Where monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI hiking the repo and reverse repo by 25 basis points each) and deepening crises in Euro zone — Greece’s debt problems and Fitch Ratings downgrading Portugal's sovereign credit outlook— had a sobering effect on the market in the month, there were panoply of positives that the market can rejoice on. And the long list included — the surge in manufacturing and services activity in February, rise in exports for the third month straight in January 2010, record auto sales, strong index of industrial production (IIP) reading for January (16.7% year-on-year growth) combined with encouraging Q4FY 2010 advanced tax payouts by the top Indian corporates, food inflation contained at its four-month low (16.3% year on year) and Standard & Poor’s upgrading India’s outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’.
In the month the Sensex swung 1,355 points while Nifty moved 394 points. Sensex and Nifty touched their two-year high of 17793 and 5329 respectively. The BSE bellwether ended the month 1,098 points (6.27%) higher at 17528 and the NSE benchmark posted gains of 327 points (or 6.64%) to close at 5249.
Of the 13 sector indices on the BSE all posted gains except BSE PSU that ended 1.91% lower. With the global economy looking up, commodities were the first to gain. This saw BSE Metal post the highest gains (up 9.58%). BSE Bankex (up 8.48%) was at second spot and Indian pharmaceutical and device makers set to benefit from the passage of US Healthcare Reform bill led BSE Health Care (up 8.45%) occupy the third spot.
As mad as a March hare stocks were Sintex Industries (up 23.76%), Chennai Petroleum (higher 20.33%) and Gujarat NRE Coke (20.15% up). The stocks that received max bashing for the month were public sector utilities NMDC (down 31.86%) and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (slid 14.33%) and sugar major Balrampur Chini (12.48% lower).
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the net buyers all through March, buying stocks worth Rs19,087 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were the net sellers shedding Rs3,325 crore worth of shares in the month.
The coming months will see Domestic indices witness lot of volatility on Q4 earnings and guidance, auto sales numbers, cements production figures, export numbers, IIP numbers and inflation figures. However, most anticipated event for the month — RBI’s quarterly monetary policy review scheduled on April 20, 2010 — along with global signals will play instrumental role in deciding the market’s course.
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
DAILY NEWS ROUNDUP-MARCH 31, 2010
Bharti Airtel closes deal to acquire most of African assets of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom. (ET)
Government intends to review the allocation of gas produced from Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 field. (BL)
NMDC plans to increase iron ore prices by 70% for both domestic and export markets. (BS)
Hero Honda declared an interim dividend of Rs80 per share. (ET)
Hero Honda is looking to set up a Rs20bn manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh. (BS)
ITC has tied up with La Aurora to sell a mint based cigar in India. (ET)
Tata Motors sells 20% stake in Telcon to its JV partner Hitachi for a sum of Rs11.6bn. (ET)
Tata Motors reduced its debt by Rs15bn as a large section of its bond holders opted for conversion of bonds into share before maturity. (ET)
M&M is merging its two tractor JVs in China into a single entity. (BL)
GAIL has commenced supply of 0.33mmscmd of gas to Maruti’s Manesar plant. (BL)
Bank of Baroda raised US$350mn by way of 5.5 years senior unsecured bonds. (ET)
Crompton Greaves acquired a UK based company Power Technology Solutions for Rs2.04bn. (BS)
Jet Airways deposited Rs1.37bn in the Bombay High Court in relation with Sahara case. (ET)
Omaxe Ltd to raise Rs8bn through QIP. (BS)
JSL raised Rs2.5bn via sale of shares to qualified institutional buyers. (ET)
Pyramids Saimira to sell all businesses and investments to pay up Rs5.8bn high cost debt. (FE)
Bridgestone a Japanese Tyre major to invest Rs26bn at Chakan in Maharashtra. (BS)
Retail investors could be offer up to 10% discount on the issue price for future government disinvestments. (BS)
Rupee touched a 19-month high to 44.97 against the dollar. (BS)
Service tax on railway freight deferred by 3 months to July 1, 2010. (BS)
The telecom ministry has cleared all nine telecom companies to participate in 3G auction scheduled to commence on April 9. (ET)
Implementation of number portability has been postponed by three months to June 30. (ET)
RBI has released guidelines on how banks must classify capital in their balance sheets to ensure uniformity in reporting. (ET)
Cement prices are likely to increase by Rs7 from tomorrow. (ET)
Government intends to review the allocation of gas produced from Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 field. (BL)
NMDC plans to increase iron ore prices by 70% for both domestic and export markets. (BS)
Hero Honda declared an interim dividend of Rs80 per share. (ET)
Hero Honda is looking to set up a Rs20bn manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh. (BS)
ITC has tied up with La Aurora to sell a mint based cigar in India. (ET)
Tata Motors sells 20% stake in Telcon to its JV partner Hitachi for a sum of Rs11.6bn. (ET)
Tata Motors reduced its debt by Rs15bn as a large section of its bond holders opted for conversion of bonds into share before maturity. (ET)
M&M is merging its two tractor JVs in China into a single entity. (BL)
GAIL has commenced supply of 0.33mmscmd of gas to Maruti’s Manesar plant. (BL)
Bank of Baroda raised US$350mn by way of 5.5 years senior unsecured bonds. (ET)
Crompton Greaves acquired a UK based company Power Technology Solutions for Rs2.04bn. (BS)
Jet Airways deposited Rs1.37bn in the Bombay High Court in relation with Sahara case. (ET)
Omaxe Ltd to raise Rs8bn through QIP. (BS)
JSL raised Rs2.5bn via sale of shares to qualified institutional buyers. (ET)
Pyramids Saimira to sell all businesses and investments to pay up Rs5.8bn high cost debt. (FE)
Bridgestone a Japanese Tyre major to invest Rs26bn at Chakan in Maharashtra. (BS)
Retail investors could be offer up to 10% discount on the issue price for future government disinvestments. (BS)
Rupee touched a 19-month high to 44.97 against the dollar. (BS)
Service tax on railway freight deferred by 3 months to July 1, 2010. (BS)
The telecom ministry has cleared all nine telecom companies to participate in 3G auction scheduled to commence on April 9. (ET)
Implementation of number portability has been postponed by three months to June 30. (ET)
RBI has released guidelines on how banks must classify capital in their balance sheets to ensure uniformity in reporting. (ET)
Cement prices are likely to increase by Rs7 from tomorrow. (ET)
HARDENING RUPEE SNAPS 4 - DAY STRAIGHT GAINS
Today's major news
The Reserve Bank of India revives foreign currency convertible bond buyback scheme for three months
IL&FS Transportation lists at premium
The Securities and Exchange Board of India may get power to monitor the use of initial public offer funds
Click here for more stories
Global signals
As of writing the European markets were trading flat with London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 trading 0.07% lower.
All the major Asian indices—from Kospi to Nikkei to Hang Seng—closed higher except the Sensex that ended 0.68% down. SGX Nifty closed 62 points lower.
US stock futures point to a higher start for Wall Street, as Apple and Verizon stocks are in focus.
Indian indices
On speculation that the hardening of the rupee could hit the revenues of information technology (IT) companies, the IT stocks went down and along went the market breaching its four-day-long gains.
On mildly tepid global equities, the Sensex opened seven points down, but turned up, and barely half hour into the trade touched the day’s high—72 points higher than its previous closing. Though the index traded positive in the first half it kept inching down. In the second half, the appreciation in the Indian rupee began to play out pressuring IT stocks and pushed the market 153 points down. At finishing line the Sensex quoted at 17590, 121 points lower. The Nifty closed the session 40 points lower at 5262.
Market sentiment
Advancing shares outnumbered trailing ones. On the BSE, 1,691 stocks advanced against 1,098 trailed. Ninety four stocks closed unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Stronger rupee continued to hit IT counter with BSE IT down by 2.19%. BSE Tech, down 1.62%, was second from the bottom. BSE Realty posted gains of 1.42% followed by BSE PSU that surged 0.80%.
On stocks’ front, Hindustan Copper was the star stock of the day posting gains of 8.25% followed by Corporation Bank that surged 7.88% and Bank of India that rose 5.28%. Among losers, Educomp Solutions slid the most by 3.27%, followed by Shriram Transport that fell 3.21% and Lupin that shed 3.10%.
Viewing volumes
Steel maker Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.63 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.42 crore shares), public sector undertaking NMDC (0.42 crore shares), India’s second largest realty major Unitech (0.35 crore shares) and Industrial finance company IFCI (0.33 crore shares).
The Reserve Bank of India revives foreign currency convertible bond buyback scheme for three months
IL&FS Transportation lists at premium
The Securities and Exchange Board of India may get power to monitor the use of initial public offer funds
Click here for more stories
Global signals
As of writing the European markets were trading flat with London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 100 trading 0.07% lower.
All the major Asian indices—from Kospi to Nikkei to Hang Seng—closed higher except the Sensex that ended 0.68% down. SGX Nifty closed 62 points lower.
US stock futures point to a higher start for Wall Street, as Apple and Verizon stocks are in focus.
Indian indices
On speculation that the hardening of the rupee could hit the revenues of information technology (IT) companies, the IT stocks went down and along went the market breaching its four-day-long gains.
On mildly tepid global equities, the Sensex opened seven points down, but turned up, and barely half hour into the trade touched the day’s high—72 points higher than its previous closing. Though the index traded positive in the first half it kept inching down. In the second half, the appreciation in the Indian rupee began to play out pressuring IT stocks and pushed the market 153 points down. At finishing line the Sensex quoted at 17590, 121 points lower. The Nifty closed the session 40 points lower at 5262.
Market sentiment
Advancing shares outnumbered trailing ones. On the BSE, 1,691 stocks advanced against 1,098 trailed. Ninety four stocks closed unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Stronger rupee continued to hit IT counter with BSE IT down by 2.19%. BSE Tech, down 1.62%, was second from the bottom. BSE Realty posted gains of 1.42% followed by BSE PSU that surged 0.80%.
On stocks’ front, Hindustan Copper was the star stock of the day posting gains of 8.25% followed by Corporation Bank that surged 7.88% and Bank of India that rose 5.28%. Among losers, Educomp Solutions slid the most by 3.27%, followed by Shriram Transport that fell 3.21% and Lupin that shed 3.10%.
Viewing volumes
Steel maker Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.63 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.42 crore shares), public sector undertaking NMDC (0.42 crore shares), India’s second largest realty major Unitech (0.35 crore shares) and Industrial finance company IFCI (0.33 crore shares).
