However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results - Sir Winston Churchill.
The occasion is here; its Infosys results after all. Will the market celebrate? We'll know in a few minutes. The market never fails to surprise; just when one thought the NSE Nifty could surpass 5400 with some ease, it changed direction and headed south. Today it could even fall below 5300 unless Infosys manages to turn the tide. A special dividend could be a temporary boost too.
Markets in the US and Europe finished flat. Asian markets are mostly in the red. Eurozone’s emergency loan package for Greece failed to inspire the bulls. What’s worse, the SEBI-IRDA standoff over ULIPs clouded the sentiment. The good news is that status quo has been maintained on ULIPs. The two regulators will now seek a legal verdict.
We expect a flat to lower opening. The key indices are likely to remain sideways and rangebound. Infosys numbers should be out before the market starts. So, there is a possibility that the mood might change once the IT bellwether’s results and guidance are out. Infosys is expected to post 1-2% QoQ growth in Q4 PAT and Revenues. It’s the company's outlook for FY11 that everyone is keenly awaiting. Broadly, the undertone will be cautiously optimistic. Non-index counters may remain abuzz but don’t take undue risks for now.
Inflows from overseas investors have started to taper off a bit. FIIs were net buyers of only Rs144.1mn on Monday on a provisional basis. Local funds were net sellers of Rs1.92bn, according to figures published on the NSE's web site. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net sellers of Rs5.06bn. On Friday, FIIs were net buyers of Rs2.58bn in the cash segment, as per the SEBI web site.
Other companies announcing earnings today are: Blue Dart, Essar Oil and Mastek.
US stocks registered moderate gains on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing above 11,000 for the first time in 18 months, after eurozone leaders announced details of the financial aid to Greece, softening fears that the nation might have to default on its debt.
The Dow added 8 points or 0.1%, finishing at 11,005.97, the highest close since Sept. 26, 2008, when it ended at 11,143.13. The S&P 500 index gained 2 points, or 0.2%, ending at 1196.48, an 18-month high. The Nasdaq edged up 4 points, or 0.2%, to 2,457.87, the highest finish since June 19, 2008.
Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.85% from 3.89% late on Friday. The 10-year had risen as high as 4% on Monday, an 18-month high.
The dollar fell versus the euro and gained against the yen.
COMEX gold for June delivery rose $3 to settle at $1,162.20 per ounce.
US light crude oil for May delivery fell 58 cents to settle at $84.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
US stocks had closed higher on Friday at the end of another up week for stocks. The market has risen in seven of the last eight weeks as economic confidence has replaced jitters about a global slowdown that felled markets in January.
Both the Dow and S&P 500 stand at roughly 18-month highs, while the Nasdaq stands at the highest point in nearly two years.
Over the weekend European leaders agreed to offer loans to Greece, helping to ease worries that rising debt in that nation and other countries in the region might curb the global economic recovery and weaken the euro.
The 16 countries that use the euro agreed to provide a collective $40 billion, while the IMF agreed to kick in $13.5 billion. The loans, should Greece choose to access them, would have interest rates that are lower than what lenders had been requiring in recent days to hold Greek debt.
On April 8, Greece's borrowing costs hit an all-time high as investors worried the country might default.
Greece is seen as a test case and investors are worried that a default there could exacerbate problems in other debt-burdened nations. Greece is one of the so-called PIIGS, along with Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
Greece has not yet asked for the aid to be delivered amid hopes that it will be able to return to the bond market.
Activity on the corporate M&A front also bolstered sentiment, with Mirant Corp. agreeing to acquire rival power firm Reliant Energy Inc. for $1.61 billion and military contractor DynCorp International getting taken out by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
After the close, Dow component Alcoa ignited the quarterly reporting period. The aluminum maker posted earnings of 10 cents per share versus a loss of 59 cents a year earlier, meeting the expectations of analysts. Alcoa reported revenue of $4.89 billion versus $4.147 billion a year ago. Analysts expected revenue of $5.238 billion.
First-quarter earnings are expected to have risen 37% versus the prior year, while revenue is expected to have risen 10%, according to Thomson Reuters.
