Lupin launches generic Exforge tablets In US

The stock has hit a high of Rs 2034 and a low of Rs 2004.

Lupin Ltd has announced the launch of generic Exforge tablets In US.

The stock was up 2% at Rs 2039.

The stock has hit a high of Rs 2034 and a low of Rs 2004.

Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 0.24 lk shares 

Sensex, Nifty in green; healthcare & banking stocks gain

The CNX Midcap and Smallcap indices are up over 0.5 per cent each at 13,088 and 5,676, respectively. 

The market has jumped in noon deals on the back of fresh buying in select banking and FMCG shares.

The Sensex is now up 123 points at 28,081, and the NSE Nifty has gained 33 points at 8,524.

The broader market is also trading with substantial gains. The CNX Midcap and Smallcap indices are up over 0.5 per cent each at 13,088 and 5,676, respectively.


The India VIX (Volatility) index has declined nearly 2 per cent to 14.2275.

Among sectors -

Sun Pharma remains the major gainer, the stock is now up over 4 per cent at Rs. 1,067.

IndusInd Bank has rallied 3.5 per cent to Rs. 916. Punjab National Bank, IDFC and Yes Bank are the other major gainers in the financial space.

Bharti Airtel has surged over 2 per cent to Rs. 401.

Hindalco, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Dr.Reddy's are the other major gainers.

On the other hand, HCL Technologies continues to languish with a loss of over 4 per cent at Rs. 941. Infosys too has shed 2.4 per cent to Rs. 2,165.

BHEL, Maruti, Gail India and BPCL are the other major losers.

The market breadth is extremely positive - out of 1,715 stocks traded on the NSE, 1,128 have advanced and 333 have declined. 

Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy jump ahead of merger

Ranbaxy informed the BSE that committee of the directors of the company fixed 7, April 2015 as the record date to determine the names of the shareholders of Ranbaxy.

Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy is trading on a firm note as today is the last trading day of Ranbaxy Laboratories on the bourses.

Last week, Ranbaxy informed the BSE that committee of the directors of the company fixed 7, April 2015 as the record date to determine the names of the shareholders of Ranbaxy.

Sun Pharma has now jumped 4.6 per cent at Rs. 1,066 and so far has touched a high of Rs. 1,068.

The BSE counter has seen trades of around 132,000 shares, as against two-week daily average volume of 269,000 shares.

Similarly, Ranbaxy has also surged to a high of Rs. 852, and is now up 4.2 per cent at Rs. 848.

On the BSE 137,000 shares have been traded at the counter as against the daily average volume of 98,000 shares in the past two-weeks.

Meanwhile, the Sensex has added 86 points at 28,044

Spectrum auction: Telecom cos to pay Rs 10,791 crore to govt

The payments totalling Rs 10,791 crore on 31 March 2015, were a part of the nearly Rs 29,000 crore that the auction winners need to pay by April 8 

The government has received Rs. 10,791 crore from mobile phone operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm as part of upfront payments for airwaves following the spectrum auction, according to a media report.

 The payments totalling Rs 10,791 crore on 31 March 2015, were a part of the nearly Rs 29,000 crore that the auction winners need to pay by April 8, the report further said. 

Another exit! Wipro’s chief business operations officer Satishchandra Doreswamy resigns

The company reportedly said that said that Satishchandra Doreswamy had left the company to pursue other opportunities. 

Wipro's chief business operations officer and former TCS veteran Satishchandra Doreswamy has resigned from the company, according to reports.

The company reportedly said that said that Satishchandra Doreswamy  had left the company to pursue other opportunities. 

The company has undertook reshuffle that also resulted in the elevation of two executives 

The company recently appointed Abid Ali Neemuchwala as its chief operating officer.

There has been couple of exits over the past two months.

March Sales: Maruti Suzuki clocks total sales of 1.11 lk units

The Company’s total sale in 2014-15 was 1,292,415 units. This is the highest annual sale ever by the Company. The previous high was in 2010-11, when the Company had sold 1,271,005 units.

Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Limited sold a total of 111,555 units in March 2015. This includes 103,719 units in domestic market and 7836 units in exports. The Company had sold a total of 113,350 units in March 2014.

The Company’s total sale in 2014-15 was 1,292,415 units. This is the highest annual sale ever by the Company. The previous high was in 2010-11, when the Company had sold 1,271,005 units.

Domestic sale in 2014-15, at 1,170,702 units, was also the highest ever for the Company. 

Total Domestic Sales increased by 1.4% and the Total Export Sales  declined by 29.3%. The total sales including domestic and export fell by a marginal 1.6% YoY.

Passenger Cars segment also saw some dip in its numbers, as it clocked the sales of 85733 units in March 2015 as against 86018 units in March 2014. 

