Energy & metal, strong gainers

Mon, 5 May 01:30 pm

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Indian share markets climbed higher in the post-noon trading session. Majority of the sectoral indices are trading in the green with oil and gas, metal and capital goods stocks being the biggest gainers. Only IT, pharma and consumer durables stocks are trading in the red.

BSE-Sensex is up 154 points and NSE-Nifty is trading 23 points up. BSE Mid Cap is trading 0.3% up and BSE Small Cap index is trading down marginally. The rupee is trading at 60.0 to the US dollar.

Majority of the FMCG stocks are trading in the green with Marico and Jyothy Consumer being the major gainers whereas P&G Hygiene and Godrej Consumer are trading in the red. As per a leading financial daily, Marico will be focusing on savoury oats segment as the growth driver in the foods category. The company will not be making further investments in muesli segment that is available only in modern trade. Presently packaged foods contribute Rs 600 m, accounting for less than 2% in overall sales. The company will aggressively scale up its savoury oats offerings with at least one or two innovations. In cosmetics, Marico has entered the deodorant segment and extended its hair gel brand Livon into hair colour. The cosmetics portfolio has a sales turnover of Rs 2 bn constituting 4% of total sales. The company has been reducing its dependence on the flagship brand Parachute that is commodity driven by diversifying into packaged foods and cosmetics. Marico stock is trading up 3%.

Majority of software stocks are trading weak today led by selling pressure witnessed in HCL Tech and Wipro. As per a leading business daily, Infosys is looking out to make acquisitions in the Nordic countries. The Nordic countries comprise of five countries namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden which lie in the geographic region of Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. The company's president who used to head European continent is bullish about the Nordic countries, while he aims revenue contribution from entire Europe to increase from 25% to 30% going forward. It may be noted that Infosys's European revenues have increased nearly 10 fold to US$ 2 bn in less than a decade. The growth in Europe was far better than the other regions. As such, Infosys plans for an acquisition in the region in a similar line of Lodestone, a Zurich based consulting firm that it acquired in 2012 for US$ 350 m. The company's European revenues for the March 2014 quarter were flat on a sequential basis. And a possible way to grow in the region is by expanding in the non-English speaking market through acquisitions. The stock of Infosys is trading down by over 1% today.