IT stocks lead markets higher

Tue, 14 Sep 09:30 am

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The Indian markets have started today's session on a positive note. The benchmark indices opened above the breakeven mark and have stayed in the positive territory. Other key Asian markets are in the green with Malaysia (up 0.8%) leading the pack of gainers. The US markets ended higher by 0.8% yesterday.

Currently in India, heavyweights from the BSE-Sensex are trading strong with software majors attracting investors' interest. The BSE-Sensex is trading higher by around 50 points, while the NSE-Nifty is up by about 10 points. Buying interest is also being witnessed among mid and small cap stocks as the BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap indices are trading higher by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. The rupee is trading at 46.3 to the US dollar.

Food stocks have opened the day on a strong note. Gainers here include Lakshmi Energy and GSK Consumer. As per a leading business daily, GSK Consumer is planning to invest over Rs 3 bn on repositioning its original milk food drink Horlicks as the company's umbrella brand. The company is also looking at entering into categories like breakfast and mid-day meals. The company has recently extended its Horlicks brand into categories like biscuits, cereal bars and instant noodles. In fact, the instant noodles brand has been able to capture 5% share within six months of launch. It may be noted that Horlicks has 51% share in the health-drinks category and along with Boost gives the company control of over 66% market share in India.

Engineering stocks have opened the day on a positive note. Gainers here include Finolex cables and Suzlon. As per a leading business daily, Suzlon has big plans for its Chinese operations. The company is planning to start a research and development (R&D) centre in the country. It may be noted that it had opened a new R&D centre in Germany a few weeks earlier. It also has one at its Pune headquarters. Suzlon also plans to list its Chinese subsidiary, Suzlon Energy (Tianjin), on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a few years. These steps will help the company take advantage of the local market and compete with its Chinese rivals. Suzlon has been present in China since 2006 and is the eighth largest wind energy company there. China added 13.7 Gigawatts (GW) of wind energy last year. With an installed capacity of 25.85 GW, it is one of the fastest growing wind energy markets in the world.