Friday the 13th….flying high at start!

The optimist pleasantly ponders how high his kite will fly; the pessimist woefully wonders how soon his kite will fall." - William Arthur Ward

It’s a period of enlightenment, peace, prosperity and happiness as Sankranti is celebrated with some regional variations across the country. The indices have not really been behaving like kites soaring against contrary wind. Despite decent results, the damage on Thursday was done by a weak Infosys guidance which sent the stock tumbling. The fact that clients were tightening their discretionary spending on technology sent IT stocks into a tailspin.

On the bright side, India’s industrial production grew by 5.9 per cent in November, with robust 6.6% growth in manufacturing output. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said some ‘pro-active measures’ would now be needed to push the growth momentum, without specifying what he would do.



A good start is in store for the day. With no major results in store, investors will remain guarded in their approach. Asian stocks are at around a month’s high with some funds flowing into emerging markets. Oil is on a rebound. US indices closed more or less flat as investors worried about initial jobless claims and weak retail sales (which were expected to be better). Successful bond auctions conducted by Spain and Italy on Thursday seemed to be ignored by most markets. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank held rates steady at 1%.

In other news in the media, Coal India Ltd has reached at a broad consensus with the labour unions to enhance workers' salaries by 25% in the forthcoming National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA)-IX.

The Bombay High Court has dismissed the public interest litigation filed against Reliance Industries on the ground that the company has still time to submit its reply to the government. (ET)

Unitech and Telenor have agreed to set up two committees to manage expenses and projects undertaken by Uninor. (BL)

LIC Housing Finance Company launched a Rs5bn fund to invest in companies involved in low-priced housing. (ET)

Suzlon Group subsidiary, REpower Systems SE, has concluded a contract with a US wind power developer for the delivery of 73 wind turbines.

Starbucks is moving forward with the memorandum of understanding signed with Tata Coffee and hopes to make an announcement soon even as the government has notified 100% foreign direct investment in single brand retail.

IDFC has launched retail issue of long-term tax saving infrastructure bonds offering coupon rate of 8.7% with maturity of 10 years.

The government has formally asked the petroleum regulator to determine marketing margins for natural gas on the basis of costs.