Sensex, Nifty erase half of Monday’s gains...

Finally, BSE Sensex closed at 20,425 down 180 points, while NSE Nifty closed at 6059 down 56 points over the previous close.

After staging a stellar show in the previous trading session, the Indian equity market took a breather on Tuesday as selling pressure in the banking, oil and gas, FMCG, realty and the consumer durables stocks dragged the benchmark indices to wipe out over half of Monday’s gains.

The Sensex and the Nifty had rallied on Monday on hopes that the Iran nuclear deal would lead to increased supplies and a sustained decline in oil prices. However, crude oil prices bounce back and the oil marketing companies also fell on account of profit taking. 

The rupee which was seen strengthening against the US Dollar in the past three trading sessions witnessed a sudden bounce back. The Indian unit weakened against the green back and was trading around 62.50 levels as compared to intra-day high of 62.25.

The BSE banking index was the top loser among the BSE sectoral indices, specially the PSU banks were under selling pressure. Amar Ambani, Head of Research at IIFL said, “PSU banks had run ahead of their fundamentals over the past month with the market discounting that worst of asset quality issues were behind. We continue to believe that stress is percolating to lower levels in the economy and therefore impaired assets creation rate may not moderate meaningfully in coming quarters.”


Bucking the negative trend were the auto, power and the capital goods stocks. However, the Mid-Cap and the Small-Cap index gained by half a percent each.

Voltas bags orders worth Rs 1,000 crore

Voltas, India’s premier air conditioning and engineering services company, has won three substantial orders totaling Rs 1000 crore in values. The company has secured first order for Integrated Health Centre and Workers' Hospital, a 120-bed health care facility in the Old Industrial Area of Qatar. With a timeline of 24 months, Voltas's scope of work covers HVAC, electrical works, ELV systems, and plumbing and fire-fighting. The company has secured second order for Sports hall and administrative office in Qatar, a 5,350-seat, indoor stadium being built to host the World Cup Handball Competition scheduled for January 2015. Within a mere 12-month timetable, Voltas will execute complete mechanical, electrical and public health works, including HVAC, electrical works, ELV systems, and plumbing and firefighting.

Finally, the company has secured third order for the Kempinski Wave in Muscat, Oman's first beachfront development and the first 5-star hotel to be built in Oman in 20 years. Located on a 6km stretch of sandy beach, 'The Wave' will include a 300-berth marina, a yacht club and an 18-hole golf course, along with 300 guest rooms, 77 service apartments and an enormous 1,000-guest capacity ballroom. The project is to be executed by Voltas's Oman-based joint venture and encompasses HVAC, electrical works, ELV systems and plumbing and firefighting.

Voltas is one of the world's premier engineering solutions providers and project specialists. The company offers engineering solutions for a wide spectrum of industries in areas such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, refrigeration, electro-mechanical projects, textile machinery, mining and construction equipment, materials handling equipment, water management & treatment, cold chain solutions, building management systems, and indoor air quality.

Tata Power shines on plan to raise Rs 5000 crore to repay debts

Tata Power is reportedly planning to raise Rs 4000 -5000 crore through equity and debt. The company will raise the funds by FY15 largely to repay debts. The company is facing $670 million debt repayment by April 2015. The company is facing Cash flow pressure on Mundra operations losses.

Tata Power is India's largest integrated power company with a significant international presence. The Company has an installed generation capacity of 8521 MW in India and a presence in all the segments of the power sector viz. Generation (thermal, hydro, solar and wind), Transmission, Distribution and Trading.

NTPC plans to cut thermal coal imports to 12 MT per year: Report

State-run power generation utility, NTPC is reportedly planning to cut thermal coal imports to 12 million tonnes (MT) per year on a long-term basis starting 2018, compared with 16 million tonnes currently, as the company wants to reduce dependence on costly shipments. Further, the company is also looking for an expression of interest from third parties for the import of coal for up to 15 years. Meanwhile, the company is building plants with capacity to produce 20 gigawatts of power.

NTPC is the largest power generating company in the country. It has also diversified into hydro power, coal mining, power equipment manufacturing, oil & gas exploration, power trading & distribution.

RBI widens infrastructure-lending norms for sub-sectors

Amid rising concerns over the strict infrastructure lending norms, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) widened the definition of infrastructure lending and also added new sub-sectors for the lending list including water & sanitation, transport, energy, communication, social and commercial infrastructure. The RBI in its notification has said that new sub-sectors will get classified as infrastructure for the purpose of lending by banks and select All India Term-Lending and Refinancing Institutions from the date of this circular.

RBI notification further said that hotels with a project cost of more than Rs 200 crore each and convention centres with project cost of more than Rs 300 crore each come under 'Social and Commercial Infrastructure' category for this kind of lending. The RBI has widened infrastructure-lending norms for sub-sectors as the government has recently written to central bank seeking changes in the rules of infrastructure financing in order to expedite the implementation of infrastructure development in the country.

