Resurrection revives bulls
The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.
We haven't seen any of the 'Men in Blues' hit a big century for a while on the cricket field. But the bulls surely haven't lost their touch despite the recent weakness. This was evident on Monday, when the Sensex struck a triple ton, buoyed by good global cues and some moderation in inflation. FIIs too seem to have capitalised on the recent crash by pumping fresh money in the past couple of days. After being net sellers for three days, foreign funds bought stocks worth Rs5.68bn on April 3. Yesterday's provisional figures show that FIIs poured in Rs4.93bn in the cash segment. In the F&O segment too, they were net buyers of Rs7.96bn. Mutual funds bought Rs410.2mn on April 5.
But, today is another day. US stocks finished flat overnight. European markets were shut for Easter. Asian markets are mixed. What may be heartening for the bulls is that oil has cooled off further, falling below the $62 per barrel mark. As far as local factors go, results will drive the sentiment at least for a month or two. IT stocks will remain in focus ahead of Infy results on Friday. Aside from the earnings for the latest quarter, the market will pay a lot of attention to what the software major has to say about FY08. That will set the tone for other IT results and perhaps for the market. Till then the market may remain rangebound and volatile with a positive bias. What the market has to watch out for is inflation numbers and possibility of further monetary tightening.
US stocks finished nearly unchanged on Monday as investors welcomed falling oil prices, a strong employment report and some deals but were not prepared to take undue risks ahead of the earnings season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 8.94 points at 12,569.14, ending higher for the seventh session in a row, while the broader S&P 500 index closed flat at 1,444.61. The Nasdaq Composite index ended just in the red, breaking a six-session winning streak.
US stock markets were closed for Good Friday. Investors got the opportunity to react to last week's better than expected jobs report. But the reaction was pretty muted, may be because a healthy labour market means rate cuts will still take a while.
US light crude oil for May delivery fell $2.73 to settle at $61.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on fund selling and relief about the developments in Iran. The front-contract was quoting 36 cents lower at $61.87 a barrel in extended trading in Asia.
COMEX gold for June delivery fell $2.50 to settle at $676.90 an ounce. Treasury prices were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year note at 4.75%, just above where it was on Friday. In currency trading, the dollar inched higher versus the euro and held near a six-week high versus the yen, hit last week.
Major Latin American markets rose on Monday. Mexico's IPC rose 261 points, or 0.9%, to 29,632.20, breaking a record set last Wednesday. The IPC is now up 12% since the start of the year. Brazil's Bovespa stock index picked up 208 points, or 0.5%, to 46,854.71.
Asian markets are mixed this morning. The Nikkei in Tokyo is down 103 points at 17,640 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 104 points at 20,314. The Kospi in Seoul declined 7 points to 1493 and the Straits Times in Singapore shed 18 points to 3380.
Cambridge Solutions could gain amid reports that private equity firm Carlyle may team up with Ramesh Vangal to bid for the BPO firm. Sesa Goa might be in action amid an ongoing bidding war, where Arcelor Mittal still seems to be the frontrunner. Indiabulls Financial is another stock to keep an eye on. Reports suggest that the securities broking firm has asked some of its employees to leave and shut some offices. The company has denied any such development.
UTV is looking at a business reorganisation by splitting three core operations into three separate wholly-owned units. Bajaj Auto has launched operations at its Pantnagar plant and has slashed the price of 100cc Platina by as much as Rs3000. RPG Cables is on an expansion spree.
Essar Oil has got its first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project registered with the UN. Steel shares may benefit after Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., China's largest maker of the alloy, said it expects first-quarter profit to more than double.
Profit booking likely at peaks
The markets ended on a strong note led by buying in scrip’s across the sectors. Strong Asian markets boosted the key indices at open and buying momentum in Banking and the Metal stocks led the rally from the front. Others like the Auto, Capital Good and FMCG stocks also followed suit lifting the benchmark index Sensex to hit an intra-day high of 13194. All the key sectoral indices finished in green even the Mid-Cap and the small cap indexes participated in the rally aiding the markets to close near its day’s peak.
Technology stocks also were on the move after U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped, easing concern that demand will slow in the world's largest economy. Frontline stocks like Tata Steel, R Com and ITC were the major gainers; however Dabur, Zee Telefilms and Nalco were among the major losers. Finally, the 30-share benchmark Sensex rallied 321 points to close at 13177. NSE Nifty also surged 91 points to close at 3843.
Reliance Industries gained by 1.8% to Rs1384 as the company declared that it will finalise sales agreements in the next few months for natural gas from its Krishna Godavari basin. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1388 and a low of Rs1362 and recorded volumes of over 11,00,000 shares on NSE.
HCC advanced by 3.6% to Rs93 after the company announced that they would recommend dividend on 27th April. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs93 and a low of Rs91 and recorded volumes of over 10,00,000 shares on NSE
Reliance Communications surged nearly by 5% to Rs416 after the company announced that they acquired over 1.2mn wireless subscribers in the month of March 2007. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs418 and a low of Rs400 and recorded volumes of over 51,00,000 shares on NSE.
Hindustan Zinc spurred by over 3% to Rs670 after the company raises lead price by 2.2%. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs674 and a low of Rs656 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.
SRF rallied by over 17% to Rs139 amid reports that it has raised Rs5bn through the sale of carbon credits in FY07. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs142 and a low of Rs118 and recorded volumes of over 46,00,000 shares on NSE
Banking stocks also ended firm. Heavy weight SBI gained 4.1% to Rs987, HDFC Bank was up 3.3% to Rs974 and ICICI bank added 2.9% to Rs863. Bank of Baroda, PNB and Canara Bank were the major gainers among the Mid-Cap stocks.
Technology stocks also were on the move after U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped, easing concern that demand will slow in the world's largest economy. Infosys gained 2.8% to Rs2047, Wipro was up 1.8% to Rs562 and Satyam Computer added 1.5% to Rs462. Rolta, Mphasis and HCL Tech were the major gainers among the Mid-Cap stocks.
Cement stocks recorded concrete gains. Heavy weights ACC advanced 2.7% to Rs741, Grasim rose over 4% to Rs2205, Gujarat Ambuja gained 2.4% to Rs108 and India Cement spurred by over 7% to Rs163.
Telecom stocks also rang with gains. Bharti Airtel advanced 2% to Rs761, VSNL was up by 2% to Rs409 and MTNL added 3.9% to Rs153.