Friday, 28 August 2015

Indian crude basket at $44.28/bbl on Aug 27

The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 44.28 per barrel (bbl) on Thursday. This was higher than the price of US$ 42.63 per bbl on previous publishing day of Wednesday.

In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket increased to Rs. 2,925.14 per bbl on Thursday as compared to Rs. 2,820.40 per bbl on Wednesday. Rupee closed stronger at Rs. 66.06 per US$ on 27.08.2015 as against Rs. 66.16 per US$ on Wednesday.

HDFC gains 1%; to raise Rs. 2,000 cr via bonds

The stock opened at Rs. 1,207 as against the previous close of Rs. 1,195 on BSE. It has hit a high of Rs. 1,215 and a low of Rs. 1,200 on BSE today.


Shares of HDFC Ltd trading higher 1% at Rs. 1,208 on BSE today. The Smart City projects announced across the country would help boost demand for home loans. The stock was in demand on buzz that its insurance arm, HDFC Life, is likely to divest 25 percent stake via public offering soon. HDFC holds around 61.65 percent equity in HDFC Life. It has also raised Rs. 2,000 crore through sale of bonds in order to boost lending operations and meet its future capital needs.

The stock opened at Rs. 1,207 as against the previous close of Rs. 1,195 on BSE. It has hit a high of Rs. 1,215 and a low of Rs. 1,200 on BSE today.

Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 0.25 lk shares on BSE.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex is up 400 points at 26,630.

Cipla not keen on major M&A's: Subhanu Saxena

Cipla chief Yusuf Hamied added that his company will not take any decision regarding M&As.


Cipla
Cipla has reportedly said it is not "compelled" to go in for major M&As, preferring instead a semi-inorganic route

"Almost 70% of our growth comes through the organic route and that is the way to go for us," Cipla CEO Subhanu Saxena said on the sidelines of the company's 79th annual general meeting.

Cipla chief Yusuf Hamied added that his company will not take any decision regarding M&As.

Oil prices extend gains after biggest daily climb in 6 yrs

US crude futures are on track for first weekly gains, ending the longest losing streak since 1986.


Crude oil futures were higher on Friday, adding to the biggest one-day rally in over six years.

US crude futures are on track for first weekly gains, ending the longest losing streak since 1986.

 October Brent crude was up 44 cents, or nearly 1 per cent, at $48 per barrel.

US crude was 80 cents, or nearly 2 per cent, higher at $43.36 per barrel.

Sensex jumps 400 points; banking stocks lead

The broader market is also trading in line with the BSE headline index, the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices gained over 1.5 percent each at 10,894 and 11,174, respectively. The BSE IT, Power and Realty indices have jumped 2 percent each at 11,252, 1,893 and 1,309, respectively.


Bombay Stock Exchange Up
The market has strengthened its gains in the morning deals, on the back all-round buying.

Buying is clearly evident in sectors like IT, power, realty, metal, bank, energy, capital goods, auto and pharma.

The key benchmark indices rallied to a fresh intra-day high at 26,660 and 8,082, respectively.

At 10:30 AM, the BSE Sensex is quoted at 26,651 - up 419 points and the NSE Nifty is quoted at 8,083 - up 134 points.

The broader market is also trading in line with the BSE headline index, the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices gained over 1.5 percent each at 10,894 and 11,174, respectively.

Among sectors, the BSE IT, Power and Realty indices have jumped 2 percent each at 11,252, 1,893 and 1,309, respectively.

The BSE Metal and Capital Goods indices have spurted almost 2 percent each at 7,488 and 16,578, respectively.

The BSE Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Auto indices are the other prominent gainers.

The breadth is extremely positive in morning deals - out of 2,052 stocks traded on the BSE so far 1,578 stocks are advancing, while 429 stocks were declining.

All Sensex stocks are trading in green, except, Mahindra & Mahindra down 0.5 percent at Rs. 1,226.

ONGC has soared 6 percent to Rs. 245, after the company said it has received a one-year extension to explore in a Vietnam oil block.