Gains are expected to be driven by financials, materials and consumer discretionary. Intel reports results on Tuesday, while General Electric Co. (GE), Google, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are due later in the week.
Stocks in Europe edged slightly lower, as details about the loan package to Greece helped banks rise, while the media and metals sectors lost ground. After having ended higher for a sixth straight week on Friday, the Stoxx Europe 600 index slipped 0.1% to 269.49.
At the regional level, the German DAX index finished flat at 6,250.69 and the French CAC 40 index ended virtually unchanged as well at 4,050.50, while the UK's FTSE 100 index gained 0.1% to 5,777.65.
With credit-default swaps on Greece falling sharply and the euro climbing, shares of Greek banks shot higher.
In Warsaw, the WIG 20 index rose 1% to 2,578.66 and the zloty gained in the aftermath of the weekend deaths of Poland's president and numerous other senior officials.
A volatile trading session ended with losses on Monday, starting off the week with a negative bias, as SEBI and IRDA continued their slugfest over the jurisdiction for ULIPs. Markets opened higher due to firm global cues in the wake of the announcement of details of the rescue package for Greece. However, "the uncertainty surrounding the ULIP controversy coupled with lower than expected industrial production data had their ill-effects on sentiment", says Amar Ambani VP Research IIFL.
The Capital Goods, Auto and the Banking stocks were among the major losers, even the Mid-Cap index ended in the red. On the other hand, the FMCG and Realty stocks were in demand even the Small-Cap stocks attracted buying.
Finally, the BSE Sensex slipped 80 points to end at 17,853 and NSE Nifty lost 22 points to close at 5,339. Among the 30 components of Sensex, 18 ended in the negative terrain and 12 were in the green.
By the close of trade, markets in Asia and Europe had erased some of the initial gains. Asia markets ended in the green, the Nikkei in Japan gained 0.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX edged higher by 0.7%. Shanghai SE Composite ended lower by 0.5% and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.3%.
European indices also were flat, the DAX in Germany, the CAC 40 index in France and the FTSE in the UK all were flat.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Capital Goods index was top loser, the index lost 1.2%, followed by BSE PSU index down 0.9% and Banking index down 0.8%.
Among the top gainers were, BSE realty index up 0.7% and BSE FMCG index up 0.7%.
Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Balrampur Chini, Zee Ent, Jet Airways and Jai Corp. On the other hand, losers included Allahabad Bank, BOB, Central Bank and Jubilant Org.
IntraSoft Technologies, which operates the website www.123greetings.com, commenced trading at Rs150 per share as against its issue price of Rs145. Towards the end; the stock closed at Rs159 translating into premium of 9.5%.
The IPO of IntraSoft received a remarkable response from investors and was subscribed 18.15 times. The QIB portion was subscribed 21.97 times, while HNI & Retail portion was subscribed 17.47 and 13 times. The issue had constituted 25.12% of the fully diluted post issue paid up equity share capital of the company. The face value of equity shares of Rs10 and the issue price is 14.5 times of the face value.
The proceeds from the IPO will be used fund the company’s requirements for branding & promotion, purchasing a corporate office in Kolkata, investment in technology infrastructure and for general corporate purposes. Collins Stewart Inga Private Limited and Anand Rathi Advisors Limited were the Book Running Lead Managers to the issue.
Shares of Reliance Industries ended flat at Rs1125. The company over the weekend announced that it agreed to buy a US$1.7bn stake in natural-gas properties from Atlas Energy Inc. The Atlas Energy deal would see Reliance paying upfront US$339mn for its 40% stake, which will be followed by US$1.36bn out of Atlas’ share of exploration expenditure over a period of seven-and-a-half years.
IVR Prime announced that the board of directors of the company will meet on April 14 to consider fund raising plans. The stock gained 1.5% to end at Rs179, it opened at Rs179 it touched an intra-day high of Rs182 and a low of Rs175 and recorded volumes of over 47,000 shares on BSE.
Shares of Rana Sugars erased early gains and ended in the red, the stock lost 0.2% to end at Rs13.02. The stock shot up by over 5% to hit an intra-day high of Rs14.09 after the company reported a profit of Rs309.3mn in the second quarter, compared with a loss of Rs37.1mn a year earlier.