Wednesday January 30, 01:00 PM
Southbound journey continues... |
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By Equitymaster.com
The indices made further inroads into the negative territory during the previous two hours of trade as selling intensified among index heavyweights. The overall market breadth is negative with losers outnumbering gainers by ratio of 2.1 to 1 on the NSE. Select pharma, steel and telecom stocks are witnessing buying interest. However, stocks in the auto, engineering, energy and power sector continued to face selling pressure.
The BSE Sensex is trading at 17,898 (down 194 points) while the NSE Nifty is trading at 5,210 (down 71 points). The rupee is trading at 39.38 to the dollar.
Barring Bharti Airtel (up 1%), telecom stocks are trading weak currently. Bharti Airtel has announced enthusing numbers for the third quarter ended December 2007. The company reported topline growth of 41% YoY in 3QFY08 and 47% YoY in 9mY08. The growth has been backed by 73% YoY growth in subscriber base and marginally higher minutes of usage per month per subscriber; average revenue per user per month has been lower by 16% YoY. The company added 6.3 m mobile subscribers during the quarter, 23.2 m during the last 12 months crossing the 55 m subscriber mark. Lower access charges and employee costs have aided 1.5% expansion in operating margins. The net profit reported 38% YoY growth, lower than topline growth, due to substantial rise in interest expenses.
India's fourth largest FMCG company, Dabur, reported 14.7% YoY growth in topline in 3QFY08 with domestic sales growing by 12% YoY and international operations reporting 27% YoY growth. While the consumer care and foods division grew by 14.8% YoY, consumer health care (CHD) reported a growth of 6.7% YoY. International business division recorded a growth of 29% YoY with GCC, Egypt and Africa driving sales. On a standalone basis, topline was up 12% YoY. On consolidated basis, the operating margins have remained stable at 17.9%. The bottomline grew by 19% YoY in 3QFY08 aided by lower depreciation costs. While the stock (down 2%), along with its peer HUL (down 5%), is trading weak, Colgate (COLGd.BO, news) is trading higher by 3%.
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