BSE Sensex,Nifty flat; Indian hotels up 11%, BHEL gains 5%

3:30 pm Rupee stings: Stung by the rupee's recent collapse, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is taking a carrot-and-stick approach to curb trade in the offshore forwards market that is seen as a key source of wrenching currency volatility, reports Reuters. However, with no viable alternative to trading in non-deliverable forwards (NDF) involving the rupee, the strategy is likely to have only a limited impact. "They are saying that if you are a big pension fund or a large hedge fund, come to India and we will provide you with all the dollar liquidity that you need rather than going to the NDF markets," said the head of trading at a US bank in Hong Kong, who did not want to be named.

The market showed no sign of recovery in the last hour of trading before the September series expiry. Continuing its flattish trend, the Sensex is up 22.04 points or 0.11 percent at 19878.28, and the Nifty gains 4.25 points or 0.07 percent at 5878.10. About 1103 shares have advanced, 1073 shares declined, and 155 shares are unchanged. BHEL remains to be the gainer of the day, gaining around 5.5 percent. Coal India , Sun Pharma , Tata Steel and HDFC are other major gainers in the Sensex. Indian Hotels surged 11 percent on the BSE. On the losing side are Jindal Steel , GAIL , Reliance , HUL and Hero MotoCorp. Shares of Godrej Properties touched a record low of Rs 349.70 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley has equalweight rating on the stock and cut its target price to Rs 407 from Rs 535. The brokerage house also cut its earnings per share estimates for FY14 and FY15 by 45 percent each, driven by slower-than-expected sales at the Ahmedabad and Commercial projects, delay in planned new launches and new revenue recognition guidelines.

Just Dial hits new high since listing

The stock has rallied 72% against its issue price of Rs 483 per share offered to the retail investors.

Just Dial has moved higher by nearly 6% to Rs 830, also its record high since listing in June this year, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The stock has opened at Rs 795 and hit a low of Rs 781 in early morning deals. A combined 114,803 shares change hands on the counter so far on NSE and BSE.

Shares of the Mumbai-based company providing local search services over the Phone, Web, Mobile[4] and SMS has surged 72% against its issue price of Rs 483 per share offered to the retail investors. The company had issued shares at price of Rs 530 per share to institutional investors.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are bullish on the stock, raising their holding in the company by nearly four percentage points post listings.

FIIs total holding in the company had increased to 18.77% as on June 30, 2013 against 14.85% on date of listing, the BSE data shows.

Government to allow private energy firms to explore shale oil and gas from their blocks: Veerappa Moily

 Oil Minister Veerappa Moily said on Thursday that the government would soon allow private energy firms such as Reliance IndustriesBSE -1.14 %, Cairn IndiaBSE -0.30 % and BP and BG to explore shale oil and gas from their existing fields.

"The cabinet has approved shale gas exploration policy for national oil companies, Oil India and ONGC. Soon, the same will be extended to other companies including private energy players," Moily told reporters after the inaugural session of the Global HSE Conference.

The cabinet on Tuesday approved a shale gas and oil exploration policy, which paved way for state-run ONGCBSE -0.98 % and Oil India to hunt for non-conventional resources in blocks awarded to them without auction.

"Initially, I was in favour of an integrated shale gas policy for all players, but there were some issues to be resolved. We decided to move ahead with ONGC and OIL. At least one step forward is better than waiting," Moily said.

He said, the government would also launch the tenth bidding round of oil and gas blocks after certain policy issues are resolved. "We have nine rounds so far. Several issues came up in the Nelp (New exploration licensing policy) rounds. We have learnt lessons. We are working on the next round. The tenth will be the perfect round," he said.

The government has auctioned more than 250 blocks under nine Nelp rounds since 1999, but only two of them are so far producing, that too with several disputes, oil ministry and industry officials said. Reliance Industries, which is producing oil and gas from its KG-D6 block auctioned in the first Nelp round, is facing several contractual issues. It evoked the arbitration clause of the contract in last year after the oil ministry disallowed it to recover its expenditure in developing the D6 gas fields because output from the block fell sharply.

Moily said, the government would resolve differences over interpretations of various contractual provisions soon. "I had a three and a half hour meeting with Reliance and BP last week . That shows we want to resolve the issues," he said.

RIL is protesting the government's move to deny rights over eight gas discoveries worth more than $8 billion because timeline expired and challenged the oil ministry's proposal to deny it the benefit of increased gas price from April 1.

