You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.
The market seemed to have rejected the exaggerated fears of the RBI move as benchmark indices advanced after a four-day drubbing. But don't accept the gains as a reversal in sentiment as yet. Most of the gains could be attributed to the short-squeeze ahead of the F&O expiry today. Things are not looking too bad for the bulls this morning either. US ended higher (though off the day's highs) after the Federal Reserve left its key rates steady and expressed concern on rising inflation.
However, the US central bank gave no signal on what will it do over the next few months as far as interest rates are concerned, though it did say that downside risks to the US economy had eased somewhat. Another positive is that oil prices have cooled off just a tad on the back of an unexpected gain in US fuel inventories. Markets also gained in Europe and are also up this morning in Asia.
We expect our markets to follow the global trend and inch further up, driven by further short covering. Having said that, considerable risks still remain in the system due to multi-year high inflation and rising interest rates. The political situation still remains uncertain. So, don't go overboard. May sound too basic but remember to buy at dips and not at bouncy intra-day tops.
FIIs were net sellers of Rs3.64bn (provisional) in the cash segment on Wednesday while the local institutions poured in Rs5.3bn. In the F&O segment, foreign funds were net buyers of Rs1.11bn.
On Tuesday, FIIs were net buyers of Rs2.7bn in the cash segment. With this, they have pulled out nearly $6bn from the Indian market this year.
Results Today: Allcargo Global, Apar Industries, Cranes Software, Gateway Distriparks, JK Paper, Nitin Fire, Panacea Biotec, Radha Madhav, Religare, Surana Tele, Tata Steel, Tulip Telecom and West Coast Paper.
Asian stocks rose for the first time in six days, led by financial stocks, after the Fed said risks to US growth have diminished.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia climbed the most in more than six weeks after saying it has no need to raise additional capital. Another Australian bank, St. George Bank had its sharpest gain in a month after reiterating its forecast for earnings per share. Sony advanced in Tokyo.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.6% to 139.05 as of 10:48 a.m. in Tokyo. All 10 industry groups on the benchmark gained, led by an index of financial shares. The MSCI index is down 12% this year.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.2% to 13,861.25, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 1.6%. All Asian benchmark indexes rose today apart from Malaysia, which was little changed.
US blue chip stocks retreated from the day's high to end marginally higher, though technology shares managed to hold on to strong gains ahead of results from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and from Oracle.
Stocks rallied in the morning on falling oil prices and those gains accelerated up in the afternoon after the Fed decision. But a lack of clear signal on what will be the Fed's next move pressured the dollar, which led to oil paring earlier losses and dragged down stocks from previous highs.
The S&P 500 Index added 7.68 points, or 0.6%, to 1,321.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 4.4 points, or less than 0.1%, to 11,811.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 32.98 points, or 1.4%, to 2,401.26.
Market breadth was positive. Almost three stocks gained for each that fell on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The Fed held a key short-term interest rate steady, as expected, and indicated that the downside risk to the economy had diminished. At the same time, the central bankers sharpened its focus on inflation in the statement accompanying the decision.
Central bankers kept the fed funds rate - an overnight bank lending rate that affects all kinds of consumer loans - unchanged at 2%. The Fed had cut the rate seven consecutive times since September, including an emergency cut in January at the height of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Although downside risks to growth remain, they appear to have diminished somewhat and the upside risk to inflation and inflation expectations have increased," the FOMC said in a statement.
The Dow had earlier rallied more than 100 points in a short-lived rally that followed the Fed decision. But weakness in select sectors caused the Dow to give up most of its gains and the other major gauges to cut gains.
After the close, Oracle reported higher fiscal fourth-quarter sales and earnings that topped forecasts, thanks to strong software revenue. That sent shares higher in extended-hours trading.
Also, Research in Motion reported quarterly sales and earnings that rose from a year ago, but were short of expectations. Shares plunged in extended-hours trading.
Thursday brings the final reading on first-quarter GDP growth, weekly jobless claims and the May existing home sales report.