Choppiness continues for Sensex, Nifty

The broader market is out-performing the BSE benchmark index, the Smallcap index has advanced over a per cent at 11,020 and the Midcap index has gained almost a per cent at 10,679

The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty key benchmark index have turned choppy in early trade, amid mixed global cues and ahead of holidays.

The market will remain shut for four days from tomorrow onwards on account Mahavir Jayanti and Goods Friday and regular holidays.

The BSE Sensex so far has touched a low at 27,889 and a high at 28,003. Currently, the BSE Sensex is up 29 points at 27,986.

The NSE Nifty is now up five points at 8,496. The NSE index has touched low and high at 8,464 and 8,497, respectively.

The broader market is out-performing the BSE benchmark index, the Smallcap index has advanced over a per cent at 11,020 and the Midcap index has gained almost a per cent at 10,679.

Among sectors, the BSE Healthcare index has spurted over a per cent at 17,470. The Bankex, Auto, Realty and FMCG indices are the other notable gainers.

On the other hand, IT index has slipped 1.4 per cent at 11,247 and the Metal and Oil & Gas indices are down 0.3-0.4 per cent each.

The breadth is fairly positive in morning deals - out of 2,005 stocks traded on the BSE so far 1,364 stocks have advanced, while 562 stocks have declined.

In the Healthcare space - Torrent Pharma has soared over 2.5 per cent at Rs. 1,191. Cadila Healthcare has surged 2 per cent at Rs. 1,774.

Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy have jumped over 1.5 per cent each at Rs. 3,548, Rs 1,039 and Rs. 827, respectively.

Asia-Pacific Issuers' negative rating bias steadies as regional economies stabilize: S&P Report

"We expect the regional economy to chart steady GDP growth, 5.3% in 2015 and 5.4% in 2016. This should keep the net ratings bias on an even trajectory," says S&P Report 

The net negative ratings bias for the Asia-Pacific issuer pool has flattened out in recent months as regional economies stabilize, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a report published today titled, "Asia-Pacific Credit Outlook 2Q 2015: Negative Bias Steadies But Stays High."

"We expect the regional economy to chart steady GDP growth, 5.3% in 2015 and 5.4% in 2016. This should keep the net ratings bias on an even trajectory," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Terry Chan said. "However, the negative bias remains high at 11% at end February 2015, with varying performance by sector."

The automotive sector has fared relatively well. At the other end of the spectrum, cyclical industries are not doing as well. These include the chemicals (with a 23% net negative bias), real estate development (22%), retail (18%), and capital goods (17%) industries.

The public finance sector has shown an upward trend in terms of ratings bias. By contrast, the ratings bias trend for the real estate development sector has been declining. For the other sectors, the rating bias direction has been volatile, given the statistically small number of entities in many of the sector pools. 

L&T bags order worth Rs. 5,580 crore from NTPC

The EPC project was won following international competitive bidding, involving several reputed bidders. 

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has secured a turnkey order from NTPC Limited for setting up a 2x660 MW greenfield Ultra-Supercritical Thermal Power Plant in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh on EPC basis.

Valued over Rs. 5,580 crore, the project entails design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of two coal-fired thermal units of 660 MW each with ultrasupercritical parameters. This is being done for the first time in the country. The EPC project was won following international competitive bidding, involving several reputed bidders.

Significantly, this is the first EPC package order awarded to L&T by NTPC for a complete Mthermal power plant. Earlier, L&T, through its joint venture company L&T-MHPS Boilers Pvt Ltd, had secured an order worth Rs.1885 crore from NTPC in September 2014 for setting up 2 units of 660 MW each supercritical steam generators for Tanda Thermal Power Plant Stage-2 in Uttar Pradesh.

“While this EPC package order from a central utility like NTPC has brought prestige to L&T, it also comes with the added responsibility of executing the power project under stringent norms and timelines” said Shailendra Roy, Whole-time Director (Power, Minerals and Metals). “L&T commenced its EPC power project execution for coal-fired power plants including manufacture of supercritical boiler-turbine-generator in 2009 and is now capable of delivering energy efficient and environmentally friendly thermal power plants to various clients across the region. Our 2x700 MW Rajpura supercritical thermal power plant in Punjab, executed on turnkey basis in record time, has recently completed one year of operations, thereby contributing towards the nation’s power requirement,” Roy.

In the field of supercritical boiler-turbine-generator, L&T has so far manufactured and supplied 10 turbines and 8 boilers of 660/700/800 MW unit sizes to various state utilities and independent power producers like Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Ltd, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd, Andhra Pradesh Power Development Corporation Ltd, Nabha Power Ltd and Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd. Thus in a short span of time, L&T has emerged as a competent and reliable solution provider in the EPC space with the capability of indigenously producing supercritical turbines and boilers for coal based power plants suiting varying needs of the Utilities. These boilers-turbines-generators have been produced at its state-of-the-art manufacturing complex at Hazira in Gujarat, through joint venture companies with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems.