Moily said gas price hike proposed by the Rangarajan committee would be uniformly applicable. "There are no gray areas. There will be uniform gas price for all," he said. He, however, declined to comment on any particular case.

AirAsia announces it has received NOC from Aviation Ministry

AirAsia India today announced it has received the crucial 'No Objection Certificate' from the Civil Aviation Ministry, with the Malaysian parent company's chief Tony Fernandes terming the development as "very exciting".

Though NOC was issued by the Ministry last week, this was the first formal statement by the AirAsia CEO on microblogging site Twitter.

"I am thrilled to announce that Airasia India has received NOC approval from the government of India. Very exciting and hugely profitable," Fernandes said in a tweet.

With the NOC in hand, AirAsia India would now have to apply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for its Scheduled Operator's Permit (SOP or the flying permit), which is the final step before it can start its flight operations.

The DGCA grants the SOP after vetting the preparations of a start-up airline to launch flights by examining issues like availability of aircraft, manpower to operate flights as well as on the ground, aircraft parking space at airports and engineering facilities.

The NOC would also enable AirAsia India to import the first of the three aircraft to Chennai, which would be its headquarters.

AirAsia India, a joint venture between the Malaysian airline AirAsia (which would own 49 per cent stake), the Tatas (30 per cent) and the Telstra Tradeplace owned by Arun Bhatia (21 per cent), plans to start operations within this financial year itself.

The start-up airline had been granted security clearances by the Union Home Ministry last month.

Currently, AirAsia operates in Thailand and Malaysia and connects Chennai, Bangalore, Tiruchirappalli, Kochi and Kolkata in India.

Tata Sons have recently announced that they plan to launch another airline in India with Singapore Airlines and have sent their own application to the FIPB for approval. Tatas would own a 51 per cent stake in this venture.
AirAsia India, which was granted formal approval by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board in April, currently has a fleet of three Airbus A-320 aircraft and over 200 employees, including pilots, engineers and ground staff.

The parent company, AirAsia, had submitted a request to start the joint venture to launch AirAsia India in February this year.

In a statement, AirAsia India CEO Mittu Chandilya said "This is the fastest an NOC has been granted and with this, we will focus on obtaining the Air Operating Permit. We will continue with our preparations and get ourselves ready for take-off once the Air Operating Permit is acquired."

He said the new airline would "look forward towards being one of the dynamic contributors to the development of the Indian aviation industry."

The statement said AirAsia India was "confident that it will be able to replicate the success of its counterparts in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, enabling people to fly affordably through superior operational performance by emphasizing a focused and disciplined cost structure which will tremendously benefit the Indian consumer."

Sun Pharma shares at record high

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd was at an all-time high of 587 rupees on Thursday on hopes of higher sales of its key cancer drug, Doxil, after innovator Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Wednesday the drug will likely be in short supply in the coming weeks.

The expected shortage in supply is due to an interruption from the company's own supplier, Ben Venue Laboratories Inc, J&J said.

J&J cannot provide an estimate of when the cancer drug would be available again and has advised healthcare providers to contact Sun Pharma.

Sensex up 62 points; Metal, capital goods stocks shine

Indian equities were trading up by about 0.3 per cent on buying by funds and retail investors in select stocks owing to global cues. Investors also remained cautious ahead of expiry of September month F&O contracts today.

US scrips fell last night on fears that the funding for the Federal Government would run out.

At 12.12 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 62.48 points (0.31 per cent) at 19,918.72 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 19.95 points (0.34 per cent) at 5,893.80.

All the broader and sectoral indices were trading flat.

Metal, capital goods and healthcare stocks remained in the limelight and were up 1.19 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 0.82 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, oil & gas, consumer durables and realty stocks succumbed to selling pressure and were down 0.79 per cent, 0.69 per cent, 0.61 per cent, respectively.

Sun Pharma, Wipro, Coal India, Tata Steel and Wipro were the top five Sensex gainers, while the top five losers were Jindal Steel, GAIL, HUL, RIL and Cipla.

A report from Dalmia Securities said “On the economic data front, current A/C and GDP data in UK and in the US, GDP data, pending home sales, personal consumption expenditure and jobless claims are some of the important ones lined up for today.”

Most Asian shares were down tracking overnight cues from the Wall Street. US stocks ended lower on Wednesday as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell and concerns grew that a political showdown over government spending poses a threat to growth.

US Congressmen is currently struggling to pass a spending bill to keep the government funded beyond October 1. According to US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the US will exhaust its borrowing limit on October 17. One of the solutions being contemplated is tampering with the healthcare programme introduced in 2010.

