Indian Stock News by Experts

Small-cap, mid-cap indices buck slide in Sensex

<DIV>After trading within a narrow range earlier in the day, the market declined in late trading as US stock futures indicated lower opening on the Wall Street on Monday, 5 May 2008. Dow futures were down 105 points and S&P 500 futures were down 6.80 points. Realty and healthcare stocks outperformed the market. Consumer durables and IT stocks dropped. Small-cap and mid-cap counters were active throughout the session with their barometer indices outperforming the Sensex. European markets, which opened after Indian market, were mixed. France's CAC 40 was down 0.29% whereas Germany's DAX was up 0.02%. The stock market in UK was closed for a holiday. Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, were mostly in green. Key indices in China, and Singapore were up 0.37% to 1.84%. However, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted Index was down 1.41% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.22%. Markets in Japan, and South Korea were closed for holiday. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 109.22 points or 0.62% at 17,490.90. Sensex gained 135.58 points at day's high of 17,735.70, hit in the early afternoon trade. The index lost 142.85 points at day's low of 17,457.27, hit in the late trade. The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was down 35.95 points or 0.69% at 5192.25. Nifty May 2008 futures were at 5205.10, at a premium of 12.85 points as compared to spot closing. As per provisional data, foreign funds sold shares worth a net Rs 236.81 crore today. Domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 457.16 crore. The market breadth was strong on BSE with 1613 shares advancing as compared to 1118 stocks that declined. 45 stocks remained unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.85% to 7,299.26 and BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.27% to 8,845.35. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6350 crore as against Rs 6,606.18 on Friday, 2 May 2008. The NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 32972.85 crore, which was lower than Rs 36304.41 crore on Wednesday, 30 April 2008. India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries fell 0.34% to Rs 2,665.70. India's largest engineering and construction firm by revenue Larsen & Toubro fell 0.25% to Rs 3133.10. The stock had earlier touched a high of Rs 3262. The firm is reportedly set to revamp its corporate structure to create a dozen operating companies under the direction of a separate board of directors. Effective 1 July 2008, the move will lead to L&T becoming the umbrella organisation with a board to administer the performance of all businesses and ownership of the brand, pegged at around $2 billion. The BSE Bankex outperformed the Sensex, sliding 0.13% to 9,130.61. Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 5.81% at Rs 869.45), Federal Bank (up 2.78% at Rs 260.60), Union Bank of India (up 2.77% at Rs 168.75) and Yes Bank (up 2.49% at Rs 178.85), spurted. Public sector lender Allahabad Bank rose 6.78% at Rs 92.95. Net profit of Allahabad Bank rose 34.8% to Rs 169.51 crore on 30.3% increase in operating income to Rs 1980.17 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007. India's largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank fell 0.25% at Rs 933.15. India's largest commercial bank State Bank of India declined 2.36% to Rs 1781.90. The bank reported 26.1% rise in net profit to Rs 1883.25 crore on 26.7% growth in operating income to Rs 16393.93 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007. The BSE Realty index outperformed the Sensex, gaining 0.26% to 8,741.39. Unitech (up 4.01% at Rs 330.90), Penland (up 3.37% at Rs 108.95), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 2.14% at Rs 560.95), and Purvankara Projects (up 1.66% at Rs 300.45), edged higher. However, India's largest real estate developer by market capitalisation DLF fell 2.10% to Rs 705.05. The BSE IT index underperformed the Sensex, falling 0.95% to 4,317.34. i-Flex Solutions (down 5.36% at Rs 1,345.25), HCL Technologies (down 2.70% at Rs 288.10), Wipro (down 2.41% at Rs 490.10), TCS (down 1.72% at Rs 924.55), Satyam Computer (down 1.34% at Rs 487.50) and Infosys Technologies (up 0.12% at Rs 1,787.35), slipped. The BSE Auto index underperformed the Sensex, slipping 1.01% to 4,812.13. Hero Honda Motor (down 3.48% at Rs 818.15), TVS Motor (down 2.08% at Rs 44.65), and Maruti Suzuki (down 0.46% at Rs 784.40), declined. India's largest commercial vehicles maker by sales Tata Motors slipped 0.71% at Rs 685.55. Tata Motors on Friday, 2 May 2008, reported a decline of 5.8% in automobile sales, including exports, at 38,149 units for April 2008 compared with 40,486 units in the same month last year, largely on account of dip in passenger car segment and exports. Passenger vehicle sales saw a decline of 12%, with total