Indian Stock News by Experts

Bharti Infratel to get $1 billion international investment.

<DIV>Bharti Infratel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, has agreed to divest around 8-10% stake to leading international investors for $1 billion (Rs 4,000 crore). Bharti Infratel owns close to 20,000 tower sites in seven circles, and holds approximately 42% stake in Indus Towers, the recently announced joint venture between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, which has over 70,000 sites. As part of the joint venture, Bharti Infratel had transferred 30,000 towers in 16 circles to Indus recently. Indus plans to scale up to 20,000 towers in the next two-three years. Valuation of tower companies have been going through the roof with Indus Towers valued at around Rs 1,50,000 crore and controlling over 70,000 towers. Reliance Communications was able to divest 5% equity stake in its tower company to seven investors for Rs 1,400 crore giving it an enterprise value of Rs 27,000 crore. The company controlled over 13,000 towers when the deal was announced. The enterprise valuation of Bharti Infratel has been agreed to be in the range of $10-12.5 billion (Rs 40,000-50,000 crore) but the final valuation will be determined on the basis of Bharti Infratel's actual operating performance in FY 2008-09.</DIV>

Bharti Infratel to get $1 billion international investment.

Bharti Infratel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, has agreed to divest around 8-10% stake to leading international investors for...

Tata Steel, SAIL to form JV for coal mining.

Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) are all set to form a joint venture for coal blocks. They are likely to sign an agreement to...

Market Close: Cautious start but its mid caps time !

<DIV>The year 2008 started on flat note, the markets across Asia and Europe were closed on account of New Year. Indian indices started the New Year day with modest gains but the indices could not sustain the gains and immediately fell into negative region with marinal pull back. The first day of year was not so attractive for the investors with no triggers from global markets. Throughout the day indices traded in choppy manner, some level of profit taking was seen at mid trades. Major support to the indices came in from realty stocks as the segment index gained by 310 points. Late session was too volatile with no clear direction; indices hovered on both the regions but value buying at lows helped the indices to recover and ended on a flat note. Interest was much seen in mid and small caps. Both the indices hit all time and out performed the front line indices. Selling was seen in Technology and Capital Goods. FMCG, Power, Realty and PSU?s stocks cheer the day. India?s largest private sector power company, Reliance Energy was the top gainer, made all time and closed up by 6.83%. The buying interest was largely due to forth coming IPO of Reliance Power where REL hold 50% stake in this company. India?s largest cigarette manufacturer ITC surged up by 3.63% and the stock hit all time, due to ITC's subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels plans to invest around Rs 130 cr in 3-4 hotels in Bangalore, Coimbatore and Kolkata. Sensex closed up by 94 points at 20300.711. It was helped up by gains in NTPC (256.8,+6 percent), ITC (217.6,+6 percent), Rel Energy (2279,+6 percent), Tata Motors (763.05,+4 percent) and Grasim (3762.3999,+4 percent). Restricting the gains are Wipro (515.6,-3 percent), Infosys (1749.7,-3 percent), TCS (1053.65,-2 percent), RIL (2847.1001,-2 percent) and Cipla (211.65,-2 percent). Adhunik Metals was locked on upper circuit after the news that it is looking to set up 1.1 mn tones of integrated steel plant in West Bengal and invest Rs 7,200 cr in next 4 years. They are also looking to diversify into cement and planning to set up 1 mn tones capacity. It has signed the MoU with West Bengal Government; it will be coming in the group company which does not matter for the listed company. The main trigger is that expansion plans are on curve of getting completed in next quarter itself and from next quarter Adhunik will have 4.5 lak tone capacity available. As far as power is concerned 17 MW is running and another 17 MW is coming by next quarter itself so combining will fiche about 34 mega watt of captive power plant in the steel business. Adhunik supplies specialized steel & value added steel components to industries such as Automobiles, Power, and Defense and Engineering companies. The valuation looks attractive considering its transformation to a fully integrated steel player. We believe primarily growth will be driven by higher realization as a result of rolled products ( rolled from outside rolling companies, as its own rolling mill is likely to come in FY08. UCO Bank's shares surged on news of merger. The Kolkata based public sector bank is looking at merging itself with another bank in the next three months to boost its business. UCO Bank plans to merge with a smaller or a similar sized bank by March to attain size. It won?t acquire any banks, but will merge with some other banks in three months. UCO Bank officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The merger will boost the banks total business size to 2 trillion rupees from 1.23 trillion rupees as per the source news. The merger certainly helps to grow inorganically which helps to bring fast growth to the business. This also helps to face completion from private and MNC banks which are growing faster than PSU banks. On hopes of merger the stock closed up by 20%. Technically Speaking: It was choppy session for complete day before closing, Sensex traded on both the sides with no clear direction and ended with small gains. Sensex touched intraday high of 20,395 and low of 20,220. Overall breadth was in favor of Advances, where the Advances stood at 2415, while Declines at 447. The turnover was pretty good at Rs 6021 cr.</DIV>

Market Close: Cautious start but its mid caps time !

