Indian share markets remain buoyant

Wed, 20 Jun 01:30 pm

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Indian share markets continued to trade above the dotted line in the last two trading hours. Most of the sectoral indices are trading positive with pharma, capital goods and power stocks being the biggest gainers. Only IT, realty and FMCG are trading in the red.

The BSE-Sensex is trading up 22 points and NSE-Nifty is trading up 9 points. BSE Mid cap index and BSE Small Cap index are trading up by 0.6% each. The rupee is trading at 55.9 to the US dollar.

The automobile stocks are currently trading mixed. Maharashtra Scooters and Eicher Motors are the biggest losers whereas Tata Motors and TVS Motors are the biggest gainers. As per a leading financial daily, the steep differential in petrol and diesel prices is leading to a shift in consumer preference for diesel car variants. Car companies that are already offering incentives and discounts on petrol cars are now cutting their production to prevent inventory pile-up. Maruti Suzuki has said that its petrol car sales are expected to fall by 50,000 units in FY13. Earlier for three days in May and June, the company had shut production of key petrol models namely Alto, Estilo and A-Star. Going forward, the company will shut production for a week starting June 24. The stock is down 0.9%.

General Motors has been observing no-production days for petrol-only models such as Spark, U-VA minis, Optra and Aveo sedans to align production to reduced demand. Similarly, Toyota Kirloskar has stopped production of petrol cars Liva, Etios and Corolla Altis from June 16 onwards. The company's inventory of petrol cars had swelled up to over 30 days.

Majority of the Indian pharma stocks are trading positive with Fresnius Kabi and Indoco Remedies being the biggest gainers. A leading business daily has reported that Daiichi Sankyo Venezuela (DSV), a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo and a group company of Ranbaxy Laboratories would start marketing the latter's products in Venezuela. As per the company, this is part of the hybrid business model. Ranbaxy has been marketing products in Venezuela through a local distributor all this while. It is believed that DSV has already started promotion of Ranbaxy's products in the country. This is a positive move for the company considering that DSV would be able to have a better reach given its size. It may be noted that Venezuela is the third largest pharmaceutical market in Latin America. While DSV has established presence with some of the parent's key products, it would now also focus on expanding Ranbaxy's portfolio of medicines.