Monday, March 29, 2010
DAILY NEWS ROUNDUP- MARCH 30,2010
ACC plans to process non-degradable waste materials like disposed water bottles, polythene and other waste materials to make cement at its Bargarh plant in western Orissa. (BS)
GVK Power acquired 9.5% additional stake in GVK Gautami Power Ltd from the Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Construction Company. (BL)
Hindustan Unilever announced that it sold its remaining 49% stake in Capgemini Business Services (India) Ltd to Cap Gemini SA as part of an agreement signed in October 2006. (BS)
L&T bagged Rs14bn order from IOC for supply of a 4.17mtpa FCC (fluidised catalytic cracker) reactor regenerator project for IOC's fuel refinery at Paradip, Orissa. (BL)
Ranbaxy has entered into a pact with US-based Pfenex Inc for developing biosimilars. (BS)
Japanese drug-maker Daiichi Sankyo, which owns 64% stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, has finally firmed up plans to de-list the firm from the stock exchanges. (FE)
Colgate Palmolive has acquired the remaining 25% of share capital that it had in CC Health Care Products Pvt Ltd. (FE)
SAIL signed a 50:50 JV agreement with Shipping Corporation of India to primarily take care of SAIL’s shipping needs by owning and operating ships. (BL)
Promoters of Unitech raised their stake in the real estate company to 45% from 43.84%. (BL)
Havells India plans to increase its marketing spend by over 40% to Rs1bn by next fiscal and enhance its overseas retail footprints, starting with Africa. (ET)
GMDC plans to invest Rs4.8bn in the next two financial years to generate 81MW of wind energy at two different places in the Gujarat. (BL)
Punj Lloyd sold its entire stake of 19.43% in Pipavav Shipyard to its co-promoter, SKIL Infrastructure, for Rs6.6bn through an inter-se promoter transfer. (BL)
Nagarjuna Construction Company secured new orders aggregating Rs9.7bn, including a deal from Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd. (BL)
IVRCL secured a mandate to execute four projects worth Rs8.7bn, covering canal system modernization and three water supply projects. (BL)
Sanofi-Aventis, the world’s third largest drug maker, has approached a US court against Wockhardt for challenging the patents of Allegra (fexofenadine hydrochloride), one of the largest selling anti-allergic drugs in the world. (BS)
Indoco Remedies entered into a long-term drug supply pact with Aspen Pharmacare, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in Africa and one of the top 20 generics manufacturers in the world. (BS)
Suven Life Sciences secured a product patent from the European Patent Office for its New Chemical Entity meant for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. (BL)
Kalanithi Maran, promoter of Sun TV, and the promoters of Spice-Jet are sparring over the price being offered for a majority stake in the budget carrier. (ET)
SKIL Infrastructure, promoter of Pipavav Shipyard, has made an open offer to acquire 20% stake in the company for Rs8.2bn, at Rs61.5/share. (BS)
MTNL has abandoned its bid to buy out Zambian telco Zamtel as BSNL too has backed out from the deal. (ET)
The Supreme Court rejected the central government’s plea to allow Lafarge, the French mining giant, to resume limestone mining in Meghalaya. (BS)
The country's crude oil import increased by 13.2% in February to 10.67mt over the corresponding period last year. (BL)
The government got Rs99.3bn from its follow-on offer of NMDC shares and Rs136.2bn from divestment in NHPC, OIL, REC and NTPC, leaving it short by Rs14.5bn for its year’s disinvestment target of Rs250bn. (BS)
India has signed an agreement for Rs105bn official development assistance from Japan, which includes Rs16.5bn for the second phase of Delhi mass rapid transport system project, Rs44.2bn for the dedicated rail freight corridor and Rs29.3bn for Chennai metro. (BS)
RBI has allowed Indian companies to buy back Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds, under both the automatic route and approval route until June 30. (FE)
Four-laning of National Highway 40, which connects Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, with Guwahati, is expected to commence in 2010. (BS)
The Centre has fixed a target of Rs46bn under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for 2010-11, a growth of close to double the amount spent during 2009-10. (BS)
Union Coal Minister said coal blocks would be allocated on the merit of the proposed power projects, including ‘likeability’ of production, within the current XIth Plan. (BS)
A Gartner study indicates that the domestic BPO market is expected to grow at 25% in 2010 to touch US$1.2bn by 2011. (BS)
The new Companies Bill will give SEBI the powers to look into the end-use of Initial Public Offerings. (BL)
The Finance Secretary said that the government will borrow Rs2.9trn, 63% of its gross requirement, in the first half of 2010-11. (BL)
The Government on Monday cleared 23 FDI proposals worth Rs23.3bn including that of the Pune-based auto components maker Bharat Forge. (BL)
Setting a positive tone for Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington DC to attend the April 1213 Nuclear Security Summit, US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer has announced the finalization of a pact with India on re-processing US-origin spent nuclear fuel, a critical step that will enable the two countries to implement their nuclear deal. (FE)
GVK Power acquired 9.5% additional stake in GVK Gautami Power Ltd from the Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Construction Company. (BL)
Hindustan Unilever announced that it sold its remaining 49% stake in Capgemini Business Services (India) Ltd to Cap Gemini SA as part of an agreement signed in October 2006. (BS)
L&T bagged Rs14bn order from IOC for supply of a 4.17mtpa FCC (fluidised catalytic cracker) reactor regenerator project for IOC's fuel refinery at Paradip, Orissa. (BL)
Ranbaxy has entered into a pact with US-based Pfenex Inc for developing biosimilars. (BS)
Japanese drug-maker Daiichi Sankyo, which owns 64% stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, has finally firmed up plans to de-list the firm from the stock exchanges. (FE)
Colgate Palmolive has acquired the remaining 25% of share capital that it had in CC Health Care Products Pvt Ltd. (FE)
SAIL signed a 50:50 JV agreement with Shipping Corporation of India to primarily take care of SAIL’s shipping needs by owning and operating ships. (BL)
Promoters of Unitech raised their stake in the real estate company to 45% from 43.84%. (BL)
Havells India plans to increase its marketing spend by over 40% to Rs1bn by next fiscal and enhance its overseas retail footprints, starting with Africa. (ET)
GMDC plans to invest Rs4.8bn in the next two financial years to generate 81MW of wind energy at two different places in the Gujarat. (BL)
Punj Lloyd sold its entire stake of 19.43% in Pipavav Shipyard to its co-promoter, SKIL Infrastructure, for Rs6.6bn through an inter-se promoter transfer. (BL)
Nagarjuna Construction Company secured new orders aggregating Rs9.7bn, including a deal from Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd. (BL)
IVRCL secured a mandate to execute four projects worth Rs8.7bn, covering canal system modernization and three water supply projects. (BL)
Sanofi-Aventis, the world’s third largest drug maker, has approached a US court against Wockhardt for challenging the patents of Allegra (fexofenadine hydrochloride), one of the largest selling anti-allergic drugs in the world. (BS)
Indoco Remedies entered into a long-term drug supply pact with Aspen Pharmacare, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in Africa and one of the top 20 generics manufacturers in the world. (BS)
Suven Life Sciences secured a product patent from the European Patent Office for its New Chemical Entity meant for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. (BL)
Kalanithi Maran, promoter of Sun TV, and the promoters of Spice-Jet are sparring over the price being offered for a majority stake in the budget carrier. (ET)
SKIL Infrastructure, promoter of Pipavav Shipyard, has made an open offer to acquire 20% stake in the company for Rs8.2bn, at Rs61.5/share. (BS)
MTNL has abandoned its bid to buy out Zambian telco Zamtel as BSNL too has backed out from the deal. (ET)
The Supreme Court rejected the central government’s plea to allow Lafarge, the French mining giant, to resume limestone mining in Meghalaya. (BS)
The country's crude oil import increased by 13.2% in February to 10.67mt over the corresponding period last year. (BL)
The government got Rs99.3bn from its follow-on offer of NMDC shares and Rs136.2bn from divestment in NHPC, OIL, REC and NTPC, leaving it short by Rs14.5bn for its year’s disinvestment target of Rs250bn. (BS)
India has signed an agreement for Rs105bn official development assistance from Japan, which includes Rs16.5bn for the second phase of Delhi mass rapid transport system project, Rs44.2bn for the dedicated rail freight corridor and Rs29.3bn for Chennai metro. (BS)
RBI has allowed Indian companies to buy back Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds, under both the automatic route and approval route until June 30. (FE)
Four-laning of National Highway 40, which connects Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, with Guwahati, is expected to commence in 2010. (BS)
The Centre has fixed a target of Rs46bn under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for 2010-11, a growth of close to double the amount spent during 2009-10. (BS)
Union Coal Minister said coal blocks would be allocated on the merit of the proposed power projects, including ‘likeability’ of production, within the current XIth Plan. (BS)
A Gartner study indicates that the domestic BPO market is expected to grow at 25% in 2010 to touch US$1.2bn by 2011. (BS)
The new Companies Bill will give SEBI the powers to look into the end-use of Initial Public Offerings. (BL)
The Finance Secretary said that the government will borrow Rs2.9trn, 63% of its gross requirement, in the first half of 2010-11. (BL)
The Government on Monday cleared 23 FDI proposals worth Rs23.3bn including that of the Pune-based auto components maker Bharat Forge. (BL)
Setting a positive tone for Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington DC to attend the April 1213 Nuclear Security Summit, US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer has announced the finalization of a pact with India on re-processing US-origin spent nuclear fuel, a critical step that will enable the two countries to implement their nuclear deal. (FE)
MARKET AT TWO - YEAR HIGH
Today's major news
Expanded index of industrial production (IIP) basket from April data
Larsen & Toubro bags Rs1,400-crore order; the stock surges 1.43%
Soros and Kaiser in race to buy 4% stake in BSE
Click here for more stories
Global signals
Mining and banking stocks pushed European market higher today. As of writing, FTSE 100 was up by 0.17%.
Asian indices had a mixed outing—Shanghai Composite, Straits Times and Hang Seng closed higher while Jakarta Composite, Kospi and Nikkei posted losses.
US stock futures point to a higher start for Wall Street. Investors are looking forward to data related to February personal income and consumption that will be declared later in the day.
Indian indices
Indian markets rose to their highest level since February 2008 on firm global markets and buying in consumer durables and fast moving consumer durables.
On firm global leads, Sensex opened almost flat, merely 6 points lower, but soon turned positive to touch the day’s as well as two-year’s high of 17793. Nifty also touched its two-year high of 5329 in afternoon trades. However, some of these gains were trimmed towards the close with the Sensex quoting at 17711, 67 points higher at finishing line. The Nifty closed the session 21 points higher at 5303.
Market sentiment
Despite trading green all through the day and the indices hitting their two-year high trailing stocks outnumbered advancing scrips. Around 62% of stocks on the BSE trailed vis-a-vis 34% advancing. Around 2% scrips traded unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Information technology (IT), Tech and public sector unit (PSU) were the three sectors that were down—BSE IT 1.74%, BSE TECk 1.33% and BSE PSU .01%. Consumer durables (CD) index was up by 1.97% — the most for any sector —followed by fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) counter that advanced 1.05%. Other sectors were up less than a percent.
LIC Housing Finance was the star stock of the day, up by 8.57%, followed by Glenmark Pharma that was up by 5.19% and Nestle India up 4.91%. On losers’ list, NMDC was down by 4.56%, followed by Torrent Power that fell 4.02% and Punj Lloyd that shed 3.86%.
Viewing volumes
Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.57 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by public sector undertaking NMDC (0.41 crore shares), India’s second largest realty major Unitech (0.35 crore shares), wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.34 crore shares) and Industrial finance company IFCI (0.32 crore shares).
Expanded index of industrial production (IIP) basket from April data
Larsen & Toubro bags Rs1,400-crore order; the stock surges 1.43%
Soros and Kaiser in race to buy 4% stake in BSE
Click here for more stories
Global signals
Mining and banking stocks pushed European market higher today. As of writing, FTSE 100 was up by 0.17%.
Asian indices had a mixed outing—Shanghai Composite, Straits Times and Hang Seng closed higher while Jakarta Composite, Kospi and Nikkei posted losses.
US stock futures point to a higher start for Wall Street. Investors are looking forward to data related to February personal income and consumption that will be declared later in the day.
Indian indices
Indian markets rose to their highest level since February 2008 on firm global markets and buying in consumer durables and fast moving consumer durables.
On firm global leads, Sensex opened almost flat, merely 6 points lower, but soon turned positive to touch the day’s as well as two-year’s high of 17793. Nifty also touched its two-year high of 5329 in afternoon trades. However, some of these gains were trimmed towards the close with the Sensex quoting at 17711, 67 points higher at finishing line. The Nifty closed the session 21 points higher at 5303.
Market sentiment
Despite trading green all through the day and the indices hitting their two-year high trailing stocks outnumbered advancing scrips. Around 62% of stocks on the BSE trailed vis-a-vis 34% advancing. Around 2% scrips traded unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Information technology (IT), Tech and public sector unit (PSU) were the three sectors that were down—BSE IT 1.74%, BSE TECk 1.33% and BSE PSU .01%. Consumer durables (CD) index was up by 1.97% — the most for any sector —followed by fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) counter that advanced 1.05%. Other sectors were up less than a percent.
LIC Housing Finance was the star stock of the day, up by 8.57%, followed by Glenmark Pharma that was up by 5.19% and Nestle India up 4.91%. On losers’ list, NMDC was down by 4.56%, followed by Torrent Power that fell 4.02% and Punj Lloyd that shed 3.86%.
Viewing volumes
Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.57 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by public sector undertaking NMDC (0.41 crore shares), India’s second largest realty major Unitech (0.35 crore shares), wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.34 crore shares) and Industrial finance company IFCI (0.32 crore shares).
Sunday, March 28, 2010
ANDHRA BANK
Fresh investments can be considered in the Andhra Bank stock, as a defensive option in the banking space.
The stock's low valuation and the fact that it is relatively better placed than peers to weather credit and interest rate risks, makes it a good investment option.
In addition, strong profitability ratios, stable margins, improving operating efficiency (cost-income ratio of 40 per cent) and adequately capitalised loan book are the other positives.
