Markets end higher amid rangebound trade

Markets ended higher on Thursday, amid a range bound trading session, because of short covering in Infosys and buying interest in HDFC Bank after the private bank posted robust June quarter earnings. Capital Goods shares also supported the upmove.

The 30-share Sensex ended up 128 points at 20,128 mark and the 50-share Nifty ended up 65 points at 6,038 levels. The Sensex and Nifty touched an intra-day high of 20,176 mark and 6,051 levels, respectively.

Supreme Industries Ltd recommends Final Dividend

Supreme Industries Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on July 18, 2013, inter alia, has recommended Final Dividend @ 275% i.e. Rs. 5.50 (Rupees Five & Fifty paise) per share on 12,70,26,870 Nos. of Equity Shares of Rs. 2/- each (F.V.).

BPCL soars on plan to invest Rs 600 crore to set up a new LPG pipeline

BPCL is currently trading at Rs. 344.55, up by 2.60 points or 0.76% from its previous closing of Rs. 341.95 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 343.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 346.80 and Rs. 341.10 respectively. So far 17,000 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 449.00 on 21-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 315.60 on 26-Nov-2012.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 350.30 and Rs. 335.25 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 24,913 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 54.93% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 27.11% and 17.95% respectively.

 In a bid to set up a new LPG pipeline from Kochi to Coimbatore and enhance the storage capacity at its Irumpanam facility, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is planning to invest Rs 900 crore.

Of total Rs 900 crore, the company will spend Rs 600 crore on 229 km LPG pipeline which will help in minimising the road transportation of gas and connect the company’s bottling plants in Palakkad and Coimbatore thereby improving the distribution network, while Rs 300 crore will be invested at its Irumpanam installation unit near the Kochi Refinery. The storage capacity at the facility is expected to increase to 8 million tonnes with the completion of the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP)

The funds for both these projects will be in addition to the Rs 14,225 crore investments set apart by the company for IREP, which envisaged increasing the refining capacity from the present 9.5 MMTPA to 15.5 MMTPA

Asian Paints at lifetime high ahead of stock split

Asian Paints has moved higher by nearly 3% at Rs 5,150, also its lifetime high on BSE, ahead of sub-division of its equity shares in the ratio of 1:10.

The stock opened at Rs 5,013 and hit a low of Rs 5,010 so far. The counter has seen heavy trading activities with a combined 114,790 shares changing hands so far against two week average of sub 70,000 shares.

Asian Paints has fixed July 31, 2013 as the record date for the purpose of ascertaining the names of the shareholders who would be entitled to receive 10 equity shares of Re 1 each for every 1 equity share of Rs 10 each of the company.

The stock has outperformed the market by surging 18% after the company fixed the record date for stock split on June 26. The benchmark Sensex had gained 7.3% during the same period.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of the company is schedule to meet on July 22, 2013, to consider the audited financial results of the company for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1).

RCom slashes 3G mobile data prices by almost half

Reliance Communication (RCom) has cut 3G mobile data prices by almost half. The company has reduced the prices for 1GB of 3G data at Rs 123 per month from Rs 250 per month at present.

Recently, the company completed securitisation of proceeds under the Rs 1200 crore ($200 million) inter-city Fibre Agreement signed with Reliance Jio Infocomm in April 2013. The proceeds from securitisation have been utilized to repay high cost rupee debt, resulting in significant interest cost savings for RCom.

RCom is India’s foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The company, with a customer base of about 150 million, including over 2.5 million individual overseas retail customers, ranks among the Top 4 Telecom companies in the world by number of customers in a single country.

JB Chemicals settles claim with Cilag GmbH & Johnson & Johnson LLC

With reference to the earlier announcement dated October 11, 2012 about receipt of notices of claim from Cilag GmbH International and Johnson & Johnson LLC entities under transaction documents in relation to sale of Russia-CIS OTC business, corresponding to the amount held in the Escrow Account & also reference to the earlier announcement dated February 11, 2013 informing about release of Rs. 25.24 crores to the Company from the Escrow Account, JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd has now informed BSE that Cilag GmbH International, Johnson & Johnson LLC entities and the Company have reached a settlement of all the claims raised by Cilag GmbH International and Johnson & Johnson LLC. Pursuant to this, an amount of Rs. 64.50 crores would be released from Escrow Account to Cilag GmbH International and the balance amount of Rs. 73.07 cores in the Escrow Account would be released to the Company.