US light crude oil for August delivery fell $2.45 to settle at $134.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a government report showed a surprise jump in crude inventories last week.
The government reported that May durable goods orders were basically flat, after falling 1% in April. The reading was in line with analysts' expectations.
Another report showed that new home sales declined 2.5% in May, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000 units versus 525,000 in April. That was just above the expectations of economists, who were forecasting a rate of 510,000 units.
However, year-over-year, sales dropped 40%, reflecting the ongoing fallout in the housing market.
Gas prices fell for the third time in a row this week. The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas fell to $4.067 from $4.069 the previous day, according to AAA.
In currency trading, the dollar declined versus the euro and rose against the yen. In the bond market, Treasury prices slumped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.16% from 4.10% late on Tuesday. COMEX gold for August delivery fell $9.30 to $882.30 an ounce.
European shares advanced. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index climbed 1.2% to 296.10, with Barclays shares rallying 6.5%. The UK's FTSE 100 closed up 0.4% at 5,666.10, while Germany's DAX 30 rose 1.3% to 6,617.84 and the French CAC-40 added 1.4% at 4,536.29.
Markets snapped a 5 day losing streak ahead of F&O expiry on Thursday. Markets started off the day with a negative gap reacting to RBI’s decision of hiking repo rate by 50bps with immediate effect and raising CRR by 50bps in two stages. However, after slipping to an intra-day low of 13,731 in opening moves key indices staged a smart and a gradual bounce back shrugging off RBI’s move.
The central bank on Tuesday hiked repo rate to 8.5% with immediate effect and raised Cash Reserve Ratio to 8.75% with an effect in two stages on 5 July and 19 July to curb increasing inflation.
The Sensex recovered nearly over 400 points and the Nifty almost recouped nearly 130 points from days low on back of short covering towards the end. Finally, the BSE benchmar Sensex gained 113 points to close at 14,220 and the Nifty index gained 61 points to close at 4,252.
Spice Communications rallied by over 33% to Rs72 after the Board of Directors of the company announces that they have entered into of a share purchase agreement between MCorpGlobal Communications Pvt Ltd and Idea Cellular for the sale of 281,489,350 equity shares of Rs10/- each of the company by MCorpGlobal Communications Pvt to Idea Cellular representing 40.8% of the total paid up equity capital of the company at a price of Rs77.30 per equity share.
The company approved the merger of company with Idea Cellular based on an exchange ratio of 49 equity shares of Idea Cellular for every 100 equity shares of the company held by the shareholders.
The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs73 and a low of Rs52 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,00,000 shares on NSE.
Shares of Idea Cellular also gained by 3% to Rs102 after the company announced that it would sell 464.7mn shares at Rs156.96 to Telekom Malaysia. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs105 and a low of Rs97 and recorded volumes of over 48,00,000 shares on NSE
Cairn India gained by 3% to Rs268 after the company’s unit plans to spend US$2bn to develop oil fields and build a pipeline over 18 months. A project to develop fields in the western state of Rajasthan will cost $850 million. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs269 and a low of Rs255 and recorded volumes of over 14,00,000 shares on NSE.
Ranbaxy Labs gained by 4% to Rs545 after the company announced that it received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market Valganciclovir Hydrochloride Tablets, 450 mg. Total annual market sales for Valganciclovir HCl Tablets were US$239mn (IMS MAT: March 2008). Ranbaxy believes that it has First-to-File status on Valganciclovir tablets, thereby providing a potential of 180-days of marketing exclusivity, offering a significant opportunity in the future.
The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs548 and a low of Rs518 and recorded volumes of over 8,00,000 shares on NSE.
GMR Infrastructure gained by 3% to Rs99 after the company announced that it would develop 3,200MW of power in India. The company also said that it would spend US$1bn in India over 4-5 years. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs102 and a low of Rs94 and recorded volumes of over 29,00,000 shares on NSE.
Reliance Infrastructure surged by 4 percent to Rs948 after reports stated that it secured Rs120bn engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the 3,960 mw Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP) of group company Reliance Power.
