Panic selling! BSE Healthcare index tanks 297 points

Institutional as well as retail investors were in a state of fear after Chinese stocks closed in on a bear market scenario, which fuelled heavy panic selling across sectors in domestic stock markets. Pharma and healthcare stocks also witnessed heavy profit booking. The BSE Healthcare Index closed at 15,651.12 points, lower by 297.10 points or 1.86%. The index is 305.46 points higher than its all-time historic low of 15,345.66 points hit on June 12, 2015.
The index opened higher at 16021.61 points as against its previous close of 15,948.22 points. The index hit a high and a low of 16,051.42 and 15,638.16 points respectively.
The sectoral breadth remained negative with 61 stocks declined and just 2 stocks advanced. On BSE, total trading turnover in the shares of Healthcare index stood at Rs. 351.89 crore, which is higher than the previous session’s trading turnover of Rs. 261.55 crore.
Shares of Wockhardt Ltd closed the day 15.98% lower at Rs. 1,288.40 on BSE after the US drug regulator issued Form 483 to the company for its manufacturing plant located at Shendra. Also, nearly 62,555 bottles of Azithromycin manufactured by the company in India have been recalled in the US by PD-Rx Pharmaceuticals Inc. The scrip opened lower at Rs. 1,515 as against its previous close of Rs. 1,515.40. It hit a high and a low of Rs. 1,520 and Rs. 1,257.10 respectively. Total 9.74 lk shares changed hands on BSE.
Shares of Cadila Healthcare ended the session 2.31% lower at Rs. 308.10 on BSE despite the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) gave the company a green signal to raise Rs. 5,000 crore via QIP route. The scrip opened higher at Rs. 321.15 as against its previous close of Rs. 315.40. It hit a high and a low of Rs. 321.50 and Rs. 307 respectively. Total 2.55 lk shares have changed hands on BSE.
Shares of Marksans Pharma hit a 20% lower circuit today. The stock closed 19.96% lower at Rs. 62.35 despite the UK drug regulator, UK MHRA issued certain observation to the company’s manufacturing facility in Goa. The scrip opened higher at Rs. 79.80 as against its previous close of Rs. 77.90. It hit a high and a low of Rs. 80.40 and Rs. 62.35 respectively. Total 62.97 shares changed hands on BSE.
Celestial Bio settled the day 4.69% lower at Rs. 33.55 despite the company yesterday announced that it has decided to introduce manufacturing and marketing of 21 life saving drugs in Allopathic range. The stock opened higher at Rs. 36.70 as against its previous close of Rs. 35.20. It hit a high and a low of Rs. 38.60 and Rs. 33.10 respectively. Total 2.04 lk shares changed hands on BSE.
Ironically, shares of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories rose 0.74% to 2,936.70 on BSE amid highly volatile session. The scrip opened higher at Rs. 2,916 as against its previous close of Rs. 2,915.20. It hit a high and a low of Rs. 2,961.05 and Rs. 2,916 respectively. Total 40,000 shares changed hands on BSE.

RCom gets nod from bourses on SSTL acquisition

Country’s fourth-largest telecom operator Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) on Thursday said stock exchanges BSE and NSE gave their approval to its deal to acquire Russian conglomerate Sistema's Indian telecom unit, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), as per the media reports. In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, RCom said, “The company have received Observation Letter from BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited on the Scheme of Arrangement (Scheme).” “The company and SSTL are proceeding to file necessary application with the Bombay High Court and Rajasthan High Court respectively for approval of the scheme,” it added. In November, RCom had announced the acquisition of Sistema’s Indian telecom unit in an all-stock deal that will create an operator with 118 million subscribers. As per the deal, SSTL will hold about 10 per cent stake in RCom and pay off its existing debt before closing the deal. SSTL offers mobile telephony services under MTS brand across nine telecom circles in the country. The deal will give RCom access to spectrum or airwaves in the 850 Mhz band which can be used for 4G services that it plans to start by the year-end. Also, it will be able to extend the validity of its licence by 12 years in eight high revenue generating circles of Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, UP (West) and West Bengal. Meanwhile, shares of Reliance Communications were trading at Rs 78.40 apiece, down 0.57 per cent, from previous close on BSE at 13:54 hours.

