Sensex, Nifty flatten ahead of expiry

Finally, BSE Sensex closed flat at 20,420, while NSE Nifty closed almost unchanged at 6057.

A highly choppy trading session ended on a flat note on Wednesday ahead of the F&O expiry. After opening with a positive bias, the benchmark indices were stuck in a narrow trading band and were unable to find any specific direction throughout the day. 

The consumer durables, auto, FMCG, metals and the oil and gas stocks were among the top gainers. On the other hand, the power, realty and telecom stocks were under pressure. The mid-cap index ended with marginal gains while the small-cap index ended marginally lower.


Amar Ambani Head of Research at IIFL said, “The F&O expiry and global cues are what will dictate the proceedings going forward. We expect volatility to spike on account of November month expiry. The political clash is underway and investors will also pay close attention to check how the sentiment is.”

Nestle SA may up its stake in Nestle India to 75% via share buyback: Report

Nestle SA is reportedly looking to up its stake in Nestle India to 75% from the current 62.8% and is planning to do so via share buyback. Further, Nestle India’s share buyback is seen at healthy premium to market price.

Nestle has its presence in India for around nine decades, making it one of the oldest company in India. Nestle has created brands like Nestle Milkmaid, Nestle Everyday, Maggi Noodles, Maggi Soups, Polo, Kit Kat, Nescafe and many more.

BSE to launch currency derivatives trading

The Bombay Stock Exchange will launch its platform for trading in currency derivatives from Friday, making it the fourth bourse in the country to offer such trades.

Other stock exchanges present in the currency futures segment are — National Stock Exchange, MCX-SX and United Stock Exchange.

“Exchange is pleased to inform trading members that it will be launching trading in currency and interest rate derivatives with effect from Friday, November 29, 2013,” BSE said in a notification.

Currency derivative contracts

Currency derivative contracts allow investors to take position on change in foreign exchange rates between pairs of two currencies, such as rupee and dollar.

According to BSE, the currency futures trading would be commenced on the contracts on US Dollar-Indian Rupee, Euro-Indian Rupee, British Pound-Indian Rupee and Japanese Yen-Indian Rupee.

“Currency options trading shall be commenced on the contracts on US Dollar-Indian Rupee,” it added.

Further, with a view to encourage active participation on its currency derivatives platform, BSE has also decided not to levy any transaction charges, until further notice.

However, trading members in the currency derivatives segment would have to make a one-time contribution of Rs 250 towards the ‘Investor Protection Fund’, it said.

As per the guidelines, trading on the segment would take place between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

NTPC to open bond issue on December 3; will raise Rs 1,750 crore

NTPC, country’s largest power producer is all set to open its bond issue, to raise up to Rs 1,750 crore, on December 3, 2013, while the issue is scheduled to be closed on December 16, 2013. Under the offer, the company will issue tax-free secured redeemable non-convertible bonds.

The base issue size aggregates to Rs 1,000 crore with an option to retain oversubscription up to Rs 750 crore for issuance of additional bonds, aggregating to up to Rs 1,750 crore. The raised amount will be used for funding of capital expenditure and refinancing for meeting the debt requirement in on-going projects.

The lead managers to the issue are ICICI Securities, A K Capital Services, Axis Capital, SBI Capital Markets and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.

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.

Cadbury India to set up its largest manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh: Report

Cadbury India, a confectionery firm has reportedly inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Government to set up its largest manufacturing plant in the State. This new plant will be spread across 134 acres at Sri City. The company will develop the project in four phases by 2020, in the meanwhile aims to complete the first phase by mid-2015.

Cadbury India operates in four categories viz. Chocolate Confectionery, Milk Food Drinks, Candy and Gum category. In the Chocolate Confectionery business, Cadbury has maintained its undisputed leadership over the years. Some of the key brands are Cadbury Dairy Milk, 5 Star, Perk, Éclairs and Celebrations.

EMS Free Equity Index Fund buys 27.60 lakh shares of Tech Mahindra: Report

Emerging Markets Sudan (EMS) Free Equity Index Fund has reportedly bought 27.60 lakh shares or 1.19% stake of Tech Mahindra through the open market route. The shares were purchased on an average price of Rs 1710.24 valuing the transaction to Rs 473.60 crore.

Tech Mahindra is a leading provider of solutions and services to the telecommunications industry with a majority stake owned by Mahindra & Mahindra. The company, since 2002 has operations in China with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou.

