Final hour slump in Indian mkts

Thu, 26 Jul Closing

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   09:30 am   

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The Indian stock markets started the day on par, but they moved slightly lower and continued to trade below the dotted line for a bulk of today's session. However, in the final hour of trade the indices fell sharply. The market breadth was negative with 2.2 declines to every advance. While the BSE-Sensex closed lower by around 206 points (down 1.2%), the NSE-Nifty closed higher by around 66 points (down 1.3%). The smaller indices also had a negative day on the bourses. The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap both closed 2.1% lower respectively. Stocks from these indices were heavily battered with speculation that operators were dumping these stocks after margin calls got triggered. Tulip Telecom was the major loser, plunging 26% in trade today. All sectoral indices saw losses today with realty and consumer goods stocks leading the losses.

As regards global markets, Asian indices had a mixed outing today. European indices also opened the day on a mixed note. The rupee was trading at Rs 55.9 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) announced first quarter results of financial year 2012-2013 (1QFY13). The company has reported 16.9% YoY growth in sales. Operating profits increased by 18.1% YoY. However, operating margins were relatively flat at 14.2% during the quarter. Net profits increased by 12.9% YoY during the quarter mainly due to strong performance at the operating level, a rise in other income and fall in interest expenses. However depreciation expenses increased 33.6% on a YoY basis. The order book at the end of the quarter stood at Rs 1,329 bn. The stock closed 1.8% lower post the result announcement.

Ambuja Cements has announced its second quarter results for the calendar year 2012 (2QCY12). During the quarter ended June 2012, the company reported 17.9% year-on-year (YoY) growth in the topline. Net sales stood at Rs 25,660 m during the period. The growth was driven by 7.3% YoY increase in sales volume of cement. The remaining growth came from increase in cement realisations. Operating margins improved from 26.9% in 2QCY11 to 28.2% in 2QCY12. The improvement at the operating level coupled with higher other income and lower effective tax rate led the bottomline to grow by 34.9% YoY. Net profits for the quarter stood at Rs 4,689 m. Net margins improved from 16% in 2QCY11 to 18.3% in 2QCY12. The stock closed 3% higher post the result announcement.