L&T has also set up manufacturing capabilities at Hazira for power plant auxiliaries including high pressure piping, coal pulverisers, fans, air preheaters, feed-water heaters, condensers, EPS and heavy forgings. 

At 10:18AM, the stock were trading higher 1% at Rs. 1,733. The stock has hit a high of Rs. 1,739 and a low of Rs. 1,718 on BSE today.

Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 0.33 lk shares.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex is up 8 points at 27,966.

RBI relaxes foreign investment norms for exchange-traded forex derivatives

The RBI also said that foreign portfolio investors can take long or short positions of up to $5 million in Euro/INR, GBP/INR, JPY/INR pairs in exchange traded derivatives

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed rules for foreign investors in exchange-traded currency derivatives by increasing the trading limits allowed without an underlying exposure for the USD/INR pair to $15 million per exchange from $10 million earlier.

Presently, domestic participants are allowed to take a long (bought) as well as short (sold) position upto USD 10 million per exchange. As a measure of further liberalisation, it has now been decided to increase the limit (long as well as short) in USD-INR pair upto USD 15 million per exchange, RBI said in a notification on Tuesday.

In addition, domestic participants shall be allowed to take long as well as short positions in EUR-INR, GBP-INR and JPY-INR pairs, all put together, upto USD 5 million equivalent per exchange. These limits shall be monitored by the exchanges and breaches, if any, may be reported. For the convenience of monitoring, exchanges may prescribe fixed limits for the contracts in currencies other than USD such that these limits are within the equivalent of USD 5 million, it added.

The RBI also said that foreign portfolio investors can take long or short positions of up to $5 million in Euro/INR, GBP/INR, JPY/INR pairs in exchange traded derivatives.

The central bank also permitted importers to hedge up to 100 percent of their eligible limit in the exchange-traded market compared with 50 percent earlier. 

RBI approves amalgamation of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank

The scheme of amalgamation shall come into effect from 1 April 2015 

The RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has approved amalgamation of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The scheme of amalgamation shall come into effect from 1 April 2015.

Shares of ING Vysya Bank are trading up 0.69% at Rs. 942 on BSE against the previous of Rs. 936.

Kotak Mahindra Bank is trading flat at Rs. 1,312 against the previous close of Rs. 1,313 on BSE. 

Tata Steel divests entire stake in Lanka Special Steels

Lanka Special Steels was a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Steel incorporated in Sri Lanka. 

Tata Steel Ltd has announced that it has divested its entire stake in Lanka Special Steels for Rs 20.4 Cr in All-cash Deal.

Lanka Special Steels was a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Steel incorporated in Sri Lan

Bharti Airtel Group General Counsel & Company Secretary resigns

Rajendra Chopra, Dy. Company Secretary shall act as the Compliance Officer of the Company with effect from April 01, 2015

Bharti Airtel Ltd has announced that Mukesh Bhavnani, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary has resigned from the Company to pursue an assignment outside of the Company.

 The Board had noted his resignation which will be effective close of the business hours on March 31, 2015.

Rajendra Chopra, Dy. Company Secretary shall act as the Compliance Officer of the Company with effect from April 01, 2015.

RBI announces level of borrowings

The Reserve Bank would endeavour to conduct the auctions in a calibrated manner and distribute the borrowings evenly throughout the quarter

The Reserve Bank of India, in consultation with the State Governments, announces that the indicative quantum of total market borrowings by the State Governments and the Union Territory of Puducherry, for the quarter April to June 2015, is expected to be in the range of Rs. 45,000 crore to Rs. 55,000 crore.

The amount will be raised through auction of State Development Loans (SDLs) generally on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. The Reserve Bank would endeavour to conduct the auctions in a calibrated manner and distribute the borrowings evenly throughout the quarter.

The actual amount of borrowings would be intimated by way of press release two/three days prior to the actual auction day and would depend on the requirement of the State Governments, approval from the Government of India under Article 293(3) of the Constitution of India and the market conditions. 

Indices to open flat

Investors may prefer to wait and watch ahead of the results season before immediately committing fresh capital.

The indices may have ended flat on Tuesday after twisting and turning through the day. But that does not take away the fact that the Sensex and Nifty managed to post their best fiscal year gain since FY10. In fact, the recent subdued days saw higher delivery of shares, so much so that March delivery-based buying hit a two-year high. Counters which fell from their recent 52-week highs were in demand.