Sundaram Finance’s BPO arm secures two Multi Year BPO deals in Australia

Sundaram Finance’s BPO arm Sundaram Business Services has secured two Multi Year BPO deals in Australia. The company will be providing back office Pension Fund Administration services for two large decades old Melbourne based Accounting Firms.

In addition to the two multi-year deals, the company has also bagged two more deals for back office services in the portfolio management and unit registry space, both from Australian firms.

Sundaram Finance is one of the oldest and largest providers of finance for the acquisition of commercial vehicles of all makes. The commercial vehicle finance provided by it helps the small operators to acquire vehicles with minimum hassle and documentation.

TCS shines on plan to open largest delivery centre in Hyderabad

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the leading IT services, consulting and business solutions firm, is planning to open its largest delivery centre at Adibatla in Hyderabad by early next financial year. This new centre will accommodate 26,000 employees. Meanwhile, the company is also planning to hire 50,000 new people in 2013-14 fiscal, of which 25,000 are laterals. Currently, the company has around 2.85 lakh employees spread across the globe.

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPO, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services.

Foreign banks converting to WoS to be exempt from capital gains tax, stamp duty: RBI

In a big sign of relief to the foreign banks desirous of converting their branches into wholly owned subsidiaries in India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified that conversion of existing foreign bank branches into wholly owned subsidiaries in India will neither attract any capital gains tax nor stamp duty. 

The foreign banks were confused over the incidence of tax if they convert braches to wholly owned subsidiaries and sought queries from the central bank regarding the issue. Earlier, this month, the RBI has said that foreign banks, which do not provide adequate disclosures and having complex structures would have to operate in India only through wholly-owned subsidiaries (WoS) in order to regulate and avoid 2008-like crisis. The initial minimum paid-up equity capital or net worth for wholly owned subsidiaries should be Rs 500 crore it added. However, it allowed the foreign banks operating in India before August 2010 to continue their operations in branch model.

The recent RBI guidelines were issued on the back of 2008 global financial crisis, which has emerged due to the growing complexity and inter-connectedness of financial institutions. The central bank has also allowed foreign banks to list their subsidiaries in the local stock exchanges. At present, foreign banks have presence in India only through branches. There are around 43 foreign banks operating in India with a network of 333 branches as of March 2013. 

Tata Teleservices gains on the buzz of its subsidiary unveiling social packs

Tata Teleservices’ mobility and business services brand - Tata DOCOMO has reportedly unveiled new data packs, which will allow its customers to enjoy popular social networking sites with specially customized value for money plans. Customers can subscribe to these packs by dialing *123# from their Tata Docomo mobile.

This new package is available daily and monthly basis. The Daily Social Combo Pack priced at Re 1 offers free 10 MB usage of Facebook, Twitter and Facebook messenger services for a single day, while the monthly Social Combo Pack for Rs 30 offers 300MB usage of the same.

Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML) is a part of the Tata Group. This telecom services company has its presence all over Maharashtra and Goa.

10th round of oil and gas blocks auction to be announced by Jan 15: Oil Minister

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has said that 10th round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) auction would be announced by January 15, 2014. Oil minister further added that the government would auction 86 hydrocarbon blocks out of which 54 blocks have received clearances from various agencies and the rest of blocks will get approval by the time of bidding in January next year. A number of oil and gas blocks in the past were stuck due to lack of clearances from various agencies include Defence and Environmental ministries.

10th round of NELP auction will be the second highest offering of blocks since the advent of NELP in 1997, a common platform for public and private sector companies to bid for the blocks. As per the government, 10th round of auction is likely to be held on new terms wherein a bidder shall be asked to quote the amount of oil or gas output it is willing to offer to the government from the first day of production. Presently, oil companies are allowed to share the profit with the government only after recovering the entire cost of exploration and production.

Meanwhile, oil ministry has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its oil needs. India currently imports around 80 percent of its oil needs and the Ministry wants this to be cut to 50 percent by 2020 and by 25 percent in 2025 through intensive exploration and exploitation of untapped reserves. Presently, only 0.93 million sq km area in India is held under exploration and production in 19 basins as compared to total estimated sedimentary area of 3.14 million square kilometres, comprising 26 sedimentary basins.