Japan's Nikkei rose 102.66 points or 0.7 per cent to 14,723.20, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 68.71 points or 0.3 per cent to 23,140.90 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 15.96 points or 0.3 per cent at 5,291.90.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.4 per cent on Thursday, while the S&P 500 Index faded 0.27 per cent. It was the fifth consecutive session of losses for the benchmark S&P 500, the first such period for 2013.

HCL Tech inches up as its arm secures multi-year deal from WyCAN Consortium

HCL Tech is currently trading at Rs. 1057.50, up by 0.65 points or 0.06% from its previous closing of Rs. 1056.85 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 1070.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 1072.00 and Rs. 1041.00 respectively. So far 16,000 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 1104.30 on 24-Sep-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 556.70 on 09-Oct-2012.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 1104.30 and Rs. 996.05 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 73,714 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 61.92% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 30.94% and 7.14% respectively.

HCL America Inc (HCLA), a fully owned subsidiary of leading global IT services company HCL Technologies, has won a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with the WyCAN Consortium, a group of states including Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and North Dakota. HCLA will enable WyCAN to significantly improve services for its Unemployment Insurance (UI) modernization program, which is one of the largest programs in the US providing critical income to millions of unemployed Americans.

HCLA was selected through a highly competitive process where it demonstrated its unique and effective managed cloud-as-a-service solution called iGOVERN. HCL's solution expertise will be used to deliver and support WYCAN's unemployment insurance (UI) tax and benefit systems and transform it into an integrated claimant and employer focused, self assisted service channel.

The deal will give the consortium states a configurable, intuitive Government-to-Citizen (G2C) system aimed at consolidating and replacing existing legacy systems to allow easier adaptation to changing legislation. This means superior services for the claimant, employers and UI staff by improving collaboration with other Department of Labor (DOL) agencies.

M&M gains as arm enters into strategic partnership with Carzonrent

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), country’s major automobile maker’s business conglomerate Mahindra Reva has entered into a strategic partnership with the leaders in Cab Rental Industry, Carzonrent to launch first-of-its kind electric vehicle in the self-drive category in India.

Carzonrent will offer Mahindra e2o for self-drive in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai at most economical price ever. Each city will have a fleet size of five e2o’s to begin with and the service will be expanded to all metropolitan cities.

Carzonrent has been a pioneer in offering Self Drive services across major Indian cities along with inter-city, intra-city, outstation and international car rental services. Carzonrent has deployed a comprehensive range of cars under these services and offers transparent pricing through its online booking engine and national reservation center.

Maruti to hike prices of all models by up to Rs 10,000 from Oct

 Maruti Suzuki India, country's largest car maker, on Wednesday said it will increase the prices of its entire range of models by up to Rs 10,000 from October first week, mainly due to depreciation of rupee.

"We have been wanting to raise the price for some time as our input costs went up severely, mainly on account of weakening of rupee. However, the market was not conducive. Now it has become inevitable," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek told .

The quantum of price increase will vary according to different models and fuel specifications, and will be effective from the first week of October, he added.

"The amount of price hike will vary between Rs 3,000 and Rs 10,000. It will be applicable to all our models," Pareek said.

The prices of MSI's vehicles that are manufactured in India start from Rs 2.35 lakh and goes up to Rs 10.21 lakh. These prices are as per the company's official website and are for ex-showroom, Guwahati.

MSI had last hiked the prices in January for all its vehicles by up to Rs 20,000 to offset the pressure of adverse currency fluctuation.

In the last few months, rupee devalued drastically and hit a life-time low of below 68.85 against the US dollar. However, it started gaining after Raghuram Rajan joined as the new governor of RBI and announced a slew of measures.

Earlier, this month, Hyundai and General Motors decided to increase vehicle prices by up to Rs 20,000 to offset the impact of rupee depreciation and rising input costs, resulting in more spending from new car buyers in the festive season.

Tata Motors said it plans to increase the prices of its passenger and commercial vehicles by around 1-1.5 per cent, depending on the model, either petrol or diesel.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor had announced a hike in prices of its key models by up to Rs 24,000 with effect from September 21 to partly offset higher cost of raw materials and rupee depreciation.

Kingfisher still grounded but shares take-off

Counter gains nearly 80% so far this month

Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) may still be grounded but its shares have taken a strong take off so far this month.

At a time when key benchmark indices slipped, counter of KFA has gained a whopping 80% in September.

