Indian share markets open in green

Tue, 21 May 09:30 am

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   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

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Barring Malaysia (0.4%), all major Asian stock markets have opened the day on a weak note with Hong Kong (down 0.5%) and Indonesia (down 0.5%) leading the losses. However, the Indian share market indices have opened the day on a positive note. Stocks in the oil and gas and information technology space are leading the gains. However, auto and FMCG stock are trading weak.

The Sensex today is up by around 25 points (0.1%), while the NSE-Nifty is up by around 3 point (0.05%). Mid and small cap stocks are also trading in the green with the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices up by around 0.3% and 0.2% respectively. The rupee is trading at Rs 55.09 to the US dollar.

Engineering stocks have opened the day on a weak note with Manugraph India, Voltas Ltd and TRF Ltd leading the losses. Tata Group firm Voltas Ltd has announced its financial results for the quarter and year ended March 2013 (4QFY13). During the quarter, the company's consolidated income from operations rose by 1.4% YoY to Rs 15,971.1 m from Rs 15,744.3 m in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year (4QFY12). Operating profits were lower by 39.2% year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 830.6 m. Operating profit margins declined from 8.7% in 4QFY12 to 5.2% in 4QFY13. At the bottomline level, net profits plunged by a whopping 91.4% YoY to Rs 89.2 m. During the financial year 2012-13 (FY13), consolidated sales increased by 6.7% YoY to Rs 55,309.6 m, while net profits surged by 28.2% YoY to Rs 2,077.8 m.

Auto stocks have opened the day on a weak note with Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) leading the losses. Earlier, when the gap between diesel and petrol prices had widened sharply, there was a spurt in demand for diesel cars. This led companies to add capacity for diesel variants. However, as per a leading financial daily, the gap between the prices of the two fuels has been narrowing owing to the decontrol of diesel prices since January 2013. Moreover, diesel cars have been costlier by about 15.-20% compared to their petrol variants. As a result, the demand for petrol variants has increased in recent months. This has prompted car manufacturers to rethink their production strategy. As per car companies, more than 57% of the cars sold in April 2013 were petrol variants. This was higher by 4% over the corresponding month of the previous year. It is worth noting that the difference between the prices of the two fuels has dropped to the lowest level of Rs 13.4 per litre. In May 2012, it had reached a high of Rs 32.37 per litre.