Pipavav Shipyard IPO subscribed 6.64 times

Pipavav Shipyard IPO subscribed 6.64 times Date : Sep-22-2009 Getting a stronger response from the investors', the initial public offer (IPO) of Pipavav Shipyard got subscribed 6.64 times till the final day on Friday. Through this offer, the company expects to raise funds up to Rs 513 crore. As per the latest data available with the National Stock Exchange, the IPO received more than 46.57 crore bids for the shares of the company against seven crore shares on offer. The company had come with an IPO with a total issue size of 8.55 crore shares in the price band of Rs 55-60. It has reserved about 1.53 crore shares for anchor investors. Anchor investors are those individuals or institutions who subscribe to IPOs before these begin. The company intends to utilise the IPO proceeds for the construction of facilities for ship building as well as ship repairing and working capital requirements. Pipavav Shipyard, promoted by engineering major Punj Lloyd, SKIL and Grevek Investments, is the latest firm to take advantage of the recent rally in the stock market.

India, ASEAN to start talks on opening services trade soon

New Delhi, Sep 20: After signing a Free Trade Agreement that will eventually lead to duty-free commerce for bulk of the trade, India and the 10-nation ASEAN bloc are set to start talks for opening the crucial services sector.

“Negotiations for the free trade pact (between India and ASEAN) on services sector will begin soon,” Ambassador of Thailand Krit Kraichitti told. He, however, said given the complex nature of issues involved among India and 10 countries of Southeast Asia, it would take about two years for the negotiations to conclude. Services sector is of key interest to Indian economy as it contributes over 55 per cent to the GDP. It is also emerging as an important area for export earnings for the country. But the sector faces hurdles such as harsh domestic regulations, including those relating to visa, and the complex tax regime.

Markets opened higher, NSE Nifty closer to 5000 mark

Markets opened higher, NSE Nifty closer to 5000 mark
Date : Sep-17-2009 10:39

The markets opened higher today amid positive cues from the global markets with the NSE Nifty inching closer to the 5000 mark. The broader market indices also gained momentum in the early trade as both the BSE Mid Cap and the BSE Small Cap indices are now trading with a gain of around 0.5% each. Almost all the sectorial indices are now trading in green in the opening trade mainly led by the Consumer Durables, Banking, IT and Capital Goods stocks. While the oil & gas index is now trading with a cut of around 1.5%.

At 10.32 IST, the BSE Sensex is trading higher by 78.70 points or (0.47%) at 16,755.74 and the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 27.25 points or (0.55%) at 4,985.65.

The BSE Mid Cap is trading higher by 25.15 points or (0.41%) at 6,152.07 and the BSE Small Cap grew by 38.31 points or (0.52%) to 7,346.42.

ACC reported the top gainer from the BSE Sensex pack, as it is trading up by (2.65%) at Rs.820 while Reliance Industries reported the top loser trading down by (2.65%) at Rs.2,125.55.

The Overall market breadth is positive as 1191 stocks are advancing while 889 stocks are declining and the 81 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.

The Asian markets are trading higher today as Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite, Nikkei 225, Straits Times and Seoul Composite index are trading up by (1.82%), (1.48%), (0.97%), (0.15%) and (0.36%) respectively.

US markets closed with handsome gains on Wednesday, on the back of strong economic data and firm cues from markets all over the world. Stocks rallied after industrial production increased for second straight month. Industrial production increased 0.8% in August, which is better than expected. In addition weakness in dollar boosted industrial and commodity stocks. The CRB Commodity Index advance 1.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) advanced by 108.3 points at 9,791.71. Going ahead, NASDAQ index ended higher by 30.51 points to 2,133.15 and the S&P 500 (SPX) closed up by 16.13 points at 1,068.76.

BSE REALTY index was at 4,465.37 up by 8.30 points or by (0.19%). The main gainers were Ansal Infras up by (2.99%) at Rs.77.4, Sobha Dev up by (2.39%) at Rs.251.1, Anant Raj Ind. up by (1.75%) at Rs.145.7, Housing Dev up by (1.73%) at Rs.332.75, Orbitco up by (0.95%) at Rs.180.

