Less faith, more hope!

Our faith does not really change things; it helps us to accept what happens in our lives. - Anonymous.




The strong leap of faith of the recent past is missing on the local bourses, with the main indices stepping back from their 32-month peaks. This was only to be expected given the speed at which the market had risen in a short span of time. Some more sideways consolidation cannot be ruled out and bulls will hope it is only a temporary cooling.



The start today is likely to be slightly down. From there on the market could turn choppy and indecisive. Key Asian markets are mostly down. China remains shut. US markets extended their recent declines following disappointing weekly jobless claims data and a downbeat economic statistics from Europe. Stock benchmarks across Europe too finished lower in the wake of mounting concerns over the Irish economy and the overall eurozone.



Back home, FII inflows have tapered off in the past couple of sessions. Global markets are not supportive either. As if the worries surrounding the US economic slowdown were not enough, we have seen some escalation in concerns over the euro-zone debt issues lately. World indices are not falling off the cliff, but the eerie feeling about the health of a few key economies continues.



The FIIs were net buyers of Rs5.34bn in the cash segment on Thursday (provisionally), according to the NSE web site. Local funds were net sellers of Rs6.45bn. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net sellers at Rs21.5bn. The FIIs were net buyers of Rs15.05bn in the cash segment on Wednesday, according to SEBI data.



Important News Snippets For The Day:



ONGC plans to buy 14 rigs for Rs40bn in the next two to three years.



ONGC has begun shale gas exploration by drilling the first well in eastern India.

SEBI has rejected a proposal by MCX-SX, promoted by Financial Technologies to launch stock and debt trading platforms.

JSW Steel and Japan’s JFE Holdings are considering setting up a plant for hike grade electrical steel.

L&T has formed a JV with South Africa Befula Investments for power transmission and distribution in South Africa.

EIH will raise up to Rs13bn through a right issue.

Kingfisher Airlines says it has cleared all the dues to the oil marketing companies.

ONGC said it will protect its interest in Cairn India and consciously opted not to make a counter bid.

RCom moves TDSAT challenging disconnection notice by BSNL.

ONGC said it natural gas output to rise by over 58% to 100mmscmd a day by FY16.

Adani Wilmar is planning to spend Rs10bn into expansion over the next two years and expects to double its soya meal export to 1mn ton this year.

JSW Steel targets 16mn tons capacity by 2014.

KEC International completes acquisitions of SAE Towers for US$95mn.

Tecpro Systems has raised Rs469mn from eight anchor investor funds for its maiden IPO.

IVRCL Infra has bagged orders worth Rs7.5bn for Maharashtra State Highway in Yavatmal and Chandrapur district on DBFOT basis.

Dabur India has issued bonus in the ratio of 1:1 under employee stock option scheme.

JK Lakshmi Cement will invest Rs18bn over the next three to four years to double its cement production capacity to 10mtpa.

Shree Cement plans to expand its cement capacity by 7mtpa in the next five years.

Strides Arcolab plans to raise up to US$100mn through a QIP.

The Government has hiked FIIs investment limit in government bonds and corporate bonds by US$5bn.

The Government has scaled down borrowing by Rs100bn for the second half of the fiscal year.

Bank loans increase by Rs277bn during the fortnight ended September 10th; deposit rose by Rs336bn.

Food inflation for the week ended September 11th stood at 15.46%.

Rice production during the kharif season is likely to go up by 6%, sugarcane by 17% and pulses by 33% according to the government first advance crop estimates.

Government clears 24 FDI proposals worth Rs27bn.

Sugar output may rise 28% to 24mn tons in 2010-11.

Asian Markets on Friday:

Most Asian markets were down on Friday on the back of the overnight losses in the US as well as European markets.

Worse-than-expected US jobless claims, a fall in Irish GDP, a disappointing eurozone PMI and a Portugal opposition party's refusal to help pass an early austerity budget dragged on Asian stocks.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.2% to 9,447 in Tokyo. The broader Topix index lost 0.8% to 839.76 at mid-day break, with almost twice as many shares declining as advancing.

The yen rose to as high as 84.26 against the dollar today in Tokyo from 84.90 at the close of stock trading on Sept. 22. The Japanese market was closed yesterday for a public holiday.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s pared its fourth straight week gain, falling 0.6% to 124.80 as of 11:26 a.m. in Tokyo.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was nearly unchanged at 22,036 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 0.5% to 4,657. South Korea’s Kospi index gained 0.35% to 1838. Chinese markets are closed for a holiday today.

Shares of HSBC Holdings Plc fell in Hong Kong after reports said CEO Michael Geoghegan will step down at the end of the year.

