The euphoria that had begun in the run-up to Narendra Modi’s victory in the Lok Sabha elections seems to be waning, with the stock markets returning to the defensive mode. Over the past three months, the weight of information technology (IT), pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies has risen sharply on the indices.

These three sectors now account for a little more than a third of the combined market capitalisation (free-float) of the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty50 index, compared with 31 per cent at the end of May this year. The only exception in this pack has been ITC, whose stock is languishing due to the current health minister’s strong anti-smoking stance. The defensive stocks’ share on the index had peaked to around 37 per cent in October last year.

Infosys' two-year transformational process may take at least another two years as the company aims to scale itself to offer high-value services, according to experts who got a chance to interact for the first time with Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Vishal Sikka at an event in Berlin last week.

Even so, analysts who were at the customer event believe that if successful, the country's secondlargest software exporter could see improved margins with a new approach of trying to balance "to-do-same-for-less" contracts with "co-innovate-withthe-customer" type of deals. "Vishal presented a plan to reposition Infosys BSE -1.53 % as a co-innovator for new business logic jointly with the customers," said Stefan Ried, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key today said he would press ahead with plans to hold a referendum to change the national flag following his election triumph.

The centre-right leader said he wanted the ballot next year on whether to ditch the current flag, which features the Union Jack of former colonial power Britain in one corner. In March 2014, Key had pledged to hold a referendum on changing the national flag if he won a third term in office in September.

The rupee is seen as weakening this week, due to month-end dollar demand from importers.

According to currency dealers, though Indian markets might continue to attract foreign flows, the Reserve Bank of India could decide to mop those through state-run banks. Domestic markets have been attracting foreign flows because there is an expectation that the sovereign rating of India could be upgraded.

Markets continue to trade weak in the morning trades weighed by profit taking in Index heavyweights Infosys, HDFC twins and Pharma shares amid weak Asian cues.

At 10.12 AM, the 30-share Sensex is down 110 points at 26,981 and the 50-share Nifty has shed 41 points at 8,080.

In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices are outperforming the large counterparts and are up between 0.2-0.5%.

There is no end in sight to the deadlock between Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the seat-sharing for the election to the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly slated for October 15. Shiv Sena on Sunday offered a new seat-sharing formula of 151:119, indicating it wanted its 25-year-old alliance with the BJP to continue. According to this formula announced by party chief Uddhav Thackeray here at the state executive meeting, Shiv Sena, which had contested 169 seats in the 2009 polls, will fight 151 seats and leave 18 seats to other allies including the Republican Party of India, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Rashtriya Samaj Party and Shiv Sangram. It has offered BJP 119 seats, the same quota as in the last Assembly poll.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought additional information from Reliance Industries (RIL) on the takeover of Network18 and TV18 Broadcast. The two firms, which are being taken over by RIL through its Independent Media Trust (IMT), control an array of media properties, including leading business and general news channels CNBC TV18 and CNN-IBN.

"Sebi has sought additional information from time to time, which has been provided," RIL told Business Standard in response to an email query seeking comments. "Sebi has not asked for any revision of offer price," the RIL spokesman added.

Hyundai Motor and two listed affiliates did not seek board clearance for the size of their record $10 billion bid for a plot of land in Seoul, more than three times its appraised value, four board members of the companies said.

Thursday's winning bid for the land sent shares in Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis plunging, wiping out $8 billion in shareholder value, and sparked howls of protest from investors, rekindling worries about corporate governance at South Korea's conglomerates, or chaebol.

ACME Solar is planning to set up a 100 MW solar power plant in Rajasthan at an estimated cost of Rs 808 crore.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) will support the project through 'A' Loan of up to Rs 201.9 crore and possible syndication of up to Rs 388.3 crore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said Indian Muslims would rather live and die for India than dance to the tunes of terror outfits such as Al Qaida. He said Indian Muslims would never want anything bad for India, adding people trying to influence them to do otherwise were delusional.

Modi, set to leave for the US next week on his maiden official visit to that country, told CNN in an interview he was confident India-US relations would overcome sundry difficulties and friction to achieve a genuinely strategic alliance, as there were many similarities between the two societies. He said both Indians and Americans “have coexistence in their natural temperament”.

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