BSE METAL index was at 14,537.00 up by 9.33 points or by (0.06%). The main gainers were Jindal Saw up by (2.2%) at Rs.704.3, Welspun Gujarat up by (1.6%) at Rs.263.9, Sterlite Ind. up by (1.15%) at Rs.779.95, Hindalco Ind. up by (0.91%) at Rs.132.5, Nalco up by (0.5%) at Rs.349.5.

Unitech Wireless is all set to enter into the much crowded India’s telecom sector by this year end. The company is readying the nationwide rollout of its services under ‘UniNor’ brand. It is targeting a Pan-India market share of 8%. In Unitech Wireless, Telenor holds a 49% stake.

Bharti Shipyard has raised its stake in Great Offshore to 22.5% by picking up 3% shares from the market. The company has reportedly acquired these shares at an average price of Rs558.80 per share, the highest price being Rs560. With this, the company’s offer price for Great Offshore has gone up to Rs560. Bharati Shipyard shares are now trading higher by around 7%.

Crackdown on tax havens tops India agenda at G20

Crackdown on tax havens tops India agenda at G20
Date : Sep-15-2009 09:29

The growing popular attitude against tax havens, which is used by the high net worth individuals in order to avoid taxes, will form a big part of the program for the G-20 meeting at St Petersburg, Russia. However, India is all set to press for a serious clamp down on tax havens yet again. Moreover, it is said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to press for more strict rules for preventing rerouting of black money from tax havens like Mauritius where non-residents part their money with zero to sub-zero tax rates.

Additionally, India''s agenda for G-20 will include a cut-off date for compulsory tax related information sharing between investee countries and tax havens. On the other hand, it is also anticipated that India will be looking for stricter rules for a clamp down on thinly capitalized shell companies whereas this is the second time when the world leaders like US president Barack Obama, British PM Gordon Brown and Dr Singh will discuss the issue of tax havens at the same forum.

United Bank to float IPO in January

United Bank to float IPO in January
Date : Sep-15-2009

United Bank of India plans to hit the market with an Initial Public Offer in January 2010 to raise Rs 350 - 400 crore. The bank plans to issue 50 million shares at a face value of Rs 10 each and with a premium of Rs 70 - 80 per share. The Union Government has already restructured and reduced the bank's equity capital to Rs 266 crore (Rs 1,532 crore). The bank, according to Mr Bhasin, has also requested the government to infuse Tier I capital of Rs 800 crore in addition to the Rs 550 crore by way of Innovative Perpetual Debt Instrument expected to be infused this fiscal.

Rupee ends 12 paise lower at 48.63

Rupee ends 12 paise lower at 48.63
Date : Sep-11-2009 11:03

The rupee on Thursday lost 12 paise against the US currency after recording considerable gains in early trade in sync with stock markets, in the midst of dollar firming up in the overseas markets. While it is said that increased portfolio inflows improved the rupee sentiment in early stages whereas foreign institutional investors had pumped in $456.80 million on September 7 and 8.

However, the local currency closed lower by 12 paise at 48.63 a dollar in fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market while the rupee had resumed strong at 48.41 per dollar from Wednesday''s close of 48.51 a dollar. Moreover, later, due to firm local equity markets in morning trade as the standard Sensex was up by over 251 points, it improved to a high of 48.29. On the other hand, a late sell-off in equities pushed the Sensex to close up by a meager 33.31 points, putting pressure on the rupee to touch a low of 48.66 a dollar.

Nevertheless, in cross-currency trade, the local unit responded downwards against the pound and the Japanese yen while moved down further against the Euro. While the rupee fell back against the pound to end at Rs 80.78 per pound from Wednesday''s close of Rs 80.08 and also dropped against the euro to Rs 70.80 per euro from Rs 70.36 previously. Moreover, it dipped further against the Japanese yen to Rs 52.82 per 100 yen from its last close of Rs 52.47.

