I'd rather have a moment of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.
Happy Diwali and hope the festivities continue on the bourses. For the moment things look fine and there is no harm in rejoicing at the gains. You could in fact celebrate more if you book some gains. Given the strong sentiment on muhurat trading followed by the fireworks in global markets, we see a strong start to the day.
The F&O expiry today will provide the avoidable swings. Settlement for trades done on Stocks bought on October 27 and October 28, 2008 will be done on October 31, 2008. Keep your position light. Avoid any fresh buying for the day. Thursday being a holiday, you never know how global markets shape up as we open on Friday morning.
Asian stocks are up on hopes that Japan will cut interest rates. China is also expected to take steps to boost equities. In short there is a concerted effort world over to bring back some life to the equity markets.
The BOJ is considering lowering its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, according to reports. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will announce its decision later in the evening. Expectations are of a rate cut.
The Dow skyrocketed by 906 points during the day before ending 889 points up. This is the Dow's second-biggest one-day point gain ever. Two weeks ago it had zoomed by 936-point rally two weeks ago. The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index added 91.6 points or 10.8%. The Nasdaq composite rose 143.6 points or 9.5%.
Reports say the Federal Reserve started buying commercial paper on Monday. The Treasury said it will start handing out $125 billion to nine banks this week to get credit moving again. These are part of the $700 billion bank bailout plan.
Libor, the overnight bank-to-bank-lending rate, fell to 1.24% from 1.26% on Monday.
US light crude oil for December delivery fell 49 cents to a 17-month low and ended at $62.73 a barrel.
The dollar gained versus the euro and the yen.
According to provisional data on the exchanges, FIIs remained net sellers to the tune of Rs691.8mn while domestic funds bought Rs247.8mn .
Results today: 3m India Ltd, Accel Frontl , Advik Labort , Aishwarya Te , Alk Securiti , Alpa Lab , Bannari Amma, Beeyu Overseas , Bharati Ship, Britania , Cairn Ind , Calfnia Sof , Capro Chem , Centum Elec , Cethar Indus , Clio Infote , , Disa India , Divi's Lab , Dolat Inv Lt , Dynamatic Te , Eicher Motor , Eid Parry , Elnet Techno , Everonn Sys , First Leas C , Fortis Health , Goldst Infra , Goldston Tec, Himad Chem, Insutec Indi , Intec Securi , Iqms Softwar , Ivp Limited , Jindal Stain , JRG Securities Kew Industries , KSK Energy , Labh Constrc , Lakshmi Over , Landmrk Pro , M&M, Matrix Labs , Rane Holdin , Rashtriya Chem, Sabero Org, Sical Log , Subex , Surana Corpr , Ucal Fuel, V Guard Ind , Vesuvius Inda , Vivimed Labs
Market extended losses to fourth straight trading session on Monday led by weakness across the US and the Asian markets and intensified selling witnessed the bourses. However, after hitting October 2005 lows in the mid-afternoon trades, key indices staged a smart recovery on the back of short covering and bargain hunting in the index pivotal like Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, RCom and Reliance Infra which saw the benchmark index to close above the 8,500 mark.
The BSE benchmark Sensex recovered over 800 points and the NSE Nifty index recouped almost 280 points from their respective lows. Finally, the BSE benchmark Sensex lost 191 points or 2.2% to close 8,509 and the NSE Nifty index declined 59 points to close at 2,524.
Shares of Suzlon erased all the early losses and ended flat at Rs46.9 after the company announced rights issue has been reviewed by the Securities Issue Committee of the Board of Directors and in view of the current capital market environment; it has been decided to suspend the right issue.
The corresponding deferment of the outflow is being made simultaneously. Since the right issue was planned to further accelerate the original plans of the Company, the proposed suspension shall not impact the original plans of the Company.
The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs55.5 and a low of Rs42 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,00,000 shares on BSE.
Reliance Industries rallied by over 6% to Rs1074 erasing early losses on the back of bargain hunting witnessed at lower levels. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1087 and a low of Rs930 and recorded volumes of over 3,00,00,000 shares on BSE.
Shares of Nagarjuna Construction surged by over 13% to Rs48 after the company announced results for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. The company posted a net profit after tax of Rs423.02mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 as compared to Rs336.44mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2007.