US Markets on Thursday:

US stocks fell anew as a drop in weekly jobless claims coupled with fresh bad news from the debt-plagued euro-zone kept investors on tenterhooks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 76.89 points, or 0.7%, at 10,662.42, with all but four of its 30 components declining.

The blue-chip index had tumbled as much as 94 points during the first hour of the session, then recovered to add 23 points before slumping just below the breakeven line for a majority of the trading day.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 9.45, or 0.8%, to 1,124.83, with financials pacing the decline. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 7.47 points, or 0.3%, to 2,327.08.

For every stock on the rise two fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 951 million shares traded.

The dollar rose against the euro, and slipped versus the British pound and Japanese yen.

Gold for December delivery rose $4.20 to settle at a record high of $1,296.30.

Crude oil prices for November delivery rose 47 cents to settle at $75.18 a barrel.

The price on the 10-year Treasury note was higher, pushing down the yield to 2.55% from 2.56% late on Wednesday.

US stocks slid at the open after a surprise jump in jobless claims, but recovered some ground following encouraging a report on existing homes and an improvement in the index of leading indicators.

Trading remained in a tight range most of the day but stocks lost steam in the late afternoon.

So far this year, the S&P is up almost 1%, while the Dow and the Nasdaq are more than 2% higher on the year. But, much of that annual gain is due to the spurt in September. Stocks are on track to clock their biggest monthly gains since April 2009.

US stocks had slumped on Wednesday amid concerns about the health of the world's largest economy and as gold prices touched new all-time record just shy of $1,300 an ounce.

The weekly report on initial jobless claims was worse than expected. The number of people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time jumped by 12,000 to 465,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. Economists were looking for claims to drop to 450,000 from 453,000 the previous week.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 7.6% 4.13 million units in August. That's just slightly better than economists' predictions. And compared with a year earlier, sales are down 19%.

Meanwhile, the index of leading economic indicators - a measure of the economy's future performance - rose 0.3% in August, the Conference Board said. Analysts had forecast a 0.1% increase for the month.

In Europe, Ireland’s economy contracted in the second-quarter, raising concern that austerity measures have only worsened the outlook for the economy and sovereign debt in the euro zone, where PMI data came in worse than expected.

Shares of Apple climbed for a fourth straight session, nearing $300 per share. The company's market capitalization became the world's second largest with a market value of $267 billion, surpassing PetroChina which is worth $264 billion. Apple still lags behind Exxon Mobil, which boasts a market cap of $313 billion.

Blockbuster filed for its much-anticipated bankruptcy as it tries to recover from nearly $1 billion of debt. Blockbuster has struggled for survival ever since media conglomerate Viacom spun off the company in 2004. Shares of Blockbuster tumbled 22%.

McDonald's announced an 11% dividend hike to 61 cents per share for the fourth quarter. This is equal to $2.44 per share annually. Shares of the fast food chain fell 0.7%.

Avis boosted its offer to buy Dollar Thrifty to $1.52 billion, or about $53 per share, beating Hertz's most recent offer of $1.45 billion, or $50 per share. Avis rose the cash portion of its bid by 12% to $45.79. Shares of Avis and Hertz fell about 4%, while Dollar Thrifty's advanced 1.9%.

Starbucks said late on Wednesday that it was hiking the price of its "labor-intensive" drinks because of rising coffee bean prices. Shares of the coffee giant lost 1.9%.

European Markets on Thursday:

European stocks pared losses and finished slightly lower after a couple of positive US economic reports partially offset worries over Ireland’s financial health and euro-zone growth. The Stoxx Europe 600 index slipped 0.05% to end at 261.07 after hitting an intraday low of 258.14.

The French CAC 40 index dropped 0.7% to 3,710.61, with banks leading the action. The German DAX 30 index declined 0.4% to 6,184.71.

Ireland’s ISEQ stock index dropped 0.9%, while the FTSE 100 index edged down 0.1% to 5,547.08.

A euro-zone survey of purchasing managers for September showed that private sector activity was the slowest in seven months. The Markit composite PMI index fell to 53.8 from 56.2 in August.

The cost of insuring peripheral euro-zone government debt against default continued to rise.

The spread on the five-year Irish sovereign CDS rose to 483.3 basis points from 464.2 on Wednesday, according to data from CMA. Portuguese, Italian and Spanish CDS spreads also widened.

Portugal sold €750 million in bonds on Wednesday, which was at the low end of the government’s expected range.

Separately, Ireland reported a 1.2% drop in its second-quarter GDP compared with the preceding three months.

Shares of GlaxoSmithKline fell in London amid worries about a ruling on the firm’s key Avandia diabetes drug. The drug has been suspended by the European Medicines Agency but will remain available with additional safety labeling and restrictions by the US Food and Drug Administration.