IT stocks boost the markets

Tue, 20 Sep 09:30 am

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Asian stock markets have opened the day on a mixed note. Stock markets in Honk Kong (down 0.1%), Indonesia (down 1.3%) and Japan (down 1.4%) are in the red while China (up 0.4%) and Singapore (up 0.1%) are in the green. The Indian stock markets have opened the day on a firm note. Stocks in the Consumer Durables and Information Technology (IT) space are leading the gains while stocks in Oil & Gas are trading in the red.

The BSE-Sensex is trading higher by 100 points (0.6%) and the NSE-Nifty is higher by around 33 points (0.6%). Mid cap and small cap stocks are trading in the green, with the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices up by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 48.1 to the US dollar.

Pharma Stocks have opened the day in the green with Ranbaxy and Cipla in the green. Sun Pharma has announced that the regulatory issues with the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) on its Cranbury plant have been resolved completely. However, things are not all hunky dory for the company. Sun Pharma has also lost a patent dispute with French drug-maker Sanofi. The dispute was over a patent on colon cancer drug - Eloxatin. The US District Court of New Jersey has ruled against Sun pharma over the resolution of the Eloxatin (oxaliplatin) patent litigation. This will ensure the drugs exclusivity for the US market till August 2012. Eloxatin sales are estimated to be at US$ 350 m for one quarter.

Auto stocks have opened the day on a firm note with Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto in the green. Tata Motor's Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced that it will invest about GBP 355 m (approximately Rs 26.6 bn) on a new engine plant in central England. The UK government, which was keen to support manufacturing in Britain, has promised to provide up to GBP 10 m (approximately Rs 750 m). The plant is expected to create about 750 direct jobs while also supporting several thousand jobs across the UK economy. The luxury carmaker already employs more than 19,000 people in Britain and supports up to 140,000 jobs. Robust demand for JLR cars from emerging economies such as China and Russia has given it a significant boost. According to JLR CEO Ralf Speth, the company will invest about GBP 1.5 bn (approximately Rs 112.5 bn) a year for the next five years on new product developments. As such, expanding the engine range would aid the company to harness the full global potential of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.