Vedanta rallied nearly 6 percent at Rs. 96.35. Hindalco surged 4.5 percent at Rs. 84.25.

NTPC jumped almost 4 percent at Rs. 124. Gail India spurted over 3.5 percent at Rs. 291.

Infosys advanced over 3 percent at Rs. 1,118. Axis Bank, BHEL and Bajaj Auto gained almost 3 percent each at Rs. 524, Rs. 238 and Rs. 2,252, respectively.

Tata Steel, SBI, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel and Dr. Reddy's are the other significant gainers.

Cairn India, ONGC Surge as Crude Posts Biggest Gain in Six Years

Shares of oil and gas producers such as Cairn India, ONGC, Oil India, GAIL India and Reliance Industries rose sharply on Friday after global crude prices posted their biggest single-day gain in six years.

On Thursday, US crude rose $3.96, or 10.3 per cent, to $42.56 per barrel - its biggest one-day percentage gain since March 2009.  The sharp gain in crude prices was triggered by strong US economic data which eased fears about global growth.

The US economy in the second quarter expanded at a 3.7 per cent annual pace, instead of earlier estimates of 2.3 per cent.

On Friday, crude in Asian trading extended their gains. Front-month October Brent crude was up 44 cents, or nearly 1 per cent, at $48 per barrel.

Analysts however remain skeptical about the rally in oil prices. "The recovery in commodity prices looks fragile with concerns over China's growth still weighing on market activity," ANZ said in a note.

Concerns about China's slowdown had driven global oil prices to multi-year lows earlier this week.

Cairn India was the top gainer among Nifty stocks, surging as much as 7 per cent to hit intraday high of Rs 149.70. State-run ONGC rallied 5.9 per cent to Rs 244.30, Oil India advanced 4 per cent to Rs 473.50, GAIL India jumped 3.8 per cent to Rs 291.55 and Reliance Industries rose 1.5 per cent. 

Rupee opens flat at 66.05/$

The currency touched a high and low of 66.34/$ and 66.43$ respectively.


rupee open
Indian Rupee today opened at 66.05 against the dollar, lower by 2 on persistent of fresh buying of dollar by banks and exporters amid a smart rebound in local equity markets. On the global front, dollar rebounded for a second straight session on Wednesday as calm returned to financial markets with Wall Street stocks firmer and European shares recouping some losses, all of which diminished need to buy safe-haven currencies like the yen. Global indices are well in the green with Wall Street boosted by US economic data. Investors hope that will minimise some of the worries of a China-led global slowdown. Nifty futures rollover stood at three-month average range of 67%.

Japan’s Nikkei is up over 2% and most Asian markets are doing well including China. Crude oil futures traded in New York surged by more than 10% on Thursday in the wake of a report that Venezuela has asked the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to hold an emergency meeting.

The domestic currency had closed at 66.04 in the previous session. The currency touched a high and low of 66.34/$ and 66.43$ respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 66.06 and for Euro stood at 74.96 on August 27, 2015. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 55.08, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 102.3475.

15 Stocks in focus today

Check out the companies which will be in focus during trade today based on recent and latest news developments.


Stocks to watch
Lupin Ltd: The pharma company has received approval from US health regulator USFDA to market generic Omeprazole delayed-release capsules, used to treat ulcer, in the American market.

Tube Investments of India Ltd: The company has signed a License Agreement with Ridley Bikes Belgium to acquire the Brand rights/Licence for the brand "Ridley" for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar for a period of 33 years.

Cipla Ltd: The pharma company said that it expects 20% growth in revenues in the current fiscal (FY16), as per media reports.

ONGC: The coil company has received a one-year extension to explore in a Vietnam oil block in the contested waters of the South China Sea.

Bosch: The company has inaugurated its new manufacturing plant at Bidadi, near Bangalore, which has come up at an investment of Rs. 3.4bn. The plant, which has come up on an area of 38,000 sqm, would manufacture products for the diesel systems division.

