Lupin completes acquisition of GAVIS

The acquisition enhances Lupin’s scale in the US generic marketand also broadens Lupin’s pipeline in dermatology, controlled substance products and other high-value and niche generics. 

Pharma Major Lupin Limited (Lupin) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of privately held US based GAVIS Pharmaceuticals LLC and Novel Laboratories Inc. (GAVIS). Lupin had announced the acquisition on July 23rd 2015. The acquisition enhances Lupin’s scale in the US generic marketand also broadens Lupin’s pipeline in dermatology, controlled substance products and other high-value and niche generics. 

GAVIS brings to Lupin a highly skilled US based Manufacturing & Research organization which would complement Lupin’s Coral Springs, Florida based R&D center for Inhalation. GAVIS’s New Jersey basedmanufacturing facility also becomes Lupin’s first manufacturing site in the US.

New Jersey based GAVIS is a privately held company specializing in formulation development, manufacturing, packaging, sales, marketing, and distribution of pharmaceuticals products. GAVIS has 62 ANDA filings pending approval with the US FDA and a pipeline of over 65+ products under development. 72% of these filings pending approvals represent niche dosage forms with 18 Para IVs and 8 FTFs products. GAVIS’s pending approvals address a market of over USD 9 billion.

The combined company will have a portfolio of over 120 in-market products, over 185 cumulative filings pending approval and a deep pipeline of products under development for the US. The acquisition creates the 5th largest pipeline of ANDA filings with the US FDA, addressing a USD 63.8 billion market.

Lupin has 37 First-to-File (FTF) products which includes 17 exclusive FTF opportunities. Lupin and Gaviscombined would now have over 45 FTFs.

Commenting on the transaction, Ms. Vinita Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Lupin Limited said “We are very pleased to have completed our acquisition of Gavis. The Gavis portfolio augments our US business and niche generic pipeline. We plan to leverage the formulation expertise of Gavis to enhance both Lupin’s generic as well as specialty pipeline.” 

Indian Bank receives Board's nod to raise Rs.1100 crore

Indian Bank in a meeting held receives its board of directors nod for raising Rs 1,100 crore through Basel-III complaint tier-II or additional tier-I bonds. 

State-owned financial services provider Indian Bank in a meeting held receives its board of directors nod for raising Rs 1,100 crore through Basel-III complaint tier-II or additional tier-I bonds.

In a regulatory filing, the bank stated that the Board has earlier approved for raising Rs. 1,100 crore via Basel III complaint Tier II Bonds, but looking at the sluggish economic scenario.  

Later the board granted approval to raise Basel III complaint Tier II of Additional Tier I Bonds for the same amount in one or more tranches in the current or subsequent years as per the requirement.

Stock News : 

At 12.17, Indian Bank was trading at Rs. 100.15, up by Rs. 0.05 or 0.05% from its previous closing of Rs. 100.1 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 99.4 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 100.15 and Rs. 97.85 respectively. So far 125108(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 4807.72 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 179.35 on 17-Mar-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 76 on 29-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 103.4 and Rs. 79.45 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 82.1 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 14.41 % and 3.48 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading below its 200 DMA.

Coal India postpones share buyback to next fiscal

Report says that the buyback will have to wait till next financial. 

Coal India has postponed share buyback from government to next fiscal, according to reports.

Report says that the buyback will have to wait till next financial.

The company has already appointed SBI Caps as an advisor for the buyback.

The scrip opened at Rs. 325.3 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 326.25 and Rs. 322 respectively. So far 3325063(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 204997.46 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 447.25 on 05-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 286.9 on 21-Jan-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 334 and Rs. 310.3 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 79.65 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 17.44 % and 2.91 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading below its 200 DMA.

Indian ADRs...Vedanta, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors sink

US stock indices slipped on Tuesday after five straight sessions of gains amid persistent worries over oil prices and slowdown in China.

US stock indices slipped on Tuesday after five straight sessions of gains amid persistent worries over oil prices and slowdown in China.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 109.85 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 16,964.10.

The S&P 500 index dropped 22.50 points, or 1.1%, to close at 1,979.26, led by a 4.1% fall in the energy sector.

The Nasdaq Composite index lost 59.43 points, or 1.3%, to end at 4,648.82.

Crude oil futures tumbled as traders bet that weekly data will reveal a fourth straight climb in US crude inventories even as doubts prevail over an output freeze.

Investors on Wall Street were also bracing for a meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers on Thursday, where are they are expected to announce further stimulus.

Earlier, global stocks came under pressure after Chinese trade data showed exports falling for an eighth successive month.

Chinese exports fell by a whopping 25.4% in February, compared with a 15% drop expected, while imports were down 13.8%.