Government notifies 2% interest subvention on farm loans

Government notifies 2% interest subvention on farm loans
Date : Sep-11-2009 15:38

The government cut the interest rate subsidy to 2% for this financial year on farm loans given by the public sector banks (PSU) from 3% last year and the decision to this effect was taken by the Union Cabinet. However, the financial implication due to the interest subsidy on farm loans by PSU banks, regional rural banks and co-operative credit institutions were at Rs4, 311 crore in 2008-09 while it was estimated to be at about Rs4, 000 crore in the current fiscal. Moreover, the government will pay 2% interest subsidy to banks for granting short- term crop loan to farmers for loans up to Rs3 lakh per farmer at a concessional rate of 7% under the interest subvention scheme.

Power IPOs' poor show to hit other issues

Power IPOs' poor show to hit other issues

MUMBAI: Call it a day of coincidence , but the fact is two high-profile IPOs in recent months, and both from the power sector—Adani Power and NHPC— closed below their respective IPO prices for the first time. And if market analysts are to be believed, this will surely put pressure on the forthcoming IPOs, even if some of those were from outside the power sector.

On Friday, Adani Power, which had offered its shares in the IPO at Rs 100, closed on the NSE at Rs 98.65—a marginal discount from its IPO price of Rs 100. The company’s IPO closed on July 31 and the stock was listed on August 20.

In the case of NHPC, the slide below the IPO price was faster than in case of Adani Power. In less than a week of its listing on September 1, the stock fell below its offer price on Friday to close at Rs 35.25. The IPO closed on August 12.

In the IPO, NHPC shares were offered at Rs 36, at the higher end of the Rs 30-36 price band after the issue was subscribed nearly 24 times. There was exceptional interest from the high net-worth individuals (HNIs)—who mostly apply on borrowed money for short-term listing gainsand the HNI portion was subscribed over 56 times.

Since HNIs apply in IPOs with borrowed money, they make profit on listing only if they can recover their interest costs over and above the IPO price. In the NHPC issue, per share borrowing cost for HNIs was Rs 6.75. So they could have made money only if the stock went above the Rs 43 mark. Since listing the highest it had gone was Rs 42. Market players pointed out that HNIs who had applied with borrowed money actually lost in the issue .

About 16.4 crore NHPC shares were allotted to this investor group and there was substantial selling pressure from Day 1, dealers said. The below-IPO price closing for the two stocks came just days before the launch of Oil India IPO on Sept 7. Market players feel the investor disappointment with Adani Power and NHPC issues could also work as a warning sign for companies planning IPO and their merchant bankers to price their issues reasonably and leave some room for appreciation post-listing .

Incidentally, the close-below-IPO-price for the two issues came within days of Enam Securities, one of the lead brokerages in the market that is known for its syndication prowess in the public offering space, circulated a confidential presentation about its edge in marketing power sector IPOs.

The presentation claimed that since February 2004, through 13 power-sector IPOs it has mobilised about 35%, or Rs 4.5 lakh crore worth of demand out a total demand of nearly Rs 13 lakh crore. Enam Sec was among the lead managers to Adani Power and NHPC IPOs.
A bounceback in global markets, followed by short covering by speculators, pushed the BSE sensex up by 291 points to 15,689. The day’s gain—after
four consecutive sessions of losses—came despite selling by foreign and domestic institutions, and in the absence of any major change in the rainfall scenario, market players said.

Provisional trading data showed that FIIs were net sellers at Rs 400 crore while net outflow by domestic institutions was at Rs 5 crore.

The sensex opened flat and remained in a narrow range till mid-session but then started gaining momentum. In late session, as speculators rushed in too cover their short positions to minimise their losses, the index rose to a n intraday high of 15,741. Only two of 30 sensex stocks—Tata Motors and TCS—ended in the red. Investors were richer by Rs 65,000 crore.
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Sensex rises 291 points

September 5, 2009, 0:11 IST

September 5, 2009, 0:11 IST

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index, or Sensex, which had declined 524.01 points, or 3.29 per cent, in the past four trading sessions, recouped nearly half its losses today

The index today advanced 290.79 points, or 1.89 per cent, to 15,689.12. However, on a weekly basis, it declined 1.46 per cent over the previous week’s close. Foreign instituitional investors were net sellers of Rs 2,067.71 crore this week.

