It doesn’t matter where you come from...it just matters where you are headed
The stock markets continue to perform as under-dogs and are waiting for a David Boyle to tell an old recycled story better. Piling impossibility on impossibility remains a hope for bulls as global cues continue to haunt Indian market. A gap-down opening is a given. Don’t buy hoping for a miracle immediately.
The little hope that market is expecting is some measure from the RBI. The Oscars have proved you don’t need a new story. It just has to be told well. As Rehman's score wins a double delight, the bulls are yearning to scream Jai Ho!
The F&O expiry will bring its moments of anxiety as bulls and bears brush each other in a narrow range. The way investors adjust to revised market lots for fresh month contracts could widen the range.
Asian markets are already deep in the red, with the Nikkei in Tokyo and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down well over 2.5%. Overnight, the Dow and S&P 500 tumbled to levels not seen in nearly 12 years, as investors continue to worry that the government's efforts to slow the recession won't be sufficient.
Reports say economists expect a deeper recession in the first half of the year followed by a modest recovery in the second half and a bigger recovery in 2010. Housing, manufacturing and gross domestic product growth reports are expected in US this week.
The dollar gained versus the euro and the yen. US light crude oil for April delivery fell $1.59 to close at $38.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. COMEX gold for April delivery fell $7.20 to settle at $995 an ounce.
Among other news in the media:
Government is in favour of selling a 51% stake in Satyam Computers to meet its working capital expenses and liabilities from the class-action suits.
ONGC strikes oil in the KG basin.
ICSA Ltd is looking to acquire a power firm in the US with an investment of $20-30mn
SBI freezes new car loans at 10%, farm loans at 8% for a year
Tata Communications may go in for a stake sale in its retail broadband unit, Tata Communications Internet Services only after the auction of WiMax spectrum.
National Aviation Co plans to borrow US$1.1bn to purchase seven aircraft from Boeing.(Mint)
Infosys Technologies has identified SAP services firms BCC and Ciber Novasoft, amongst others, as potential acquisition targets.
Reliance Industries is awaiting the Empowered Group of Ministers approval for allocating natural gas to power producers.
Reliance Power may expand capacity at Nagpur thermal power plant to 660MW. Company Law Board gives Maytas Infra additional time till February 26 for its reply to an application seeking to dissolve the present management of Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.
TRAI asks DoT to examine Bharti Airtel’s long distance revenue reporting.
Jet Airways will lease 4 Boeing 777 aircrafts to Gulf Air.
BGR Energy Systems has won a US$8.6mn order from Iraq.
HDFC has started charging borrowers up to 3% of the outstanding loan amount as prepayment charges.
Reliance Industries opposed supplying its KG basin gas to NTPC as its legal dispute with the company is still pending at the Bombay HC.
BHEL signs an agreement to float a JV with GE to manufacture diesel locomotives for Indian Railways.
Nevyeli Lignite to set up two more lignite-based 250MW thermal power plants.
L&T may sell its fuel dispenser and other non-core businesses.
BHEL received Rs32bn order for supplying two 600MW plants for a power project in Central India.
Indian market slipped sharply on Friday on the back of a sell off in the global markets. Selling was witnessed all over the bourses with the banking, IT, metals and telecom stocks among the major loser. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost 199 points to close at 8,843 and the NSE Nifty slipped 53 points at 2,736.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 28 stocks ended in negative terrain and only 2 stocks i.e. ACC and Maruti ended with gains in the Sensex.
Shares of ABB bounced back sharply after the company posted a net profit of Rs1931.19mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 as compared to Rs1807.88mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2007. Total Income has increased from Rs18648.02mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 to Rs22170.05mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2008. Quarter ended result is unaudited.
The scrip rose by 1.6% to Rs399 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs405 and a low of Rs365 and recorded volumes of over 23,00,000 shares on NSE.
Shares of Torrent Power ended flat at Rs72. Reports stated that the company emerged the highest bidder for the distribution franchisee for Kanpur. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs72.5 and a low of Rs71 and recorded volumes of over 85,000 shares on NSE.
Shares of Ashok Leyland advanced by a percent to Rs15.41 after reports stated that the company would supply 500 more buses to Angola by March-end. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs15.5 and a low of Rs15.1 and recorded volumes of over 19,00,000 shares on NSE.
Satyam erased gains and fell 1.4% to close at Rs45.5. The stock had earlier surged after the Company Law Board (CLB) on Thursday allowed Satyam Computer to sell a stake to a strategic investor via an open competitive bidding process.
The process of selecting a suitable strategic partner for Satyam should be transparent, the CLB said in a statement today. It added that it will appoint a retired supreme court judge to oversee the process of open bidding for acquiring a stake in Satyam. Click here to read more…
The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs49.9 and a low of Rs44 and recorded volumes of over 3,00,00,000 mn shares on NSE.
Over the status of various government actions, Educomp clarified that there are no fresh probe or inspection ordered by the government. Shares of Educomp plunged by over 12% to Rs1772 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs1989 and intra-day low of Rs1710 recording volumes of over 28,00,000 shares on the NSE.
Shares of RCom declined by 4% to Rs155 after reports stated that the government planning a special audit on the company and its subsidiaries. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs160 and a low of Rs153 and recorded volumes of over 62,00,000 shares on NSE.