As overall bank credit picks up, Andhra Bank may continue to grow at higher than industry rates. The bank's credit growth for the year ended December 31, 2009 stood at 22 per cent against 13 per cent for the entire banking system. Credit growth for scheduled commercial banks has accelerated to 16 per cent according to the latest data. As the economy revives, the bank may be in a position to pass rate hikes to its customers, there by protecting its margins.
Andhra Bank scores on two counts over its peers who are grappling with deteriorating asset quality and falling bond prices. The net NPA ratio of Andhra Bank was a low 0.17 per cent as of end-2009. With only 2 per cent excess gilt securities and a credit-deposit ratio of 77 per cent, the bank is less exposed to treasury losses from hardening interest rates.
Andhra Bank also has a high provision coverage ratio of 91 per cent; well above the RBI-mandated 70 per cent.
At current market price of Rs 100, the stock is trading at a modest valuation of 4.5 times its estimated FY10 earnings and 1.1 times its FY10 adjusted book value. The dividend yield on the stock works out to 4.5 per cent, even assuming that dividends are not increased.
Andhra Bank, a mid-sized public sector bank, is aggressively expanding its branch network which would help increase its low-cost deposit base and increase fee income. Net interest margin has steadily improved over the last few quarters aiding profit growth.
Advances growth was aided by MSME, agriculture and retail loan growth (especially gold and housing loans). High cost deposits currently getting re-priced at a lower rate would continue to aid margins over the next couple of quarters.
However, for Andhra Bank to maintain the margins of 3.35 per cent (December 2009) would be a challenge due to lower proportion of low-cost deposits (30 per cent) and higher rate of interest payable on these deposits from April 1, 2010.
The current levels of capital adequacy (14.95 per cent) along with internal accruals may be sufficient to maintain a 30 per cent asset growth in FY11. The bank also has more than Rs 4,000 crore of headroom to raise tier 1 and 2 capital, but may have to step up its core equity contribution beyond next year.
The stock's low valuation and the fact that it is relatively better placed than peers to weather credit and interest rate risks, makes it a good investment option.
In addition, strong profitability ratios, stable margins, improving operating efficiency (cost-income ratio of 40 per cent) and adequately capitalised loan book are the other positives.
As overall bank credit picks up, Andhra Bank may continue to grow at higher than industry rates. The bank's credit growth for the year ended December 31, 2009 stood at 22 per cent against 13 per cent for the entire banking system. Credit growth for scheduled commercial banks has accelerated to 16 per cent according to the latest data. As the economy revives, the bank may be in a position to pass rate hikes to its customers, there by protecting its margins.
Andhra Bank scores on two counts over its peers who are grappling with deteriorating asset quality and falling bond prices. The net NPA ratio of Andhra Bank was a low 0.17 per cent as of end-2009. With only 2 per cent excess gilt securities and a credit-deposit ratio of 77 per cent, the bank is less exposed to treasury losses from hardening interest rates.
Andhra Bank also has a high provision coverage ratio of 91 per cent; well above the RBI-mandated 70 per cent.
At current market price of Rs 100, the stock is trading at a modest valuation of 4.5 times its estimated FY10 earnings and 1.1 times its FY10 adjusted book value. The dividend yield on the stock works out to 4.5 per cent, even assuming that dividends are not increased.
Andhra Bank, a mid-sized public sector bank, is aggressively expanding its branch network which would help increase its low-cost deposit base and increase fee income. Net interest margin has steadily improved over the last few quarters aiding profit growth.
Advances growth was aided by MSME, agriculture and retail loan growth (especially gold and housing loans). High cost deposits currently getting re-priced at a lower rate would continue to aid margins over the next couple of quarters.
However, for Andhra Bank to maintain the margins of 3.35 per cent (December 2009) would be a challenge due to lower proportion of low-cost deposits (30 per cent) and higher rate of interest payable on these deposits from April 1, 2010.
The current levels of capital adequacy (14.95 per cent) along with internal accruals may be sufficient to maintain a 30 per cent asset growth in FY11. The bank also has more than Rs 4,000 crore of headroom to raise tier 1 and 2 capital, but may have to step up its core equity contribution beyond next year.
PETROL,DIESEL PRICES MAY RISE MARGINALLY
Prices of petrol and diesel are likely to increase by 41 paise per litre and 26 paise a litre respectively in Delhi and Mumbai and 12 other metro cities from April 1 the country prepares to switch over to the Euro IV standard fuel, Petroleum Secretary S. Sundareshan said. "This hike is not on the basis of Rs400bn capital expenditure oil companies incurred in upgrading their facilities to produce cleaner fuel but a requirement to bring domestic rates to international parity,” . Sundareshan said. The actual price hike needed to cover the cost would have been 3-4 times the proposed increase. Public sector oil marketing firms will sell ultra-low sulphur petrol and diesel in 13 major cities from April 1, while Euro-III grade fuel is to be supplied only in the rest of the country.
Friday, March 26, 2010
DAILY NEWS ROUNDUP - MARCH 26, 2010
Board of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom has approved the sale of most African assets to Bharti Airtel. (ET)
Power Ministry rules out possibility of allowing NTPC to sell power in the open market. (BS)
ONGC loses Uganda oil property to Chinese oil company CNOOC. (ET)
IOC and Oil India are not planning to hike their bid for Gulfsands. (BS)
SBI plans to raise Rs150bn via right issues in Q3 FY11. (ET)
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone to launch iphone 3GS from March 26, 2010. (BS)
Axis Bank is in talks to buy a 5% stake in Max New York Life Insurance for around Rs2bn. (BS)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case against Unitech in connection with the award of 2G licenses. (ET)
AT&T acquired 8.07% stake in Tech Mahindra for Rs1.6bn by exercising a 2005 option agreement to buy a stake in the company. (BS)
Tata Motors has offered to convert bonds worth US$431mn into shares about a year before they mature. (BS)
Maruti Suzuki India to invest Rs12.5bn to double capacity at its K-series petrol engine unit in Gurgaon to 500,000 by 2012. (BS)
Cairn India announced an increase in the estimates of potential crude oil peak output from its Rajasthan oilfields by 37%, to 240,000 barrels per day. (BS)
L&T has bagged orders worth Rs15bn from various vendors for construction of hospitals, residential towers and factories. (FE)
German drug maker Bayer files patent infringement case against Cipla in connection with its cancer drug Nexavar. (ET)
Delhi High Court has shot down a plea by Bristol Myers Squibb to ban Ranbaxy from launching a generic version of its hepatitis-B drug Baraclude. (ET)
Bank of India is raising US$500mn via a 5 ½ year loan at around 200bps above Libor. (ET)
Tata Steel’s Rs210bn plant in Orissa is likely to start construction work next month. (ET)
The USFDA recommended doctors to temporarily stop using GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix vaccine for rotavirus immunisation in the US. (BS)
Unitech Wireless, a joint venture between Norwegian firm Telenor and real estate company Unitech, to roll out mobile services in six more circles, including Mumbai and Kolkata, over the next two quarters. (ET)
Wipro Infotech is among the seven short-listed bidders for a key Rs20bn government project which will help security agencies keep track of criminal activities across the country. (BL)
IVRCL achieved financial closure for converting two-lane to four-lane road project coming up on the Gujarat-Madhya Pradesh border. (BL)
National Aviation Company Ltd (Nacil), which runs national carrier Air India, may opt for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to finance its modernisation and recovery plans. (BS)
Maruti Suzuki would invest around Rs25bn for supplementing engine and plant capacities and setting up an R&D centre at Rohtak in Haryana. (ET)
Reliance Mediaworks plans to raise US$55mn via issue of shares to its existing investors. (ET)
Cipla sold its emergency contraceptive brand, i-pill, to Piramal Healthcare in a deal worth Rs950mn. (BS)
PowerGrid plans a FPO in September 2010 to raise Rs40bn. (ET)
MSRDC concludes a buyback agreement with Reliance Infra-Hyundai consortium for the Worli-Haji Ali sea link project. (ET)
Bosch management reaches an amicable settlement with its employee’s union at its Bangalore plant. (BS)
Shree Cement to start power trading as an independent business through its subsidiary – Shree Power Trading. (ET)
Alok Industries raises Rs4.6bn via QIP. (BS)
Natco Pharma to re-launch its breast cancer drug Albupax, in the domestic as well as global markets soon. (BL)
Times group to buy a small stake in Nimbus communication and its arm Neo Sports Broadcast. (ET)
Prakash Industries plans to invest Rs33bn in expanding its steel and power generation capacities in Chhattisgarh over the next 4-5 years. (ET)
Suven Life Sciences has received US patent for a compound used in the treatment of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. (ET)
Hyundai Motors is lining up a new release for India to be launched in the second half of 2011, likely to be priced not much higher than that of Maruti’s cheapest variant, the Maruti 800. (BS)
Bajaj Holding ups stake in Force Motors to over 19%.(BS)
Headset manufacturer GN Netcom, has entered into a marketing and distribution agreement with Redington India for expanding its presence in the country. (ET)
Subhash Projects & Marketing Ltd bagged a contract from the Public Works Department of the Rajasthan Government, for development of two-lane highway from Jaipur to Bhilwara on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis. (BL)
RBI to continue its exit from the ultra loose monetary policy to check high inflation says Governor D. Subbarao. (ET)
Finance Ministry may give more compensation to oil companies this year, provided auto fuel prices are de-regulated next year. (ET)
Petrol and diesel price may go up marginally in 13 cities from April 1, 2010 due to the introduction of Euro IV (Bharat Stage 4) emission norms. (ET)
Auto exports rise 16% between the period of April’09- Feb’ 10. (ET)
Agriculture sector is likely to grow by an average 3% rate in the 11th five year plan. (BS)
The government chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu sees 8.5% GDP growth in Q4 FY10. (ET)
Cars to cost 1-3% more from April 1st 2010 due to new emission norms and rise in input cost. (BS)
The Finance Minister said that infrastructure bonds issued by both the public as well as private sector entities will qualify for the additional tax deduction of Rs20,000 proposed in Budget 2010-11. (BL)
Private sector banks and non-banking finance companies appear set to join a list of select state owned firms which will be allowed to offer tax-free bonds to investors. (ET)
The government looks all set to examine refinancing of domestic borrowings-funded infrastructure projects through overseas loans. (ET)
Power Ministry rules out possibility of allowing NTPC to sell power in the open market. (BS)
ONGC loses Uganda oil property to Chinese oil company CNOOC. (ET)
IOC and Oil India are not planning to hike their bid for Gulfsands. (BS)
SBI plans to raise Rs150bn via right issues in Q3 FY11. (ET)
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone to launch iphone 3GS from March 26, 2010. (BS)
Axis Bank is in talks to buy a 5% stake in Max New York Life Insurance for around Rs2bn. (BS)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case against Unitech in connection with the award of 2G licenses. (ET)
AT&T acquired 8.07% stake in Tech Mahindra for Rs1.6bn by exercising a 2005 option agreement to buy a stake in the company. (BS)
Tata Motors has offered to convert bonds worth US$431mn into shares about a year before they mature. (BS)
Maruti Suzuki India to invest Rs12.5bn to double capacity at its K-series petrol engine unit in Gurgaon to 500,000 by 2012. (BS)
Cairn India announced an increase in the estimates of potential crude oil peak output from its Rajasthan oilfields by 37%, to 240,000 barrels per day. (BS)
L&T has bagged orders worth Rs15bn from various vendors for construction of hospitals, residential towers and factories. (FE)
German drug maker Bayer files patent infringement case against Cipla in connection with its cancer drug Nexavar. (ET)
Delhi High Court has shot down a plea by Bristol Myers Squibb to ban Ranbaxy from launching a generic version of its hepatitis-B drug Baraclude. (ET)
Bank of India is raising US$500mn via a 5 ½ year loan at around 200bps above Libor. (ET)
Tata Steel’s Rs210bn plant in Orissa is likely to start construction work next month. (ET)
The USFDA recommended doctors to temporarily stop using GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix vaccine for rotavirus immunisation in the US. (BS)
Unitech Wireless, a joint venture between Norwegian firm Telenor and real estate company Unitech, to roll out mobile services in six more circles, including Mumbai and Kolkata, over the next two quarters. (ET)
Wipro Infotech is among the seven short-listed bidders for a key Rs20bn government project which will help security agencies keep track of criminal activities across the country. (BL)
IVRCL achieved financial closure for converting two-lane to four-lane road project coming up on the Gujarat-Madhya Pradesh border. (BL)
National Aviation Company Ltd (Nacil), which runs national carrier Air India, may opt for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to finance its modernisation and recovery plans. (BS)
Maruti Suzuki would invest around Rs25bn for supplementing engine and plant capacities and setting up an R&D centre at Rohtak in Haryana. (ET)
Reliance Mediaworks plans to raise US$55mn via issue of shares to its existing investors. (ET)
Cipla sold its emergency contraceptive brand, i-pill, to Piramal Healthcare in a deal worth Rs950mn. (BS)
PowerGrid plans a FPO in September 2010 to raise Rs40bn. (ET)
MSRDC concludes a buyback agreement with Reliance Infra-Hyundai consortium for the Worli-Haji Ali sea link project. (ET)
Bosch management reaches an amicable settlement with its employee’s union at its Bangalore plant. (BS)
Shree Cement to start power trading as an independent business through its subsidiary – Shree Power Trading. (ET)
Alok Industries raises Rs4.6bn via QIP. (BS)
Natco Pharma to re-launch its breast cancer drug Albupax, in the domestic as well as global markets soon. (BL)
Times group to buy a small stake in Nimbus communication and its arm Neo Sports Broadcast. (ET)
Prakash Industries plans to invest Rs33bn in expanding its steel and power generation capacities in Chhattisgarh over the next 4-5 years. (ET)
Suven Life Sciences has received US patent for a compound used in the treatment of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. (ET)
Hyundai Motors is lining up a new release for India to be launched in the second half of 2011, likely to be priced not much higher than that of Maruti’s cheapest variant, the Maruti 800. (BS)
Bajaj Holding ups stake in Force Motors to over 19%.(BS)
Headset manufacturer GN Netcom, has entered into a marketing and distribution agreement with Redington India for expanding its presence in the country. (ET)
Subhash Projects & Marketing Ltd bagged a contract from the Public Works Department of the Rajasthan Government, for development of two-lane highway from Jaipur to Bhilwara on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis. (BL)
RBI to continue its exit from the ultra loose monetary policy to check high inflation says Governor D. Subbarao. (ET)
Finance Ministry may give more compensation to oil companies this year, provided auto fuel prices are de-regulated next year. (ET)
Petrol and diesel price may go up marginally in 13 cities from April 1, 2010 due to the introduction of Euro IV (Bharat Stage 4) emission norms. (ET)
Auto exports rise 16% between the period of April’09- Feb’ 10. (ET)
Agriculture sector is likely to grow by an average 3% rate in the 11th five year plan. (BS)
The government chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu sees 8.5% GDP growth in Q4 FY10. (ET)
Cars to cost 1-3% more from April 1st 2010 due to new emission norms and rise in input cost. (BS)
The Finance Minister said that infrastructure bonds issued by both the public as well as private sector entities will qualify for the additional tax deduction of Rs20,000 proposed in Budget 2010-11. (BL)
Private sector banks and non-banking finance companies appear set to join a list of select state owned firms which will be allowed to offer tax-free bonds to investors. (ET)
The government looks all set to examine refinancing of domestic borrowings-funded infrastructure projects through overseas loans. (ET)
MARKET MAY REMAIN VOLATILE
The market may remain volatile on mixed Asian stocks after US stocks closed slightly lower on Thursday, 25 March 2010. The food prices eased for the third straight week in mid-March while fuel inflation remained steady, but the Reserve Bank is still seen raising rates the second time in as many months in April. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) surprised markets with a 25 basis point hike in its key lending rate last week to tame headline inflation that is near 10% and warned of a build up in demand-side pressures on the economy.
