Holding on...

The indices have remained at the same levels during the previous trading hour with the index heavyweights showing mixed trends. However, while buying activity has sustained in FMCG, cement, engineering and banking stocks, those under pressure are telecom, auto and steel stocks.

The BSE Sensex is trading at 6,487 (up 23 points) and the Nifty is trading at 2,029 (up 4 points). The rupee is trading at Rs 43.74 per US Dollar.

FMCG stocks are mostly trading higher with stocks like Nirma (8%), Marico (3%), HLL (2%), Dabur (1%) and Trent (1%). As per a leading business daily, Tata Coffee which is a 51% subsidiary of Tata Tea (TTTE.BO, news) , India's leading branded tea company, plans to set up an instant coffee facility in Uganda and plans to invest Rs 250 m to 300 m in the venture for a 3,600 tonne capacity. Being located in Uganda will give the company advantages like duty free exports to markets in Russia, Japan and US. Another investment destination under consideration is Vietnam. The company has targeted a production of 10,500 tonnes of Coffee this year as compared to 9,000 tonne last year. The company's exports stood at 4,900 tonnes last year and the company expects this to increase by 20% in the current fiscal. Further, the company has successfully completed its first round of exports to Starbucks, one of the world's largest coffee chains and is in talks for the second round of exports. The stock of Tata Tea is trading marginally higher, however, Tata Coffee is trading weak.

Bharti Televentures, which recently dethroned Reliance (RELI.BO, news) Infocomm as the company with the highest subscriber base, became the first private telecom player to complete a nation-wide network across all 23 circles at investment of Rs 15 bn. The company has announced an additional investment of Rs 4 bn for the current fiscal to expand operations. The company has started focusing on expansion of fixed line telecom services eyeing a major pie of the broadband segment. Bharti plans to cover 0.3 m villages by 2005-06. The company's subscriber base stands at 12 m currently and it expects it to reach a mark of 50 m in a couple of years. Telecom stocks are trading lower today on account of profit booking with MTNL (MTNL.BO, news) , VSNL and Bharti all trading marginally lower.

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