Cheers for Sensex - Close over 10000 mark

MUMBAI: Benchmarks were at day’s highs and around crucial support levels after more than expected decline in inflation lifted market sentiments. Interest rate sensitive sectors were in demand on expectations of a further cut in interest rates.

Wholesale price index rose 6.84 per cent in the 12 months to Dec 6, below the previous week's annual rise of 8 per cent. It was below a median forecast of 7.49 per cent in a poll of analysts.

At 2pm, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 10,009, up 293.95 points or 3.03 per cent. The index touched an intra-day high of 10,015.58 and a low of 9633.04.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 3032.25, up 2.64 per cent or 77.90 points. The 50-share index hit an intra-day high of 3040.30 and a low of 2922.65.

BSE Midcap Index was up 1.39 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 0.43 per cent up.

All the sectoral indices were in the green. BSE Realty Index was up 5.31 per cent, BSE Bankex moved 5.08 per cent higher and BSE Power Index jumped 4.08 per cent.

Satyam Computer Services (7.21%), DLF (6.20%), ACC (5.90%), State Bank Of India (5.89%) and ICICI Bank (5.87%) were the top Sensex gainers.

Sterlite Industries (-2.23%), Tata Steel (-2.10%), Hindalco Industries (-1.93%) and ONGC (-0.08%) were amongst the major Sensex losers.

Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 1288 advances and 1021 declines.

Courtesy: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Sensex ends down 262 points, Satyam close at 4–year low

Mumbai - The BSE Sensex snapped its three-day winning streak, dropping 2.62 percent or 261.69 points on Wednesday to close down at 9715.29 on profit-taking even as tech major Satyam Computer Services slumped to a 4-year low on corporate governance issues.

The 30-share benchmark index opened higher on Wednesday at 10,073.10, tracking overnight Wall Street gains but after witnessing choppy trade during morning session, tumbled to the day's low of 9682.91 on profit taking even as Indian tech major Satyam Computer Services plummeted to a 4-year low on sudden news that it had abandoned a deal for two firms, sparking concerns abroad over corporate governance.

After Wednesday's decline, the market barometer is down about 50.8 percent, making it one of the worst performing markets in Asia.

Twenty-one components closed in the red, the biggest loser being Satyam Computer Services, which plunged 30.22 percent to a 4-year low of Rs.158.05 on overnight news that founder-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju had intended to use company funds to buy two of his firms floated by him and his sons for $1.6 billion. Satyam abandoned the deal after its shares were hammered down 55 percent in Nasdaq overnight but it was too late to stop its decline in the Indian market.

Private sector utility majors Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Power tumbled 13.73 percent and 5.92 percent to Rs.549.15 and Rs.702.95 respectively.

Telecoms majors Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel declined 13.36 percent and 4.73 percent to Rs.202.70 and Rs.709.65.

Real estate giant DLF slipped 8.64 percent to Rs.253.20.

Sensex heavyweight top listed Reliance Industries eased 2.64 percent to Rs.1350.15.

Other major losers were Jaiprakash Associates (down 12.11 percent at Rs.76.95), ACC (down 9.21 percent at Rs.486.30) and Sterlite Industries (down 5.16 percent at Rs.271.20).

The day's top gainer was ICICI Bank, which surged 2.43 percent to Rs.431.80. Smaller HDFC Bank climbed 1.83 percent to Rs.1002.05.

Tech majors Infosys Technologies and Wipro advanced 1.51 percent and 1.50 percent to Rs.1139.80 and Rs.243 respectively as investors moved to reallocate their portfolio of sector stocks.

Auto makers Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki rose 1.25 percent and 0.27 percent to Rs.303.95 and Rs.509.65 respectively.

Top consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever soared 1.27 percent to Rs.251.25.

Other gainers were Grasim Industries (up .55 percent at Rs.1234.40) and ONGC (up 0.39 percent at Rs.716.50).

All the sectoral indices declined, the major losers being Realty (down 7.36 percent), TECk (down 5.02 percent), Power (down 4.44 percent), Metal (down 4.36 percent) and IT (down 4.04 percent).

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indexes tumbled 3.33 percent and 2.60 percent to close at 3136.17 and 3678.56 respectively.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1569 losers outpaced 956 gainers while 72 closed unchanged.

Elsewhere, the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 2.87 percent or 87.40 points down at 2954.35.