sales of 14,843 units in the domestic market in April 2008 India's leading tractor maker by sales Mahindra & Mahindra slipped 1.86% at Rs 677.50. Goldman Sachs will invest Rs 700 crore in Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) by picking up convertible debentures which will give it a 3.68% stake in the auto major. Drug maker Suven Life Sciences surged 2.12% to Rs 36.05 after the company said it has received European product patent from European Patent Office for its clinical candidate SUVN-502. Jewellery maker Surana Corporation was locked at upper limit of 4.97% to Rs 47.55 on reporting 371.03% surge in net profit to Rs 6.11 crore on 37.44% growth in total income to Rs 619.33 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007. Real estate developer Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) fell 1.54% to Rs 832.95. The company has reportedly received Maharashtra state government's approval for the Mumbai airport slum rehabilitation programme. Telecom service provider Spice Communications surged 5.90% to Rs 42.20 on reports Telekom Malaysia is looking at increasing its stake in the company to at least 51% through a combination of open offer and acquisition of shares the co-promoters. Titagarh Wagons clocked the highest turnover of Rs 225.07 crore on BSE. Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (Rs 198.60 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 197.27 crore), Unitech (Rs 166.97 crore) and Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 154.87 crore), were the other turnover toppers on BSE in that order. Tata Teleservices (Maharastra) reported the highest volume of 1.86 crore shares on BSE. Kashyap Technologies (1.47 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.40 crore shares), IFCI (1.22 crore shares) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.09 crore shares), were the other volume toppers on BSE in that order. US market ended with modest gains on Friday, 2 May 2008 after the latest non-farm payroll data showed 20,000 jobs were lost in April 2008, a far better result than an expected loss of 75,000 jobs. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 48.2 points or 0.4% at 13,058.20, the Nasdaq Composite index fell 3.72 or 0.2%, to 2,476.99 and the S&P 500 ended up 4.56 points to 1,413.90. High inflation remains the biggest concern for the Indian stock market. The measures taken by the Union government to control inflation have also added to uncertainty on corporate profit. Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday, 29 April 2008, said government will impose export tax on basmati rice and some steel products, and cut import duties on key inputs like ferro alloys and metallurgical coke. He said the measures were being taken to improve domestic supplies and to moderate prices. The government has already banned export of cement and non-basmati rice. Given that parliamentary elections are scheduled next year (in May 2009), the government may leave no stone unturned in its attempt to rein in inflation. This is bad news for commodity scrips like cement, steel etc. In a bid to rein in inflation, the Reserve Bank of India, on Tuesday, 29 April 2008, raised cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 25 basis points to 8.25%, to suck out excess liquidity in the banking system, in its annual monetary policy review. While the central bank has mentioned price stability as its key priority, the overall undertone of the policy is not as hawkish as market had feared. The RBI governor Y V Reddy expects inflation to moderate in the next 2-3 months. Good Q4 results March 2008 results and firm global markets, triggered a solid rebound in the Indian market over the past few days. Buying by domestic institutions has supported the market. From a recent low of 14,809.49 on 17 March 2008, the Sensex climbed 2,790.63 points or 18.84% to 17,600.12 on 2 May 2008. The structural growth drivers of the Indian economy remain intact – India's economy is expected to witness a decent-to-strong growth for a long period of time due to favourable demographics. Acceleration in infrastructure creation will be another driver of strong growth in India's economy. Rating agency CRISIL in its latest outlook for Indian economy for the year through March 2009 has stated that the overall growth scenario is expected to remain strong with investment as the main driver. Another pointer to the fact that the long term India growth story remains intact is the outcome of the latest 2008 US-India Business Council (USIBC) survey, according to which, India is, and will continue to be, a premier destination for investment by US firms, with a large number of respondents rating future economic growth in India as highly sustainable.</DIV>

Small-cap, mid-cap indices buck slide in Sensex

After trading within a narrow range earlier in the day, the market declined in late trading as US stock futures indicated lower opening on ...