Data on Thursday showed the fuel price index rose 12.68% in the year to 13 March 2010, flat on the week. The government had raised motor fuel prices in late February.
The food price index rose an annual 16.22% in the year to 13 March 2010, lower than the previous week's reading of 16.30%. The primary articles index was up 13.88% for the latest period, compared with 14.16% in the previous week.
After the most recent rate hike, analysts are betting the RBI will raise rates to a slightly higher level this year than earlier expected. Most now see rates being raised by a total of 100 basis points by the end of 2010.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday it was imperative to curb inflationary pressures fuelled by increased capacity utilisation and rising energy and commodity prices.
Earlier on Thursday, a document from the country's top policy panel said India should aim for an average 5% inflation and this was a target "quite within the realm of possibilities".
A week after the RBI unexpectedly lifted its key rates, it said food prices were moderating but were still high and the pace of inflation in non-food manufactured goods was accelerating.
Coming back to stocks, encouraging Q4 March 2010 advance tax figures of top Indian firms, indicating good Q4 March 2010 results, boosted equities over the past few days. The market also witnessed a strong post-Budget rally driven by sustained buying by foreign funds since the presentation of the Union Budget 2010-2011 on 26 February 2010.
The stock market gave a thumbs up to the Union Budget 2010-2011 due to its thrust on infrastructure development, government's pledge to reduce fiscal deficit over the next three years, a smaller-than-expected 2% hike in excise duties, and reduction in taxes for individuals which will boost disposable income. The Finance Minister has assumed a modest GDP growth of about 8% and inflation of about 4.5% for 2010-2011. Global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, last week, revised the outlook on India to stable from negative due to improved government finances.
Going ahead, the key triggers for the stock market are structural reforms such as decontrol of petrol and diesel prices, targeting of food subsidies, and financial sector reforms such as increase in foreign direct investment in insurance sector.
Asian markets were mixed Friday after renewed worries about Greece's debt problems led to a disappointing finish on Wall Street. The key benchmark indices in China and Hong Kong fell by between 1.12% to 1.23%. But, the key benchmark indices in Singapore and Japan arose by between 0.4% to 0.7%.
Deflation continued in Japan as February consumer prices released Friday showed a decline for the 12th straight month in February. Core CPI, which excludes fresh food, dropped 1.2%from a year earlier.
Euro zone leaders agreed on Thursday to create a joint financial safety net with the IMF to help debt-ridden Greece and to try to restore confidence in their common currency after weeks of wrangling.
US markets ended slightly lower on strength in dollar volume on Thursday, 25 March 2010. The Dow Jones rose 5.06 points or 0.05% to 10,841.21. The Nasdaq declined 1.35 points or 0.06% to 2,397.41 and the S&P 500 fell 1.99 points or 0.17% to 1,165.73. In economic news, initial jobless claims for the week ended 20 March 2010 totaled 442,000, which was a bit less than the expected total of 450,000 and down 14,000 from the prior week. Continuing claims came in at 4.65 million down roughly 54,000.
Close home, the key benchmark indices reversed intraday losses and surged to fresh intraday highs in late trade on Thursday, 25 March 2010 tracking higher European stocks and gains in US index futures. The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 107.83 points or 0.62% to 17568.85 on that day.
As per provisional figures on NSE, foreign funds bought shares worth Rs 653.22 crore and domestic funds sold shares worth Rs 156.19 crore on Thursday.
Data on Thursday showed the fuel price index rose 12.68% in the year to 13 March 2010, flat on the week. The government had raised motor fuel prices in late February.
The food price index rose an annual 16.22% in the year to 13 March 2010, lower than the previous week's reading of 16.30%. The primary articles index was up 13.88% for the latest period, compared with 14.16% in the previous week.
After the most recent rate hike, analysts are betting the RBI will raise rates to a slightly higher level this year than earlier expected. Most now see rates being raised by a total of 100 basis points by the end of 2010.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday it was imperative to curb inflationary pressures fuelled by increased capacity utilisation and rising energy and commodity prices.
Earlier on Thursday, a document from the country's top policy panel said India should aim for an average 5% inflation and this was a target "quite within the realm of possibilities".
A week after the RBI unexpectedly lifted its key rates, it said food prices were moderating but were still high and the pace of inflation in non-food manufactured goods was accelerating.
Coming back to stocks, encouraging Q4 March 2010 advance tax figures of top Indian firms, indicating good Q4 March 2010 results, boosted equities over the past few days. The market also witnessed a strong post-Budget rally driven by sustained buying by foreign funds since the presentation of the Union Budget 2010-2011 on 26 February 2010.
The stock market gave a thumbs up to the Union Budget 2010-2011 due to its thrust on infrastructure development, government's pledge to reduce fiscal deficit over the next three years, a smaller-than-expected 2% hike in excise duties, and reduction in taxes for individuals which will boost disposable income. The Finance Minister has assumed a modest GDP growth of about 8% and inflation of about 4.5% for 2010-2011. Global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, last week, revised the outlook on India to stable from negative due to improved government finances.
Going ahead, the key triggers for the stock market are structural reforms such as decontrol of petrol and diesel prices, targeting of food subsidies, and financial sector reforms such as increase in foreign direct investment in insurance sector.
Asian markets were mixed Friday after renewed worries about Greece's debt problems led to a disappointing finish on Wall Street. The key benchmark indices in China and Hong Kong fell by between 1.12% to 1.23%. But, the key benchmark indices in Singapore and Japan arose by between 0.4% to 0.7%.
Deflation continued in Japan as February consumer prices released Friday showed a decline for the 12th straight month in February. Core CPI, which excludes fresh food, dropped 1.2%from a year earlier.
Euro zone leaders agreed on Thursday to create a joint financial safety net with the IMF to help debt-ridden Greece and to try to restore confidence in their common currency after weeks of wrangling.
US markets ended slightly lower on strength in dollar volume on Thursday, 25 March 2010. The Dow Jones rose 5.06 points or 0.05% to 10,841.21. The Nasdaq declined 1.35 points or 0.06% to 2,397.41 and the S&P 500 fell 1.99 points or 0.17% to 1,165.73. In economic news, initial jobless claims for the week ended 20 March 2010 totaled 442,000, which was a bit less than the expected total of 450,000 and down 14,000 from the prior week. Continuing claims came in at 4.65 million down roughly 54,000.
Close home, the key benchmark indices reversed intraday losses and surged to fresh intraday highs in late trade on Thursday, 25 March 2010 tracking higher European stocks and gains in US index futures. The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 107.83 points or 0.62% to 17568.85 on that day.
As per provisional figures on NSE, foreign funds bought shares worth Rs 653.22 crore and domestic funds sold shares worth Rs 156.19 crore on Thursday.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
NIFTY APRIL 2010 FUTURES AT PREMIUM
Turnover rises
Nifty April 2010 futures were at 5,277, at a premium of 16.60 points over spot closing of 5,260.40. Turnover in NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment surged to Rs 1,36,971.02 crore from Rs 1,18,690.10 crore on Tuesday, 23 March 2010.
The near-month March 2010 derivatives contracts expired today, 25 March 2010. Rollover in Nifty futures was 52% at the end of Tuesday's (23 March 2010)'s trade. Rollover in Mini Nifty futures was 44% while the market wide Rollover was 55%. Rollover was low in REC, Union Bank of India, GAIL India, Hindalco and Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren, till Tuesday. The stock market was closed on Wednesday for a public holiday.
Bharat Heavy Electricals April 2010 futures were at premium at 2388.10 compared to the spot closing of 2385.
Larsen & Toubro April 2010 futures were at premium at 1642.25 compared to the spot closing of 1634.10.
Suzlon Energy April 2010 futures were at a slight premium at 73.35 compared to the spot closing of 72.70.
In the cash market, the S&P CNX Nifty rose 35.10 points or 0.67% at 5,260.40.
Nifty April 2010 futures were at 5,277, at a premium of 16.60 points over spot closing of 5,260.40. Turnover in NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment surged to Rs 1,36,971.02 crore from Rs 1,18,690.10 crore on Tuesday, 23 March 2010.
The near-month March 2010 derivatives contracts expired today, 25 March 2010. Rollover in Nifty futures was 52% at the end of Tuesday's (23 March 2010)'s trade. Rollover in Mini Nifty futures was 44% while the market wide Rollover was 55%. Rollover was low in REC, Union Bank of India, GAIL India, Hindalco and Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren, till Tuesday. The stock market was closed on Wednesday for a public holiday.
Bharat Heavy Electricals April 2010 futures were at premium at 2388.10 compared to the spot closing of 2385.
Larsen & Toubro April 2010 futures were at premium at 1642.25 compared to the spot closing of 1634.10.
Suzlon Energy April 2010 futures were at a slight premium at 73.35 compared to the spot closing of 72.70.
