Winning is not everything but wanting to win is.
Like in the stock market, the favourites don’t always win the races. Record breaking sci-fi flick Avatar lost out to The Hurt Locker at the Academy Awards, which was a low-grosser. In another first, a woman won the Best Director Oscar, which coincided with the Women’s Day. In contrast, the long-pending Woman’s Reservation Bill received another setback back home as the famous Yadavs resorted to vandalism in Parliament. The ruckus may continue in Parliament over a whole host of issues in the coming days.
Coming to the market, we expect ‘The Weary Kind’ at start as it is expected to be subdued due to indecisive global cues. Most Asian shares are flat this morning after a mixed performance overnight on Wall Street. European stocks too finished nearly unchanged. We see the key indices being on ‘The Blind Side’ and listless today amid lack of fresh catalysts.
Stock centric action will persist though with some stocks seeing ‘Up’ movement. Small-cap and Mid-cap shares might continue to remain ‘The New Tenants’ on street but do your due diligence before putting you ‘Precious’ money into this space. Else you find yourself in a situation like the ‘Crazy Heart.
Thermax may make a corporate announcement related to the Power and Energy sector on Wednesday.
Maruti will be in focus as reports suggest Japanese parent Suzuki will increase stake in the Indian arm. Maruti will also be in spotlight as Ford launches the Figo - its new compact car in India.
Daimler AG plans to sell 5.34% stake in Tata Motors through a block deal, which will be executed on Tuesday, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the Government has fixed a price band of Rs300-350 for the follow-on public offer (FPO) of mining giant NMDC, and will raise between Rs 9,900-11,550 crore depending on the cut-off price.
The issue will open on Wednesday. The upper end of the price band translates into a 12.6% discount to Monday’s closing price of Rs 400.60, while at the lower end, the discount works out to 25%.
The Government has abandoned the French auction route for the NMDC offering and will use the conventional book-building process.
FIIs were net buyers in the cash segment on Monday at Rs11.32bn on a provisional basis while the local funds were net sellers of Rs5.68bn, according to figures published on the NSE's web site. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers of Rs9.48bn.
US stocks ended little changed on Monday, although the Nasdaq managed to close at an 18-month high, as investors weighed corporate deals, a stronger dollar and weaker commodity prices ahead of key economic news due later this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10,552.52. The S&P 500 index finished flat at 1,138.50. Both ended the previous session at their highest levels since Jan. 20. The Nasdaq Composite added 6 points, or 0.3%, at 2,332.21, ending at its highest point since Sept. 2, 2008.
The dollar gained versus the euro and the yen.
US light crude oil for April delivery rose 37 cents to settle at $81.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
COMEX gold for May delivery fell $10.90 to settle at $1,124.60 per ounce.
Treasury prices tumbled, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.71% from 3.68% late on Friday.
Market breadth was positive.
Between March 9 and the 2010 rally high hit on Jan. 19, the S&P 500 gained 70%, the Dow gained 64% and the Nasdaq gained 44%.
Stocks rallied on Friday after a government report showed the economy lost fewer jobs in February than economists had expected. But stocks drifted on Monday as investors looked to a host of economic news due later in the week.
MetLife agreed to buy troubled insurer AIG's American Life Insurance unit, known as Alico, in a $15.5 billion cash-and-stock deal. The deal was a positive, but not a surprise, as MetLife had confirmed last month that it was in talks with AIG.
It was AIG's second major sale in a week as the government-owned company looks to pay back over $100 billion in bailout money it took during the financial crisis.
MetLife will pay $6.8 billion in cash, with the remainder in company stock. The deal leaves AIG as Met's second-biggest shareholder, with a stake of over 20% in the company. Met shares gained 5% and AIG shares gained 3.6%.
In other deal news, Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina have made a bid to buy Australia's Arrow Energy for $3 billion in cash and stock. Royal Dutch already owns a 10% stake in Arrow.
McDonald's said that February same-store sales rose 4.8%, as strength in overseas markets offset weakness in the United States. Same-store sales is a retail metric that refers to sales at stores open a year or more. Shares of the Dow component rose 2.3%.
Tuesday brings the one-year anniversary of what many consider to be the bear-market low. On that day, the Dow and S&P 500 closed at 12-year lows and the Nasdaq closed at 6-year lows.
European shares ended slightly lower after failing to break out of a tight range, with weakness in drug stocks offsetting more signs of support for Greece. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed 0.1% lower at 256.87, after moving between small gains and losses through the session.
Germany's DAX index fell 1.45 points to close at 5,875.91 and the French CAC-40 index declined 0.2% to end at 3,903.54. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index gained 0.1% to settle at 5,606.72.
Further signs of European support for Greece emerged over the weekend. French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that a number of countries were ready to rescue the nation if necessary, while German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble suggested the possibility of creating a European fund modeled on the International Monetary Fund.
