Mid, small caps buck the trend

Wed, 4 Jun 01:30 pm

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Indian stock markets continued to trade below the dotted line during the previous two hours of trade led by selling pressure among the Index heavy weights. Selling activity is led by stocks from IT and energy sectors. However, BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading higher by over 1.5% each today. The BSE-Sensex is currently trading lower by about 5 points while the NSE-Nifty is trading flat. The rupee is trading at 59.33 to the US dollar.

Most of the retail stocks are trading firm today led by Provogue India and Titan Industries. As per a leading business daily, watches and jewellery maker Titan plans to focus and expand its scope of operations into the premium and smart watches categories. For this, the company plans to launch 10 to 12 smart watches during the holiday season this December. The tech savvy watches will feature varied designs, colour and multi functionalities across target market. It will also offer connectivity to mobile phones for messaging, alerts and other functionalities. The company's watches currently dominate in the price range of Rs 800 to Rs 3,000 category. It is looking to strengthen its position in the premium market price range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. The company plans to add 120 watch stores to its existing pan-India network of 550 stores.

Mining stocks are trading mixed today. While Gujarat NRE Coke and NMDC are trading higher, Coal India is trading weak. As per a leading business daily, Coal India has reported its provisional coal production for the month of May 2014. The company has produced 36.27 m tonnes coal in May, which is 6% lower than the target of 38.56 m tonnes. The company's combined production for two months of April and May this year witnessed a shortfall of 3% at the provisional number of 73.79 m tonnes as compared to the target of 76.17 m tonnes. It may be noted that India's largest coal producer has been missing its production targets in recent times. With respect to coal offtake agreement for May, it stood lower by 7% than targeted, while for the April-May period, off take stood 81.25 m tonnes against target of 88.94 m tonnes, which was lower by 9%. These shortfalls are quite higher than the company's 3QFY14 shortfall of offtake by 4.7% and production by 3.9% to its target.