In the cash market, the S&P CNX Nifty rose 35.10 points or 0.67% at 5,260.40.
DAILY NEWS ROUNDUP - MARCH 25, 2010
ONGC is in talks with three Russian companies for acquiring oil properties in Russia and CIS region. (ET)
The US Healthcare Bill, which proposes to create Electronic Health Records for all Americans by 2014, is expected to open up a US$20bn market opportunity for Indian IT services firms like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Firstsource and MindTree. (BS)
GAIL is in talks with Canadian oil company Interoil Corp for a possible stake in its proposed LNG project in Papua New Guinea. (BS)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore granted ICICI Bank a qualified full banking status and allowed it to offer retail banking services. (ET)
Tata Motors signed an agreement with the Myanmarese government for setting up a heavy truck plant in the South-East Asian nation with an installed capacity of up to 5,000 units annually. (BS)
Having already launched two of its 'World Truck' variants, Tata Motors plans to launch 20 new variants in coming two years. (BS)
Tata Motors is investigating the latest incident in Mumbai of a new Nano catching fire, less than an hour after it was driven out of the showroom. (BL)
Bharat PetroResources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPCL, along with its partner Anadarko Petroleum Corporation of the US, has encountered more than 145 net meters of natural gas in reservoir sands with a gross column of more than 365 meters. (BS)
Zain board will meet on Wednesday to consider Bharti Airtel’s offer to buy out its African assets. (ET)
DLF has decided to resolve what appeared to be a conflict of business interest between itself and its erstwhile group company, DLF Assets, by merging the latter with a fully owned subsidiary. (BL)
NTPC plans to produce 500MW from renewable energy projects and proposes to set up a 1,000MW coal-based thermal power station at Khambhat, Gujarat. (BL)
Concerned over inordinate delay in implementation of NTPC projects, the CAG will look into contractual agreements entered into by the company with various suppliers and contractors to find out the reasons for delays. (ET)
L&T won Rs9.8bn contract from the Ministry of Defence for design and construction of 36 high-speed interceptor boats for the Indian Coast Guard. (BS)
Cipla is in talks with Piramal Healthcare to sell its emergency contraceptive drug brand, i-pill. (ET)
JSPL will sign a MoU with the Orissa government for setting up a Coal to Liquid project in Orissa. (BS)
MRPL plans to expand its presence in the petroleum retail business as soon as the government allows linking petrol and diesel sales to market prices. (BS)
Tata Chemicals is considering an entry into the staples segment. (BL)
Syngene International, the custom research subsidiary of Bangalore-based biopharmaceutical company Biocon, has entered into a discovery and development collaboration with Endo Pharmaceuticals of the United States to develop biological therapeutic molecules against cancer. (BS)
Exide Industries launched eco-friendly batteries for UPS applications that come with a three-year warranty. (BL)
Shree Renuka Sugars has completed the acquisition of Vale Do Ivai S/A Acucar E Alcool (VDI) a Brazilian sugar and ethanol production company and VDI has become a wholly owned subsidiary. (BL)
Crompton Greaves, in partnership with ZTR of Ukraine, bagged Rs6bn contract for the supply and commissioning of 765kV shunt reactors for PGCIL’s various projects across the country. (BL)
Offshore lenders to Wockhardt’s Swiss subsidiary may move court to lay claim to some of the parent’s assets in India, complicating matters for the debt-laden drug maker and its creditors. (ET)
Nagarjuna Construction expects Paschal Form Work (India) Pvt Ltd, its new JV with Paschal Werk G Maier GmbH, to post a turnover of Rs1bn in the first year of its operations. (BS)
Neyveli Lignite plans to generate 1,700MW under green technologies of the company’s total installed capacity of 10,000MW by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2017. (BS)
Great Eastern Shipping said it had taken board approval to bring an initial public offer for its subsidiary, Great Ship. (BS)
United Breweries Group is exiting its holding in Aventis Pharma by selling a 10.3% stake in the company, in a deal worth Rs4.1bn. (BS)
Jay Shree Tea is in the process of acquiring 100% stake in M. P. Chini Industries Ltd. (BL)
Dhanlaxmi Bank said it would raise Rs2bn in the last week of March from bonds to funds its business growth. (ET)
Petrol and diesel prices in 13 major cities are set to go up, the second hike in less than two months, with the petroleum ministry considering a higher price for Euro-IV complaint fuels. (BS)
The Planning Commission is likely to scale down the average growth rate for the eleventh plan period to 8% from the earlier 9%. (BS)
The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission said, investment in the infrastructure sector during the XIth Plan will be close to the target of US$500bn, largely due to the telecom sector. (BL)
Indian Railways may have to rework sections of the route alignment of its Rs508bn dedicated freight corridor project to avoid acquiring land from those who are not ready to part with it. (BL)
The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas said that the domestic capacity to handle imported LNG is likely to rise by about 7mtpa to reach 20mtpa by 2011-12. (BL)
The government has directed public and private telecom players to get security clearance for procuring telecom equipment/software from foreign vendors. (ET)
The direct tax receipts are seen growing around 10% yoy and touch Rs3.6trn. (ET)
The government approved Rs6.5bn for a scheme that aims at improving compilation of statistical data for socio economic parameters for helping states better formulate their plans. (ET)
The final draft for GST could be out by May this year, after the empowered committee of state finance ministers meet next month. (FE)
The US Healthcare Bill, which proposes to create Electronic Health Records for all Americans by 2014, is expected to open up a US$20bn market opportunity for Indian IT services firms like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Firstsource and MindTree. (BS)
GAIL is in talks with Canadian oil company Interoil Corp for a possible stake in its proposed LNG project in Papua New Guinea. (BS)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore granted ICICI Bank a qualified full banking status and allowed it to offer retail banking services. (ET)
Tata Motors signed an agreement with the Myanmarese government for setting up a heavy truck plant in the South-East Asian nation with an installed capacity of up to 5,000 units annually. (BS)
Having already launched two of its 'World Truck' variants, Tata Motors plans to launch 20 new variants in coming two years. (BS)
Tata Motors is investigating the latest incident in Mumbai of a new Nano catching fire, less than an hour after it was driven out of the showroom. (BL)
Bharat PetroResources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPCL, along with its partner Anadarko Petroleum Corporation of the US, has encountered more than 145 net meters of natural gas in reservoir sands with a gross column of more than 365 meters. (BS)
Zain board will meet on Wednesday to consider Bharti Airtel’s offer to buy out its African assets. (ET)
DLF has decided to resolve what appeared to be a conflict of business interest between itself and its erstwhile group company, DLF Assets, by merging the latter with a fully owned subsidiary. (BL)
NTPC plans to produce 500MW from renewable energy projects and proposes to set up a 1,000MW coal-based thermal power station at Khambhat, Gujarat. (BL)
Concerned over inordinate delay in implementation of NTPC projects, the CAG will look into contractual agreements entered into by the company with various suppliers and contractors to find out the reasons for delays. (ET)
L&T won Rs9.8bn contract from the Ministry of Defence for design and construction of 36 high-speed interceptor boats for the Indian Coast Guard. (BS)
Cipla is in talks with Piramal Healthcare to sell its emergency contraceptive drug brand, i-pill. (ET)
JSPL will sign a MoU with the Orissa government for setting up a Coal to Liquid project in Orissa. (BS)
MRPL plans to expand its presence in the petroleum retail business as soon as the government allows linking petrol and diesel sales to market prices. (BS)
Tata Chemicals is considering an entry into the staples segment. (BL)
Syngene International, the custom research subsidiary of Bangalore-based biopharmaceutical company Biocon, has entered into a discovery and development collaboration with Endo Pharmaceuticals of the United States to develop biological therapeutic molecules against cancer. (BS)
Exide Industries launched eco-friendly batteries for UPS applications that come with a three-year warranty. (BL)
Shree Renuka Sugars has completed the acquisition of Vale Do Ivai S/A Acucar E Alcool (VDI) a Brazilian sugar and ethanol production company and VDI has become a wholly owned subsidiary. (BL)
Crompton Greaves, in partnership with ZTR of Ukraine, bagged Rs6bn contract for the supply and commissioning of 765kV shunt reactors for PGCIL’s various projects across the country. (BL)
Offshore lenders to Wockhardt’s Swiss subsidiary may move court to lay claim to some of the parent’s assets in India, complicating matters for the debt-laden drug maker and its creditors. (ET)
Nagarjuna Construction expects Paschal Form Work (India) Pvt Ltd, its new JV with Paschal Werk G Maier GmbH, to post a turnover of Rs1bn in the first year of its operations. (BS)
Neyveli Lignite plans to generate 1,700MW under green technologies of the company’s total installed capacity of 10,000MW by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2017. (BS)
Great Eastern Shipping said it had taken board approval to bring an initial public offer for its subsidiary, Great Ship. (BS)
United Breweries Group is exiting its holding in Aventis Pharma by selling a 10.3% stake in the company, in a deal worth Rs4.1bn. (BS)
Jay Shree Tea is in the process of acquiring 100% stake in M. P. Chini Industries Ltd. (BL)
Dhanlaxmi Bank said it would raise Rs2bn in the last week of March from bonds to funds its business growth. (ET)
Petrol and diesel prices in 13 major cities are set to go up, the second hike in less than two months, with the petroleum ministry considering a higher price for Euro-IV complaint fuels. (BS)
The Planning Commission is likely to scale down the average growth rate for the eleventh plan period to 8% from the earlier 9%. (BS)
The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission said, investment in the infrastructure sector during the XIth Plan will be close to the target of US$500bn, largely due to the telecom sector. (BL)
Indian Railways may have to rework sections of the route alignment of its Rs508bn dedicated freight corridor project to avoid acquiring land from those who are not ready to part with it. (BL)
The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas said that the domestic capacity to handle imported LNG is likely to rise by about 7mtpa to reach 20mtpa by 2011-12. (BL)
The government has directed public and private telecom players to get security clearance for procuring telecom equipment/software from foreign vendors. (ET)
The direct tax receipts are seen growing around 10% yoy and touch Rs3.6trn. (ET)
The government approved Rs6.5bn for a scheme that aims at improving compilation of statistical data for socio economic parameters for helping states better formulate their plans. (ET)
The final draft for GST could be out by May this year, after the empowered committee of state finance ministers meet next month. (FE)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
FLAT START LIKELY; MARCH FNO EXPIRY EYED
Headlines for the day:
Zain okays Bharti bid
RBI hints at further rate rise
Bosch settles wage talks at Bangalore plant
Events for the day:
Major corporate action
F&O expiry for the month of March
Weekly inflation to be announced today
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com
Results: Henkel India, Kesar Petro, and Wyeth
Pre-market report
Global signals
On Wednesday, March 24, 2010, the European stocks ended flat, with Shire stock leading pharmaceuticals up as it gained from a competitor's problems, and as the market shrugged off a Fitch downgrade of Portugal's sovereign debt.
The US markets closed lower on Wednesday, as Portugal's credit rating downgrade and a weak Treasury note auction stirred concerns about sovereign debt.
In today's trade, the Asian indices are trading mix. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 20.50 point lower.
Indian markets
As the Fitch downgrade of Portugal's sovereign debt hit major of the global indices, the domestic markets are expected to open flat on the back of mixed signals from the global markets. Owing to the March month's F&O expiry ahead today, the markets are expected to be volatile.
Commodity cues
In the commodity space, the Crude oil prices reported loss, with the Nymex light crude oil for the April series down by $14.90 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the April series declined by $0.38 and the Comex Silver for the May series was down by $1.30 to a troy ounce respectively.
Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities
On March 23, 2010, FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs270.50 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on March 22, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs359.50 crore.
Zain okays Bharti bid
RBI hints at further rate rise
Bosch settles wage talks at Bangalore plant
Events for the day:
Major corporate action
F&O expiry for the month of March
Weekly inflation to be announced today
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com
Results: Henkel India, Kesar Petro, and Wyeth
Pre-market report
Global signals
On Wednesday, March 24, 2010, the European stocks ended flat, with Shire stock leading pharmaceuticals up as it gained from a competitor's problems, and as the market shrugged off a Fitch downgrade of Portugal's sovereign debt.
The US markets closed lower on Wednesday, as Portugal's credit rating downgrade and a weak Treasury note auction stirred concerns about sovereign debt.
In today's trade, the Asian indices are trading mix. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 20.50 point lower.