US Market holds on to gains

<DIV> Federal Reserve's rate cut and better than expected employment report boost market The last week that ended on Friday, 02 May, 2008 was quite eventful at US Market. It started with a couple of important news in the merger front. Thereafter market got swayed by Federal Reserve's next slot of interest rate cuts. Market did react in a bit whimsical fashion to the interest rate cut. The week finally ended with the employment report which came as better thane expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 166 points for the week. Tech - heavy Nasdaq gained 54 points. S&P 500 gained 16 points. In percentage terms the three indices gained 0.3%, 0.8% and 0.5% respectively. After remaining a bit subdued in the earlier part of the week, market picked up momentum in the later part. Infact it can be said that it ended up being a three-day work week. That's because things didn't get really interesting for market participants until Wednesday, 30 April, 2008. On Wednesday, The Federal Open Market Committee announced today that it cut the fed funds and discount rates by 25 basis points. This left the fed funds rate at 2% and the discount rate at 2.25%. The Fed said economic activity remains weak, while inflation expectations are picking up. The stock market was in rally-mode ahead of the Fed decision and got an added boost shortly after the headlines hit the wires. In striking fashion, it sold off sharply late in the day and ended Wednesday in negative territory. The knee-jerk explanation was that there was disappointment in the directive and the idea that the Fed didn't sound more hawkish on inflation. On Thursday, 1 May, the indices soared. Huge gains in the financial and technology sectors powered the advance, as did a noticeable drop in commodity prices that were impacted by a strengthening dollar. On Friday, 2 May, 2008 the Fed announced intentions to increase its Term Auction Facility to $150 billion from $100 billion, and also allow AAA asset-backed securities to be pledged as collateral. Continuing to act on proactive lines, the Fed increased swap lines with the Swiss National Bank to $12 billion from $6 billion and increased swap lines with the European Central Bank to $50 billion from $20 billion in a multilateral effort to address persistent liquidity pressures. Also, on Friday, the job report was out where unemployment rate for April fell to 5% from 5.1% in March. April's unemployment rate was less than the consensus estimate of 5.2%. Nonfarm payrolls for April slipped by 20,000, which is less than the revised decline of 81,000 experienced in March and also less than the 75,000 decline economists expected. Importantly, these figures do not reflect the kind of weakness often associated with a recession. The stock market made a nice move in the wake of the jobs report, but succumbed to some week-end selling interest that pared its gains considerably. Among major earning reports for the week, Colgate-Palmolive, General Motors and Procter & Gamble - all topped expectations. Humana and Sysco topped expectations, while Verizon reported in-line earnings. Credit card processors Visa and MasterCard both reported their quarterly earnings. Visa topped its estimate by 17%, while MasterCard beat by 30%. Among major deal news during the week, privately held snack food company, Mars is going to acquire Chicago-based Wrigley for roughly $23 billion, or $80 per share in cash, representing a 28% premium over Friday's closing level. Warren Buffet said that Berkshire Hathaway will provide $6.5 billion in financing. On the economic report front, advance first quarter GDP rose by 0.6%, topping the consensus estimate of 0.5%. Also the Conference Board said April consumer confidence fell to 62.3 from 65.9, marking the lowest consumer confidence in roughly five years. The number, however, is better than expected market projected the reading to slip to 61. Executive Summary For the week, indices registered modest gains. DJIx and S&P 500, each closed up by 1.3% and 1.1% respectively. Nasdaq closed up by 2.2%. Federal Reserve's rate cut decision, earning and economic reports dominated the week. The Federal Open Market Committee announced today that it cut the fed funds and discount rates by 25 basis points. This left the fed funds rate at 2% and the discount rate at 2.25%. Advance first quarter GDP rose by 0.6%, topping the consensus estimate of 0.5%. For the year, Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are down by 1.6%, 6.6% and 3.7% respectively</DIV>

US Market holds on to gains

Federal Reserve's rate cut and better than expected employment report boost market The last week that ended on Friday, 02 May, 2008 wa...

