Indian indices languish in red

Tue, 20 Aug 01:30 pm

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Indian equity markets continued to trade below the dotted line during the post noon trading session. Barring stocks from FMCG, metal and realty, the sectoral indices are witnessing selling pressure. Stocks from consumer durables and auto are witnessing maximum selling pressures

The BSE-Sensex is down by 59 points and NSE-Nifty is trading down by 16 points. While BSE Mid Cap is trading lower by 0.48%, BSE Small Cap Cap index is trading down by 0.18%. The rupee is trading at 63.60 to the US dollar.

Majority of the Automobile stocks are trading in the red with Tata Motors and Tube investments being among major losers. As per a leading financial daily, Tata motors is expected to earn large part of its revenues from China. Further, in FY13, Tata Motor's revenues for FY13 were largely contributed by India followed by China. China accounted for approx 23.6% of the total sales and India accounted marginally higher at approx 23.9% of the sales for the said period. Further, one of the important reason why China could beat the Indian sales is the falling demand in the car sales in India. During Jan-June months, India's sales have fallen by 25.4% while its China sales have gone up by 16%. China has been contributing quiet well to the company's sales. China's sales have increased by approx 287% in last three years. Currently, company sells models like Evoque, Freelander and the Jaguar range through 120 dealer outlets in China. Tata Motors was trading down by 3.6%

Most of the Indian pharma Stocks are trading in red, with Glenmark pharmaceuticals and Sun pharmaceuticals are among the leading losers. As per the financial daily, Swiss pharmaceutical pharma company, Roche has decided not to go ahead with Indian patent for its anti-breast cancer drug Herceptin. The company did not renew its patent license which was due in May 2013. This might result into million dollar revenue loss for the company. Some time back the Indian government had put up the list of few drugs, to bring the same into compulsory licensing. Herceptin was one among them. Further, Roche obtained an Indian patent for the said drug around six years back. However, the patent was challenged by the Indian cancer patients Aid association. The claim by this authority was that the drug lacks sufficient component of innovation and the thus the patent on Herceptin lacks innovation. The Indian patent law repudiates such patents that tweak the drugs till some extent and call it as a new drug also referred as 'evergreening'.

While it is still not known that which Indian companies will opt for compulsory licensing, Biocon is already working on this drug. Currently the drug is under Phase III trials and company will be soon launching the drug in the Indian markets. One should note this is going to be certainly positive for Biocon as Herceptin being a biological drug requires stringent drug trials and approval process. Biocon was trading up by 1.3%