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Mon, 7 Jul Closing

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After being buoyant during the post noon trading session, the Indian equity markets extended their gains and ended the day in the green. While the BSE-Sensex today closed higher by 138 points, the NSE-Nifty closed higher by 36 points. Even the Smallcaps and Midcaps closed higher with both the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices recording gains of 0.1% and 0.6% respectively. oil and gas and banking stocks were the biggest losers today.

As regards global markets, Asian indices closed on a mixed note today. The rupee was trading at Rs 60.02 to the dollar at the time of writing.

With budget being just few days around the corner, talks of reforms have gathered further momentum. However, when it comes to tax reforms, especially Goods & Services Tax (GST), it seems that the wait will get even longer. As per an article in Business Standard, GST roll out will be possible only from FY17 despite Centre agreeing to sort out the issue with States over compensation. While fixing the compensation matter is a critical issue for introduction of GST, in the past the states have not been adequately compensated. It may be noted that as a step towards rolling out GST, CST was cut in phases with Centre agreeing to compensate for the loss of revenue to states. However, Centre did not release the requisite funds as planned. This along with various other procedural issues delayed the roll out. However, we hope that this time, GST indeed sees the light of the day as planned in FY17.

Indian pharma stocks ended the day on a mixed note. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Jubilant Life Science were among the leading losers while Shasun Chemicals and Natco Pharma were among gainers. As per the financial daily, Lupin Ltd is looking to expand its product portfolio which has high entry barriers. The company is investing in same lines and also setting up R&D centers in the US. Reportedly, these centers will be located in Florida and Maryland and will be targeting development of drugs in inhalation and complex injectables. Reportedly, the R&D expenses have grown by approx 24% YoY in FY14. Since the last two years the company has spent approximately 8-8.5% of its net sales towards its R&D. And going forward too, the company will continue to spend similar proportion of its sales towards the R&D programs. As the global markets are becoming competitive, it has become important for the generic companies to develop a differentiated portfolio in order to have an edge over competition. Over and above, Lupin continues to make lucrative filings globally. Lupin closed down by 0.8% today.