The Greek ASE Composite index rose 0.3% to 2,087.45. Still, in a sign that worries about the more peripheral countries in Europe haven't gone away, Portuguese stocks were weaker, with the PSI 20 index falling 0.6% to 7,917.36.
Indian markets recorded smart gains but ended off their intra-day’s high on Monday. The benchmark Sensex reclaimed the 17,000 levels and the NSE Nifty ended above the 5100 thanks to positive global cues. US stocks ended with gains following an encouraging jobs report and Asian markets also ended on a positive note.
The Auto and the Banking stocks were among the top gainers, while the Realty and Consumer Durables stocks were under pressure. The Mid-Cap and the Small-Cap index remained in demand, yet again outperforming the benchmark indices.
The breath on the BSE Sensex was positive, out of the total 2946 stocks, 1752 advanced as against 1107 declines and 87 remained unchanged.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 20 stocks ended in the positive and 10 ended in the red.
The BSE Sensex gained 108 points to end at 17,102 after touching a high of 17,187 and a low of 17,050. The NSE Nifty added 35 points to end at 5,124.
In Asia, the Nikkei in Japan ended with smart gains, adding 2.1%, while Australia's S&P/ASX gained 0.9%. Shanghai SE Composite ended higher by 0.8% and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 2%.
In Europe, stocks were trading flat. The DAX in Germany was flat; the CAC 40 index in France was almost unchanged and the FTSE in the UK was flat as well.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Auto index was the top gainer, adding 2%, followed by the Banking index that was up 1.1% and the BSE Pharma index was up 0.9%. Even, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.7% and BSE Small-Cap index was up 1%.
Among the losers were BSE Realty index down 0.5% and BSE Metals index down 0.3%.
Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Essar Oil, LITL, Allahabad Bank, Aban Offshore and Sterling Bio. On the other hand, losers included NMDC, OBC, Union Bank and Max India.
NMDC plans to come out with its public issue of over 330mn equity shares or 8.38% stake. The issue would open on March 10 and close on March 12. The company to offer its shares at a discount of up to 30% on the current market price.
Shares of NMDC slipped 3.5% to end at Rs400. The scrip opened at Rs405 it touched an intra-day high of Rs418 and a low of Rs383. Total traded quantity of over 1.2mn shares on BSE.
SAIL gained 1.2% to end at Rs237 as the company is reportedly planning to join rivals in forging a technology JV with a Japanese partner to make higher value products amid surging demand.
The company is reportedly in talks with a Japanese company to set up a factory in eastern India, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh was quoted as saying. The factory may be located in the cities of Bokaro or Bhilai where SAIL operates plants and has large areas of spare land, Singh added.
Shares of Essar Oil surged by over 6.5% to end at Rs149 as the Essar Group is reportedly planning plans to raise Rs$3bn overseas to fund acquisitions and expand its oil, power and steel businesses.
The money may be raised via debt or sale of equity in Essar Energy Ltd which is a holding company for the group’s energy businesses. A decision on the fund-raising may be taken in six weeks, reports added.
Nagarjuna Construction secured new orders aggregating Rs12.21bn from Hyderabad Growth Corridor Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd, NHPC Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Director and National Institute of Technology, Tripura.
Shares of Nagarjuna Const advanced by 3% to end at Rs163. The scrip opened at Rs161 it touched an intra-day high of Rs165 and a low of Rs161 and recorded volumes of over 0.2mn shares on BSE.
Shares of HT Media advanced by 1% to end at Rs147 after reports stated that its unit’s plan to raise Rs3bn through an IPO. HT media’s unit, Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd., filed a draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for the initial stock sale.
The scrip opened at Rs158 it touched an intra-day high of Rs169 and a low of Rs146 and recorded volumes of over 0.18mn shares on BSE.
Man Industries secured order worth Rs9.5bn from Kuwait for supply of 170000 tons of large Dia meter pipes in both LSAW as well as HSAW segments. The order has to be executed in next financial year.
Shares of Man Industries shot up by over 7.5% to end at Rs64. The scrip opened at Rs61 it touched an intra-day high of Rs66 and a low of Rs60 and recorded volumes of over 1.4mn shares on BSE.
Shares of Bank of Rajasthan slipped 2.2% to end at Rs66.8 after reports stated that the bank has been ordered to get its accounts audited by the Reserve Bank of India following investigations into irregular dealings. The scrip opened at Rs70.9 it touched an intra-day high of Rs70.9 and a low of Rs66.5 and recorded volumes of over 0.6mn shares on BSE.
Shares of Jagran Prakashan gained by 3% to end at Rs122. ~ about 21.3mn equity shares or 7.1% of its equity, changed hands in two block deals on BSE, NSE. The scrip opened at Rs120 it touched an intra-day high of Rs128 and a low of Rs112 and recorded volumes of over 15.9mn shares combined on BSE.