BHEL surges 8.5% on Rs 7800 crore order from TANGEDCO

Shares of  Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) gained as much as 8.5 percent intraday Thursday on getting a Rs 7,800 crore contract for setting up a 1,320 MW supercritical thermal power project in Tamil Nadu. It is an EPC contract (engineering, procurement and construction) from Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), BHEL said in a statement. The order is for setting up a 2x660 MW coal-fired thermal power project at Ennore Special Economic Zone in Tamil Nadu. For this tender, BHEL partnered with Power Finance Corporation by syndicating the financing package in the current competitive environment. With this project, BHEL has now won orders for supply and installation of 35 supercritical boilers and 30 turbines of 660/700/800 MW ratings. The power plant will be constructed on a reclaimed ash pond, calling for specialised civil design, utilising an otherwise barren land. BHEL's scope of work in the project includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply, construction, erection, testing and commissioning for the EPC Package. The equipment for the contract will be manufactured at BHEL's Trichy, Haridwar, Bhopal, Ranipet, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Jhansi plants, while the company's Power Sector - Southern Region will be responsible for civil works and erection or commissioning of the equipment. At 14:33 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 217.85, up Rs 15.90, or 7.87 percent on the BSE.

Sensex, Nifty strong; United Bank up 10%, Polaris down 17%

Bull remained in full control of Dalal Street. The Sensex shot up 306.79 points or 1.17 percent to 26553.58 and the Nifty rose 89.95 points or 1.15 percent to 7932.65 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. About 1795 shares have advanced, 522 shares declined, and 64 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares of ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, L&T, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Hindalco, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Labs, Sesa Sterlite and Maruti Suzuki gained 1-5 percent while ITC and Mahindra & Mahindra were only losers. United Bank of India gained 10 percent as media report suggested that financial services secretary says the bank is likely candidate for merger this fiscal. Polaris Financial Technology tanked 17 percent on demerger of Intellect Design Arena. The company has fixed the record date as October 10, 2014 for the purpose of determining the list of shareholders who are entitled to receive the shares in Intellect Design Arena, the resulting company after the demerger. 

Cipla up 3% on collaboration with Teva for South Africa

Shares of  Cipla  gained as much as 3.3 percent on Thursday after its subsidiary Medpro Pharmaceutica entered into collaboration with Teva Pharmaceuticals for South African market. Medpro Pharmaceutica is a subsidiary company of Cipla Medpro, the third largest pharmaceutical company in South Africa. Cipla, in 2013, bought out Cipla Medpro completely for Rs 2,707 crore. Teva is the largest generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world. The collaboration is a sales and distribution arrangement whereby Cipla Medpro will exclusively market Teva's broad pharmaceutical product portfolio in South Africa, says the company in its filing, adding the collaboration will focus on oncology, central nervous system, women's health, cardiovascular, ophthalmology and other specialty products. The collaboration is subject to approval by the Competition Commission of South Africa.   At 10:43 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 598.05, up Rs 12.75, or 2.18 percent on the BSE.

Tata Motors enters into partnership with Carzonrent

Tata Motors has entered into partnership with Carzonrent to offer a self drive city car rental service that is a first of its kind in India. The partnership entails handover of 200 Nano Twists to Carzonrent for the self drive service in Delhi NCR. These cars will be available at 43 locations across the National Capital Region (NCR). The service is only offered in Delhi-NCR in the first phase but the company plans to expand to other locations based on the success of this partnership. The service costs Rs 99 per hour, Rs 399 for an entire day or Rs 6,999 for a month. Carzonrent requires a Rs 5,000 approval amount which will be refunded after return of the car. Tata Motors is India's largest automobile company, is the leader in commercial vehicles in each segment, and among the top in passenger vehicles with winning products in the compact, midsize car and utility vehicle segments. It is also the world's fourth largest truck and bus manufacturer.

Sensex up 300 pts, Nifty reclaims 7900; Hindalco, BHEL zoom

Equity benchmarks rebounded in early trade on Thursday with the Sensex rising 294.82 points or 1.12 percent at 26541.61. The Nifty reclaimed 7900, up 84.50 points or 1.08 percent at 7927.20 post positive US cues. The broader markets too saw buying interest with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining 1 percent each. About five shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.   Hindalco topped the buying list, up 4 percent post Alcoa earnings. BHEL surged 3.5 percent on getting Rs 7800 crore EPC order from Tamil Nadu Generation & Distribution Corporation. Dr Reddys Labs, ICICI Bank, SBI and DLF were other gainers, up 1.5-2 percent. The Indian rupee gained in early trade. It has opened higher by 27 paise at 61.13 per dollar against previous close 61.40. Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "Dollar gave back its gains due to reference to dollar strength and its impact on inflation in the FOMC minutes released overnight. This is expected to strengthen rupee today. USD-INR is expected to trade today in a range of 61.10-61.45/dollar." On the global front, Asian equity markets rose after US indices posted their biggest one-day gain of 2014. Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.2-0.8 percent while Shanghai and Kospi fell 0.4-0.6 percent. In the US, stocks ended about 2 percent higher as markets extended gains on the FOMC minutes and recovered from Tuesday's selloff, closing 274.8 points higher; the Dow Jones industrial average had its best day since December 18, 2013. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had their best day since nearly a year ago on October 10, 2013. And in Europe, shares closed mostly lower, as fears over global growth and the Ebola virus spooked investors. Peripheral markets like Russia, Portugal and Irish markets were all under pressure and ended with cuts of 1.5 percent to 2 percent. In the currency space, dollar slipped to near 2-week lows against the euro after minutes of the Federal Reserve policy meet suggested the Central Bank could take its time in raising interest rates. In commodities, Brent crude held on the USD 91 level as global growth forecasts have raised new concerns about oil demand. And that too, at a time when US crude inventory levels continue to rise.