Lupin surges on forming Strategic Partnership with MSD

Lupin is currently trading at Rs. 895.00, up by 21.45 points or 2.46% from its previous closing of Rs. 873.55 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 879.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 904.95 and Rs. 879.10 respectively. So far 1, 04,000 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 904.95 on 18-Jul-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 540.15 on 11-Oct-2012.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 895.00 and Rs. 859.65 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 40,062 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 46.81% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 43.07% and 10.12% respectively.

Pharma Major Lupin (Lupin) and MSD, one of the world's leading players in 23-valent Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccines category has formed an India-specific strategic partnership. Within the scope of the partnership, Lupin will have a non-exclusive license to market, promote and distribute MSD's 23-valent Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine under a different brand name in India.

Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) addresses the need of prevention of pneumococcal disease in India with its proven efficacy and broader coverage-PPV23 provides broader coverage and has proven efficacy for prevention of pneumococcal diseases which help addresses the need of prevention of pneumococcal disease in India, based on the clinical experience since last 3 decades, PPV23 has good safety profile.

Recent India focused study showed that more than 80% of invasive serotype groups of Streptococcus pneumoniae causing disease in the elderly in India are included in the formulation of PPV 23 which makes this vaccine relevant from India perspective  and PPV23 is recommended worldwide for prevention of pneumococcal diseases in adults by leading medical societies like Advisory committee on Immunization Practices, American Diabetes Association, American Thoracic society, Geriatric society of India etc.

Ashok Leyland declines on slashing investments by Rs 400 crore this year

Ashok Leyland is currently trading at Rs. 15.75, down by 0.35 points or 2.17% from its previous closing of Rs. 16.10 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 16.25 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 16.50 and Rs. 15.70 respectively. So far 478401 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 1 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 28.70 on 03-Dec-2012 and a 52 week low of Rs. 15.65 on 16-Jul-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 18.80 and Rs. 15.65 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 4203.87 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 38.61% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 29.88% and 18.09% respectively.

After reporting net loss in its Q1FY14, Ashok Leyland has slashed its total investments by almost one-fourth to Rs 400 crore this year to protect costs. The company also resorted to lay off its temporary workforce last quarter that resulted in 1,300 job cuts in addition to a 5% salary cut for the executive cadre, which resulted in savings of Rs 10 crore.

Meanwhile, the company has reduced working days and labours in June to align demand. The reduction in labours will help to reduce cost.

The company reported net loss of Rs 141.75 crore for the quarter as compared to net profit of Rs 66.94 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. Its total Income decreased by 21.83% to Rs 2376.07 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 from Rs 3039.76 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Wipro BPO wins best project with ‘Organizational Impact’ award

Wipro BPO has been recognized by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) for a Six Sigma Project implemented for a customer. The project was recognized by ASQ and voted on by attendees of the 2013 World Conference on Quality and Improvement as Best Project with ‘Organizational Impact’ at the International Team Excellence Awards, Indianapolis, USA. Wipro BPO’s Six Sigma Finance & Accounting project helped the client reduce ‘Unapplied Cash', a key business metric.

The awards recognize and commend the impact of quality on customer relationships. The finalists of the ‘International Team Excellence Awards’ comprised of 32 teams from across the world and global organizations spanning industries including Automobiles, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services & Insurance, Telecom, Military, Energy, Housing and ITeS.

Wipro is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro has a workforce of 140,000 serving clients across 57 countries.

Andhra Pradesh Paper surges after Nippon Investment picks 210,000 shares

Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills is currently trading at Rs. 294.00, up by 3.85 points or 1.33% from its previous closing of Rs. 290.15 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 295.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 298.35 and Rs. 292.15 respectively. So far 14168 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 373.30 on 12-Sep-2012 and a 52 week low of Rs. 179.00 on 08-Mar-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 299.90 and Rs. 277.65 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 1173.22 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 75.00% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 5.42% and 19.58% respectively.

Nippon Investment and Finance Company has purchased 210,000 shares of Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills in an open market transaction. The shares were purchased at Rs 299.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 17, 2013.

Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills manufactures paper of various grades such as writing, printing, industrial, newsprint and copier. The company has also set up a 34 MW Double Extraction Condensing type turbine to meet its power requirements. Company owns two manufacturing facilities having a cumulative production capacity of 1, 74,500 TPA.

GIC Housing Finance drops ex-dividend

GIC Housing Finance lost 4.68% to Rs 105.90 at 10:26 IST on BSE as the stock turned ex-dividend today, 18 July 2013, for dividend of Rs 5 per share for the year ended 31 March 2013.

On BSE, 10,000 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 38,391 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 108.50 and a low of Rs 105 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 83.35 on 14 August 2012. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 156.60 on 9 January 2013.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 17 July 2013, falling 0.49% compared with the Sensex's 3.22% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 1.65% as against Sensex's 6.5% rise.

The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 53.85 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
Before turning ex-dividend, the stock offered a dividend yield of 4.5% based on the closing price of Rs 111.10 on Wednesday, 17 July 2013.

GIC Housing Finance's net profit declined 16.7% to Rs 16.65 crore on 22.6% growth in total income to Rs 146.03 crore in Q4 March 2013 over Q4 March 2012.
GIC Housing Finance provides housing loans to both individuals and corporations.

Bharti Airtel gains on adding 1.26 million subscribers in June

Bharti Airtel is currently trading at Rs. 319.50, up by 3.65 points or 1.16% from its previous closing of Rs. 315.85 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 315.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 321.00 and Rs. 314.00 respectively. So far 38,000 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 5 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 370.40 on 25-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 238.50 on 30-Aug-2012.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 327.50 and Rs. 292.20 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 1, 27,237 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 65.23% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 24.40% and 10.37% respectively. Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has added 1.26 million users in June, 2013. Following this, the company’s total customer base has increased to 190.91 million.

Bharti Airtel is a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.

Sterlite Technologies launches enhanced family of bend-insensitive fibers

Sterlite Technologies, a leading global provider of transmission solutions for the telecom and power industries has launched three new products in its bend-insensitive Bow Lite family of fibers. These include the brand new Bow Lite Super, and significantly improved Bow Lite Plus and Bow Lite Enhanced fibers.

All fibers have industry leading specifications for attenuation and macro-bend loss with tight geometry control making them particularly suitable for Fiber to the Home (FTTH) applications. Furthermore, the company is one of the few manufacturers in the world with the scale to offer novel products for such applications.

Sterlite Technologies is a leading global provider of transmission solutions for the power and telecom industries. The company is equipped with a product portfolio that includes power conductors, optical fibers, telecommunication cables and a comprehensive telecom systems / solutions portfolio.

HUL extends rally, surges 15% in two days

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has rallied nearly 5% to Rs 718, extending its previous day’s 10% surge, on reports that the FTSE and MSCI indices raised their investable weightage on the stock following the completion of the cash open offer by Unilever in the company and updation of foreign ownership information.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) holding in HUL has declined to 20.23% in June quarter from 22.11% at the end of March quarter, the shareholding pattern data shows.

The FTSE on its website announced on July 12 that HUL will remain in its all-world index and all-emerging index with an increased investability weighting of 33% against the current 24% with effect from July 22.

Meanwhile, the media reports suggest that HUL has raised the prices of a couple of products under the Dove brand by up to 15%.

The stock currently trading at its record high on BSE has outperformed the market by surging 20% in past one week as compared to 1.7% rise in benchmark Sensex.

Today, the stock opened at Rs 687 and hit a low of Rs 675 in early morning deals on BSE. A combined 4.33 million shares have already changed hands on the counter in early morning deals against an average sub 5 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on BSE and NSE.

Heritage Foods gains on plan to set up second ice-cream plant in Andhra Pradesh

Heritage Foods is currently trading at Rs. 519.40, up by 26.80 points or 5.44% from its previous closing of Rs. 492.60 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 532.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 542.00 and Rs. 511.15 respectively. So far 10,020 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 569.75 on 10-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 150.05 on 18-Jul-2012.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 514.50 and Rs. 483.15 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 602.00 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 40.02% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 2.54% and 57.43% respectively.

Heritage Foods has received an approval to set-up / commission the second ice-cream plant at Mattam village in Chittoor district in state of Andhra Pradesh. The board of directors at its meeting held on July 17, 2013 has approved for the same.

