Firm close for the indices

Mon, 6 May Closing

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

Indian equity markets had a volatile trading session today. The morning session saw the indices build on their gains before profit booking took over at higher levels. Buying once again resumed in the final hours leading the indices to close well above the dotted line. While the BSE-Sensex today closed higher by 98 points, the NSE-Nifty closed higher by 27 points. Both the BSE Mid Cap and the BSE Small Cap also notched gains of 1% each. Barring banking and FMCG stocks, gains were seen across sectors.

As regards global markets, most Asian indices closed in the green today while European indices have opened mixed. The rupee was trading at Rs 54.05 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Auto stocks closed firm today with the key gainers being Tube Investments, TVS Motors and Tata Motors. Tube Investments announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended March 2013. The company reported a 10% YoY fall in revenues during the quarter as sales from all its three divisions witnessed a fall. While revenues from the cycles and engineering segments fell by 9% YoY and 4% YoY during the quarter, the drop in revenues from metal formed products was even steeper at 20% YoY. Operating margins shrunk by 3.2% to 7.6% during the quarter leading to the 36% YoY fall in operating profits. This coupled with the rise in interest costs led to the 64% YoY decline in the bottomline for the quarter. For the full year, while total sales fell by 2% YoY, net profits declined by 42% YoY on account of a 1.9% drop in operating margins.

MNC pharma stocks closed mixed today. While GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited (GSK Pharma) and Pfizer found favour, Sanofi India closed into the red. Sanofi India declared the results for the first quarter ended March 2013 (December ending company). The company clocked net sales growth of 12.5% YoY during 1QCY13 and 27% growth in the operating income. Operating margins declined by 0.8% YoY during the quarter to 26.8% due to increase in the cost of raw materials. Thus, operating profits grew modestly by just 4% YoY for quarter. Net profits grew by 11% YoY and this was higher than the growth in operating profits on account of substantial rise in other income. The company launched two new products during the quarter called Combiflam Plus and Allegra M. Going forward, besides the likely impact of the new pricing policy, Sanofi India will also have to contend with rise in amortization expenses on Goodwill. That said, the company has a strong parent whose product portfolio, Sanofi India can leverage on to launch new products into the country.