Indian share markets remain in green

Tue, 25 Jun 11:30 am

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Indian share markets have traded in green during the previous two hours of trade. The most noticeable upward movements have been witnessed in the oil and gas and FMCG sectors while consumer durables and auto have witnessed the maximum selling pressures.

The BSE-Sensex is up by 57 points and NSE-Nifty is up by 17points. However, BSE Mid Cap is down by 1.5% and BSE Small Cap is down by 0.8%. The rupee is trading at 59.76 to the US dollar.

Finance shares are trading on a mixed note with Indiabulls Fin. Servcies and Motilal Oswal leading the gains while SREI Infra Finance and Power Finance Corp facing the maximum selling pressures. According to a leading financial news medium, Mahindra Finance, the non-banking financial company (NBFC) and arm of Mahindra Group has opted out of the race to seek bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While Mahindra Finance was supposedly a strong contender, the RBI's stringent guidelines for setting up a bank has kept it away for pursuing a bank licence. In its statement to the exchanges, the company has clarified that the current set of guidelines has an adverse economic and operational impact on the business of large NBFCs. The company has explained that the guidelines did not allow an NBFC and a bank to co-exist for a reasonable period of time. Moreover, the company is also concerned with the Cash reserve ratio (CRR) and Statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) compliance to be applicable right from inception. On similar lines, Reliance Industries too has decided not to set up a bank. Considering the financial sector not being the core area of business for Reliance Industries, the company has also raised concerns over banking business risks and regulatory risks linked to the banking sector. On the other hand, other conglomerates such as the Tata Group and few NBFCs' namely, SREI Infra Finance, IDFC, Religare and Tourism Finance Corporation of India have had their Board approvals in place to opt for banking licences. Mahindra Finance's share is down by 3.4%.

Except Bharti Airtel, all the Telecom shares have slipped in red with ADC India Comm and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) facing the maximum selling pressures. According to a leading financial news daily, Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile carrier by subscriber base, has reduced rates for fourth-generation (4G) services by 30% and brought these down below the third-generation (3G) rates. Post the price cut, a 10GB pack would cost Rs 999 a month in 4G, while Airtel charges Rs 1,500 a month in 3G. This move comes just after a week's time post the reduction in 2G data prices by 80-90% in select areas by the top 3 mobile service providers namely, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. The reduction in prices for 4G by Bharti is not merely a step to woo customersbut to maintain competitive rates by bringing them on par with market rates. As at 31st March 2013, Bharti AIrtel had 43 million data users, of which 6 million were 3G subscribers. During the last quarter of the financial year gone by, the company witnessed 22% increase in data subscriber base and 25% increase in data revenue per user. 6.5% of Bharti's total revenue comes from data. Bharti AIrtel's share is up by 1.3%.