Market may snap three days gains; MOIL issue eyed

The market may edge lower in the opening trade tacking weak Asian stocks. Trading of Nifty futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicate a fall of 12 points at the opening bell

State-run oil marketing companies have decided to increase the price of petrol by around Rs 2.95 a litre to pass on the impact of rising crude prices, which touched $90 per barrel this week To start with, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is increasing the price by Rs 2.95 a litre, effective Tuesday midnight, while the other two — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) — will follow suit later this week. This will be the second-steepest increase in petrol prices in this calendar year and the sixth increase in this financial year so far.



The third installment of advance tax figures of India Inc started trickling in. The tax outgo of HDFC saw a year-on year (y-o-y ) increase of 25% from Rs 320 crore to Rs 400 crore. FMCG major Hindustan Lever paid Rs 225 crore, marking a yo-y increase of Rs 45 crore, an increase of over 25%. Petroleum major HPCL recorded a lower tax outgo, Rs 29 crore against Rs 48 crore, a 39% decline. Alstom posted a 25% dip from Rs 16 crore to Rs 12 crore, Zee Entertainment Network Rs 30 crore from Rs 37 crore and Clariant Rs 18 crore compared to Rs 19 crore. Grindwell Norton recorded a 11% increase with a tax outgo of Rs 11 crore against Rs 9 crore while Entertainment Network India paid Rs 1 crore against Rs 1.5 crore, marking a dip of 33%.

Meanwhile, shares of the state-run manganese producer MOIL are set for debut today, 15 December 2010. MOIL's initial public offer had closed on 1 December 2010 and had got strong investors' response. The Rs 1,238 crore IPO was subscribed a massive 56.43 times.Shares were issued at Rs 375 per share, the top end of the Rs 340-375 per share price band.

Asian shares were sluggish Wednesday 15 December 2010 as deteriorating sentiment among Japanese companies offset solid U.S. retail sales figures. The key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan fell by between 0.04% to 0.62%.

Business sentiment among Japanese manufacturers worsened for the first time in nearly two years in the last quarter of 2010, according to the Bank of Japan tankan survey released Wednesday, but the pace of the decline wasn't as bad as economists had predicted.

In New York Tuesday, the US stocks edged higher after retail sales rose for the fifth straight month and a survey showed that large companies intend to hire more workers. Retail sales jumped 0.8% in November, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve in a policy statement after its last scheduled meeting of 2010, said the economic recovery was still too slow to bring down unemployment and reaffirmed its commitment to buy $600 million in government bonds.

Back home, Punjab and Sind Bank's Rs 480-crore initial public offering was subscribed 4.17 times on the second day of bidding on Tuesday, 14 14 December 2010. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs 113-120 ashare. The issue closes on 15 December 2010 for institutional bidders and on 16 December 2010 for other investors.

Data announced on Friday, 10 December 2010, showed industrial output in October rose a faster-than-expected 10.8% from a year earlier, higher than the previous month's annual growth of 4.4%. Manufacturing output rose an annual 11.3% in October.

Business activity in India's services sector surged to a four-month high in November 2010, driven by robust growth in new orders, a survey showed on 3 December 2010. The manufacturing activity strengthened further in November 2010 and the strong growth momentum is showing up in rising inflation pressures, according to an HSBC survey released on 1 December 2010.

Exports rose an annual 26.8% to $18.9 billion in November 2010, while imports for the month grew 11.2% on the year to $27.8 billion, as the provisional data released by Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar showed on Wednesday.

According to mid-year review, the economy may grow by 9% during the year ending March 2011 (FY 2011). Average headline inflation is seen at 8.98% for the year, it said. The report indicated that the country's fiscal deficit will not be more than 5.5% of its gross domestic product in FY 2011.

The Indian economy grew a robust 8.9% year-on-year in Q2 September 2010, maintaining the same pace of expansion as the previous quarter, boosted by farm output and manufacturing, government data released Tuesday, 30 November 2010 showed. The manufacturing sector grew an annual 9.8% and farm output grew an annual 4.4% in Q2 September 2010. The government revised upwards the Q1 June 2010 GDP growth to 8.9% from 8.8% earlier.

The wholesale price index (WPI) rose an annual 7.48% in November, in line with forecast, government data showed on Tuesday 14 December 2010. The figure was lower than the annual rise of 8.58% in October. The annual reading for September was upwardly revised to 8.93% from 8.62%.

The headline inflation is expected to ease to 6% by March 2011, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) undertakes a mid-quarter policy review on Thursday, 16 December 2010. At a quarterly policy review early last month, the central bank had signaled a pause in its policy tightening drive that began in October 2009. Based purely on current growth and inflation trends, the ReserveBank of India (RBI) believes that the likelihood of further rate actions in the immediate future is relatively low, RBI governor D Subbarao had said in a monetary policy statement on 2 November 2010. "However, in an uncertain world, we need to be prepared to respond appropriately to shocks that may emanate from either the global or domestic environment," he had added.

As per provisional figures on NSE, foreign funds bought shares worth Rs 33.53 crore and domestic funds bought shares worth Rs 349.17 crore on Tuesday, 14 December 2010.