Stocks to Watch - Nov 3 2009

Joining the tariff war, India`s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel on Friday introduced a `pay per second` plan across the country. In this plan, called Freedom Plan, Airtel customers will be charged one paise per second for all Local and STD calls to Airtel numbers and 1.20 paise per second for local and STD calls to other networks.

Reliance Capital disclosed a considerable drop in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 2009. During the quarter, the group has posted a 32.08% decline in consolidated net profit after minority interest and share of profit of Rs 1,558.30 million for the quarter ended Sep. 30, 2009 as compared to Rs 2,294.20 million for the quarter ended Sep. 30, 2008.

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) announced a fall of 77.50% in the net profit for the quarter ended Sep.30, 2009. During the quarter, the company reported a profit of Rs 205.84 million as against profit of Rs 914.93 million for the quarter ended Sep. 30, 2008.

KEC International, engaged in power transmission engineering, procurement, and construction today announced that its board of directors has approved the merger with RPGCL, subject to necessary approvals. The exchange ratio recommended by both boards is 1 share of KEC for every 20 shares of RPGCL.

ICICI Bank, India`s leading private sector lender announced a jump in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September 2009, driven primarily by the sharp reduction in losses of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company and increase in profit of other subsidiaries. During the quarter, the profit of the bank rose 75.69% to Rs 11,445.70 million from Rs 6,514.80 million in the same quarter last year. Consolidated total income for the quarter fell 6.38% to Rs 145,958.50 million compared with the prior year period.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL), leading steel manufacturer, reported a net profit of Rs 16,634.90 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 whereas the same was at Rs 20,096.00 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.

Reliance Infrastructure disclosed a small rise in standalone net profit for the quarter ended September 2009. During the quarter, the profit of the company rose 6.20% to Rs 3,069.00 million from Rs 2,889.70 million in the same quarter previous year.

Unitech reported a phenomenon drop in standalone net profit for the quarter ended September 2009. During the quarter, the profit of the company declined 69.92% to Rs 1,249.90 million from Rs 4,155.60 million in the same quarter previous year.

Bajaj Hindusthan, the sugar maker has plans to buy Balrampur Chini Mills which is more Globe`s biggest M&A dealmakers valuable, profitable and efficient than itself in a deal valued at about Rs 24 billion, partly using assets of the target company.