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Monday, February 04, 2008

Market likely to move up on global cues


The market is expected to extend Friday (1 February 2008)’s solid surge tracking firm Asian markets. Asian stocks surged on Monday, 4 February 2008, with sentiment boosted by Microsoft Corp's bid for Yahoo Inc and following China's buy of a large stake in takeover target Rio Tinto.

Microsoft's $44.6 billion deal for Yahoo overshadowed unexpected weakness in US employment data on Friday, helping to boost optimism about company valuations after the recent stock market sell off.

Meanwhile, in another development, Chalco, a unit of China’s state-owned Chinalco teamed up with US aluminium producer Alcoa Inc to buy a $14 billion stake in Rio, threatening BHP Billiton’s efforts to acquire Rio. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea were up by between 2.2% to 6.3%.

US stocks rose on Friday, capping Wall Street's best week in almost five years, after Microsoft Corp's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Inc overshadowed news that employers cut payrolls for the first time since 2003. The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 92.83 points, or 0.73% to 12,743.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 16.87 points, or 1.22%, to 1,395.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index shot up 23.50 points, or 0.98% to 2,413.36.

Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs 126.93 crore on Friday, 1 February 2008. Domestic institutions sold shares worth a net Rs 115.4 crore on that day.

FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,746.15 crore in the futures & options segment on Friday. According to data released by the NSE, FIIs were net buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 1,266.09 crore and bought index options worth Rs 293.35 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 195.57 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 8.85 crore.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry on Friday sought views from the public and other stakeholders on a set of measures proposed to strengthen the existing listing requirements. The Government now proposes to stipulate a public stake of 25% for a company to be listed and to continue to be listed on the stock exchanges.