Bank of India: The bank has announced that the Government of India vide its letter dated August 19, 2015 has informed its decision to infuse capital funds to the tune of Rs. 2,455 Crore in the Bank by way of preferential allotment of equity shares, as per media reports.

TTK Prestige Ltd: The company has signed a long-term settlement with the Workers' Union at company's Hosur unit at Tamil Nadu. This settlement provides for a superior productivity as compared to the earlier settlements, as per media reports.

Vedanta Ltd: Vedanta said that collapse in aluminium prices and lack of availability of bauxite from Odisha had forced the conglomerate to opt for a gradual closure of its Lanjigarh facility in the state.

Pincon Spirit: The company said its board has approved issue of one equity share for each share held by existing shareholders of the company.

Gammon Infrastructure: The oompany sealed deal with Canada based Brookfield Asset Management. It will sell 9 SPV's in road & power to Brookfield Asset Management. The deal is likely to have been struck at around Rs. 500 crores, as per media reports.

HDFC Ltd: HDFC has raised Rs. 20bn through the sale of bonds in order to boost lending operations and meet its future capital needs. The bonds, which have a tenure of five years, attracted a coupon rate of 8.5%. HDFC Bank is the lead arranger of the issue.

DLF Ltd: DLF is close to selling a majority stake in a residential project in New Delhi to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, as per media reports.

Godrej Consumer Product Ltd: The company said its shareholders have approved a proposal to raise up to Rs. 300 crore through issue of nonconvertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis.

Mphasis: The IT company has announced its partnership with The International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B), a Deemed University, to support and nurture deserving social enterprises. The two organizations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) wherein IIIT-B would leverage a portion of Mphasis’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for supporting social enterprises.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation: The workers who were on strike for almost 39 days now, have decided to withdraw strike temporarily as the extensive talks for wage settlement with the management went inconclusive. The unions said the management is sticking to its stand of a 10% wage hike till this week and finally gave an offer of 13 per cent hike. The unions were demanding a 24% hike.

Aurobindo Pharma Limited: The pharma company has received the final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration to manufacture and market Entecavir Tablets, 0.5mg and 1mg.

Reliance Communications: The company said it is in talks with several state governments to bag smart grid and smart city projects as it sees business from cloud offerings and internet of things (IoT) under enterprise segment to touch about a fifth of its revenue in next five years. 

Top economy news of the day- August 28, 2015

Marking a key step in the NDA government's infrastructure push, Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu announced the list of ninety eight smart cities that the government has shortlisted.


Economic News
Marking a key step in the NDA government's infrastructure push, Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu announced the list of ninety eight smart cities that the government has shortlisted. While Uttar Pradesh has bagged the maximum number of smart cities projects at 13, Tamil Nadu has got 12 and Maharashtra 10. Madhya Pradesh will have seven smart cities and Gujarat and Karnataka will have six each.

The talks between the five-member Ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and leaders of central trade unions, remained inconclusive with the unions firm on their decision on a country-wide strike on September 2. Trade unions, which are protesting anti-labour changes in certain key laws, against disinvestment in PSUs and FDI in Railways, Defence, contractorisation of labour, among other things

Sensex, Nifty to open on a positive note

Global indices are well in the green with Wall Street boosted by US economic data. Investors hope that will minimise some of the worries of a China-led global slowdown. Nifty futures rollover stood at three-month average range of 67%. Nifty open interest has risen to Rs. 17,100 crore as agains Rs. 14,400 crore at August start.


Bombay Stock Exchange Building
The September series is set to begin on a smiling note with the world and its markets upbeat for now. The August series too had begun with a bag but what happened after that was a different story. For a country as big and populous as India, reforms cannot be shots in the dark, subjecting the economy to great uncertainty and risk," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in the central bank’s annual report released on Thursday. Stressing on the importance of reforms, he noted that incremental policy change was essential for strengthening the economy and putting it back on a high-growth trajectory.

