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Indian Share Markets Open Flat; Metal and Healthcare Stocks Lag
Mon, 13 May 09:30 am

Asian share markets slipped in early trade today. Meanwhile, US stocks rebounded from early losses on Friday to snap a four-day losing streak after US President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said trade talks between the United States and China were constructive.

Back home, India share markets opened on a flat note. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 40 points while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 13 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened down by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

Sectoral indices have opened the day on a mixed note with Telecom and FMCG stocks witnessing buying interest. Metal and healthcare stocks have opened the day in red.

The rupee is currently trading at 70.14 against the US$.


In the news from the economy. The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by US$171.9 million to US$418.7 billion in the week to May 3, mainly on account of a rise in foreign currency assets.

In the previous week, the reserves had swelled by US$4.4 billion to US$418.5 billion, helped by the second dollar-rupee swap auction held on April 23.

In the reporting week, foreign currency assets, which are a major component of the overall reserves, rose by US$448.3 million to US$390.9 billion.

Expressed in US dollar terms, foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies like the euro, pound and yen held in the reserves.

Gold reserves declined by US$281.6 million to US$3 billion.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund rose by US$1.6 million to US$1.5 billion.

The country's reserve position with the Fund also increased by US$3.6 million to US$3.3 billion, according to the RBI data.

India's forex kitty had touched a life-time high of US$426 billion in the week to 13 April 2018.

Moving on to the news from automobiles sector. Eicher Motors on Friday registered a 18.1% rise in consolidated net profit after tax to Rs 5.4 billion for March 2019 quarter.

The company had reported a net profit after tax of Rs 4.6 billion in the year-ago period.

Total revenue from operations for the quarter stood at Rs 25 billion as against Rs 25.3 billion in the same period of 2017-18.

During the period under review, the maker of niche Royal Enfield bikes sold 1,97,567 units, down 13% from 2,26,907 in the same period last year.

For 2018-19, the company posted a net profit after tax at Rs 22 billion as compared to Rs 19.6 billion in 2017-18.

Total revenue for 2018-19 was Rs 98 billion as against Rs 92.2 billion a year ago.

As per the company, the latter half of 2018 was a challenging period for the two-wheeler industry in India with factors such as revision in insurance cost, increase in prices on account of new safety norms, affected consumer sentiment.

At Royal Enfield, the company recorded flat sales volume after several years of augmented sales growth.

The company sold 8,22,724 Royal Enfield units during 2018-19, a marginal growth over 8,20,121 units in 2017-18.

Eicher Motors share price opened the day down by 2.5%.

Speaking of automobile stocks, all the components of BSE Auto index have fallen in 2018. Tata Motors crashed over 60% and Motherson Sumi Systems plunged over 40% in past one year. While, Bharat Forge, Ashok Leyland and Maruti Suzuki fell over 30% during the same period.

But, one thing we must keep in mind is that not all auto companies will make money over time. And also, you shouldn't stay away from auto stocks altogether.

Even Tanushree Banerjee, Co-head of research at Equitymaster believes that there are businesses in this sector that you cannot ignore. She is particularly talking about the blue-chip auto stocks.

Here's Tanushree:

  • One out of every three household in India is a buyer of their products. They own some of the cult brands in Indian automobile space. They have formidable R&D teams. They have been through several economic cycles over decades. Few have even visited near-bankruptcy in the past and come out successful.

    Yet, some of the biggest passenger car, commercial vehicle, and two-wheeler companies in India have seen a huge dent in valuations in recent times.

    This could be the opportunity long term investors were waiting for.

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

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