He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how
The bulls seem to be able to bear any apprehensions for now. It’s not as if risk appetite is increasing, but who wants to miss a joyride! The indices have been on a firm footing as the health of the Indian economy appears to be getting better by the day. The Auto and cement numbers have given some reason to cheer. For those who rejoice in numbers of any kind, the total market cap of all the listed firms on the BSE has surged to Rs60,742bn, adding Rs2,410bn in three trading sessions since Budget Day.
With Finance Minister making it clear that fuel price rise is here to stay, keeping inflation under control will remain a challenge.
A flat start is in the offing; a reversal of recent fortunes could well take place during the day depending on how the global events pan out. Expectations though are that the Nifty may breach the 5100 mark before any worthwhile correction. The Asian markets are indecisive for now. US indices wiped out gains following worries about the job and manufacturing reports expected in the coming days. Positive economic news took a back seat towards the end.
The Fed's periodic "Beige Book" reading on the economy showed that economic activity picked up somewhat in 9 of the Fed's 12 districts. Consumer spending also improved modestly, the report indicated.
The European Union said it will more closely regulate the economies of its 27 members so as to avoid a repeat of the Greece crisis, a report stated. In an attempt to cut its deficit, Greece announced a $6.5 billion plan including $3.3bn in new revenues and ~$3.3 billion in spending cuts, which include pension freezes and cuts in civil servants' salaries.
Hedge fund Elliott Associates made an unsolicited all-cash offer for Novell offering to buy the remaining 91.5% of the company for around $5.75 per share, or $1.83 billion. The price is a 21% premium over Novell's closing stock price from Tuesday.
US light crude oil for April delivery rose $1.19 to settle at $80.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile ExchangeAfter two successive days of Budget-related gains, the Indian markets further extended its upswing on Wednesday as the BSE Sensex reclaimed 17,000 mark for the first time since January 21, 2010. The index took ~27 trading session to recapture the milestone.
Today’s stellar performance was led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries, the stock single handedly lifted the Sensex nearly 80 points followed by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank contributing 15 points each. The Oil & Gas, Realty and Power stocks were in the limelight, even Mid-Cap Banking stocks were among the notable gainers.
The BSE Sensex advanced 227 points to end at 17,000 after touching a high of 17,012 and a low of 16,778. The Nifty advanced 71 points to end at 5,088.
Equity markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei in Japan was up 0.3%, while Australia's S&P/ASX ended higher by 0.7%. The Shanghai SE Composite gained 0.8% and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.2%.
In Europe, stocks were trading in the red. The DAX in Germany was down 0.3% and the CAC 40 index in France was down 0.4%. The FTSE in the UK was down 0.2%.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Oil & Gas index was the top gainer, adding 2.2%, followed by the Realty index that was up 2.1% and the BSE Power index was up 1.9%. Even the BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.5% while the BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.2%.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 24 stocks ended in the positive terrain and 6 ended in the red. JP Associates, Tata Power, Reliance Industries, NTPC and M&M were among the top gainers.
On the other hand, among the major losers were ONGC, Maruti, L&T, ACC and Wipro.
Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Jet Airways, Asian Paints, EKC, OBC and Renuka Sugars. On the other hand, losers included Shriram Transport, BOB and Chambal Fert.
Shares of Reliance Industries were back above the Rs1000 mark, the stock surged by 4% to end at Rs1025 as reports stated that the board of bankrupt LyondellBasell Industries AF rejected a US$14.5bn bid from the company. After having its US$13.5bn takeover bid rejected by the Rotterdam-based company, Reliance Industries raised its offer for a controlling stake to US$14.5bn.
Shares of Ashok Leyland advanced 1.2% to end at Rs52.7 after reports stated that Nissan is in talks with Hinduja Group Company for developing a small car mainly targeting the segment currently dominated by the Maruti Suzuki Alto.
"We are studying the possibility of tying up with Ashok Leyland and some other manufacturers in China and Indonesia for a small car project." Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan & Renault, was quoted as saying.
The small car project will be in addition to the ultra low-cost car that Nissan is planning to launch with its Indian partner Bajaj Auto, reports added.
It was announced in November last year, Renault, Nissan and Bajaj Auto will launch an ultra low-cost car in India in 2012 that will cost less than Tata Motor's Nano.
Shares of National Aluminium gained by 2.6% to Rs402 after the company won a bauxite mining permit from the Orissa state government, Ashok Mohadeo Rao Dalwai, Orissa’s steel and mines secretary, was quoted as saying.
The regional government’s permission to develop the mine, which has an initial estimated reserve of 70mn metric tons, will have to be cleared by the federal government, Dalwai said.
Shares of TCS gained by 1% to end at Rs768 after the company announced that it may sign a contract with the U.K.’s Personal Accounts Delivery Authority later this month for scheme administration services. The scrip opened at Rs769 it touched an intra-day high of Rs774 and a low of Rs764 and recorded volumes of over 1.3mn shares on NSE.
Shares of SREI Infra shot up by over 7% to end at Rs74 after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, also know as the "Big Bull" picked up ~1.25mn shares, or 1.07% stake, in the non-banking finance company Srei Infrastructure Finance for about Rs84mn in two open market transactions.
The acquisition of shares was on and after the budget day after the finance minister announced plans to provide banking licences to eligible NBFCs.
According to the bulk deal, Jhunjhunwala’s wife Rekha Jhun-jhunwala picked up 0.625mn shares each on Friday and Tuesday at Rs65.11 and Rs 69.31per share, respectively.
Shares of Tricom India shot up by over 19.8% to end at Rs16.35 after Deutsche International Trust Corporation picked up 0.348mn equity shares of the company on Tuesday. The shares were picked at an average price of Rs13.6 per share.
The scrip opened at Rs14 it touched an intra-day high of Rs16.4 and a low of Rs13.5 and recorded volumes of over 1.7mn shares on NSE.
Rolta won an engineering design project for a significant nuclear reactor system of international importance. It is one of the first of its kind internationally and is a very complex and technically challenging engineering design project.
Shares of Rolta ended flat at Rs179. The scrip opened at Rs180 it touched an intra-day high of Rs184 and a low of Rs178 and recorded volumes of over 3.9mn shares on NSE.
Unichem Laboratories announced that it received EU GMP certificate from IRISH MEDICINES BOARD for the 12 API's manufactured at company's Roha plant.
With this approval the company can market its approved API's in the whole of Europe.
Shares of Unichem Labs advanced 6% to end at Rs381. The scrip opened at Rs363 it touched an intra-day high of Rs386 and a low of Rs361 and recorded volumes of over 94,000 shares on NSE.
Shares of SpiceJet surged by 5% to end at Rs61.9 after media reports stated that the company was seeking government approval to start international operations. The scrip opened at Rs59.35 it touched an intra-day high of Rs62.3 and a low of Rs58.55 and recorded volumes of over 8.1mn shares on BSE.
Aurobindo Pharma received the approval for its Abbreviated New Drug Submission Cefuroxime Axetil Tablets 250mg & 500mg from Health Canada. This is Aurobindo's 8th product approval from Health Canada.
The stock gained by 1.7% to end at Rs939. The scrip opened at Rs926 it touched an intra-day high of Rs948 and a low of Rs917 and recorded volumes of over 0.27mn shares on NSE.