Risk varies inversely with knowledge
Investors have had a long weekend to put their knowledge at work after the budget. With the major event risk out of the way, a lot will again depend on how the global events play out.
Asian stocks have pared their gains after a positive start. US stocks climbed on Monday taking the Nasdaq and S&P 500 into positive zone for the year. AIG's $35 billion asset sale and a some mergers in the pharma space brought some cheer. A Greek bailout package is being closely watched and could have a bearing on the market sentiment.
The consumption story is here to stay. With the budget putting in more money in the hands of the consumers, a lot of consumption-related stocks will see renewed action.
The EXIM numbers and sales numbers from auto and cement firms will be among the data points tracked today. An increase in customs and excise duties on petrol and diesel will bring in some loud protests for sure.
RIL could see some action following reports that it is on the verge of losing its bid for Lyondell-Basell. Meanwhile, reports add that it may now focus on the possible acquisition of Canada’s Value Creation.
Thursday turned out to be another session of consolidation where the benchmark indices traded in a narrow range throughout the day. BSE Sensex was unable to bounce back despite an upbeat Economic Survey. Even a sharp rise in India’s core sector growth was unable to cheer sentiment on Dalal-Street.
Production at India's six key infrastructure industries rose by a strong 9.4% in January 2010 as against 2.2% in the same period last year, Commerce & Industry Ministry said in a statement today. Growth in India's infrastructure sector stood at 6.4% in December 2009 and was at 6% in Nov. 2009 and 3.8% in Oct. 2009.
In addition, with the Railway Budget turning out to be more populist one and international equity markets not that encouraging, traders and the investors continued to remain cautious ahead of the Union Budget 2010-11.
Finally, the BSE Sensex ended flat at 16,254 it hit an intra-day high of 16,329 and intra-day low of 16,167. While the NSE Nifty ended flat at 4,859.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 16 ended in the negative terrain and 14 ended in the green. Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors, JP Associates, NTPC and RCom were among the top losers. On the other hand, major gainers were L&T, Maruti, Hero Honda, Infosy and ACC.
Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Mphasis, Godrej Cons, Renuka Sugars and Jet Airways. On the other hand, gainers included GVK Power, Mundra Port, REC and Piramal Health.
Food price inflation yet again marginally fell to 17.58% in the week ended February 13, 2010 as against the same period last year. Primary Articles inflation fell to 15.84% in the week ended February 13, 2010 as against 16.23% in the same period last year. While, Fuel price inflation remained unchanged at 9.89% on a YoY basis.
Hathway Cable & Datacom, one of the largest Cable TV services company of India started trading at Rs250 per share as against its issue price of Rs240. However, the stock fell below its issue price and ended at Rs207, translating into a discount of 13.5%.
The company entered the capital market with 227,55,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price band of Rs240 to Rs265 through 100% book building process. The IPO just managed to get subscribed by 1.36 times on the final day of offer. Most of the bids came at the lower end of the price band.
The QIBs portion of the issue received subscription of 1.43 times with bids for 16714925 equity shares against the offer of 11655000 equity shares.
The Non Institutional Investors portion of the issue received bids for 11895750 equity shares against the offer of 2775000 equity shares resulting in a subscription of 4.28times. The Retail Individual Investors portion of the issue received subscription of 0.2754 times with bids for 2292300 equity shares against the offer of 8325000 equity shares.
ICICI Bank raised interest paid on deposits of select maturities by 25 to 50bps. The move came after HDFC Bank raised some deposit rate by 0.50% to 1.50% from February 19, 2010. The new rates have come into effect from today, Rahul Virkar, the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Shares of ICICI Bank advanced 1.2% to end at Rs851. The scrip opened at Rs841 it touched an intra-day high of Rs857 and a low of Rs832 and recorded volumes of over 4.3mn shares on NSE.
Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank surged 3.2% to end at Rs729 after the National Stock Exchange in its circular announced that the bank would replace Grasim Industries in the S&P CNX Nifty Index.
On the other hand, shares of Grasim ended flat at Rs2660. The scrip opened at Rs2655 it touched an intra-day high of Rs2705 and a low of Rs2601 and recorded volumes of over 0.17mn shares on NSE.
Cadila Healthcare announced that the board of directors recommended to issue Bonus Equity Shares in the ratio of 1:2 of Rs5/- each held by the shareholders of the company on the record date to be fixed by the board of directors / committee of the board after the approval of the shareholders at a general meeting.
The stock gained 1.5% to end at Rs752. The scrip opened at Rs746 it touched an intra-day high of Rs765 and a low of Rs718 and recorded volumes of over 0.2mn shares on NSE.
Aurobindo Pharma received tentative approval to manufacture and market Nevirapine Tablets for Oral Suspension 50mg (NDA) from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA).
The stock ended slightly lower by 0.7% to end at Rs923. The stock opened at Rs917 hitting an intra-day high of Rs933 and a low of Rs917. It recorded volumes of over 0.15mn shares on NSE.
Shares of Gammon India erased early gains and ended lower by 1.6% at Rs212. The company announced that it has won an order worth Rs1.37bn from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The scrip opened at Rs223 it touched an intra-day high of Rs226 and a low of Rs210 and recorded volumes of over 0.2mn shares on NSE.
Promoters of Texmaco are reportedly planning to restructure its group companies i.e the engineering firm Texmaco and Texmaco Machines. It is looking to demerge Texmaco’s heavy engineering and steel foundry divisions and transfer the same to its wholly-owned subsidiary Texmaco Machines.
As per the scheme approved by an independent committee of directors, Texmaco’s heavy engineering & steel foundry business, along with its assets and liabilities, will get transferred to Texmaco Machines, an existing company.
The stock slipped 1.7% to end at Rs140, it opened at Rs141 it touched an intra-day high of Rs143 and a low of Rs134 and recorded volumes of over 2.3mn shares on NSE.