The government has identified the development of infrastructure a most critical prerequisite for sustaining the present growth momentum of the economy. Meanwhile in order to expedite the implementation of infra projects, the government has been taking various measures. Recently, it has set up Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to accord fast track clearances to large projects. Untill now, the CCI had cleared 209 projects worth Rs 3.84 lakh crore. Meanwhile, for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector.

Hindalco Inds extends gains on buzz of Adita Birla group hiking its stake by 8%

Aditya Birla group reportedly aims to hike stake in group companies. The group may spend Rs 6000 crore to hike stake in Hindalco & Grasim to 40-45%. Further while, the group plans to buy 8% stake in Hindalco, valued at Rs 1955 crore at Current Market Price (CMP), the purchase of 19.5% stake in Grasim would cost the group a sum of Rs 4600 crore at CMP. Meanwhile, the current promoter holding in Hindalco and Grasim stand at 37% and 25% respectively.

Hindalco Industries, the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, is an industry leader in aluminium and copper. The company’s aluminium units across the country encompass the entire gamut of operations from bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting to downstream rolling, extrusions, foils and alloy wheels, along with captive power plants and coal mines.

Bharti Airtel to mop-up $1 billion via Euro bonds: Report

In a bid to boost its coffers in preparation for upcoming spectrum auctions and for potential acquisitions, Bharti Airtel is reportedly planning to mop-up $1 billion by selling bonds mainly to European investors.

Meanwhile, the company has mandated five banks namely JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS Investment Bank, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas, as joint book runners and lead managers for the bond issue.

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.

Tata Coffee gets NSE nod for merger of Alliance Coffee with itself

Tata Coffee, India’s third largest exporter of instant coffee has received an approval from National Stock Exchange (NSE) to merger of Alliance Coffee with itself.  Earlier on September, the company has received its board approval for the same.

NSE has granted its 'no-objection approval' to the proposed scheme and this observation letter will be valid for six months starting from November 25, 2013, within which period the company would have to file the scheme with the High Court for further clearance. Meanwhile, BSE has also granted its no-objection to the scheme on November 21, 2013.

Tata Coffee is arguably the largest integrated coffee plantation company in the world. The company has a hand in every aspect of the coffee making process, with business activities ranging from growing and curing of coffee and tea to the manufacture and marketing of value-added coffee products.

Aditya Birla group to hike stake in group companies: Report

Aditya Birla group reportedly aims to hike stake in group companies. The group may spend Rs 6000 crore to hike stake in Hindalco & Grasim to 40-45%. Further while, the group plans to buy 8% stake in Hindalco, valued at Rs 1955 crore at Current Market Price (CMP), the purchase of 19.5% stake in Grasim would cost the group a sum of Rs 4600 crore at CMP. Meanwhile, the current promoter holding in Hindalco and Grasim stand at 37% and 25% respectively.

Hindalco Industries, the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, is an industry leader in aluminium and copper. The company’s aluminium units across the country encompass the entire gamut of operations from bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting to downstream rolling, extrusions, foils and alloy wheels, along with captive power plants and coal mines.

Titan Industries to expand its watch case manufacturing capacity

Titan Industries, a joint venture between Tata Group and Government of Tamil Nadu is planning to expand its watch case manufacturing capacity and precision equipment manufacturing capacity for aerospace components. In this regard, the company will invest Rs 180 crore and expecting the facilities to be ready in another 12-18 months. Moreover, the company has acquired the land in Coimbatore and Hosur for the proposed plants.

Meanwhile, the company is establishing a new manufacturing plant in Coimbatore, to manufacture high-end stainless steel cases with technology from Seiko Epson Corp, Japan.

Titan is India’s largest manufacturer of quartz watches and has a 60% market share in the Indian market. It is world’s sixth largest manufacturer of branded watches. It has a manufacturing and assembly unit at Hosur in Tamil Nadu.

RBI to roll out CPI-indexed bonds by December end

In an apparent bid to soothe the inflation-ravaged common man, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to launch CPI-indexed bonds aimed at protecting the savings of retail investors from the impact of price rise by the end of next month, i.e., December.

The apex bank had earlier come up with debt instrument, which were linked to the wholesale price index (WPI). However, with retail inflation returning to double digit after a span of seven months, this may be the right time to roll out CPI indexed bonds. On the macro-front, in a recipe of another rate hike, the provisional annual inflation rate based on all India general Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Combined) for October 2013 on point to point basis (October 2013 over October 2012) accelerated to 10.09%, higher than expectation of over 10% and also higher as compared to 9.84% for the previous month of September 2013. The corresponding provisional inflation rates for rural and urban areas for October 2013 stood at 10.11% and 10.20% respectively, compared to 9.71% and 9.93% respectively in September. 

Further, this move does not come as surprise because RBI in its previous policy statement underscored that it would soon launch inflation indexed securities for retail investors of 10 year tenure which would be linked to the new CPI (combined). There it mentioned that the interest rate would be compounded half yearly and will be paid cumulatively on redemption.