Crude bounces back

<DIV> <TABLE align='"center"'> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align='"center"'></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Prices rise almost $4 due to problems resurfacing in Middle East Crude prices rose by more than $3 on Friday, 02 May, 2008. Price rose after reports that Turkish planes bombed bases of separatist Kurds in northern Iraq. But for the week, price closed lower by almost 2%. During the week, crude price began to slip as the dollar strengthened against its rivals. The same reduced the commodities' appeal as a hedge against inflation. Prices also continued to slip for the third straight day after weekly inventory report by the Energy Department showed that crude supplies rose more than forecast. Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for June delivery closed at $116.3/barrel (higher by $3.8/barrel or 3.4%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Last Monday, 28 April, 2008, prices touched a historic high of $119.9/barrel. For the year, crude is up by 20.6% till date. EIA reported earlier this week that U.S. crude oil imports averaged 10.2 million barrels per day last week, up 174,000 barrels per day from the previous week. Traders had anticipated that U.S. crude-oil supplies advanced 950,000 barrels in the week ended 25 April. Crude inventories were boosted by increasing imports. U.S. refineries operated at 85.4% of their operable capacity last week, down 0.2% from the last week. On the currency markets on Friday, U.S. dollar rallied against most other major currencies. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 0.4% to 73.53. On Friday, the job report was out where unemployment rate for April fell to 5% from 5.1% in March. April's unemployment rate was less than the consensus estimate of 5.2%. Nonfarm payrolls for April slipped by 20,000, which is less than the revised decline of 81,000 experienced in March and also less than the 75,000 decline economists expected. Importantly, these figures do not reflect the kind of weakness often associated with a recession. Against this backdrop, June reformulated gasoline gained 8.82 cents at $2.9664 a gallon and June heating oil rose 10.1 cents at $3.2187 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 20.4 cents to $10.765 per million British thermal units. Crude had ended FY 2007 substantially higher by $35 or 57%. It was crude's biggest yearly gain in five years.</DIV>

Crude bounces back

Prices rise almost $4 due to problems resurfacing in Middle East Crude prices rose by more than $3 on Friday, 02 May, 2008. Pr...