The outlook is a positive start. Global indices are well in the green with Wall Street boosted by US economic data. Investors hope that will minimise some of the worries of a China-led global slowdown. Nifty futures rollover stood at three-month average range of 67%. Nifty open interest has risen to Rs. 17,100 crore as agains Rs. 14,400 crore at August start. This could trigger a sharper fall should sentiment get hit.

Japan’s Nikkei is up over 2% and most Asian markets are doing well including China. Crude oil futures traded in New York surged by more than 10% on Thursday in the wake of a report that Venezuela has asked the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to hold an emergency meeting.

Quality mid-caps are set to gain today. IIFL’s two-day Small and Mid-Cap Investors’ Conference concluded on Thursday. 13 companies and nearly 100 investors attended on the first day. Investors evinced keen interest in meeting these companies, many of which could be potential winners in the long-term.

Late in the evening, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will release a book, 'Globalisation Democratisation and Distributive Justice.'

Allahabad Bank will consider issue of equity shares on preferential basis.

Chaman Lal Setia Exports will consider sub-division of equity shares.

Earnings for Procter Gamble Hygiene & Health Care will be released today. Other results include Adhunik Metaliks, Andhra Cements, C&C Constructions, Mount Shivalik Industries, Net 4 India, Rr Financial Consultants, Sanghi Industries, Sterling International Enterprises, Lumax Automotive Systems And Innoventive Industries.

The rupee could weaken as banks may buy dollars today after US jobless data was better than expected.

The Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have reached a consensus on the structure for the proposed interest-rate setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha said on Thursday.
Sequoia Capital has been the most active VC investor in the pharmaceutical sector during this year. The Silicon Valley-based venture capital (VC) firm has invested nearly US$90 million across six deals in Indian pharmaceutical and healthcare firms over the past year.

The number of cases getting piled up at the debt recovery tribunal (DRT) has reportedly ballooned amid surging bad loans. At the end of December 2014, a total of 59,645 cases involving INR 3.74 trillion of bank loans were pending before DRTs, according to a financial daily. This is up from 47,933 cases involving INR 1.78 trillion of loans at the end of 2013.

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has reconstituted its Takeover Panel, which looks into the applications seeking exemption from the mandatory open offer to minority shareholders. The newly notified Takeover Panel would be chaired by N.K. Sodhi, the former chief justice of the high courts of Karnataka and Kerala and also the former presiding officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

Public sector oil retailers - IOC, HPCL and BPCL - have reportedly issued a local tender to buy 2.7 billion litres of ethanol to be blended with petrol. The amount sought by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) is ~10% of India’s estimated petrol demand for FY16, according to reports. They want supplies from December this year to November next year, according to tender documents.

The Delhi government has yet again rejected the application of Ola Cabs for a license to run its taxi service in the national capital. The Government heard views of Ola Cabs during a hearing, but it is not satisfied, according to a financial daily.

The Finance Ministry has said that the Unique Identification Number (UID), or Aadhaar, should be used only for the distribution of foodgrains, kerosene and cooking gas. It has also stated that seeding of Aadhaar numbers into a database will be voluntary.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern over predatory pricing being charged by the domestic airlines, as it is giving a bad name to the industry.  "It (predatory pricing) is a concern of a majority of Parliamentarians, including the Prime Minister, and needs to be addressed," Minister of State for Aviation Mahesh Sharma said on Thursday.

SpiceJet is in talks with aircraft makers for fresh orders and funding is not an issue for the airline, Ajay Singh, the budget carrier's promoter said on Thursday. “We have not discussed any specific numbers, but we expect the aircraft order will be a sizeable one. Negotiations have been on for a while and we expect to complete the negotiations and place the order this financial year,” Singh said on the sidelines of a Civil Aviation conference in New Delhi.

Talks between the Government and the Trade Unions remain inconclusive, as the latter have turned down the Centre’s proposal on minimum wages. Although the Government has agreed to consider the four key demands of the central trade unions, the same has not met the expectations of the majority of trade unions barring the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.