According to market traders, Indian shares lost steam midway, after rallying on overnight news that the US Federal Reserve has moved to slash its key interest rate to historic lows, and surrendered their gains with Satyam donning the villain's role of the day.

Wall Street gained overnight after the Fed cut its target rate for loans between banks to a range of 0-0.25 percent and pledged to use "all available tools" to heal the US economy.

All traders agreed that Satyam's decision reflected poorly on corporate governance in Indian companies and could dent their credibility and future earnings.

"There has been some healthy profit booking after two weeks of gains. But this was triggered by Satyam, which has raised a lot of corporate governance issues," said Amitabh Chakraborty, president (equities), Religare Securities.

"We woke up to the cancellation of acquisition deal between Satyam Computers and its subsidiaries. But investors felt cheated and the scrip took a beating," said Arun Mewawalla, AVP, Alternate Research, ULKJ Securities.

"By announcing such a deal, which was wiping off the entire cash in the balance sheet, the (Satyam) management has given a bad impression," Paras Bothra, research head, Ashika Stock Brokers, said.

"It's an overall hit for market sentiment. It reflects poorly on corporate governance in Indian companies, and it's an issue that investors are now faced with," said Nikunj Doshi, investment manager at Envision Capital.

"The global developments are baffling, and institutional investors continue to remain risk averse. The market (in India) has been showing some strength, of late, but I think a better strategy would be to keep putting money gradually," said Arun Kejriwal of KRIS.

However, traders are optimistic that the market may look up on Thursday as market players are expecting a rate cut from the central bank on the back of cooling inflation.

Meanwhile, global crude prices dropped $3 on Wednesday to their lowest levels in more than four years after OPEC announced a record supply cut that dealers said may fail to offset slumping world energy demand.

US crude oil prices fell $3.40 to $40.20 a barrel by 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT), the lowest since July 2004, while London Brent fell 80 cents to $45.85 per barrel after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), eager to push prices back up, announced on Wednesday an agreement to cut 2.2 million barrels per day of output starting January 1, the biggest single reduction on record.

Elsewhere in Asia, the markets closed in the green, boosted by overnight Wall Street gains and on hopes of revival of US auto bailout plan.

Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 0.52 percent to 8612.52; Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 2.18 percent to 15,460.52; China's Shanghai Composite moved up 0.09 percent to 1976.82; Taiwan's Taiex advanced 0.67 percent to 4648.02; and South Korea's Kospi soared 0.71 percent to 1169.75.

However, bucking the trend, Singapore's Straits Times eased 0.16 percent to 1779.29.

Courtesy: in.ibtimes.com

Sensex ends 100 points down at 8739

MUMBAI: Benchmarks staged sharp recovery in the afternoon but still ended in the red after traders covered short positions in realty, power and banking space.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended at 8716.42, down 123.45 points or 1.40 per cent. The index touched an intra-day high of 8745.23 and a low of 8467.43.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty closed at 2662, down 0.78 per cent or 20.90 points. The 50-share index hit an intra-day high of 2672.90 and a low of 2570.70.

BSE Midcap Index was down 1.67 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index fell 1.54 per cent.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE FMCG Index closed 0.80 per cent, BSE Realty Index was up 0.41 per cent, BSE Power Index ended 0.13 per cent up.

BSE Auto Index ended 2.81 per cent lower, BSE IT Index slipped 2.51 per cent and BSE Oil & gas Index fell 2.51 per cent.

Gains in Reliance Infrastructure (5.6%), Bharti Airtel (3.2%), Jaiprakash Associates (2.93%), NTPC (2.66%), DLF (2.24%) and ITC (2.24%) helped indices close off lows.

Mahindra & Mahindra (-8.1%), Maruti Suzuki (-5.26%), Tata Consultancy Services (-4.9%), Larsen & Toubro (-3.28%) and Tata Steel (-3.16%) ended with significant losses.

Market breadth on BSE remained weak with 1283 declines outnumbering 796 advances.

(All the figures are provisional)

Courtesy: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Sensex up over 1000 points in 2 days

Frenzied buying in index pivotals led by Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel coupled with short covering triggered a solid rally on the bourses. A sharp fall in crude oil prices for the third day in a row on Thursday, 17 July 2008, boosted the sentiments. The rally was spread across sectors barring IT and metal. The market breadth was strong.