Diageo acquires over 19 lakh shares of United Spirits

World’s largest spirits maker Diageo Plc, which is in the process of acquiring majority stake in United Spirits (USL), has acquired over 19 lakh shares of the Vijay Mallya-led United Spirits. The company has acquired the said shares through its wholly--owned subsidiary Relay BV. The shares were acquired at Rs 2,400 apiece, valuing the transaction at Rs 472.31 crore.

Meanwhile, foreign fund house Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte offloaded more than 39 lakh shares of United Spirits worth Rs 943 crore through open market at an average price of Rs 2,406.51.

Last year, Diageo had announced that it would pick up 53.4 per cent stake in USL in a multi-structured deal for a total of Rs 11,166.5 crore.

United Spirits is the largest spirits company in India and a flagship entity of $2 billion UB group. It manufactures wide range of whisky, vodka, rum and other spirits.

Food Ministry to seek cabinet nod for providing interest-free loans to sugar mills

Amid rising concerns over the increasing financial costs of the Indian sugar industry, Food Ministry will soon seek Cabinet nod for providing interest-free loans to cash-starved sugar mills to help them meet working capital requirements. The ministry's move follows a meeting of informal group of ministers, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar last week, which discussed current issues faced by the sugar industry. Presently, lenders are cautious for giving loans to sugar mills due to their poor financial condition.

Food Secretary Sudhir Kumar has said that if banks come forward to lend the sugar industry, food ministry will pay the interest accrued on loans from the sugar development fund, which is around Rs 12,000 crore. Meanwhile, if banks lend about Rs 3,000 crore for two years to the sugar industry, interest would be about Rs 380-400 crore against the excise paid by them over the last two sugar seasons.

Domestic sugar industry is facing financial problems owing to the increase in cost of production and sharp fall in domestic sugar prices on account of surplus supplies. Recently, sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s second largest producer region, have refused to operate due to the high cane price of Rs 280 per quintal fixed by the state for 2013-14 marketing year (October-September).  Domestic mills cannot pay more than Rs 225 per quintal. Food ministry wants to take steps soon as if the logjam continues and crushing gets delayed, it will adversely impact the sugar production in the country. Meanwhile, sugar availability in the country would be sufficient to meet the domestic demand of about 22 million tonnes. India’s sugar production is expected to increase at 250 lakh tonnes in the 2013-14 season (October-September) as against 245 lakh tonnes in the previous year. At present, annual domestic consumption is at 230 lakh tonnes.

Govt to trim planned expenditure by 15% to contain fiscal deficit at 4.8% of GDP

In order to contain fiscal deficit at the committed 4.8% of the GDP, the government may trim planned expenditure by over Rs 80,000 crore or about 15% of the budgeted amount in the current fiscal in view of lower utilization of allocated funds so far this fiscal.

While, the total expenditure, including non-plan, is budgeted at Rs 16.65 lakh crore, the budgeted total plan expenditure stands at Rs 5.55 lakh crore for this fiscal. Back in 2012-13 fiscal, the government too had trimmed plan expenditure by over Rs 90,000 crore to Rs 4.29 lakh crore, from Rs 5.21 lakh crore estimated in budget to contain fiscal deficit at 4.9% of GDP.

Further, as per revised estimates for the current fiscal, the Finance Ministry has cut the allocation to the Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Human Resource Development by about Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 5,000 crore respectively.

Notably, the 2013-14 budget had allocated Rs 80,194 crore to the rural development ministry, which runs many of the UPA government's flagship programmes like rural job guarantee and road construction schemes. However, going by some media reports, the government has trimmed budget allocation to Rural Development Ministry by some odd 18% alone. Raising concern about this, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, underscoring that such a cut would hinder development.

Government's back-up plan to trim planned expenditure was expected given that fiscal deficit touched 76% of budget estimates in the first six months of the current fiscal. Earlier, the government had come out with austerity measures such as putting a freeze on fresh appointments, banning holding of its conferences in 5-star hotels and barring officials from executive class air travel in order to keep a check on the fiscal deficit.

HDFC MF buys 95 lakh shares of Ashoka Buildcon: Report

HDFC Mutual Fund on account of HDFC Equity Fund has reportedly bought 75 lakh shares or 4.74% stake of Ashoka Buildcon through the open market route. The shares were purchased on an average price of Rs 54 valuing the transaction to Rs 40.50 crore.

Meanwhile, HDFC MF has also purchased 20 lakh shares or 1.26% stake of Ashoka Buildcon on the account of HDFC Infrastructure Fund through the open market route. The shares were purchased on an average price of Rs 54 valuing the transaction to Rs 10.80 crore.