Indian markets
As the Fitch downgrade of Portugal's sovereign debt hit major of the global indices, the domestic markets are expected to open flat on the back of mixed signals from the global markets. Owing to the March month's F&O expiry ahead today, the markets are expected to be volatile.
Commodity cues
In the commodity space, the Crude oil prices reported loss, with the Nymex light crude oil for the April series down by $14.90 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the April series declined by $0.38 and the Comex Silver for the May series was down by $1.30 to a troy ounce respectively.
Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities
On March 23, 2010, FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs270.50 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on March 22, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs359.50 crore.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
MARKET EDGY ON EXPIRY JITTERS, PHARMA GAINS
Today's major news
Cadila Healthcare hits its 52-week high; the stock surges 4.60%
ICICI Bank gets full license for Singapore operations; the stock closes 1.05% lower
Larsen & Toubro secures orders worth Rs1,500 crore; the stock finishes 0.36% down
Global signals
European stocks were trading modestly higher taking cue from an upbeat session on the Wall Street. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 (UK) was trading 0.67% higher.
Of the major Asian indices, only Shanghai Composite (China) and Nikkei (Japan) ended lower—by 0.70% and 0.47% respectively. SGX Nifty closed 13 points higher.
US stock futures opened higher pointing to a higher opening on the Wall Street, with housing in the spotlight ahead of data on prices, existing-home sales and results from builder KB Home. However, the investors would be eagerly waiting for the existing home sales readings for February and FHFA home price index for January. On March 24, 2010, the investors would be eagerly waiting for Durable Orders ex Auto and New Home Sales for February.
Indian indices
With the expiry of March F&O contracts round the corner—on Thrusday (March 25, 2010)—stocks fluctuated as investors unwound positions. The passing of the US Healthcare Reform Bill, touted to be historic in nature, yesterday, which could benefit Indian drug makers saw pharmaceutical stocks (BSE Healthcare) open higher and stay higher.
Starting off merely 22 points over its yesterday’s close the Sensex was its day’s high (120 up its yesterday’s close) within minutes of trade. However it failed to hold on this early lead on expiry jitters. With little over two hours to the closing it was at its day’s low (54 points lower than its yesterday’s closing), but rebounded towards the end on buying in blue chips like Reliance Industries, Torrent Power and HDFC Bank to post gains of 40 points. The Nifty closed 20 points higher with F&O volumes spiking by over 20% over its yesterday's reading.
Market sentiment
The advance/decline ratio tilled in favour of bears at 0.84. Of the 2,879 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,504 (52.24%) stocks declined, whereas 1,266 (43.97%) stocks advanced. Hundred and nine stocks closed unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Passage of US Healthcare Reforms Bill spiked BSE Health Care (up 1.54%) on news that it would benefit Indian drug companies. BSE Oil & Gas was at second position—up 1.13%. The rest of the sectors were either up or down by less than a percent.
On stocks’ front, the top three gainers were Areva T&D India (up 10.33%), Lanco Infratech (up 6.84%) and Cadila Healthcare (up 4.60%). The top three losers were NMDC (down 5.47%), Idea Cellular (down 3.70%) and Shree Renuka Sugars (down 4.66%).
Viewing volumes
On a day before the expiry of March F&O contracts, F&O volumes spurted to over 1.15 lakh. However, the cash segment did not see much change from average volumes. Steel maker, Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.34 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by India’s second largest realty company Unitech (0.34 crore shares), Industrial finance company IFCI (0.28 crore shares), wind turbine major Suzlon Energy (0.27 crore shares) and the Housing Development & infrastructure Ltd (HDIL; 0.23 crore shares).
Cadila Healthcare hits its 52-week high; the stock surges 4.60%
ICICI Bank gets full license for Singapore operations; the stock closes 1.05% lower
Larsen & Toubro secures orders worth Rs1,500 crore; the stock finishes 0.36% down
Global signals
European stocks were trading modestly higher taking cue from an upbeat session on the Wall Street. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 (UK) was trading 0.67% higher.
Of the major Asian indices, only Shanghai Composite (China) and Nikkei (Japan) ended lower—by 0.70% and 0.47% respectively. SGX Nifty closed 13 points higher.
US stock futures opened higher pointing to a higher opening on the Wall Street, with housing in the spotlight ahead of data on prices, existing-home sales and results from builder KB Home. However, the investors would be eagerly waiting for the existing home sales readings for February and FHFA home price index for January. On March 24, 2010, the investors would be eagerly waiting for Durable Orders ex Auto and New Home Sales for February.
Indian indices
With the expiry of March F&O contracts round the corner—on Thrusday (March 25, 2010)—stocks fluctuated as investors unwound positions. The passing of the US Healthcare Reform Bill, touted to be historic in nature, yesterday, which could benefit Indian drug makers saw pharmaceutical stocks (BSE Healthcare) open higher and stay higher.
Starting off merely 22 points over its yesterday’s close the Sensex was its day’s high (120 up its yesterday’s close) within minutes of trade. However it failed to hold on this early lead on expiry jitters. With little over two hours to the closing it was at its day’s low (54 points lower than its yesterday’s closing), but rebounded towards the end on buying in blue chips like Reliance Industries, Torrent Power and HDFC Bank to post gains of 40 points. The Nifty closed 20 points higher with F&O volumes spiking by over 20% over its yesterday's reading.
Market sentiment
The advance/decline ratio tilled in favour of bears at 0.84. Of the 2,879 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,504 (52.24%) stocks declined, whereas 1,266 (43.97%) stocks advanced. Hundred and nine stocks closed unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Passage of US Healthcare Reforms Bill spiked BSE Health Care (up 1.54%) on news that it would benefit Indian drug companies. BSE Oil & Gas was at second position—up 1.13%. The rest of the sectors were either up or down by less than a percent.
On stocks’ front, the top three gainers were Areva T&D India (up 10.33%), Lanco Infratech (up 6.84%) and Cadila Healthcare (up 4.60%). The top three losers were NMDC (down 5.47%), Idea Cellular (down 3.70%) and Shree Renuka Sugars (down 4.66%).
Viewing volumes
On a day before the expiry of March F&O contracts, F&O volumes spurted to over 1.15 lakh. However, the cash segment did not see much change from average volumes. Steel maker, Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 0.34 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by India’s second largest realty company Unitech (0.34 crore shares), Industrial finance company IFCI (0.28 crore shares), wind turbine major Suzlon Energy (0.27 crore shares) and the Housing Development & infrastructure Ltd (HDIL; 0.23 crore shares).
PHARMA STOCKS EDGE HIGHER IN VOLATLE MARKET
The key benchmark indices swayed between gains and losses ahead of the derivatives expiry later this week. Pharma stocks rose even as realty shares witnessed selling pressure. The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 40.45 points or 0.23%, up close to 94 points from the day's low and off close to 80 points from the day's high.
Investor sentiment appeared to positive with just four out of 13 sectoral indices on the BSE closing in the red. But, the market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative compared with a strong breadth in early trades today. World stocks rose.
The market was volatile as traders rolled over positions in derivatives segment from the March 2010 series to the April 2010 series ahead of the expiry of the near-month March 2010 derivatives contracts on Thursday, 25 March 2010. The market surged in early trade. The Sensex had lost nearly 1% on Monday, 22 March 2010, after a surprise hike in short term interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which it announced after trading hours on Friday, 19 March 2010.
The market pared gains soon after an initial rally. The market further trimmed gains in morning trade, after moving a in a narrow range in morning trade. The market once again moved in a narrow range in mid-morning trade. The key benchmark indices recovered from lower level after erasing almost the entire intraday gains. However, the intraday recovery proved short-lived. The market slipped into the red in afternoon trade. The key benchmark indices regained positive zone in mid-afternoon trade.
Rollover of Nifty futures from March 2010 series to April 2010 series was about 40% at the end of Monday's trade. Rollover in Mini Nifty futures was about 31% and the market wide rollover stood at about 36%. In individual stocks, GTL, National Aluminum Company, Reliance Power, GTL Infrastructure, and Bharti Airtel, have witnessed high rollover. But rollover was low in REC, Dish TV, Essar Oil, ITC and Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren till Monday.
A day after a sharp surge, NSE's volatility index, India VIX, witnessed a steep slide. The index tumbled 9.17% to 18.13. India VIX is a measure of the market's expectation of volatility over the next 30 calendar days. The lower the index, which is based the S&P CNX Nifty option prices, the higher the market's desire to take risk. On Monday, 22 March 2010, the volatility index had surged 12.45% to 19.96 following a surprise hike in key policy rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The stock market remains closed on Wednesday, 24 March 2010, on account of Ram Navmi.
The government will allow private-sector firms to issue infrastructure bonds to raise funds for projects, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday. Prime minister Manmohan Singh today said there is a need to spend $1 trillion in infrastructure in the five years to 2016/17.
Mukherjee said the capacity of banks to fund infrastructure projects is stretched and new sources had to be tapped, including allowing private firms to issue infrastructure bonds. The availability of equity, both domestic and FDI (foreign direct investment) continue to remain an area of concern, he said. " We have still not completely succeeded in exploiting the full potential of insurance and pension funds for deployment in the infrastructure projects," Mukherjee said.
India plans to spend $514 billion in the five years to 2011/12, and Mukherjee said this goal was proceeding as per schedule.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after trading hours on Friday 19 March 2010, unexpectedly raised interest rates from record-low levels, citing intensifying inflationary pressures and a steady economic recovery. The market had widely expected the RBI to raise rates soon, but the timing of its 25 basis-point hike for its key lending and borrowing rates, before the April 2010 policy review caught market men by surprise.
The RBI raised the repo rate, the rate at which it lends to banks to 5% from 4.75% and reverse repo rate, the rate which it absorbs funds from the system to 3.50% from 3.25% with immediate effect. India is the second major economy after Australia to start raising interest rates with signs of global recovery emerging and local price pressures picking up. China has raised its banks' reserve requirements but has left its rates unchanged.
The wholesale price index in Asia's third-largest economy accelerated to 9.89% in February, the highest since October 2008 and well above the central bank's end-March 2010 projection of 8.5% and the 8.56% reading for January 2010.
In the emergent scenario, low policy rates can complicate the inflation outlook and impair inflationary expectations, particularly given the recent escalation in the prices of non-food manufactured goods, the RBI said in a statement. While the recovery in growth has proceeded broadly along expected lines, the inflationary pressures have intensified beyond the central bank's baseline projection, the RBI said.
The government may have to sacrifice a little bit of short-term economic growth after the rate increase, which was aimed at consolidating long-term growth, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor D Subbarao said on Monday.
The country's apex planning body has reportedly called for wide-ranging reforms in agriculture, while criticising the strategy employed by the government to increase farm output and tame soaring food prices.
The Planning Commission said the agriculture pricing system should be made more market-oriented by delinking support prices from procurement prices. It has also suggested measures such as abolition of levies and stocking limits, encouraging free movement of goods across the country and doing away with bans on exports and futures trading.
In its mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) to be ratified by the full Planning Commission under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, the panel pointed out that while the farm sector did well between 2005-06 and 2007-08 growing at 4%, the performance in the past two years showed that the government's strategy was not effective and more needed to be done on the supply side to maintain growth.
Meanwhile, poor performance in the power, road and port sectors has resulted in actual investment in infrastructure falling below the level envisaged in the Eleventh Plan period despite a robust growth in telecom sector.
Coming back to stocks, encouraging Q4 March 2010 advance tax figures of top Indian firms, indicating good Q4 March 2010 results, had boosted the bourses last week. The market also witnessed a strong post-Budget rally driven by sustained buying by foreign funds since the presentation of the Union Budget 2010-2011 on 26 February 2010.
As per data from the stock exchanges, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought stocks worth a net Rs 11112.83 crore this month, till 22 March 2010. Finance secretary Ashok Chawla said on Tuesday, 23 March 2010, that foreign capital flows into India are currently not posing any concern.
The stock market gave a thumbs up to the Union Budget 2010-2011 due to its thrust on infrastructure development, government's pledge to reduce fiscal deficit over the next three years, a smaller-than-expected 2% hike in excise duties, and reduction in taxes for individuals which will boost disposable income. The Finance Minister has assumed a modest GDP growth of about 8% and inflation of about 4.5% for 2010-2011.
Going ahead, the key triggers for the stock market are structural reforms such as decontrol of petrol and diesel prices, targeting of food subsidies, and financial sector reforms such as increase in foreign direct investment in insurance sector.
