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IT Stocks Lead the Losses
Tue, 22 Dec 11:30 am

After opening in the red, the Indian indices trimmed losses but continued to trade in the negative territory. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks from the IT, and FMCG sector witnessing maximum selling pressure. Realty stocks are leading the gains.

The BSE Sensex is trading down 31 points (down 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty is trading down 14 points (down 0.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.3% and the BSE Small Cap index is trading up 0.5%. The rupee is trading at 66.28 to the US$.

Food and Tobacco stocks are trading mixed with Golden Tobacco and VST Industries leading the losses. As per a leading financial daily, Nestle India has said that it will launch other variants of the brand Maggi noodles such as oats noodles and cup noodles in 3-4 months. Also, the company said that it is ramping up productions at all of its five plants and is also ensuring to reach out to all the distributors.

The development follows the relaunch of Maggi masala noodles which commenced on November 9, after a five months ban by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) following a Bombay High Court order. Further to this, the Supreme Court had last week ordered re-testing of Maggi noodles by an accredited laboratory at Mysore.

The company stated that before the ban, Maggi noodles were distributed through 1,500 distributors across country. Presently, the same are sold through 1,000 distributors. The management has stated that it will ramp up its distribution network and recall all 1,500 distributors soon.

Lastly, on sales front, Nestle has sold 50 to 60 million packs of Maggi noodles so far after its relaunch. This is as against 300 to 400 million packs that it used to sell in full year before crisis.

Nestle's Maggi fiasco gathered much steam in stock markets then. Investors owning the stock of the company were worried about this controversial affair. However, does it make sense to dump any stock based on this tumult? One of our articles in 5 Minute WrapUp answers this question. You can read it here.Presently, the stock of Nestle India is trading up by nearly 0.9%.

Banking stocks are trading on a mixed note with Dhanlaxmi Bank and Karur Vysya Bank leading the gains. As pre an article in The Economic Times, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working on guidelines for peer-to-peer lending arrangements offered by online platforms. The apex bank stated that risks for such new kind of lending will have to be taken into account and a discussion paper will be brought out on the same for public consultation.

This form of lending is popular among individual borrowers and lenders, especially in the small and medium enterprises segment. Lenders here don't need regulatory approval and are not registered as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). These portals connect lenders and borrowers for a fee. Investors earn returns of anything between 12% and 36% by lending on the platform.

However, the biggest concern here is on account of people who have little or no credit history and want to borrow money. Rajat Gandhi, CEO of peer-to-peer lending portal Faircent.com shares the same concern. As stated in the article, he adds that "this is a problem that banks and other institutional credit systems have grappled with for years. Known in the lending parlance as borrowers with a "thin file", people with little credit history can be both an opportunity and a risk."

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