The year 2008 started on flat note, the markets across Asia and Europe were closed on account of New Year. Indian indices started the New Y...

Insider Trading - SEBI proposes consultative paper

<DIV>In order to curtail incidents of insider trading, capital market regulator SEBI on Tuesday floated a consultative paper, whereby insiders would not be able to buy and sell the company's securities within a period of six months. Insiders would have to surrender any profit made by buying and selling company securities in six months, according to SEBI's proposed regulations on Short Swing Profit. The proposed regulation is based on a similar rule in the US, which requires 10% owners, directors and officers of a company to give up any profit realised from any purchase and sale, or any sale and purchase, of any equity security of the company within a six-month period. According to SEBI, the regulation would help prevent company insiders, who have greater access to price sensitive company information, from taking advantage of information for the purpose of making short-term profits, called as short swing profit. Additionally, it would align the long term objectives of company insiders with the company shareholders. SEBI has proposed the "Last In First Out" (LIFO) method for determining the six month period between buy and sell trades by company insiders. The short swing rule would automatically get invoked once two things are established. First is the fact of being an insider or a designated insider. And second, the fact that the same securities were bought and sold within six months of each other. The intent of the person would be immaterial. Merely the fact of the trade will be sufficient to take action. Where there is a delay, interest may be payable by such insider to the company. SEBI has proposed certain exemptions, such as transactions approved by a regulatory authority, employee benefit plans, bona fide gifts and inheritances, mergers and acquisitions etc. Certain securities may also be considered as exempt altogether. The regulator invited comments from the public on the consultative paper particularly with regard to coverage of persons in the definition of designated insider, method of calculating the dates of purchase and sale and classes of exemptions.</DIV>

Insider Trading - SEBI proposes consultative paper

In order to curtail incidents of insider trading, capital market regulator SEBI on Tuesday floated a consultative paper, whereby insiders w...