The Sensex started the week on a negative note by taking cues from the Asian markets. India’s first-quarter gross domestic product growth of 6.1 per cent also failed to enthuse investors.

However, there was some cheer as a rise in vehicle sales in August caused the BSE Auto index to jump 4.54 per cent this week. Barring auto and realty, other sectoral indices ended the week in a negative zone. “After four days, the markets recovered, taking its cues from the European markets. There was some value-buying and short-covering. Till now, 15,300 was a good support, but it can now go up to 15,900,” said Anita Gandhi, head, institutional equity, Arihant Capital. The Nifty declined 1.10 per cent compared to its previous week’s close.


BS

Sensex extends loss as Europe plays spoilsport

Sensex extends loss as Europe plays spoilsport


MUMBAI: Equities ended lower for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, reacting to negative European markets. Traders booked profits in realty, metals and power stocks while buying in auto and IT stocks offset the losses.

Indices opened on a positive note taking cues from Asian markets which were steady after sharp correction in China a day ago. Strong sales figures from automobile companies kept sentiments bullish. However, the indices fell sharply after the European markets slipped on renewed fears over economic growth. Later, the benchmarks bounced back from crucial support levels.

Experts are of the view that the market will remain rangebound until October quarterly results are announced. “In the near term, we expect the market to remain rangebound. The reason for that is while on one side liquidity remains benign and there is lot of global appetite to invest in Indian equity, on the other hand, we are seeing lot of supply of paper coming into the market which is eating up a large chunk of FII money that is coming into the market.

Apart from that, there is no big trigger in the short term barring quarterly results that are going to coming out in the month of October. Also, we are seeing reaction in regional markets particularly China while our market is holding for some while. Therefore, because of these factors we feel our market will be range bound.”

Our range was 4300-4700 last month. May be we are going to see 5 per cent movement either side from here onwards. The big movement is going to come post quarterly results. In the medium term, our call is that market is going to head northwards,” said Manish Kumar, head-investments, ICICI Pru Life.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 4625.35, down 36.75 points or 0.79 per cent. The broader index hit a high of 4735.90 and low of 4600.65.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex closed at 15,551.19, down 115.45 points or 0.74 per cent. The index touched an intra-day high of 15923.09 and low of 15475.28.

The BSE Midcap Index was down 1.45 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 1.51 per cent lower.

BSE Realty Index slipped 3.07 per cent, BSE Metal Index moved 1.94 per cent lower and BSE Capital Goods Index declined 1.64 per cent. The BSE Auto Index bucked the trend to end higher by 2.45 per cent and BSE IT Index was up 0.42 per cent.

Two wheeler maker TVS Motor Company reported total two wheeler sales of 126,842 units in August against 114,321 units a year ago, a growth of 10.95 percent. The scrip was up 3.93 per cent on the BSE.

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki’s August vehicle sales rose 41.6 per cent to 84,808 units from August last year at 59,908 units.

Maruti Suzuki (7.61%), Tata Motors (5.82%), Wipro (1.5%), Hero Honda (1.55%) and Reliance Communications (1.34%) were the biggest Sensex gainers.

Losers were ACC (-3.62%), Sterlite Industries (-2.88%), HDFC (-2.49%), BHEL (-2.31%) and Jaiprakash Associates (-2.25%).

Market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1658 declines and 1151 advances.

European markets were under pressure after UK’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 49.7 August from a downwardly-revised 50.2 in July.

US markets were also expected to open in the negative territory. The Dow Jones futures was down 0.66 per cent, S&P 500 futures slipped 0.75 per cent and Nasdaq 100 declined 0.74 per cent.

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