The outlook is a flat to negative start. The indices may be cautious ahead of a long weekend. Markets are closed on Thursday and Friday and will not be able to react to global cues and data till Monday. Investors may prefer to wait and watch ahead of the results season before immediately committing fresh capital. Global cues are also subdued. US indices closed in the red.  Dow Jones fell 1.11%, S&P shed 0.88% and Nasdaq dropped 0.94%. Energy shares were among the biggest drags as crude oil fell.

The Asian markets are mixed, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up by half a percent after Chinese manufacturing activity in March were better than expected. The Shanghai index in China was trading higher by 0.6%. While, the Nikkei index in Japan was down by 0.7%.

The country’s external debt stood at $461.9 billion as of end-December, up 3.5% from end-March 2014, data showed.  Meanwhile, February data for core sector growth fell to 1.4% as against 1.8% mom and 1.6% yoy. The culprits here were steel and natural gas. On the bright side, coal, cement and electricity output grew. This could attract some buying in cement and power shares.

Due to a fall in global prices, gas produced in India will cost 8% less during April-September, the govt said in a statement, due to a decline in global prices.

OMCs could remain in focus after IOC Chairman said the company will not have any inventory losses in the March quarter.

Sebi has reportedly proposed to ease listing norms to enable startups raise funds through initial public offerings (IPOs).

Former SAP Labs India MD Anirban Dey has joined Infosys subsidiary EdgeVerve as global head for software products.

The sharp rally in stocks during financial year 2014-15 has boosted the value of stock market investments of many companies with strong treasury operations, says a report.

In about 150 companies, the market value of the investments in stocks has more than doubled in the fiscal 2014-15, a report in ET added.

Reliance has signed a production-sharing contract with Myanmar's state-owned Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise for two offshore blocks that it bagged through competitive bidding in 2013.

The cabinet has reportedly recommended re-promulgation Of Land Acquisition Ordinance.

HCC Ltd has been awarded contract worth Rs 392.13 crore from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) for 4-laning of 26km long road on NH52 between Jamugurihat to Biswanath Chariali by-pass in Assam. The project will be completed in 36 months.

State Bank of India has announced that the Executive Committee of the Central Board (ECCB) has on March 30, 2015 authorised divestment of SBI's stake in SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd by up to 10%. 

eClerx Services has announced that its board approved entering into agreement to acquire 100% of CLX Europe for 25 mn Euros.

GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd ended higher by 16% at Rs 9.51. Later in the day, the stock hit 20% upper circuit. The company is planning to file a draft prospectus for an up to $250 mn initial public offer (IPO) of its airport unit soon, according to reports. 

GMR Infrastructure Ltd stock ended higher by 5% at Rs 16.60. As part of its ‘Asset Light, Asset Right’ approach, the company continuously explores the possibility of selling full/part stake in some of its operational Energy and Highway projects 

ITC stock ended 1% lower to Rs. 325 amid high volumes. The stock has hit a high of Rs 328 and a low of Rs 323.

Petron Engineering Construction hit the 20% upper circuit at Rs. 261 on news report that the company received an Order from KSS Petron for civil, structural & underground piping works for Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) of BPCL, worth Rs. 84.71 crore.

Mastek moved higher on receiving approval from NYSE Listing Committee for listing of company's subsidiary, Majesco's shares on the NYSE market. The stock ended higher by 9% to a high of Rs. 432 and a low of Rs 386.

ECE Industries too was locked at the 20% upper circuit at Rs. 135 on news that its promoter hiked stake in the company.

Ramky Infrastructure zoomed to hit the 20% upper limit at Rs. 39.10 after the company's board approved its debt restructuring programme and lenders will be converting 25 per cent of some term loans into equity.

 

Valecha Engineering closed 9% higher after media reported that the company has bagged orders worth Rs. 125.50 crore.

TD Power Systems soared over 5% to Rs. 359 on winning fresh order for supply of 10 Traction alternators from Diesel Locomotive Works, a production unit of Indian Railways.

Bajaj Hindustan Sugar surged 4.7 per cent to Rs. 14.40 after the company allotted 17 crore shares at Rs. 20.77 per share on conversion of Funded Interest Term Loan (FITL) to JLF Lenders.

Oricon Enterprises rallied over 5 per cent to Rs. 54.35 on reports that the company has acquired 70 per cent shares of Oriental Containers from its joint venture partners OC Holding, Mauritius, for Rs. 105 crore.

Snapdeal announced its foray into financial services with the acquisition of a majority stake in RupeePower, a leading digital financial products distribution platform. Snapdeal will now offer consumers a financial services marketplace – a first of its kind initiative in the e-commerce industry.

Trends in FII flows: The FIIs were net buyers of Rs3.56bn in the cash segment on Tuesday.

 The domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were also the net buyers of Rs2.83bn, as per the provisional figures released by the NSE.