Bhel gains as provisional FY 2012 PAT rises 14.25%

Firmness persisted on the domestic bourses in afternoon trade as European markets opened higher. The market breadth was strong. The barometer index, BSE Sensex, was up 151.79 points or 0.87%, off 22.78 points from the day's high and up 59.67 points from the day's low. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose more than 2%. Power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) rose close to 3% after the company reported good provisional results for the year ended March 2012 (FY 2012). Interest rate sensitive realty stocks rose for the third straight day on reports some banks have cut home loan rates for new borrowers, sparking hope of increased property sales in the country. Auto and IT stocks were mixed. The market edged higher to hit its highest level in more than 1-1/2 weeks in early trade. The market pared gains in volatile trade later. The Sensex surged to fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. The market held firm in early afternoon trade. Firmness continued n afternoon trade. At 13:21 IST, the BSE Sensex was up 151.79 points or 0.87% to 17,629.94. The index jumped 174.57 points at the day's high of 17,652.72 in mid-morning trade, its highest level since 22 March 2012. The index rose 92.12 points at the day's low of 17,570.27 in early trade. The S&P CNX Nifty was up 47.50 points or 0.89% to 5,365.40. The Nifty hit a high of 5,374 in intraday trade, its highest level since 22 March 2012. The Nifty hit a low of 5,344.45 in intraday trade. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1,671 shares gained and 985 shares declined. A total of 121 shares were unchanged. The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 1329 crore by 13:20 IST From the 30-share Sensex pack, 22 stocks rose and rest of them declined. Sterlite Industries (up 2.71%), Hindalco Industries (up 2.64%), and GAIL (India) (up 1.67%), edged higher from the Sensex pack. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) advanced 2.17% to Rs 756.35. RIL said after market hours on Monday that its Jamnagar manufacturing unit is planning to take Maintenance and Inspection (M&I) shutdown of one of the diesel hydro treating unit for approximately three weeks duration from 2 April 2012. Routine activity of catalyst replacement is planned to be carried out during this shutdown and the opportunity will also be utilized to carry out revamp jobs so as to further enhance BS-IV grade diesel production capability from DTA refinery, RIL said. Remaining units of refinery, including crude processing units, are planned to operate at full throughput during this period, RIL said. RIL is seen reporting weak Q4 earnings due to falling refining margins and reduced output from its KG-D6 gas blocks. Cigarette maker ITC rose 0.2% to Rs 226.75. The stock's intraday high matched a record high of Rs 228 hit on Monday, 2 April 2012. Capital goods pivotals extended recent gains. India's largest power equipment maker by sales Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) rose 2.77% to Rs 267.40. As per the provisional results unveiled by the company during market hours today, 3 April 2012, Bhel's profit after tax (PAT) rose 14.25% to Rs 6868 crore on 13.76% growth in turnover to Rs 49301 crore in the year ended March 2012 (FY 2012) over the year ended March 2011 (FY 2011). Order inflow totaled Rs 22096 crore in FY 2012, much lower than Rs 60507 crore in FY 2011. Bhel also said during market hours today that consequent upon the receipt of 'no-objection' for withdrawal of draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for follow on public offer (FPO) from Department of Heavy industry/Department of Disinvestment, the board of directors of Bhel at its meeting held on 3 April 2012 has approved the withdrawal of DRHP filed by Bhel with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Engineering and construction major L&T rose 1.85%, with the stock gaining for the third straight day. The company said during market hours on Friday that its construction division has won new orders valued over Rs 1875 crore across various business segments in March 2012. Interest rate sensitive banking stocks gained for the third straight day on expectations that the Reserve Bank of India will start cutting interest rates in the coming months to prop up slowing economy. India's biggest private sector bank in terms of net profit, ICICI Bank, rose 2.29%. India's second largest bank by net profit HDFC Bank gained 1.31%. India's largest bank by branch network State Bank of India rose 2.24% to Rs 2177.20. The Executive Committee of the Central Board of the bank, at its meeting held on 30 March 2012 approved the allotment of 3.6 crore shares at an issue price of Rs 2,191.69 per share, to Government of India (GoI) by way of preferential allotment. GoI held 59.4% stake in SBI at end December 2011. Interest rate sensitive realty stocks rose for the third straight day on reports some banks have cut home loan rates for new borrowers, sparking hope of increased property sales in the country. Unitech (up 3.63%), HDIL (up 2.32%), Godrej Properties (up 1.69%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.91%), Oberoi Realty (up 2.11%), Parsvnath Developers (up p0.09%) and DLF (up 0.63%), edged higher. According to reports, lenders like Canara Bank and IDBI Bank have slashed home loan rates for new borrowers. Reports suggested that Canara Bank slashed home loan rates by up to 175 basis points (100 basis points equal one percentage point), while IDBI Bank pared rates by up to 75 basis points. In both cases, only new borrowers will benefit, while the existing borrowers will have to continue with the old rates. Reports suggested that other rival banks would be forced to match the cuts in the loan rates. Lower interest rates may help revive demand for properties. Purchases of both residential and commercial property are largely driven by finance. IT stocks were mixed. India's second largest software services exporter by revenue Infosys fell 0.06%. The company announces Q4 March 2012 results on 13 April 2012. India's third largest software services exporter by revenues Wipro rose 0.36%. India's largest software services exporter by revenue Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shed 0.83%. The company on Monday named Cyrus Mistry as a director, ahead of him taking over as chairman of the Tata group late this year. Mr. Mistry is the deputy chairman of Tata Sons, the Tata group holding company that