Sensex ends firm at 17,600

<DIV>The Market remained buoyant on strong FII inflows and lifted the Sensex past the 17,600 mark. Resuming on a positive note at 11,384, 273 points above its previous close of 17,287, the Sensex advanced further and surged past the 17,600 mark in the afternoon. A positive close in most of the Asian indices with gains of over 2% each triggered a major rally in heavyweight, bankex, auto and realty stocks that helped the index surge to an intra-day high of 17,621. The Sensex finally closed with gains of 313 points at 17,600, while the Nifty added 62 points to close at 5,228. The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,767 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,396 stocks advanced, 1,300 stocks declined and 71 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex index gained 3.66% followed by BSE Auto index, which was up 2.86%, BSE Realty index was up by 2.51%, BSE IT index rose up by 2.27% and BSE CG index surged up by 2.25%. BSE Power jumped by 1.92%, BSE Oil & Gas index moved up by 1.82%, BSE PSU moved up 1.13% and BSE Teck index was up by 1.00%. BSE CD index, BSE FMCG index and BSE HC index also ended the day in positive territory. However BSE Metal index ended the day in red and was down by 1.56%. Leading the upsurge in the Sensex, Reliance Energy soared by 6.85% at Rs1,523.30. ICICI Bank advanced 6.38% at Rs935.50, Maruti rose 6.21% at Rs788, Jaiprakash advanced 5.77% at Rs286.95, L&T added 4.58% at Rs3,141.05, Tata Motors jumped 4.27% at Rs690.45 and Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.98% at Rs690.35. Wipro advanced 2.78% at Rs502.20, State Bank of India rose 2.58% at Rs1,822.15, Satyam Computer Services advanced 2.47% at Rs494.10, TCS added 2.31% at Rs940.75, RIL jumped 2.29% at Rs2,674.85, DLF gained 2.11 % at Rs720.12, Infosys scaled up 2.04% at Rs1,789.50, NTPC moved up by 2.01% at Rs200.70 and HDFC Bank was up 1.59% at Rs1,538.95. However, Hindalco dropped 4% at Rs185.85, Reliance Communications was down by 3.20% at Rs561.20, while Tata Steel, Grasim, HDFC, Ambuja Cement, ACC, Cipla, Bharti Airtel and HUL also ended at lower levels. Banks stocks rallied sharply. Federal Bank was among the major gainers and was up by 5.54% at Rs253.55, Bank of India surged 5.27% at Rs360.70, Kotak Bank soared 4.10% at Rs821.70, Karnataka Bank advanced 3.91% at Rs209.90, Indian Overseas jumped 3.14% at Rs152.85 and Allahabad Bank closed stronger by 3.08% at Rs87.05, SBI, Yes Bank, Union Bank, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda and Andhara Bank were up by 1% each. However Punjab National Bank ended the day in red and was down by 1.74% at Rs541.30. On the volume front, over 2.66 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by ISPAT Industries (1.24 crore shares), RNRL (1.13 crore shares), Kashyap (0.73 lakh shares) and Idea Cellular (0.69 lakh shares).</DIV>

Sensex ends firm at 17,600

The Market remained buoyant on strong FII inflows and lifted the Sensex past the 17,600 mark. Resuming on a positive note at 11,384, 273 po...

Global cues to dictate near term trend

<DIV> <TABLE align='"center"'> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align='"center"'></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Local market are expected to take cue from the global markets in the near term as earnings season has almost come to an end with majority of frontline companies having already declared their results. Corporate results have been good. Aggregate results of 988 companies showed 17.10% rise in net profit on 21.60% rise in net sales in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007, so far. There was 27.30% rise in net profit on 23.40% rise in net sales in the year ended March 2008 over year ended March 2007. i-flex Solutions, Century Textiles, JSW Steel, Union Bank of India and Ashok Leyland among others are the key results to watched out for during the forthcoming week Markets across the globe have managed to stage a sharp pullback from lows hit in mid January 2008 on hopes the global credit-market turmoil will ease. The benchmark index BSE Sensex has risen 2,790.63 points or 18.84% from its low of 14,809.49 touched on 17 March 2008. However, it is still 3,606.65 points or 17% away from its all time high of 21,206.77 hit on 10 January 2008. The market extended gains for the fourth straight week in the week ended Friday, 2 May 2008, tracking firm global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 474.14 points or 2.76% to 17,600.12, in the week ended. The S&P CNX Nifty rose 116.50 points or 2.27% to 5228.20, in the week. Inflation remains the biggest concern for the Indian stock market. The measures taken by the Union government to control inflation have also added to uncertainty on corporate profit. Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday, 29 April 2008, said government will impose export tax on basmati rice and some steel products, and cut import duties on key inputs like ferro alloys and metallurgical coke. He said the measures were being taken to improve domestic supplies and to moderate prices. The government has already banned export of cement and non-basmati rice. Given that parliamentary elections are scheduled next year (in May 2009), the government may leave no stone unturned in its attempt to rein in inflation. The structural growth drivers of the Indian economy remain intact – India's economy is expected to witness a decent-to-strong growth for a long period of time due to favourable demographics. Acceleration in infrastructure creation will be another driver of strong growth in India's economy. Rating agency CRISIL in its latest outlook for Indian economy for the year through March 2009 has stated that the overall growth scenario is expected to remain strong with investment as the main driver.</DIV>

Global cues to dictate near term trend

Local market are expected to take cue from the global markets in the near term as earnings season has almost come to an end wi...