Total Income increased from Rs6775.31mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 to Rs10568.15mn for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs50.9 and a low of Rs40.5 and recorded volumes of over 27,000 shares on BSE.
Shares of National Aluminium plummeted by over 13% to Rs139 after the company announced that it slashed prices for the third time this month. The company said that it cut prices by as much as Rs8,000 per mt. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs166 and a low of Rs108 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,000 shares on BSE.
Government is working on proposal to make it mandatory for RIL to first meet domestic demand of diesel before exporting. (ET)
- Ranbaxy Laboratories has reset the conversion price of its FCCB to Rs555.9 from Rs908 per share. (BS)
- Suzlon scraps rights issue plan. (BS)
- RIL offers VRS to Patalganga staff. (BS)
- Falling navigable depth at Haldia may hit IOC refining operations. (BL)
- L&T to set up heavy engineering facility in Oman to manufacture high-pressure heat exchangers and reactors. (FE)
- ONGC expects Imperial Energy deal to be sealed in November, 2008. (BS)
- SBI to open 1,500 or more branches this year (FE)
- ONGC to commission Dahej plant by year-end. (BS)
- Essar Steel puts staff at Canadian business Algoma on layoff notice. (ET)
- Government may allow NTPC to invest over Rs260bn in setting up five large JV subsidiaries and a foreign subsidiary to acquire overseas assets. (ET)
- RIL polypropylene plant to stay shut for four weeks. (ET)
- Reliance Infrastructure’s 4,000 MW power project at Shahpur in Raigad district faces legal hurdle on environmental ground (BS)
- Nalco cuts aluminum prices by Rs8,000 per ton (ET)
- Reliance Capital awaits nod from NHB and RBI for its housing finance and consumer finance business (ET)
- M&M to spend Rs3bn towards the brand building and promotion for launching vehicles in US (BS)
- Future Group and its PE arm have picked up more than 50% stake in multi-cuisine lifestyle restaurant chain Blue Foods (ET)
- The Orissa government has given a go-ahead to NTPC for its proposed 4,600MW thermal power plant in Dhenkanal district (BL)
- SBI expects interest rates to soften (BL)
- Marico targeting 20% revenue contribution from its new products in five years time (DNA)
- NTPC to import 8.25mn ton of coal in the current year (DNA)
- Tata Tea may cut prices of its branded packaged tea if there is a significant fall in the commodity prices (DNA)
- HCC to curb its expansion plan due to current market conditions (DNA)
- Bhushan Steel cuts production of galvanized steel by up to 30% owing to a slump in domestic demand. (ET)
- IRDA gives a principle nod to Star Union Dai-ichi life Insurance, JV between Bank of India, Union Bank and Dai-ichi Life. (ET)
- Visa Steel shuts 50,000 ton pa ferro chrome plant owing to poor market conditions. (FE)
- Unity Infraprojects wins contract worth Rs3.75bn. (FE)
- Era Infra Engineering bags contract worth Rs4.5bn for construction of new power plant in Delhi. (FE)
- GACL to set up 100MW gas-based power plant in collaboration with GSPCL at Dahej (BS)
- PSTL may convert FCCB’s into equity (FE)
- Sun TV has launched FM radio station at Silliguri under the brand ‘S FM’ (FE)
- ICRA has downgraded Sona Koyo’s commercial paper from A1+ to A1 rating (ET)
- Petronet proposed to take participating interest in gas assets in Papua New Guinea (BL)
- Alok Industries to venture into the work-ware segment (BL)
Economic Front Page
Sebi relaxed the creeping acquisition norms and allowed promoters to annually raise their stake through the route to 75% via open market purchases instead of 55% earlier.
Companies planning to raise capital abroad may have to offer a third of incremental equity in domestic market. (ET)
The Ministry of Communications and IT has asked the Parliament to allow operators to pay separate spectrum charges on the revenues earned from 2G and 3G services, respectively. (BL)
Fall in demand hits cement companies realizations. (BL)
Sebi may limit FMP’s realty sector investments (ET)
Government’s plan for fertilizer bonds could face delays (ET)
Government to assess liquidity crunch in pharma sector. (ET)