Heritage Foods (India) has established 67 stores, mostly in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, offering vegetables, fruits, staples and other consumer items. The average store size is about 3,000 square feet.

YES Bank says RBI steps unlikely to hit its profits

RBI had decided to cap the daily liquidity adjustment facility at Rs 75,000 cr, increase the marginal standing facility rate to 10.25%

YES Bank on Wednesday dismissed fears its profits would go down following steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to address exchange rate volatility and curb liquidity.

"There has been an overreaction in money markets in the aftermath of RBI's recently announced measures to stabilise the rupee. While the knee-jerk response has resulted in hardening of rates, I believe the full impact of these measures would eventually assuage sentiment and restore normalcy in money markets," Rana Kapoor, co-founder, managing director and chief executive, said in a statement.

On Monday, RBI had decided to cap the daily liquidity adjustment facility at Rs 75,000 crore, increase the marginal standing facility rate to 10.25 per cent and sell government bonds worth Rs 12,000 crore through open market operations. The moves resulted in a rise in bond yields and money market rates.

Several analysts had cautioned investors YES Bank would be among those hit the hardest by RBI's moves, as it relied more on short-term wholesale funding, for which rates had risen. The bank stock has fallen 15.5 per cent since its intra-day high on Monday. On Wednesday, the stock ended at Rs 424 on the National Stock Exchange, down 5.98 per cent from Tuesday's close.

YES Bank, however, played down the concern. "The concept that we are a wholesale-funded bank would probably have been true two-three years ago. The diversity of our deposits has improved significantly over the last three years, as we grew our retail franchise. More than 86 per cent of deposits are from depositors contributing less than 0.2 per cent of total deposit base individually," said Jaideep Iyer, group president (financial management).


He added the RBI measures appeared to be temporary - for three or four months - and aimed at curbing volatility in the rupee's exchange rate. Even if RBI continues with these steps for a longer period, YES Bank could increase its lending rate to offset the impact of high borrowing costs.

Rupee opens lower at 59.60 per dollar

On Thursday the Indian rupee opened lower by 26 paise at 59.60 per dollar against 59.34 Wednesday.

Agam Gupta, Standard Chartered Bank said, "Ben Bernake's speech was slightly more dovish than the market expected. It will keep the rupee stable and also check the dollar from strengthening further. The market will continue to focus on the impact of recent RBI moves and watch out for any further measures. The range for the day is seen between 59.15-59.55/USD."

The euro holds above 1.31 to the dollar. The dollar index was below the 83 mark, but steady as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke still left intact the prospect of the Fed scaling back stimulus later this year.

Economy news of the day

The government is working on a modality to facilitate creation of more work spaces in sub-urban areas to increase manufacturing in garment sector
Mutual funds faced Rs500bn redemption orders from banks and companies on Tuesday, prompting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to provide them a three-day repo borrowing window at a 10.25 % interest rate .(BS)

According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, nearly half (46.4 %) of the country’s gross domestic savings in 2011-12 were in physical assets — a nine-year high.(BS)

Under pressure from international retailers, the government might soon amend the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy on multi-brand retail trading (MBRT) by easing some conditions which had drawn sharp criticism from global investors.(BS)

The government is working on a modality to facilitate creation of more work spaces in sub-urban areas to increase manufacturing in garment sector, besides a score of other measures to boost textiles industry.

Pre-market: Markets to open higher tracking gains in Asia

Markets are expected to open on a positive note tracking firm gains in Asia.

Global risk appetite surged after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to keep monetary policy flexible in the near-term till US economy shows signs of recovery.

At 8:30AM IST, SGX Nifty was up 15 points at 5989.

Meanwhile Asian shares rose in early trades after Bernanke's remarks came as the Fed's Beige Book report of anecdotal information on business activity showed the US. economy continued to grow at a modest to moderate pace in June and early July, but housing data was disappointing.

Among the key Asian indices, Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.6% to 14,703, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 0.5% to 3,225 in the opening deals.

Overnight, US stocks rallied on expectations of stimulus.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 18.67 points, or 0.12 percent, to end at 15,470.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4.65 points, or 0.28 percent, to finish at 1,680.91. The Nasdaq Composite Index  advanced 11.50 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 3,610.00.

Domestically, companies such as Axis Bank, Bajaj FinServ  will report their April-June earnings later today