Ever since Mallya said he was still working on a deal to finance the debt-laden airline with a foreign player, shares of KFA are continuously hitting upper circuit on the stock exchanges.

Currently, the stock is trading at Rs 6.21 or 9.91% up on the BSE.

Though market participants are wary about the company, speculators seem to rushing in to buy the rising counter.

BGR Energy forms new management team

 Power company BGR Energy has named A Swaminathan the joint managing director and CEO of the company and V R Mahadevan as the joint managing director of the company. Sasikala Raghupathy, wife of the late founder B G Raghupathy will be the Chairman of the board. The changes in the management team come close to two months after the passing away of the founder-chairman of the company, B G Raghupathy.

Mahadevan, who is currently director - technology and HR, will be in-charge of projects, and Swaminathan, now director-marketing, will be in-charge of technology and new growth areas and joint ventures of BGR.

While the team's immediate focus will be on commissioning power projects on hand and reworking billing cycles to get back receivables, the company is also looking at working overseas. "We will look outside India. We now have a mature management team and will look at projects in Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa," Swaminathan said. With these, the company expects faster topline growth at 20% against the 12% growth it currently sees. The company provides EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) services for power projects in India.

BGR has an order backlog of Rs 11,900 crore, part of which is an order it won through its joint venture with Japanese company Hitachi to supply boilers and turbines for a Rs 1600 crore order from NTPC for supplying equipment for its super-critical thermal plants. The projects will be commissioned during 2015-16, Swaminathan said. 

BGR and Hitachi had also jointly invested about Rs 4,000 crore to set up a manufacturing unit for boilers and turbines in Tamil Nadu, but the investment has now been downsized to Rs 2,700 crore as a result of the sluggish demand in the power sector and also because the timelines for delivery of the products to NTPC were not in sync with the progress of the manufacturing unit, Swaminathan said. Land acquisition for the plant, however, is complete and products from the unit will be rolled out from late 2015, he added. 

Gillette stock surges as SEBI allows Poddar group to be ordinary shareholder

The stock of Gillette India surged 10.4 per cent to Rs 2,253 in early trade on Thursday as SEBI allowed the Poddar group - its domestic promoters - to be reclassified as public shareholders.

In a stock exchange filing, Gillette India today said that SEBI has accepted its proposals, which include reclassification of the Poddar group shareholding from promoter to non-promoter.

SEBI nod, however, is subject to several conditions.

SEBI said the Poddar group will have no special rights in Gillete India through any formal or informal arrangements other than that of normal public shareholder.

Entities belonging to the Poddar group cannot hold any key management personnel position in Gillette India and the other group companies of Procter & Gamble (P&G) through any formal or informal arrangements, SEBI added.

"If entities belonging to the Poddar group promoters want to be classified as promoters of GIL again in future, they shall be required to make an open offer and no exemption shall be given in this regard," SEBI said.

Poddar group has also been directed not to acquire any Gillette India shares for a period of one year from the date of reclassification.

To fulfill SEBI conditions, Soraj Poddar will have to step down from chairmanship and also give up his other powers.

Currently, Soraj Poddar is the founder director and chairman the company and he also has ability to nominate one more director on the board.

The promoter holding in Gillette India stands at 88.76 per cent with Procter & Gamble controlling 75.9 per cent and the Poddar group owning the remaining 12.86 per cent.

To meet minimum public shareholding norm of 75 per cent, P&G will sell 0.99 per cent stake through the offer for sale route and the Poddar group 6 per cent of its holding. The remaining 6.86 per cent stake of Poddar’s will be classified as public holding.

After the reclassification, P&G will be the sole promoter in Gillette India. SEBI has exempted P&G from making an open offer as the intent behind this was to comply with the shareholding norm.

Earlier in July, the Securities Appellate Tribunal had dismissed Gillette’s appeal to reclassify the shares of one of its promoters as public shareholding, as SEBI had frozen the voting rights and the right to corporate benefits (dividend, rights, bonus, share splits, and the like) of the Gillette promoters and promoter group, till they comply with minimum public shareholding norm.

Gillette India will also pay a severance compensation' to Poddars for giving away their rights but such compensation will have to be paid by P&G “without any recourse to Gillete India and interest of the existing minority shareholders”, SEBI ordered.

