Largecap stocks bear the brunt

Thu, 31 Jul Closing

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The Indian equity markets continued their losing streak, slipping to lower levels during the latter half of the day. While the BSE-Sensex today closed lower by by 192 points, the NSE-Nifty closed lower by 70 points. Midcaps and Smallcaps, however, ended the day on a positive note. While the BSE Mid Cap index closed higher by 0.2%, the BSE Small Cap index closed the day higher by 0.25%. Banking and power stocks were the biggest losers today.

As regards global markets, Asian indices closed on a mixed note today, with the Singapore and Chinese markets topping the list of gainers. The Japanese and Korean markets were amongst the losers. The rupee was trading at Rs 60.24 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Engineering stocks closed the day on a mixed note with Jyoti Structure and BGR Energy seeing the biggest declines. Elecon Engineering and Shanti Gears on the other hand were amongst the top gainers. Thermax has announced its first quarter (1QFY15) results. During 1QFY15, both its topline and bottomline saw a decline. Net sales declined by 2.4% YoY during 1QFY15. The energy segment managed to see a marginal increase in revenues of 1.7% YoY. However, environmental segment revenues decreased 10.4% YoY. Operating profits declined by 29.6% YoY during 1QFY15. Margins thus fell by 2.3% from 8.2% to 5.9%. The fall in margin was due to an increase in material cost as a percentage of sales, which increased from 56.8% of sales in 1QFY14 to 59.6% in the quarter gone by. Staff costs too added to the margin deterioration with a 0.7% increase over the previous year's quarter. Profit after tax declined 17.6% YoY due to decline in operating profit and higher depreciation and interest costs. The consolidated order back log of the company stood at Rs 59.48 bn at the end of 1QFY15.

Power stocks have closed the day on a weak note, with the stocks of NTPC and Gujarat Industries Power leading the losses. The Tamil Nadu government has announced a series of measures covering the power sector among others. This encompasses efforts to ensure uninterrupted power supply and develop the infrastructure in the sector. As part of this, 60 sub stations and 2,500 km of high voltage power transmission corridor will be set up at a cost of Rs 52.84 bn in the current financial year itself. This will be a boost for power transmission to the industries in the state as also to southern India which has historically been one of the most electricity deficit regions of India.