European stocks were moderately higher Tuesday, following a strong session in the US on Monday. The key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK rose by between 0.53% to 0.82%.
European leaders recently tried to allay concerns that they were unprepared to aid Greece easing pressure on higher-yielding assets. The ECB president said the central bank is prepared to reassess its collateral rules if necessary, softening its stance as Greece struggles to cut the region's largest budget shortfall.
Most Asian shares rose on Tuesday, supported by investor expectations of an ongoing recovery in the world economy, and as tech stocks drew support from gains in their US peers. Sentiment was also lifted by the passage of the US healthcare legislation in the House of Representatives late Sunday. The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore rose by between 0.26% to 0.68%.
But the key benchmark indices in China, Taiwan and Japan fell by between 0.31% to 0.70%. Shares in China reversed earlier gains as financial stocks and property developers weakened on concerns about weaker dividends from the upcoming earnings reports.
Trading in US index futures indicated Dow could gain 9 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, 23 March 2010.
After a weak opening US stocks finally closed higher on Monday led by healthcare stocks as the passage of the health-care bill lifted uncertainty surrounding the legislation that was hanging over the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43.91 points or 0.41% to 10784.89. The Nasdaq rose 20.99 points or 0.88% to 2395.40 and S&P 500 gained 5.91 points or 0.51% to 1,165.81.
The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 40.45 points or 0.23% to 17,451.02. The Sensex fell 53.93 points at the day's low of 17,356.64 in afternoon trade. The barometer rose 120.22 points at the day's high of 17,530.79 in early trade.
The S&P CNX Nifty was up 20.10 points or 0.39% at 5225.30.
The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.21% and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.30%.
The market breadth, indicating overall health of the market, was negative. That was in contrast to a strong breadth earlier in the day. On BSE, 1266 shares advanced as compared with 1504 that declined. A total of 109 shares remained unchanged.
BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4175 crore, lower than Rs 4618.91 crore on Monday, 22 March 2010.
The BSE HealthCare index (up 1.54%), the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.13%), the BSE Power index (up 0.88%), the BSE Metal index (up 0.83%), the BSE Bankex (up 0.32%), the BSE IT index (up 0.31%), the BSE Capital Goods index (up 0.29%), outperformed the Sensex.
The BSE Consumer Durables index (up 0.15%), the BSE FMCG index (up 0.08%), the BSE Teck index (down 0.25%), the BSE PSU index (down 0.28%), the BSE Auto index (down 0.52%), and the BSE Realty index (down 0.71%), underperformed the Sensex.
From the 30 Sensex shares, 15 stocks fell, 14 stocks rose and one stock was unchanged.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.43%, extending recent gains on expectations of good Q4 March 2010 results. As per the market buzz, RIL's Q4 advance tax surged to Rs 770 crore in Q4 March 2010 from Rs 365 crore a year ago. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries is reportedly seeking a joint venture with Atlas Energy to develop the US firm's Marcellus Shale gas operations.
Reliance Industries on 14 March 2010 announced a sports and entertainment joint venture with IMG Worldwide, a global leader in sports marketing and management. The equal venture, IMG Reliance, will set up modern infrastructure and coaching facilities for sports and create and operate sports and entertainment assets including celebrity management.
Cairn India rose 3.76% after parent Cairn Energy of UK lifted its estimates for reserves at its Indian operation and said the unit's Rajasthan fields could produce more oil than previously thought. Cairn raised its estimates of oil and gas in place in Rajasthan to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from 3.7 billion boe and said there could be another 2.5 billion boe yet to be discovered. The Edinburgh-based company said the fields had the potential to pump 240,000 boe per day. Previously the company said it hoped to exceed its target of 175,000 boe per day but did not specify by how much.
India's largest engineering & construction firm by sales Larsen & Toubro (L&T) fell 0.36% in a volatile trade. The company said today it got orders worth Rs 1500 crore. L&T's advance tax payment fell marginally to Rs 270 crore in Q4 March 2010 from Rs 275 crore a year earlier.
But, other capital goods stocks rose. Areva T&D, Alstom Projects, Siemens, Crompton Greaves, Thermax, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Punj Lloyd rose by between 0.42% to 10.33%.
India's largest mobile services provider by sales Bharti Airtel fell 3% and was the top loser form the Sensex pack. The company has tied up the entire financing requirement of $8.3 billion for its planned buy of Kuwaiti telecom Zain's African assets, in a sign of progress as the deadline for the firms' talks expire this week. Bharti and Zain are in exclusive talks until 25 March 2010, marking the third time Bharti has tried to get its hands on a meaningful African business after two failed bids for South Africa's MTN.
Rate sensitive auto stocks extended Monday's fall triggered by a rate hike by the central bank. India's largest commercial vehicle maker by sales Tata Motors fell 2.76%, extending Monday's 3.02% fall after company said it is offering an early conversion of notes into stock through an auction to help reduce the debt on its balance sheet. The company, whose products range from the premium Jaguar and Land Rover to the ultra-cheap Nano car, on Tuesday invited holders of its foreign currency convertible notes to submit applications to convert them into shares.
Bondholders will get an enhanced conversion ratio in the offer, which runs through 29 March 2010, the truckmaker said in a statement today. The plan covers 11.8 billion yen ($131 million) of zero-coupon notes due March 2011 and $300 million of 1% bonds due in April 2011.
India's largest tractor maker by sales Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) fell 0.02%, with the stock sliding for the fifth day. The company paid Rs 235 crore in advance tax in Q4 March 2010 versus nil payment a year earlier.
India's largest bike maker by sales Hero Honda Motors fell 0.45%. Hero Honda has short-listed Karnataka as one of the states for setting up its fourth manufacturing plant. Hero Honda Motors has reportedly proposed an investment of Rs 2,000 crore for the upcoming plant.
India's largest car maker by sales Maruti Suzuki India fell 0.34%, extending recent slide triggered by fears increase in competition may dent sales. Recently, Ford India entered the small car market with 'Figo'.
Bajaj Auto fell 0.05%. As per recent report a joint venture between Nissan Motor, Renault S.A. and Bajaj Auto is working to make a car that will match the price of Tata Motors' Nano.
Increase in raw material prices coupled with costs associated with new emission norms could force auto makers to increase prices further, which may hit volumes. The government raised excise duties on large cars and sport utility vehicles by 2%, which was immediately passed on by vehicles makers, including top carmaker Maruti Suzuki and utility vehicle makers Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors. From 1 April 2010, all vehicles will have to comply with Euro IV emission norms across 13 major cities, adding to costs and setting the stage for another round of price hikes.
Pharma stocks rose on hopes of a surge in US exports after the US Congress passed the heavily-contested healthcare bill on Sunday, 21 March 2010. Biocon, Ipca Laboratories, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Divi's Laboratories, Lupin, Pfizer rose by between 0.09% to 3.34%.
Piramal Healthcare surged 3.38%, after the company signed a pact with Cipla for acquiring i-pill, an emergency contraceptive pill, for a consideration of Rs 95 crore.
Following the passage of the landmark healthcare bill, multinational firms may now be willing to put more money to buy into India's formulations companies. The healthcare bill is the US government's attempt to reduce healthcare costs. The Obama administration would make a nearly $1-trillion commitment in taxpayer money over the next decade to help an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans get health coverage. The bill also promotes use of generic drugs that are often one-tenth the price of the original version, but has the same impact.
Analysts opine that this would translate into huge opportunities to Indian companies as India has the largest number of US Food and Drug Administration approved pharma plants outside the US. India was among the 14 countries named in the Congress discussion that can offer low-cost drugs to achieve lower healthcare costs
Metal stocks rose on strong domestic demand. JSW Steel, Jai Corp, Guj NRE Coke, Sesa Goa, Hindalco Industries and Jindal Saw rose by between 0.34% to 3.02%.
India's largest steel maker by sales Tata Steel rose 1.20%. Its Q4 advance tax payment rose to Rs 513 crore from Rs 406 crore a year earlier.
India's largest copper maker by sales Sterlite Industries rose 0.47%. As per recent reports, a legal fight seems likely between Sterlite Industries and US copper miner Asarco LLC. The American company has filed a lawsuit against Sterlite for going back on a two-year old deal to acquire Asarco. This prompted Sterlite to also file a lawsuit against Asarco to claim recovery of about $50 million (about Rs 230 crore) that was deposited earlier.
But, National Aluminium Company fell 1.51%. The Union Minister for Mines has ruled out any possibility of disinvestment in the state-run aluminium firm.
Jindal Steel & Power advanced 2.47% on reports the company will invest $10 billion to set up a coal-to-liquid plant and a 2,000 megawatt thermal power plant in Orissa.
Compact Disc India was locked at 20% upper limit at Rs 79.30, after the company secured a large animation contract worth $82 million.
Sonata Software galloped 6.89%, after the company partnered with an independent non-profit organization dedicated to improving testing processes and software quality on a global scale.
ARSS Infrastructure Projects reported a highest turnover of Rs 206.02 crore on the BSE. Man Infraconstruction (Rs 115.78 crore), Syncom Healthcare (Rs 109.04 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 78.95 crore) and State Bank of India (Rs 71.75 crore), were the other turnover toppers on the BSE.
Cals Refineries clocked a highest volume of 2.53 crore shares. Syncom Healthcare (83.58 lakh shares), Suven Life Sciences (71.76 lakh shares), Facor Alloys (61.74 lakh) and Krishna Lifestyle Technologies (55.66 lakh shares), were the other volume toppers on the BSE.
Investor sentiment appeared to positive with just four out of 13 sectoral indices on the BSE closing in the red. But, the market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative compared with a strong breadth in early trades today. World stocks rose.
The market was volatile as traders rolled over positions in derivatives segment from the March 2010 series to the April 2010 series ahead of the expiry of the near-month March 2010 derivatives contracts on Thursday, 25 March 2010. The market surged in early trade. The Sensex had lost nearly 1% on Monday, 22 March 2010, after a surprise hike in short term interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which it announced after trading hours on Friday, 19 March 2010.
The market pared gains soon after an initial rally. The market further trimmed gains in morning trade, after moving a in a narrow range in morning trade. The market once again moved in a narrow range in mid-morning trade. The key benchmark indices recovered from lower level after erasing almost the entire intraday gains. However, the intraday recovery proved short-lived. The market slipped into the red in afternoon trade. The key benchmark indices regained positive zone in mid-afternoon trade.
Rollover of Nifty futures from March 2010 series to April 2010 series was about 40% at the end of Monday's trade. Rollover in Mini Nifty futures was about 31% and the market wide rollover stood at about 36%. In individual stocks, GTL, National Aluminum Company, Reliance Power, GTL Infrastructure, and Bharti Airtel, have witnessed high rollover. But rollover was low in REC, Dish TV, Essar Oil, ITC and Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren till Monday.
A day after a sharp surge, NSE's volatility index, India VIX, witnessed a steep slide. The index tumbled 9.17% to 18.13. India VIX is a measure of the market's expectation of volatility over the next 30 calendar days. The lower the index, which is based the S&P CNX Nifty option prices, the higher the market's desire to take risk. On Monday, 22 March 2010, the volatility index had surged 12.45% to 19.96 following a surprise hike in key policy rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The stock market remains closed on Wednesday, 24 March 2010, on account of Ram Navmi.
The government will allow private-sector firms to issue infrastructure bonds to raise funds for projects, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday. Prime minister Manmohan Singh today said there is a need to spend $1 trillion in infrastructure in the five years to 2016/17.
Mukherjee said the capacity of banks to fund infrastructure projects is stretched and new sources had to be tapped, including allowing private firms to issue infrastructure bonds. The availability of equity, both domestic and FDI (foreign direct investment) continue to remain an area of concern, he said. " We have still not completely succeeded in exploiting the full potential of insurance and pension funds for deployment in the infrastructure projects," Mukherjee said.
India plans to spend $514 billion in the five years to 2011/12, and Mukherjee said this goal was proceeding as per schedule.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after trading hours on Friday 19 March 2010, unexpectedly raised interest rates from record-low levels, citing intensifying inflationary pressures and a steady economic recovery. The market had widely expected the RBI to raise rates soon, but the timing of its 25 basis-point hike for its key lending and borrowing rates, before the April 2010 policy review caught market men by surprise.