King of India's car makers gives in to a weak rupee

Maruti Suzuki announces price increases for all models by up to Rs 10,000

Maruti Suzuki,India, the country’s largest car maker, on Wednesday said it would increase the prices of its entire range of models by up to Rs 10,000 from October first week, mainly due to the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar. “We have been wanting to raise the price for some time, as our input costs went up severely, mainly on account of the weakening of the rupee. However, the market was not conducive (to an increase). Now, it has become inevitable,” Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said.

The quantum of increase will vary according to the models and fuel specifications and will be effective from the first week of October, he added. “The amount of price hike will vary between Rs 3,000 and Rs 10,000. It will be applicable to all our models,” Pareek said.    

The prices of Maruti’s vehicles manufactured in India start from Rs 2.35 lakh and go up to Rs 10.21 lakh. These are by the company’s website and for ex-showroom, Guwahati. Maruti had last hiked prices in January for all its vehicles by up to Rs 20,000 to offset the pressure due to the weakening rupee. In the last few months, the rupee has devalued drastically and hit a life-time low of below 68.85 against the dollar. However, it started gaining after Raghuram Rajan joined as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and announced a slew of measures.

Earlier, this month, Hyundai and General Motors decided to increase vehicle prices by up to Rs 20,000 to offset the impact of the rupee depreciation and rising input costs. Tata Motors said it planned to increase prices of its passenger and commercial vehicles by 1-1.5 per cent, depending on the model (that is, petrol or diesel). Toyota Kirloskar Motor had announced an increase in prices of its key models by up to Rs 24,000 with effect from September 21 to partly offset higher cost of raw materials and the rupee depreciation.

Bonds gain after RBI assures it will ensure cash

RBI comments come as yields had risen by 60bps after repo rate hike

Government bonds rose on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) assured markets it would ensure adequate cash and also buy debt via open market operations if needed.

The RBI's comments, announced after trading hours on Wednesday, come as yields had risen by 60 basis points (bps) after a surprise hike in the repo rate on Friday and on worries about the fiscal second borrowing programme of the government.

Cash continues to be tight, though the overnight borrowing rate has come off after the RBI lowered its marginal standing facility rate by 75 bps to 9.5%.

The RBI has been injecting about Rs 1.5 trillion on a daily basis via the repo auction, the export credit refinance facility and the marginal standing facility taken together.

Bond dealers have been hoping that the central bank would provide some intervention through open market bond purchases to help tight cash conditions. It last bought bonds from the secondary market in late August.

"Yesterday's statement keeps hopes of OMOs alive but they will do it probably only if yields again go higher. The fact that the statement came yesterday shows that they want the next auction to go through and want PDs to bid decently in terms of underwriting commission," said Bekxy Kuriakose, head of fixed income at Principal PNB Asset Management, referring to primary dealers.

Nearly one-third of a federal bond auction on Monday had to be underwritten by primary dealers after poor demand from investors.

The government will sell another Rs 14,000 crore of bonds on Friday, in the last sale of the fiscal first half that ends in September.

It will also borrow Rs 2.35 trillion between October and March.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield fell as much as 12 bps on the day to 8.67%. It was last at 8.72%.

The rupee rose after the RBI relaxed the minimum maturity tenure for banks' foreign currency borrowings' to one year from three years, in order to use the central bank's swap facility which was set up to support the ailing rupee.

The partially convertible currency, the worst performer in Asia this year, was trading stronger on the day at 62.23/24 per dollar versus its close of 62.44/45 on Wednesday.

Rupee strengthens to 62.23 in early trade

The rupee gained 20 paise to 62.23 per dollar in the opening trade against the previous close of 62.43 on selling of the American currency by banks and software exporters.

“On account of half-yearly closing, there is a possibility that corporates (mainly IT exporters) might have sold dollar in the markets. This has helped the rupee gain against the US dollar,” said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, India Forex Advisors.

Call rates, bond yields

The inter-bank call money rate, the rate at which banks borrow from each other to meet their short-term fund requirements, opened slightly higher at 9.5 per cent from the previous close of 9.45 per cent.

The 7.16 per cent government security, which matures in 2023, opened slightly higher at Rs 90.1 from the previous close of Rs 89.54. Yields softened to 8.69 per cent from the previous close of 8.79 per cent.

Govt expects to resolve iron ore mining issue soon

The government expects to resolve the iron ore mining issue within two months. Mines Minister Dinsha Patel has said that the government planning to export more iron ore, while consultation for filing a review petition on iron ore mining issue in the Supreme Court is going on. Through this petition, the government will urge the court to lift ban on iron ore mining in Goa.