founded TCS. The group last year named Mr. Mistry as the successor of Ratan Tata when he retires in December 2012. TCS also named O.P. Bhatt, a former chairman of State Bank of India, as an additional director. The inclusion of Mr. Mistry and Mr. Bhatt will expand TCS' board to 14 directors, including seven independent members. Auto stocks were mixed. India's largest commercial vehicle maker by sales Tata Motors rose 0.18%, with the stock gaining for the second straight day after the company reported strong sales for the month just gone by. Tata Motors' total sales (including exports) of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles in March 2012 were 1,00,414 vehicles, a growth of 20% over 83,363 vehicles sold in March 2011. The company's monthly sales crossed 1,00,000 mark for the first time. The company's domestic sales of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles for March 2012 were 95,047 units, a 23% growth over 77,431 units sold in March last year. Tata Motors clocked record sales of commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles in the year ended March 2012 (FY 2012). India's largest utility vehicles and tractors maker by sales Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) fell 0.24%. The company posted 25% increase in sales at 47,001 units in March 2012 over March 2011. This is the highest ever monthly sales number in the history of the company. M&M's total tractor sales rose 10.2% to 2.35 lakh units in the year ended March 2012 (FY 2012) over the year ended March 2011 (FY 2011). Domestic tractor sales rose 10% to 2.21 lakh units in FY 2012 over FY 2011. For the month of March 2012, the total tractor sales stood at 17,405 units. Exports for the month registered an impressive growth of 33% at 1,485 units, M&M said. The company said it maintained its leadership position in the tractor industry in FY 2012. India's largest car maker by sales Maruti Suzuki India fell 0.96%, with the stock falling for the second straight day. The company said during market hours on Monday that its total sales rose 3.3% to a record 1,25,952 units in March 2012 over March 2011. The company's domestic sales rose 2.1% to a record 1,12,724 units in March 2012 over March 2011. The country's second largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto rose 0.39%. During market hours today, 3 April 2012, the company said total sales rose 9% to 3.35 lakh units in March 2012 over March 2011. The company's total sales rose 14% to a record 43.49 lakh units in FY 2012 over FY 2011. The country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp slipped 1.76% to Rs 2020 after company reported muted growth in sales in March 2012. The company reported 2.41% increase in its sales at 5,28,290 units in March 2012 over March 2011. It was the top loser from the Sensex pack. Pantaloon Retail (India) was the top traded counter on the BSE with turnover of Rs 51.53 crore followed by SBI (Rs 49.31 crore), Kingfisher Airlines (Rs 36.03 crore), RIL (Rs 33.39 crore), and Bhel (Rs 31.25 crore). Among the mid-cap stocks, Pantaloon Retail India, Manappuram Finance, S Mobility, VST Industries, CRISIL, 3M India, Whirlpool of India, Berger Paints, WABCO India and TTK Prestige gained by between 4.34% to 11.01%. Among the small-cap stocks, Gammon India, Kingfisher Airlines, DQ Entertainment International, ARSS Infrastructure Projects, Sujana Towers, Alembic Pharma, A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services, Symphony, Assam Company and SpiceJet gained by between 7.64% to 13.38%. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 245.94 crore on Monday, 2 April 2012, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has eased its overseas direct investment norms by waiving the need for Indian entities to seek its approval to open foreign currency accounts abroad. The norm has been liberalised to provide operational flexibility to Indian entities, the central bank said in a statement on Monday. However, all other norms required to open, hold and maintain foreign currency accounts for overseas investment remain unchanged, the statement said. The next major trigger for the market is Q4 March 2012 and year ending March 2012 (FY 2012) earnings. Investors will focus on the guidance provided by the management for the year ending March 2013 (FY 2013) to gauge the earnings outlook. IT bellwether Infosys announces Q4 March 2012 results on 13 April 2012. Lube oil major Castrol announces Q1 March 2012 results on 16 April 2012. Private sector bank HDFC Bank unveils FY 2012 results on 18 April 2012. ACC unveils Q1 March 2012 results on 19 April 2012. IndusInd Bank reports FY 2012 results on the same day. Axis Bank announces Q4 results on 27 April 2012. Titan Industries announces FY 2012 results on 30 April 2012. Housing finance major HDFC announces FY 2012 results on 7 May 2012. The expansion of the manufacturing sector slowed for a third month in March as growth in new orders eased and costs for raw materials kept rising, a business survey showed on Monday. The HSBC manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, eased to 54.7 in March from 56.6 in February. In January, the PMI reading was 57.5. The index has now stayed above the 50 mark - which shows growth rather than contraction - for three years. India's exports grew an annual 4.3% to $24.6 billion in February, while imports rose 20.7% to $39.8 billion, government data showed on Monday. The trade deficit widened to $15.2 billion during the month from $14.8 billion in January, while exports between April and February grew 21.4 percent to $267.4 billion. European markets opened higher on Tuesday adding to a sharp two-session rally and tracking gains on Wall Street overnight following forecast-beating US manufacturing data. Key benchmark indices in UK, Germany and France were up between 0.15% to 0.24%. Asian markets were mostly higher on Tuesday. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea rose by between 0.21% to 1.22%. Key benchmark indices in Japan and Taiwan fell 0.59% and 1.3%, respectively. China's Stock markets were shut for holiday. Trading in US index futures indicated a flat opening of US stocks on Tuesday, 3 April 2012. US stocks ended Monday's session with gains after the closely watched ISM manufacturing survey showed a faster pace of improvement in March. Separate data showed US construction spending fell 1.1% to an annual rate of $808.86 billion, the lowest level since October as investment in private and government projects fell.