The RBI raised the repo rate, the rate at which it lends to banks to 5% from 4.75% and reverse repo rate, the rate which it absorbs funds from the system to 3.50% from 3.25% with immediate effect. India is the second major economy after Australia to start raising interest rates with signs of global recovery emerging and local price pressures picking up. China has raised its banks' reserve requirements but has left its rates unchanged.
The wholesale price index in Asia's third-largest economy accelerated to 9.89% in February, the highest since October 2008 and well above the central bank's end-March 2010 projection of 8.5% and the 8.56% reading for January 2010.
In the emergent scenario, low policy rates can complicate the inflation outlook and impair inflationary expectations, particularly given the recent escalation in the prices of non-food manufactured goods, the RBI said in a statement. While the recovery in growth has proceeded broadly along expected lines, the inflationary pressures have intensified beyond the central bank's baseline projection, the RBI said.
The government may have to sacrifice a little bit of short-term economic growth after the rate increase, which was aimed at consolidating long-term growth, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor D Subbarao said on Monday.
The country's apex planning body has reportedly called for wide-ranging reforms in agriculture, while criticising the strategy employed by the government to increase farm output and tame soaring food prices.
The Planning Commission said the agriculture pricing system should be made more market-oriented by delinking support prices from procurement prices. It has also suggested measures such as abolition of levies and stocking limits, encouraging free movement of goods across the country and doing away with bans on exports and futures trading.
In its mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) to be ratified by the full Planning Commission under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, the panel pointed out that while the farm sector did well between 2005-06 and 2007-08 growing at 4%, the performance in the past two years showed that the government's strategy was not effective and more needed to be done on the supply side to maintain growth.
Meanwhile, poor performance in the power, road and port sectors has resulted in actual investment in infrastructure falling below the level envisaged in the Eleventh Plan period despite a robust growth in telecom sector.
Coming back to stocks, encouraging Q4 March 2010 advance tax figures of top Indian firms, indicating good Q4 March 2010 results, had boosted the bourses last week. The market also witnessed a strong post-Budget rally driven by sustained buying by foreign funds since the presentation of the Union Budget 2010-2011 on 26 February 2010.
As per data from the stock exchanges, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought stocks worth a net Rs 11112.83 crore this month, till 22 March 2010. Finance secretary Ashok Chawla said on Tuesday, 23 March 2010, that foreign capital flows into India are currently not posing any concern.
The stock market gave a thumbs up to the Union Budget 2010-2011 due to its thrust on infrastructure development, government's pledge to reduce fiscal deficit over the next three years, a smaller-than-expected 2% hike in excise duties, and reduction in taxes for individuals which will boost disposable income. The Finance Minister has assumed a modest GDP growth of about 8% and inflation of about 4.5% for 2010-2011.
Going ahead, the key triggers for the stock market are structural reforms such as decontrol of petrol and diesel prices, targeting of food subsidies, and financial sector reforms such as increase in foreign direct investment in insurance sector.
European stocks were moderately higher Tuesday, following a strong session in the US on Monday. The key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK rose by between 0.53% to 0.82%.
European leaders recently tried to allay concerns that they were unprepared to aid Greece easing pressure on higher-yielding assets. The ECB president said the central bank is prepared to reassess its collateral rules if necessary, softening its stance as Greece struggles to cut the region's largest budget shortfall.
Most Asian shares rose on Tuesday, supported by investor expectations of an ongoing recovery in the world economy, and as tech stocks drew support from gains in their US peers. Sentiment was also lifted by the passage of the US healthcare legislation in the House of Representatives late Sunday. The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore rose by between 0.26% to 0.68%.
But the key benchmark indices in China, Taiwan and Japan fell by between 0.31% to 0.70%. Shares in China reversed earlier gains as financial stocks and property developers weakened on concerns about weaker dividends from the upcoming earnings reports.
Trading in US index futures indicated Dow could gain 9 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, 23 March 2010.
After a weak opening US stocks finally closed higher on Monday led by healthcare stocks as the passage of the health-care bill lifted uncertainty surrounding the legislation that was hanging over the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43.91 points or 0.41% to 10784.89. The Nasdaq rose 20.99 points or 0.88% to 2395.40 and S&P 500 gained 5.91 points or 0.51% to 1,165.81.
The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 40.45 points or 0.23% to 17,451.02. The Sensex fell 53.93 points at the day's low of 17,356.64 in afternoon trade. The barometer rose 120.22 points at the day's high of 17,530.79 in early trade.
The S&P CNX Nifty was up 20.10 points or 0.39% at 5225.30.
The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.21% and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.30%.
The market breadth, indicating overall health of the market, was negative. That was in contrast to a strong breadth earlier in the day. On BSE, 1266 shares advanced as compared with 1504 that declined. A total of 109 shares remained unchanged.
BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4175 crore, lower than Rs 4618.91 crore on Monday, 22 March 2010.
The BSE HealthCare index (up 1.54%), the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.13%), the BSE Power index (up 0.88%), the BSE Metal index (up 0.83%), the BSE Bankex (up 0.32%), the BSE IT index (up 0.31%), the BSE Capital Goods index (up 0.29%), outperformed the Sensex.
The BSE Consumer Durables index (up 0.15%), the BSE FMCG index (up 0.08%), the BSE Teck index (down 0.25%), the BSE PSU index (down 0.28%), the BSE Auto index (down 0.52%), and the BSE Realty index (down 0.71%), underperformed the Sensex.
From the 30 Sensex shares, 15 stocks fell, 14 stocks rose and one stock was unchanged.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.43%, extending recent gains on expectations of good Q4 March 2010 results. As per the market buzz, RIL's Q4 advance tax surged to Rs 770 crore in Q4 March 2010 from Rs 365 crore a year ago. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries is reportedly seeking a joint venture with Atlas Energy to develop the US firm's Marcellus Shale gas operations.
Reliance Industries on 14 March 2010 announced a sports and entertainment joint venture with IMG Worldwide, a global leader in sports marketing and management. The equal venture, IMG Reliance, will set up modern infrastructure and coaching facilities for sports and create and operate sports and entertainment assets including celebrity management.
Cairn India rose 3.76% after parent Cairn Energy of UK lifted its estimates for reserves at its Indian operation and said the unit's Rajasthan fields could produce more oil than previously thought. Cairn raised its estimates of oil and gas in place in Rajasthan to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from 3.7 billion boe and said there could be another 2.5 billion boe yet to be discovered. The Edinburgh-based company said the fields had the potential to pump 240,000 boe per day. Previously the company said it hoped to exceed its target of 175,000 boe per day but did not specify by how much.
India's largest engineering & construction firm by sales Larsen & Toubro (L&T) fell 0.36% in a volatile trade. The company said today it got orders worth Rs 1500 crore. L&T's advance tax payment fell marginally to Rs 270 crore in Q4 March 2010 from Rs 275 crore a year earlier.
But, other capital goods stocks rose. Areva T&D, Alstom Projects, Siemens, Crompton Greaves, Thermax, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Punj Lloyd rose by between 0.42% to 10.33%.
India's largest mobile services provider by sales Bharti Airtel fell 3% and was the top loser form the Sensex pack. The company has tied up the entire financing requirement of $8.3 billion for its planned buy of Kuwaiti telecom Zain's African assets, in a sign of progress as the deadline for the firms' talks expire this week. Bharti and Zain are in exclusive talks until 25 March 2010, marking the third time Bharti has tried to get its hands on a meaningful African business after two failed bids for South Africa's MTN.
Rate sensitive auto stocks extended Monday's fall triggered by a rate hike by the central bank. India's largest commercial vehicle maker by sales Tata Motors fell 2.76%, extending Monday's 3.02% fall after company said it is offering an early conversion of notes into stock through an auction to help reduce the debt on its balance sheet. The company, whose products range from the premium Jaguar and Land Rover to the ultra-cheap Nano car, on Tuesday invited holders of its foreign currency convertible notes to submit applications to convert them into shares.
Bondholders will get an enhanced conversion ratio in the offer, which runs through 29 March 2010, the truckmaker said in a statement today. The plan covers 11.8 billion yen ($131 million) of zero-coupon notes due March 2011 and $300 million of 1% bonds due in April 2011.
India's largest tractor maker by sales Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) fell 0.02%, with the stock sliding for the fifth day. The company paid Rs 235 crore in advance tax in Q4 March 2010 versus nil payment a year earlier.
India's largest bike maker by sales Hero Honda Motors fell 0.45%. Hero Honda has short-listed Karnataka as one of the states for setting up its fourth manufacturing plant. Hero Honda Motors has reportedly proposed an investment of Rs 2,000 crore for the upcoming plant.
India's largest car maker by sales Maruti Suzuki India fell 0.34%, extending recent slide triggered by fears increase in competition may dent sales. Recently, Ford India entered the small car market with 'Figo'.
Bajaj Auto fell 0.05%. As per recent report a joint venture between Nissan Motor, Renault S.A. and Bajaj Auto is working to make a car that will match the price of Tata Motors' Nano.
Increase in raw material prices coupled with costs associated with new emission norms could force auto makers to increase prices further, which may hit volumes. The government raised excise duties on large cars and sport utility vehicles by 2%, which was immediately passed on by vehicles makers, including top carmaker Maruti Suzuki and utility vehicle makers Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors. From 1 April 2010, all vehicles will have to comply with Euro IV emission norms across 13 major cities, adding to costs and setting the stage for another round of price hikes.
Pharma stocks rose on hopes of a surge in US exports after the US Congress passed the heavily-contested healthcare bill on Sunday, 21 March 2010. Biocon, Ipca Laboratories, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Divi's Laboratories, Lupin, Pfizer rose by between 0.09% to 3.34%.
Piramal Healthcare surged 3.38%, after the company signed a pact with Cipla for acquiring i-pill, an emergency contraceptive pill, for a consideration of Rs 95 crore.
Following the passage of the landmark healthcare bill, multinational firms may now be willing to put more money to buy into India's formulations companies. The healthcare bill is the US government's attempt to reduce healthcare costs. The Obama administration would make a nearly $1-trillion commitment in taxpayer money over the next decade to help an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans get health coverage. The bill also promotes use of generic drugs that are often one-tenth the price of the original version, but has the same impact.
Analysts opine that this would translate into huge opportunities to Indian companies as India has the largest number of US Food and Drug Administration approved pharma plants outside the US. India was among the 14 countries named in the Congress discussion that can offer low-cost drugs to achieve lower healthcare costs
Metal stocks rose on strong domestic demand. JSW Steel, Jai Corp, Guj NRE Coke, Sesa Goa, Hindalco Industries and Jindal Saw rose by between 0.34% to 3.02%.
India's largest steel maker by sales Tata Steel rose 1.20%. Its Q4 advance tax payment rose to Rs 513 crore from Rs 406 crore a year earlier.
India's largest copper maker by sales Sterlite Industries rose 0.47%. As per recent reports, a legal fight seems likely between Sterlite Industries and US copper miner Asarco LLC. The American company has filed a lawsuit against Sterlite for going back on a two-year old deal to acquire Asarco. This prompted Sterlite to also file a lawsuit against Asarco to claim recovery of about $50 million (about Rs 230 crore) that was deposited earlier.
But, National Aluminium Company fell 1.51%. The Union Minister for Mines has ruled out any possibility of disinvestment in the state-run aluminium firm.
Jindal Steel & Power advanced 2.47% on reports the company will invest $10 billion to set up a coal-to-liquid plant and a 2,000 megawatt thermal power plant in Orissa.
Compact Disc India was locked at 20% upper limit at Rs 79.30, after the company secured a large animation contract worth $82 million.
Sonata Software galloped 6.89%, after the company partnered with an independent non-profit organization dedicated to improving testing processes and software quality on a global scale.
ARSS Infrastructure Projects reported a highest turnover of Rs 206.02 crore on the BSE. Man Infraconstruction (Rs 115.78 crore), Syncom Healthcare (Rs 109.04 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 78.95 crore) and State Bank of India (Rs 71.75 crore), were the other turnover toppers on the BSE.
Cals Refineries clocked a highest volume of 2.53 crore shares. Syncom Healthcare (83.58 lakh shares), Suven Life Sciences (71.76 lakh shares), Facor Alloys (61.74 lakh) and Krishna Lifestyle Technologies (55.66 lakh shares), were the other volume toppers on the BSE.
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