Ashoka Buildcon builds and operates roads and bridges in India on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. It currently operates one of the highest numbers of toll-based BOT projects in India.

Edelweiss Financial Services increases FIIs holding to 28%

Edelweiss Financial Services has increased the limits of Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) holding in the equity share capital of the company from 24% to 28%. The board of directors has approved for the same subject to the approval of the members.

The increase has been in accordance with the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000.

Edelweiss Financial Services is India’s leading diversified financial services company. It is engaged in the business of investment banking, brokerage services, asset management and financing.

L&T offloads 0.06% stake in L&T Finance Holdings for Rs 7.68 crore

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has offloaded 0.06% stake or 10,00,554 shares in its financial services arm L&T Finance Holdings on November 25 for Rs 7.68 crore though the National Stock Exchange and the BSE.

Following the transaction, L&T has 141.19 crore shares, or a 82.2% stake, in L&T Finance Holdings. L&T sold 7.06 lakh shares through the NSE, which fetched Rs 5.42 crore, while it received Rs 2.26 core by selling 2.94 lakh shares on the BSE.

L&T Finance Holdings offers financial products and services across the corporate, retail and infrastructure finance sectors. It is registered with the Reserve Bank as a non-banking financial company.

JSPL forays in Jharkhand with launch of ‘Black Panther’ TMT rebar

Jindal Steel & Power has launched its retail brand ‘Black Panther’ TMT rebars in state of Jharkhand on November 26, 2013. The TMT rebars are produced at the TMT Rebar Mill in Patratu, with a production capacity of 1 MTPA. The TMT rebars have been manufactured for both residential and industrial projects and the company has made it available across a network of 40 distributors and over 1,000 dealers.

‘Black Panther’ TMT rebars is a high quality brand that will bring the best results for all construction needs. The Thermo Mechanically Treated (TMT) rebars are aimed at meeting the requirements of varying housing and construction needs, particularly for building projects in highly seismic zones.

JSPL is a part of Jindal Group and is a leading player in Steel, Power, Mining, Oil & Gas and Infrastructure. The company produces economical and efficient steel and power through backward integration from its own captive coal and iron-ore mines and passes on the benefits to its customers.

Orient Paper & Industries’ Fan production stood at 4,09,497 units in October

Orient Paper & Industries has reported operational performance of Fan Division of the company for the month of October, 2013. The production of Fan for October, 2013 stood at 4,09,497 units, while the Export Sales of Fan for the same period stood at 78,654 units.

Orient Paper & Industries is part of the C K Birla Group. Today it has emerged as a multi-product, multi-location company. The company manufactures and markets range of fans under the name Orient Fans. It manufactures ceiling fans, desk fans, wall-mounted fans, pedestal fans, exhaust fans and multi-utility fans. It has production capacity of over 3 million units per annum.

Thermax bags order worth Rs 269 crore from a leading petrochemical company

Thermax has received an order valued approximately Rs 269 crore for the design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of 3 Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs) from a leading petrochemical company for its proposed captive power plant as a part of its expansion program.

Each HRSG generates 275 ton per hour (TPH) High Pressure steam and 30 TPH Low Pressure steam for the customer’s captive power and process requirements.

Thermax, a leading energy and environment solutions provider is one of the few companies in the world that offers integrated innovative solutions in the areas of heating, cooling, power, water and waste management, air pollution control and chemicals.

Flat opening likely amid mixed global cues

Markets are likely to open on a flat note on the back of subdued global cues. At 0820 hrs, the SGX Nifty was down 18 points at 6,047.

Overnight, Wall Street had faded late after upbeat U.S. data on home building and house prices were offset by a disappointing reading on consumer confidence.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed its early gains to end flat, while the S&P 500 Index eked out a 0.01% rise.

The Nasdaq managed to outperform thanks to gains in big-cap technology stocks and finished above 4,000 for the first time since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

Adding to the cautious mood was an escalation of political tensions in parts of Asia as the White House has called China's demands that airlines inform Beijing when flying over disputed islands in the East China Sea "unnecessarily inflammatory."

Asian share markets nudged into the red on Wednesday following an uninspiring performance by Wall Street, while a dip in the dollar against the yen prompted profit-taking on Japanese stocks.

Losses were light as the Nikkei eased 0.2% and inched further away from the six-month peak touched on Monday. Conviction was equally lacking elsewhere, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan 0.1% lower.