SEBI meets IT cos to discuss regulatory hurdles

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) met new technology companies to discuss the problems they face in raising capital in the primary market, according to a media report.

SEBI wants to encourage domestic companies to consider listing in the home market instead of foreign ones, the report added.

SEBI chairman UK Sinha said that it would address any regulatory hurdles with regard to fund raising.

Last year, SEBI had also introduced a discussion paper on crowd funding, but has not yet finalised any framework in that regard.

McNally Bharat stock up 4%

Shares of McNally Bharat Engineering Company surged by nearly 4 per cent to a high of Rs. 80.30 on BSE after the company has informed BSE that MBE Coal & Minerals Technology GmbH, Cologne, a 100% step subsidiary of the Company has received an order from VALE group for an amount of Euro 5.1 million [INR 38 crores (approx)] for supply of spare parts to optimize iron ore beneficiation activities

 The stock has hit a high of Rs. 81 and a low of Rs. 77.30.

 Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 0.20 lk shares.

Top corporate news of the day - January 08, 2015

Praj Industries said it has bagged an order from Uganda’s Kakira Sugar to build an ethanol plant with a capacity of 60,000 litres per day.

After a gap of three months, Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd re-started operations at its plant. In all probability, the company will be able to come out with urea production in another five days.

After a gap of almost seven years, Reliance Industries is gaining a foothold in supplying diesel to the Indian Railways.

Coal India Ltd struggled to produce and ship less than half of its daily target on the first day of a five-day worker strike hampering government efforts to reform the country's coal industry and ease its power crisis.

After Reliance Industries demanded interest on KG-D6 gas payments flowing into gas pool account operated by GAIL, the state-owned firm has agreed to invest the receivables in short-term interest bearing deposits with public sector banks.

Godrej Appliances and Panasonic have hiked prices of their products by 3-5%, becoming the first among their ilk to hike prices after excise duty was raised by 2% from 1 January.

Hero MotoCorp said the strike by transporters in Haryana has hit half of its despataches from Gurgaon and Dharuhera plants.

Five months after the formal announcement, Adani Power's Rs.60bn acquisition of Lanco Infratech's 1200-mw thermal power plant in Udupi seems to have run into rough weather and delays.

Employees' unions at ING Vysya Bank staged a protest with demands for 'job security' in the wake of its proposed merger with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

On the backdrop of increase in demand and GDP growth, Ashok Leyland Ltd has said that it will outperform the industry's targeted growth of 10% end of this fiscal.

Gearing up to enter new segments this year, an upbeat Maruti Suzuki India says that the price hikes following the withdrawal of excise duty sops will not affect auto sales.

Top economic news of the day – January 08, 2015

Inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission has decided to send back Trai's recommendations on 3G spectrum pricing for a reconsideration.

The Finance Minister has said infrastructure sectors such as coal, power and cement have been recording double digit growth in the last few months while growth in the manufacturing sector is still patchy.

The Government has allowed fertiliser firms to produce 100% neem-coated urea, a move aimed at helping farmers boost income and reducing subsidy bill by up to Rs 65bn.

Sensex surges nearly 300 points

At 9:17AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 27,218 up 309 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,197 up 95 points.

The BSE Mid-cap Index and BSE Small-cap Index was trading up at 1%.

Auto, Consumer Durables, Power, banking, capital goods, FMCG, Oil and gas, healthcare metal, realty indices are gainers.

In the eurozone, inflation data for December showed consumer prices fell 0.2%, marking the first negative reading since late 2009, says a report. This led to a recovery in the European stock markets as investors expect European Central Bank will launch quantitative easing at its Jan. 22 meeting. US crude oil finally saw a rebound after falling below the $47 a barrel.

Infosys will be on the watchlist ahead of its results tomorrow.

US markets staged a comeback. The Dow Jones rose 212.88 points, or 1.23 percent, to 17,584.52, while the S&P 500 gained 23.29 points, or 1.16 percent, to 2,025.9 and the Nasdaq Composite added 57.73 points, or 1.26 percent, to 4,650.47.

Asian markets are firm with the Nikkei 225 up over 1.5% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index has gained around half a percent. China's Shanghai index, which is however in the red.

HDFC Bank could see action on reports that it has appointed Bank of America-Merrill Lynch as the lead banker for its sale of shares. HDFC Bank is expected to raise ~Rs 10,000 crore from domestic and foreign investors, the report added.

Promoters of CDSL and top officials of the depository had met some time ago to discuss the valuations and other details, the sources said. In addition to BSE, other large shareholders of CDSL include Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Canara Bank, among others.

The stakeholders are seeking premium valuations due to regulatory restrictions in setting up such a new venture and the oligopolistic nature of depository operations in India.