As per provisional data, foreign funds bought shares worth a net Rs 408.21 crore and domestic institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs 70.47 crore today, 18 July 2008.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August 2008 crude settled $5.31 lower at $129.29 a barrel yesterday, 17 July 2008.

European markets, which opened after Indian market, were in the red. Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, were mixed.

The wholesale price index (WPI)-based annual rate of inflation rose to 11.91% in the week ended 5 July 2008, marginally higher than the 11.89% rise in the previous week. Inflation for the week ended 10 May 2008 was revised upwards to 8.57% from 7.82% reported earlier. The data was released after market hours yesterday, 17 July 2008.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 523.55 points or 3.99% to 13,635.40. It hit a high of 13,684.27 in late trade. At the day's high, the Sensex surged 572.42 points. The Sensex lost 18.51 points at day’s low of 13,093.34 hit in mid-morning trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty advanced 145.05 points or 3.67% to 4,092.25. Nifty July 2008 futures were at 4056.70, at a discount of 35.55 points as compared to spot closing.

Sensex has risen 1059.60 points or 8.42% in last two trading days from its close of 12575.80 on 16 July 2008. Prior to this the BSE Sensex plunged 1350.44 points or 9.67% in four trading sessions from 13964.26 on 9 July 2008 to 12575.80 on 16 July 2008.

Sensex is down 6651.59 points or 32.78% in the calendar year 2008 so far from its close of 20,286.99 on 31 December 2007. It is 7571.37 points or 35.70% away from its all-time high of 21,206.77 struck on 10 January 2008.

Back to today's trade, the market breadth was strong on BSE with 1614 shares advancing as compared to 990 that declined. 83 remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was 1.48% to 5,231.42 and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.05% to 6,454.03, as per provisional closing. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Political uncertainty will continue to weigh on the market early next week. The government is holding a two-day special session of parliament on 21 July 2008 and 22 July 2008 to seek vote of confidence after it was reduced to minority following withdrawal of support by Left parties on 8 July 2008. The government hopes to retain power due to backing from Samajwadi Party, a regional party in Uttar Pradesh.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 5312 crore as compared to Rs 4,865.47 crore on Thursday, 17 July 2008. NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 52,794.98 crore, which was higher than Rs 46,300.96 crore on Thursday, 17 July 2008.

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 22 advanced while the rest slipped.

Shares from banking and financial services providers rallied after the latest data showed inflation rose at a slower pace than expected in the year through 5 July 2008.

India’s largest private sector bank in terms of net profit ICICI Bank vaulted 13.02% to Rs 622.95 on 30.74 lakh shares after the bank’s American depository receipt (ADR) rallied 9.4% to $29.02 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday, 17 July 2008. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack.

HDFC Bank (up 7.54% to Rs 1030.35), and State Bank of India (up 5.37% to Rs 1293), surged.

India's largest dedicated housing finance company in terms of operating income HDFC soared 10.13% to Rs 2080. The stock rallied 9.91% yesterday, 17 July 2008 after the company's chairman Deepak Parekh denied rumors that Citigroup may sell its 11.74% stake in firm.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries advanced 4.69% at Rs 2110 on 14.12 lakh shares. The stock moved in a range of Rs 2125 and Rs 1995.05 in the day.

Reliance Communications, the country’s second largest cellular services provider in terms of market capitalisation was up 3.61% to Rs 433.

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries (RIL) on Thursday, 17 July 2008 said it has started arbitration proceedings against younger brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) to thwart the latter’s merger with Africa’s largest telco MTN. According to reports, RCom has dismissed the RIL move and said the arbitration can only happen when both parties refer the dispute to a person outside the court. RCom's talks with MTN, which have been extended once, are scheduled to end on 21 July 2008.

Two oil exploration heavyweights saw edged higher. Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) gained 3.68% to Rs 937 while Cairn India rose 0.72% to Rs 218

Bharti Airtel (up 7.50% to Rs 805), and Jaiprakash Associates (up 8.86% to Rs 162.25), gained from the Sensex pack.

DLF (up 6.65% at Rs 455.55), Unitech (up 3.72% to Rs 147.90), Ansal Infrastructures (up 8.27% to Rs 93.95), Parsvnath Developers (up 1.70% to Rs 110), and Indiabulls Real Estate (up 6.54% to Rs 287.35), surged from the real estate space.

Most IT pivotals declined after India’s third largest software services exporter Wipro said it was cautious in the near term, echoing its larger rivals TCS and Infosys.