Railways to ask NBCC to redevelop two stations

The railways is mulling a plan to offer two stations to National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) for conversion into the country's "most- modern" rail premises as part of a redevelopment plan, reported PTI. "We are in discussions with NBCC for redevelopment of Gomtinagar station in Lucknow and Bhubaneswar station in Odisha," said a senior Railway Ministry official. The plan for modernisation of the two stations is part of a railways' initiative to redevelop 400 major stations across the country. Talking about the project, NBCC Chairman and Managing Director Anoop Kumar Mittal said, "The modalities are being worked out. After receiving the work order, we will prepare detailed project reports for the two stations." The plan envisages vertical development of rail premises with the construction of shopping malls, eateries, parking lot, office complex and other commercial ventures, he said as per the media report. The redevelopment plan is to be implemented on a turnkey basis. NBCC would prepare a business model for leveraging the real estate development of the two stations. Mittal said the real estate prospects differ from station to station. "One can leverage the real estate to develop modern facilities at stations. Once we get a concrete offer, we will decide how to go about it," he said. Railways wants to showcase a few station modernisation projects to attract private players for such projects. It is already working on the modernisation of a few stations such as Brijawasan and Anand Vihar in Delhi and Habibganj in Bhopal. NBCC, a PSU of Urban Development Ministry, is engaged in the business of project management consultancy services for civil construction projects and civil infrastructure for power sector and real estate development.

Titagarh Wagons' Italy unit wins big order

Titagarh Wagons Ltd (TWL) said that the company in a consortium with Hitachi Rail, has bagged a Euro 110 million order in Italy to supply double decker trains to Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM). Titagarh Firema Adler (TFA), Titagarh's Italian subsidiary, has been assigned about 60 per cent, or Euro 65 million (about Rs 475 crore), of the total value of the order for supplying complete trains from its plant in Caserta (Italy), whereas the balance trains will be supplied by Hitachi Rail. These double decker trains will be used to connect Milano with various cities, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The train sets will be delivered to FNM over time and completed by by April 2017. Titagarh Wagons had formed Titagarh Firema Adler after buying the business of Italy-based Firema Trasporti in July last year. TFA has design and production facilities and owns advanced technologies for manufacturing metro coaches and high speed regional/intercity trains in Europe. "This is a great development as it marks acceptance by the market to place new orders to our Italian acquisition," said Umesh Chowdhary, vice chairman and managing director, Titagarh Group. With the new train order, Titagarh's total order book stands at about Rs 2800 crore. This includes an order for export of wagons by TWL to African region valued at $ 8 million with technology and designs provided by TWA - Titagarh's subsidiary in France. Meanwhile, Titagarh is reportedly planning to invest in its Uttarpara (West Bengal) unit to start manufacturing metro coaches in India under the Make in India initiative. Meanwhile, shares of the company closed trading at Rs 134.50 apiece, down 4.58 per cent from the previous close on BSE.

Majesco enters into strategic partnership with Appulate

Majesco, a global provider of core insurance software and services has said that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Appulate, the leading provider of forms parsing and data bridging technology.

“In the partnership, Majesco will offer Appulate Uplink as an integrated component of Majesco Policy for P&C and Majesco Distribution solutions. The partnership will offer Majesco customers best-of-breed connectivity to any agency management system, improving efficiency and quality while reducing agent data entry,” the company informed in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In turn, Appulate will gain a distribution partner that offers market leading solutions for policy and distribution management for insurance carriers.

Commenting on the development, Majesco COO Ed Ossie said, “With this partnership, Majesco is able to offer its customers an effective and affordable turnkey solution for agent connectivity that will strengthen agent channel relationships while streamlining the insurance placement process to support evolving customer engagement strategies.”

