Indian Markets Tuesday Wrap-Up: Close Ends in the Red

Though the markets made good a part of their losses during the final hours of trade, they ended the day in the red. The BSE-Sensex ended lower by around 50 points, while the NSE-Nifty closed lower by about 9 points. The overall decline to advance ratio was poised at 0.8 to 1 on the BSE. Barring select stocks from the oil and gas and power sector, selling activity was witnessed in stocks across sectors with the pack led by banking, metal, fmcg and consumer durable spaces.

Most of the other Asian markets ended the day deep in the red today. The European indices are currently trading in the green. Rupee was trading weaker at 48.68 against the US dollar at the time of writing.

According to a leading business daily, India’s third largest software-services company, Wipro (WIT) is confident about weathering the global downturn on account of a robust deal pipeline and order book for the current year. The company’s management believes that there have been signs of revival in customer activity and a significant number of talks are underway. Nevertheless, the management maintains its concerns over the impact of proposed protectionist measures in the US. The stock of the company, along with other companies from the IT arena, closed the day in the red.

Telecom stocks ended the day on a weak note led by Tata Communications and Bharti Airtel. As per a leading business daily, Bharti Airtel and RCOM have joined in discussions along with the French firm Vivendi (VIVEF.PK) to buy Kuwait based Zain group’s African business. The deal is believed to be valued at around US$ 12 bn. It may be noted that Bharti Airtel is already in talks with South African telecom major MTN for a proposed merger between them. In recent times, foreign players are scouting to establish their presence in the emerging markets of Africa as this market is not as highly penetrated as the developed markets.

As reported by a leading daily, the World Bank has projected that India, growing at 8%, will become the fastest growing economy in the world by 2010. Second on the list will be China with a GDP growth rate of 7.7%. The two countries belong to the pack of developing economies which are expected to grow at 4.4% by 2010. Excluding these two nations, the GDP for the developing world is expected to shrink by 1.6%. Despite some signs of green-shoots here and there, the bank has maintained its uncertainty about the prospects of the global economy in general.