Wipro slumped 4.23% to Rs 363.75. The company posted 3.16% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 907.8 crore on 5.18% rise in total income to Rs 6087.1 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q4 March 2007. The company announced the results before trading hours today, 18 July 2008.

India’s fourth largest software services exporter Satyam Computer Services plunged 7.53% to Rs 383 on 45.77 lakh shares. It was the top loser from Sensex pack. The company reported 17.32% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 547.70 crore on 8.47% increase in consolidated sales to Rs 2620.83 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q4 March 2008. The company declared the results before market hours today, 18 July 2008.

India’s second largest software services exporter Infosys was down 1.76% to Rs 1555.

However India’s largest software services exporter TCS staged a strong recovery from day’s low of Rs 748.60. It rose 1.54% to Rs 791.20

Ranbaxy (down 3.72% to Rs 435.40), and ACC (down 1.06% to Rs 533.10), edged lower from Sensex pack.

Metal stocks slipped on selling pressure. Tata Steel (down 3.38% to Rs 586.90), Sterlite Industries (down 3.02% to Rs 590), JSW Steel (down 2.23% to Rs 725), Sesa Goa (down 1.74% to Rs 2708.85), and Hindustan Zinc (down 1.02% to Rs 526), declined from metal sector.

Reliance Capital topped the turnover chart on BSE with a turnover of Rs 323.70 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 291.50 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 193 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 185 crore) and Satyam Computer Services (Rs 177.70 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with volumes of 1.67 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.45 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.28 crore shares), IDFC (1.05 crore shares) and Chambal Fertilisers (90.25 lakh shares).

Fertiliser shares rallied. Coramandel Fertilisers (up 4.41% to Rs 119.65), Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals (up 2.68% at Rs 30.60), Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals (up 1.18% at Rs 145.80), Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals (up 4.98% at Rs 60.05), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (up 1.76% at Rs 49.05), soared

State run oil-marketing companies extended gains for the third straight day today, 18 July 2008, tracking sharp fall in crude oil prices for the third straight day yesterday, 17 July 2008. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 4.36% to Rs 218), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 3.11% to Rs 283.25), and Indian Oil Corporation (up 5.06% to Rs 382), surged.

Kirloskar Brothers slumped 10.42% to Rs 166 on reporting a net loss of Rs 4.48 crore in Q1 June 2008 as against net profit of Rs 25.71 crore in Q1 June 2007. The company announced the results during trading hours today, 18 July 2008.

Ballarpur Industries soared 6.35% to Rs 31 on reports cigarette maker ITC bought over 23 lakh shares or 0.5% of the equity of the company for Rs 5.60 crore in the last couple of months. The move has created a stir in corporate circles as ITC has major interests in paper through ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboard.

Gujarat NRE Coke jumped 8.79% to Rs 113.30 after posting 120.46% surge in net profit to Rs 94.4 crore on 150.77% increase in total income to Rs 382.12 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007. At the time announcing Q1 June 2008 results today, 18 July 2008, he company’s board has also announced issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 2:5.

Infrastructure Development Finance Company soared 14.58% to Rs 108 after the company reported 22% jump in net profit to Rs 204.73 crore on a 45.42% rise in revenue to Rs 809.71 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.

Finance Ministry P Chidambaram yesterday, 17 July 2008 said more measures might be taken to tame prices even as the steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) take effect. Inflation is hovering at a 13-year high and is well above the RBI’s tolerance level of 5.5% set for the current fiscal.

The RBI is scheduled to review monetary policy on 29 July 2008 and analysts opine that the central bank may tighten monetary policy again. Last month, the RBI increased its key lending rate by 75 basis points and hiked the banks' reserve requirements by 50 basis points to combat inflation.

European markets, which opened after Indian markets were in the red. Key benchmark indices in UK, Germany and France were down by between 0.22% and 0.90%.

Asian markets which opened before Indian markets were trading mixed today, 18 July 2008. Key benchmark in Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Japan, and were down by between 0.65% and 2.28%. However indices from China and Hong Kong gained 3.49% and 0.64% respectively.

US stocks rallied building on optimism spurred by several unexpectedly strong earnings reports, including JPMorgan Chase. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 207.38 points, or 1.85%, to 11,446.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 14.96 points, or 1.20%, to 1,260.32, and the Nasdaq Composite index gained 27.45 points, or 1.20%, to 2,312.30.