In order to boost the iron ore exports, the government is also planning to lower export duty on iron ore to 20 percent from the present 30 percent. The move will help to contain country’s high current account deficit (CAD), which widened to record high of 4.8 percent of GDP in the previous fiscal.

Further, the government is likely to bring a note before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) soon, for residual stake sale in Hindustan Zinc and Balco in order to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 54,000 crore for the current fiscal. The government already reported that all legal hurdles for residual stake sale in Hindustan Zinc and Balco have been cleared. At present, the government holds 29.5 percent stake in Hindustan Zinc and 49 percent stake in BALCO. The government had sold controlling stake in these two companies in 2001-2003.

Infotech Enterprises contributes Rs 40 lakh for Uttarakhand Flood Relief

Infotech Enterprises has made a contribution of Rs 40 lakh towards the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The contribution is made for the task of rebuilding and reconstruction in the disaster-struck state of Uttarakhand. The company has always been in the forefront of taking up initiatives for the larger good of society.

Infotech Enterprise is a leading global engineering service company. The company provides services to a wide range of industries - aerospace, rail, automotive, marine, energy, plant engineering, utilities, telecom (operators), government, retail, consumer electronics, medical electronics, semiconductor telecom (manufacturers) and computing industries.

Markets to make a soft start ahead of F&O series expiry

The Indian markets despite a late recovery could not make it to green closing and snapped the last session lower by three-tens of a percent. Today is the expiry of the September F&O series and the trade is likely to remain volatile, though the series so far has been good and markets may see a better ending with Nifty rollovers of 55 percent and market wide rolls of 58 percent till yesterday. The start may remain subdued, as the global cues are sluggish and traders will play safe before going to new series. There is some encouraging report from the tax front, as indirect tax collections grew at 4.1 percent in the April-August period of this fiscal total collection of indirect taxes stood at about Rs 1,67,000 crore during the first five months of the 2012-13 fiscal. Traders will also be getting some support with the Reserve Bank of India’s assurance that it will take actions, including open market operations, to ensure adequate liquidity support in the system. There will be buzz in the telecom stocks, as the telecom regulator has mandated mobile phone companies to implement full mobile number portability within six months. The PSU oil marketing companies are likely to remain under pressure as the oil minister M Veerappa Moily indicated that the UPA government is working on a plan to reduce petrol prices.

The US markets once again ended modestly in red, extending their weakness for one more day on lingering concerns about the possibility of a government shutdown at the end of the month. Most of the Asian markets have made a soft start with some of the indices trading lower by about a percent, though the Japanese market has recovered from its gap-down start amid optimism that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Bank of Japan will lead the country out of deflation.

Back home, Indian equity indices, despite late hour recovery on Wednesday, ended the volatile session of trade in red as the investors opted to remain on sidelines on the penultimate day of September F&O series expiry. Benchmarks resumed their southward journey after a day of pause and snapped the session with a cut of around one third of a percent, as sentiments remained down-beat with banking counters continuing to trade under pressure on fourth day in a row on expectation of further hike in repo rate by Reserve Bank of India. Sentiments got dampened on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 21 crore on September 24, 2013, adding to September 23 sales of Rs 25.90 crore. Selling got intensified after European markets made a sluggish opening, with all the gauges viz. CAC, DAX and FTSE trading lower in early deals as nagging concerns over a potential US government shutdown at the end of the month and uncertainty about the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s stimulus programme kept investors on edge. Back home, the down fall was also triggered by selling in public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) as stocks like BPCL, HPCL and IOC edging lower after the Minister of Petoleum & Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily, ruled out any steep increase in diesel and cooking-fuel prices. Stocks related to realty sector continued their declining trend after the Reserve Bank of India, in a surprise decision, raised its key policy rate in its monetary policy review on September 20, 2013. Though, markets after hitting intraday low started recovering in last leg of trade, supported by pull back in rupee. Sentiments also got some support with Union Cabinet approved a methodology for auctioning coal blocks, enabling the government to allot coal mining licences through competitive bidding for the first time. Also, RBI in its latest initiative of relaxing norms to raise funds from abroad said that now all types of companies can avail trade credit facility from overseas for import of capital goods. Earlier, only companies in the infrastructure sector were allowed to raise such trade credits. Shares of some power generation firms rose after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the methodology for auctioning coal blocks, enabling the government to allot coal mining licences through competitive bidding to private companies. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost by 63.97 points or 0.32%, to settle at 19856.24, while the CNX Nifty declined by 18.60 points or 0.32% to settle at 5,873.85.