.

And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

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