Additionally, the government had also announced plans to issue Rs 12,000-15,000 crore of inflation-indexed bonds with 10-year maturity in tranches during the current financial year. The bonds, which are part of the government’s borrowing programme are also aimed to dissuade investors from buying gold. Further while, the first series of bonds was open to all categories of investors, the second series will be exclusively for retail investors.

Morgan Stanley offloads Yes Bank’s shares for Rs 69 crore

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) has sold 19,71,903 scrips of Yes Bank through bulk deal. The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 349.51 apiece valuing the transaction at Rs 68.91 crore.

At the end of the July-September quarter, Morgan Stanley held 79.09 lakh shares, amounting to 2.19% stake, of Yes Bank.

Yes Bank has international best practices, the highest standards of service quality and operational excellence, and offers comprehensive banking and financial solutions to all its valued customers. It has a strong pan India presence with 500+ branches and 1100+ ATMs in all 28 states and 7 Union Territories.

Kalpataru Power gains on bagging orders worth Rs 1,007 crore

Kalpataru Power Transmission (KPTL), a leading global EPC player in power & infrastructure contracting sector has secured new orders worth over Rs 1,000 crore.  The company has secured first order worth Rs 630 crore for execution of Suez Gulf/Samalaut 500 KV D/C over-head transmission line in Egypt. The company has secured second order worth Rs 246 crore for supply and Installation of 220 KV transmission systems worth Rs 246 crore in Rwanda and O. R. Congo. and the company has secured third order worth Rs 131 crore from HPCL for installation of cross-country pipeline.

Kalpataru Power Transmission is one of the largest and fastest growing specialized EPC companies in India engaged in power transmission and distribution, oil and gas pipeline, infrastructure development, civil contracting and warehousing and logistics business with a strong international presence in power transmission and distribution.

M&M’s business unit MFCS inaugurates new dealership in Thiruvalla, Kerala

Mahindra & Mahindra’s (M&M) business unit - Mahindra First Choice Services (MFCS) multi-brand certified used car company, has inaugurated its 17th dealership in Kerala and 308th outlet in India. Jewel Motos is located at M C Road, Thiruvalla and is spread over 4500 square feet.

Mahindra First Choice Services (MFCS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra, is a chain of multi brand car workshops across major cities in India like Bangalore, Nasik, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Vapi, Nellore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Ludhiana and Delhi NCR. The company aims to offer a world class car servicing experience in India at value for money prices.

GAIL allocates 1 MMTPA of US LNG volume to Singapore arm for global trading

GAIL (India) has allocated one MMTPA of LNG volume sourced from the United States to its subsidiary GAIL Global (Singapore) (GGSPL) for trading in the global market. This experience of global trading would help to develop requisite skill sets and competence within the company and thereby expand the business in the global LNG market in a self-sustaining manner. GAIL opened its Singapore office in 2011 through GGSPL for sourcing Natural Gas and for trading in LNG and petrochemicals, etc.

Besides, the company plans to venture into LNG shipping to bring LNG volume from the US, doubling the capacity of Dabhol LNG terminal, upstream investment in Tanzania and setting up floating LNG re-gasification terminal in Andhra Pradesh along with GDF Suez and Shell.

GAIL was the first Asian company to have signed a long term LNG sales and purchase agreement with Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC, USA in 2011 for supply of 3.5 MTPA LNG over 20 years. This agreement had price linkage with Henry-Hub price instead of Crude oil and signaled a new approach in gas pricing.

Markets likely to open lower amid mixed global cues

Markets are likely to open flat to negative on mixed global cues. At 0820 hrs, the SGX Nifty was down 28 points at 6,106.

Overnight, the Dow industrials eked out a slim gain on Monday to end at another record high, after the Nasdaq topped 4,000 for the first time in 13 years and then slipped to close below that level.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.05 percent, to end at 16,072, another nominal record closing high. Earlier, the Dow hit yet another all-time intraday high at 16,110. But the S&P 500 dipped 0.13 percent, to finish at 1,802.

The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.07 percent, to close 3,995. Earlier, the Nasdaq touched an intraday high at 4,007 - its first moved above 4,000 in 13 years. But the Nasdaq pulled back in late trading.

Asian shares headed for a third straight session of gains, though Tokyo's Nikkei benchmark retreated from a six-month high as the yen recovered some of Monday's steep losses.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.3 percent, building on a 0.3 percent rise in the previous session, though it faced resistance at its 50-day moving average.

Tokyo's Nikkei share average . shed 0.7 percent after it climbed 1.5 percent on Monday to within sight of a 5-1/2 year peak reached in May.

Oil prices stabilized on Tuesday after Monday's slide as traders questioned how quickly the Iranian nuclear accord could translate into higher supplies, while the yen came off a four-year trough against the euro.