Sensex settles a tad above 20,300

<DIV> The market posted marginal gains on day one of calendar 2008. Trading for the day began on a firm note. The market slipped into negative zone in mid-afternoon trade before recovering from lower level later. ITC and Reliance Energy hit all-time highs. FMCG, real estate, hotel and power shares gained while IT and consumer durables shares declined. The market breadth was strong. BSE Mid-Cap and BSE Small-Cap indices struck record highs today. Most of the Asian and European markets were closed today, 1 January 2008, for the New Year holiday. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 13.72 points or 0.07% to 20,300.71. Sensex opened 16.38 points higher at 20,325.27. The barometer index hit a high of 20,394.89 at, the onset of the trading session. At day's high, Sensex rose 107.90 points. Sensex hit a low of 20,220.46 in mid-afternoon trade. At day's low, Sensex had lost 66.53 points. Sensex had struck an all-time high of 20,498.11 on 13 December 2007. The broader CNX S&P Nifty gained 5.75 points or 0.09% to 6,144.35 Most sectoral indices on BSE rose. BSE FMCG Index (up 2.38% at 2,375.07), BSE PSU index (up 1.58% to 10,633.48), BSE Metal index (up 0.21% at 20,061.49), and Bankex (up 0.81% to 11,510.31), BSE Power Index (up 2.17% at 4,647.66), BSE Auto index (up 0.87% at 5,716.49) and BSE Realty (up 2.44% to 13,037.89), outperformed the Sensex. BSE Health Care index (down 0.16% at 4,411.54), BSE Oil and Gas index (down 0.16% at 13,280.88), BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.86% to 6,897.19), BSE TecK index (down 1.04% to 3,973.32), BSE Capital Goods index (down 0.04% at 19,747.80), BSE IT index (down 1.28% to 4,471.48), underperformed the Sensex. The market breadth was strong on BSE with 2264 shares advancing as compared to 647 that declined. 23 remained unchanged BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 8911.47 crore as compared to Rs 8977 crore on Monday, 31 December 2007. The NSE's futures & options turnover rose to Rs 49163.28 crore from Rs 46186.73 crore on Monday, 31 December 2007. Nifty January 2007 futures were at 6160.80, a 16.45 premium of points compared to the spot closing of 6144.35. The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.49% to 9,935.03 while the BSE Small-Cap index gained 2.66% to 13,703.40. The BSE Mid-Cap index struck an all time high of 9,972.53 and the BSE Small-Cap index hit a record high of 13,787.50 today. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. Among the Sensex pack, 16 rose while the rest slipped India's largest private sector power utility company in terms of net profit, Reliance Energy surged 6.73% to Rs 2278.25. The stock hit all-time high of Rs 2289 today. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack. The company owns 50% in Reliance Power, which it plans to list. Among power generation stocks, Tata Power surged 5.33% to Rs 1549.30 and National Thermal Power Corporation gained 2.70% to Rs 256.80. FMCG stocks gained on fresh buying. India's largest cigarette manufacturer in terms of sales, ITC jumped 3.80% to Rs 218.30. The stock hit all-time high of Rs 220.90 today. As per reports, ITC's subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels plans to invest around Rs 130 crore in three or four hotels in Bangalore, Coimbatore and Kolkata. Hindustan Unilever (up 1.96% to Rs 218.10), Marico (up 3.20% to Rs 70.85), and Dabur India (up 2.10% to Rs 116.10), were the other gainers from FMCG pack. India's largest private sector firm by market capitalization & oil refiner Reliance Industries declined 1.01% to Rs 2,852 Shares of Bharti Airtel, the country's largest cellular services provider in terms of market capitalisation slipped 2.67% to Rs 968, and was the biggest loser from the Sensex pack. The stock slipped on profit booking after surging 5.84% yesterday, 31 December 2007. IT pivotals were subdued. TCS (down 2.62% to Rs 1055), Wipro (down 2.02% to Rs 515), Satyam Computers (down 1.48% to Rs 442.50) and Infosys (down 1.10% to Rs 1748.90), were the other losers from IT pack. Infosys Technologies, the nation's second biggest software exporter in terms of net profit, will be one of the first among India's big companies to report Q3 December 2007 earnings on 11 January 2008. Hotel shares surged on fresh buying. EIH (up 12.44% to Rs 207.50), EIH Associated Hotels (up 9.98% to Rs 209.35), Indian Hotels Company (up 9.24% to Rs 174.30), Viceroy Hotels (up 6.83% to Rs 134.45) and Hotel Leelaventure (up 1.79% to Rs 74), surged. Reliance group stocks dominated turnover charts on BSE, with 4 out of top 5 stocks being from Reliance group. Reliance Energy was the top traded counter on BSE with total turnover of Rs 312.18 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 208.25 crore), Mahanagar Telehone Nigam (Rs 110.80 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 111.60 crore), and Reliance Capital (Rs 111.04 crore), in that order. Among the side counters, Venkys India (up 20% to Rs 240.30), Vadilal Enterprises (up 20% to Rs 127.20), and Atlanta (up 20% to Rs 425.55), surged Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) surged 4.98% to Rs 123.80. On Monday, RCF signed a memorandum of understanding with GAIL India for setting up coal gasification project in Talcher, Orissa Krypton Industries jumped 9.18% Rs 76.10 after the company said its board will consider stock split in a meeting to be held on 24 January 2008. UCO Bank surged 19.49% to Rs 70.80 on reports it plans to merge with a smaller or a similar sized bank by March 2008 to attain size. Ramsarup Industries gained 5.10% Rs 275 after the company said it has increased prices of steel wires in range of Rs 1000 per metric tonne to Rs 2500 per metric tonne with effect from 1 January 2008. TVS Motor Company rose 0.28% to Rs 72.65 despite its two-wheeler sales eclining 5.4% to 97,576 units in December 2007 over December 2006. Marksans Pharma gained 4.99% to Rs 323.15 after the company said it has signed an agreement with U.K.'s Hale Group to buy it out along with its subsidiary. IFCI surged 3.23% to Rs 96 after Reserve Bank of India announced that foreign funds can buy equity shares and convertible debentures of IFCI through primary and secondary markets up to 74 % of the capital of the company. Venus Remedies spurted 16.47% to Rs 565.25 after the company said it has received the European good manufacturing practices certification for its Cephalosporin and Carbapenem plants at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. Dhanus Technologies jumped 5.60% to Rs 366.85 on reports of the company reaching final round of negotiations with Boursan Holding, Turkey's diversified business conglomerate, to acquire its telecom arm, Boursan Telekom Corporation. GV Films was the volumes topper on BSE with total volume of 2.41 crore shares followed by IFCI (2.38 crore shares), GTL Infrastructure (1.50 crore shares), Centurion Bank of Punjab (1.50 crore shares), and Hindustan Motors (1.15 crore shares), in that order. The National Stock Exchange today launched mini derivative futures & options contracts based on S&P CNX Nifty index with a lot size of 20. US markets ended year 2007 on a negative note as tech stocks were hit by profit-takers and falling oil prices sent energy shares lower on Friday, 31 December 2007. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 101.05 points, or 0.76%, to 13,264.82. The S&P 500 index declined 10.13 points, or 0.69%, to 1,468.36. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 22.18 points, or 0.83%, to 2,652.28. In the calendar year 2007, the BSE Sensex surged 6,500.08 points or 47.14% to 20,286.99, from its close of 13,786.91 on 29 December 2006. The S&P CNX Nifty vaulted 2,172.20 or 54.76% in calendar 2007. FIIs regarded as key drivers in the recent bull-run pumped Rs 71,486.50 crore in Indian equity market in the calendar year 2007. </DIV>

Sensex settles a tad above 20,300

The market posted marginal gains on day one of calendar 2008. Trading for the day began on a firm note. The market slipped into negative z...