Market gallops in late trade; RIL, ICICI Bank spurt

The market surged in late trading building on the recovery from lower level which it had witnessed in mid-afternoon trade. The market had slipped into the red in afternoon trade from an early surge after the industrial production data for November 2007 fell short of market expectations. The data hit the market in early afternoon trade today. Reliance Industries (RIL) surged. IT stocks were mixed after Infosys posted better than expected Q3 December 2007 results before trading hours. Banking, Oil & gas and realty stocks gained. Capital goods and consumer durables stocks declined. The market breadth was weak. BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices underperformed Sensex. European markets which opened after Indian markets were mixed. Asian markets which opened before Indian market were weak today.

Industrial output rose 5.3% in November 2007 from a year earlier, well below market expectations and sharply lower than an upwardly revised annual growth of 12% in October 2007, data showed on Friday. Manufacturing production rose 5.4% in November 2007 from a year earlier, compared with a provisional annual growth of 13.3% in October 2007.

Annual inflation, based on the wholesale price index (WPI), remained unchanged at 3.5% in the week ended 29 December 2007 compared with the week ended 22 December 2007. WPI was 5.89% in the corresponding week of the previous year.

The 30-share BSE Sensex provisionally rose 312.71 points or 1.52% to 20,894.79, at the highest level of the day. It hit a low of 20,505.81 in afternoon trade. At the day’s low Sensex lost 76.27 points.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty was up 62.95 points or 1.02% to 6,219.90, as per provisional data.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.35% to 9,473.47. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.87% to 12,747.08.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 813 shares advancing as compared to 2,027 that declined. 30 remained unchanged. 19 shares in Sensex pack were in green.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 7403 crore, lower than Thursday (10 January 2008)'s Rs 9123 crore.

BSE Oil & Gas stocks rose. India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries was up 3.57% to Rs 3,135. GAIL (India) (up 3.57% to Rs 507.50), ONGC (up 0.8% to Rs 1,302.50) and Reliance Petroleum (up 1.44% to Rs 221.40) edged higher.

Banking stocks spurted. India’s largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank rose 6.58% to Rs 1,446. The stock rose for the second day in a row on reports the bank will list at least 4 arms starting with ICICI Securities in next 6 months though the board is yet to decide on securities arm listing.

India’s second largest private sector bank in terms of net profit HDFC Bank rose 3.03% to Rs 1,772. India’s largest public sector bank by operating income State Bank of India rose 1.93% to Rs 2,455.

Realty stocks gained. Ansal Properties & Infrastructure (up 10.48% to Rs 391), Unitech (up 0.39% to Rs 519.55) , DLF (up 4.71% to Rs 1,196.05), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.03% to Rs 738.90) edged higher.

Consumer durables stocks declined. Videocon Industries (down 5% to Rs 632.30), and Blue Star (down 4.74% to Rs 480) edged lower.

Tata Motors rose 1.8% to Rs 762.45. Keeping his promise, made four years ago, to deliver a “people’s car,” Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata unveiled on Thursday the Rs.1-lakh car christened ‘Nano.’ The world’s cheapest car from the Tata Motors stable comes with a rear mounted all-aluminium two-cylinder 623 cc petrol engine, promises a mileage of 20 kilometer per litre, and meets all emission and safety standards.

HDFC (down 2.18% to Rs 3,060.75), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 3.54% to Rs 774.75), ACC (down 4.32% to Rs 898), Ambuja Cements (down 2.01% to Rs 138.95) edged lower.

Capital goods stocks declined. Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 0.03% to Rs 2,435.15), Larsen & Toubro (down 0.76% to Rs 4,175.10) and Suzlon Energy (down 3.92% to Rs 2,124.95) edged lower.

IT stocks were mixed. India’s second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies declined 1.38% to Rs 1,580.10 after the company today reported stronger-than-expected growth in net profit in Q3 December 2007. Infosys’ consolidated net profit as per Indian GAAP rose 11.9% to Rs 1231 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q2 September 2007. Sales rose 4% to Rs 4271 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q2 September 2007.

Infosys has raised both earnings and revenue guidance for the year ending March 2008 (FY 2008). The company has forecast 18.6% growth in EPS in FY 2008 as per Indian GAAP at Rs 79.30. It has forecast a between 19.7% to 19.9% growth in revenue in FY 2008 as per Indian GAAP to between Rs 16627 crore to Rs 16657 crore.

As per US GAAP, the company has forecast 33.8% growth in consolidated earning per American depository share in FY 2008 at $1.98. The company has forecast a between 35% to 35.2% growth in revenue as per US GAAP in FY 2008 to between $4.17 billion to $4.18 billion.

India’s largest exporter of IT services by sales Tata Consultancy Services rose 1.47% to Rs 989.05. India's fourth largest IT exporter by sales Satyam Computer Services shed 2.24% to Rs 410.75.

Wipro, India's third largest IT exporter in terms of sales declined 0.34% at Rs 485.95. The company on Thursday said its unit Wipro Infotech, had won a nine-year outsourcing contract Aircel Cellular.

Precision Pipes and Profiles Company was trading at Rs 138.65 on BSE, a discount of 7.57% over the IPO price of Rs 150. The stock debuted at Rs 160, a premium of 6.67% over the IPO price.

Aries Agro was trading at Rs 251.60 on BSE, a premium of 93.54% over the IPO price of Rs 130. The stock debuted at Rs 150, a premium of 15.38% over the IPO price.

European markets were mixed. France’s CAC 40 (down 0.18% to 5,390.63) and UK’s FTSE 100 (down 0.27% to 6,205.90) edged lower. However, Germany’s DAX rose 0.16% to 7,725.14.

Asian markets were weak today. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea were down by between 0.35% to 2.33%. China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.52% to 5,484.67.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 117.78 points, or 0.92%, at 12,853.09 on Thursday, 10 January 2008. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 11.20 points, or 0.79%, at 1,420.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13.97 points, or 0.52%, at 2,488.52.