Reliance Infrastructure will complete the first plant of the 6X660 mw project within 42 months and the remaining five will be commissioned with an interval of three months, stated reports. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs959 and a low of Rs876 and recorded volumes of over 8,00,000 shares on NSE.
Nagarjuna Construction fell by 4 percent to Rs146. The company announced that it secured three new orders aggregating Rs3.33bn. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs156 and a low of Rs143 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,000 shares on NSE.
The Government asks Reliance to supply KG gas first to urea plants, LPG plants and existing power projects. (BL)
Ranbaxy gets tentative USFDA nod for AIDS drug. (BL)
SAIL has affected an increase of 5-8% in all categories of steel from the first week of June for long-term contracts and is contemplating another hike in July last week or beginning August. (FE)
GMR Infrastructure Ltd has acquired 50% stake in Intergen, a power company based at Burlington in the US, for US$1.1bn. (BL)
Reliance Exploration and Production, a subsidiary of RIL has signed a cooperation agreement with the UAE-based petroleum company Crescent Petroleum. (ET)
Nagarjuna Construction has secured three new orders aggregating Rs3.3bn from Maharastra and Karnataka governments. (BL)
Tech Mahindra has inked an US$8mn deal with Telecom Fiji, subsidiary of Amalgamated Telecom Holdings. (ET)
NTPC to set up 4,000MW power plant in UP. (ET)
SBI to raise its lending rates by 50 basis points post RBI’s move to hike both CRR and repo rate by 50 basis points. (FE)
Reliance Infra has inked a partnership with US consultant Black & Veatch. (ET)
PSL Ltd announced that its order book stands at about Rs40bn. (ET)
Bangalore International Airport Ltd is seeking a valuation of up to US$2.5bn to raise about US$200mn in equity to fund the second phase of the airport’s development. (ET)
Birla Cotsyn (India) plans to raise about Rs1.4bn through an IPO. (ET)
IndusInd Bank raises Rs2.2bn through GDR issue. (BL)
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd intends to spin off its pharma retailing business into a separate company. (BL)
Mt Everest mineral water is fighting a legal battle with Bisleri International over the use of the word Himalaya in its mineral water branding. (ET)
Amtek Auto through its subsidiary Amtek Transportation Systems Ltd has signed a JV agreement with American Railcar Industries Inc based in St Charles, Missouri. (BL)
Wipro received marketing-related intangible assets valued at Rs4.9bn from the brands of Singapore-based FMCG Company Unza which it acquired last year. (ET)
ITC Infotech to pull out of its BPO equal joint venture with US-based Sitel Corporation. (BS)
Mauritius-based Frontline Strategy’s private equity fund bought a stake of 26% in Shriram SEPL Composites, a JV between Shriram EPC and Strategic Engineering. (BS)
GoAir plans to offload 26% stake. (ET)
Reva Electric Car Company is looking at licensing its vehicle technology to other carmakers. (ET)
Hindustan Copper Ltd has applied to the government of Madhya Pradesh for reconnaissance permit for an area of 1,600 sq km in the district of Balaghat. (FE)
HTMT Global to buy BPO co in Europe. (BL)
Economic News
The Centre plans to increase the credit exposure limit of 15% on bank lending to NBFCs for infrastructure projects, especially in the power sector. (FE)
The government’s direct tax collection increased by 43.5% to Rs494bn until June 21, on the back of higher advance tax payments by Companies. (FE)
The Indian Railways is hiking freight charges for ores and minerals, petro-products, coke and coal, fertilizers, foodgrains and a host of other commodities by 5-7%. (BL)
The Federation of All India Petroleum Traders has warned that petrol pumps across the country may go dry in the next 15 days if the government does not resolve the issues concerning sale of branded fuel. (ET)
The government is yet to decide the floor price at which it will purchase key kharif crops. (ET)
Airport operators are unlikely to cut landing and parking fees for airlines. (ET)
Auto parts suppliers to cut supplies to OEMs in the next quarter. (ET)