“Adding Appulate to our partner ecosystem enhances our solution as we help our customers adapt to the changing distribution channel demands and customer expectations,” he added.

Markets open flat on mixed global cues

The Indian markets were trading on a flat note during the morning trading session tracking mixed Asian cues. The companies that will announce their December quarter results are Hindustan Unilever, Oberoi Realty, and Zee Entertainment among others.

At 9:28AM BSE SENSEX was at 24842.9, up by 69.93 points or by 0.28 per cent while the NSE Nifty was at 7550.55, up by 13.75 points or by 0.18 per cent.

The BSE MIDCAP was at 10695.3, up by 66.23 points or by 0.62 per cent while the BSE SMLCAP was at 11232.05, up by 100.67 points or by 0.9 per cent.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1154.65,+2.30 per cent), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 4312.05,+1.47 per cent), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1073.40,+1.15 per cent), Axis Bank Ltd. (Rs. 394.15,+0.92 per cent), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (Rs. 2941.50,+0.90 per cent), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 220.75,-1.74 per cent), GAIL (India) Ltd. (Rs. 351.60,-1.69 per cent), ITC Ltd. (Rs. 315.35,-0.58 per cent), Wipro Ltd. (Rs. 542.50,-0.53 per cent), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 823.00,-0.42 per cent), among others.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was strong. On BSE, out of total 1429 shares traded, 1089 shares advanced, 293 shares declined and 47 were unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, BSE_IT index was at 10985.17, up by 111.97 points or by 1.03 per cent led by Tanla Solutions Ltd. (Rs. 40.80,+4.75 per cent), Datamatics Global Services Ltd. (Rs. 64.70,+3.44 per cent), MindTree Ltd. (Rs. 1570.70,+3.29 per cent), Moser Baer India Ltd. (Rs. 12.02,+2.91 per cent), SQS India BFSI Ltd. (Rs. 1072.00,+2.85 per cent).

Asian markets rebounded on Friday with energy shares leading the gains after global crude oil prices rebounded from their lowest level in 12 years. Further, the Chinese Yuan also stabilised. The Nikkei was up 0.7 per cent while Straits Times was trading with marginal gains. However, China's Shanghai was down 0.9 per cent while Hang Seng was down 0.5 per cent

Investors ready to commit capital into India's energy sector: Goyal

Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has said that Japanese financial institutions have evinced keen interest in investing large amount of capital in various sectors including energy space in India. "I had a very good interaction with six financial institutions and banks this afternoon... The high level of integrity and good governance that has been the focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has excited investors who wished to commit large amount of capital particularly for the energy sector," Goyal said as per the PTI report. He was addressing reporters at the India-Japan Strategic Energy Dilogue where CII is leading a high powered business delegation. Some of the financial institutions with whom the minister had meetings are SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation), Mizuho Bank, BTMU (Bank of Tokyo Mitsubhishi UFJ), JICA, NEXI(Nippon Export & Insurance Investment), JBIC. "Most bankers expressed deep satisfaction at the growing importance that Japan places on Indo-Japanese Strategic Partnership and wish to participate in this engagement," the minister said. The minister also had a meeting with top executives of Japanese companies like JPower and Hitachi. "Almost unanimously all... Have expressed great deal of satisfaction at the progress made by the new government in building up investors sentiments, allaying the fear of several investors developed in the last few years, particularly after the slowdown of the economy which was compounded with the series of litigations which tampared the investment moods," he said. However, he added that a few issues were raised by some bankers which were related to regulatory concerns both in the financial services and power sector and about health of the state distribution companies over the last few years. "They have expressed satisfaction that the government is taking proactive measures to resolve these problems particularly through UDAY programme," he said. He added that they have also expressed satisfaction that Indian discoms and the government have never defaulted "due to which they feel great deal of comfort with Indian government.