 Indian ADRs:-

Company	Price in USD	% Change
Tata Motors	25.18	-4.01%
Infosys	17.92	-2.73%
Wipro	11.8	-1.53%
Dr Reddy's	47.36	-2.05%
HDFC Bank	55.99	-1.41%
ICICI Bank	6.23	-5.62%
Sify	1.02	0.98%
Rediff	0.56	-3.58%
Vedanta	5.17	-5.80%
MakeMyTrip	17.54	-0.06%
WNS	28.91	-1.40%

L&T Technology IPO to hit market this year

“All I can say is that our (L&T) chairman (A.M. Naik) has said that the IPO will happen this year,” Newly appointed Managing Director & CEO Keshab Panda has been quoted as saying. 

L&T Technology Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of construction major L&T, is putting final touches to its proposed IPO, reports a financial newspaper. The IPO is slated to hit the market later this year, says the paper.

“All I can say is that our (L&T) chairman (A.M. Naik) has said that the IPO will happen this year,” Newly appointed Managing Director & CEO Keshab Panda has been quoted as saying.

In 2014, L&T hived off its engineering R&D arm as a separate unit, which now has a turnover of US$500 million, according to the business daily.

L&T Infotech, another subsidiary of L&T, is also planning to launch an IPO this year.

For L&T Tech Services, Internet of Things (IoT) and the increasing digitalisation of business processes happening in the US and Europe, are seen as big business opportunities, according to the paper.

“When we talk about IoT, it is not just getting data from industrial machines and analysing it but also designing systems,” says Panda.

Technologies like IoT seem to be have graduated from information heads of companies to Board members, according to him. “They have bought into this concept as they see it in all walks of their lives,” says Panda.

RBI seeks feedback on concept paper on Card Acceptance Infrastructure

The Reserve Bank’s over-arching Vision for Payment Systems in recent years has been the encouragement of electronic payments and migration to a “less-cash” society. 

The Reserve Bank of India has today placed on its website the Concept Paper on Card Acceptance Infrastructure.

Background

The Reserve Bank’s over-arching Vision for Payment Systems in recent years has been the encouragement of electronic payments and migration to a “less-cash” society. The policy focus of the Reserve Bank has been to facilitate the growth in electronic payment services and also ensuring safety and security of such transactions. Recent Government announcements support and reinforce the need to migrate from cash payments and to promote card and other electronic payments.

With increasing customer confidence and concerted effort of all stakeholders, a growing trend in retail electronic payments has been observed. However, there is a concern that the commensurate growth in infrastructure, particularly those that facilitate electronic payment for purchase of goods and services, has not kept pace with the requirements of all segments of users across all geographical locations. Regulatory intervention in the form of rationalization of merchant discount rate (MDR) a few years earlier has also not had the desired catalytic effect. Growth in card acceptance infrastructure at merchant locations has been slow.

The “economics” of card payments plays an important role in ensuring greater and wider participation of all stakeholders involved in the card payments value chain and, as such, any strategy geared towards expansion of the infrastructure in a “managed” way has to also address these issues. There is, therefore, a need to examine holistically the relevant issues that come in the way of acceptance of card payments and deployment of infrastructure for the same so as to ensure continued and accelerated growth in card acceptance.

This concept paper has been prepared taking into account the inputs gathered during various interactions with the stakeholders. The paper outlines strategic options for addressing the issue of both expansion of card acceptance infrastructure as well as rationalisation of MDR.

To this end, the Reserve Bank has invited views and suggestions on the Concept Paper on Card Acceptance Infrastructure. Specific and actionable feedback would be highly valued.

Budget 2016: Positive for bond market

Since the announcement of Union Budget 016-17, on February 29, yields on the 10-year benchmark paper have come down by over 15 bps. They are now trading at 7.62 percent, as against 7.78 percent, a day before the Budget was announced. Analysts expect bond yields to hover at 7.50 levels, in anticipation of the next rate cut, for the short term.

Since the announcement of Union Budget 016-17, on February 29, yields on the 10-year benchmark paper have come down by over 15 bps. They are now trading at 7.62 percent, as against 7.78 percent, a day before the Budget was announced. Bond yields and prices are inversely related. Just before the Budget was announced, most market participants had expected bond yields to touch 8 percent levels. However, the budget was more positive for bond market as the finance minister, Arun Jaitley, pegged fiscal deficit for 2016-17 at 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product and said that it is prudent to stick to consolidation. This has also led to expectations for a reduction in policy rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While the central bank will review its monetary policy next month, on 5 April, most analysts expect the RBI to slash the repo rate by 25 basis points. Markets also anticipate an out-of-cycle rate cut.

On budget day, the benchmark 10-year bond yields came down by 16 bps, to close at 7.62 percent, after falling as much as 18 bps during intraday trading. Analysts now expect bond yields to hover at 7.50 levels, in anticipation of the next rate cut, for the short term. The RBI did not cut rates in its monetary policy review on February 2, but was waiting for the Budget to decide on its next move. “Structural reforms in the forthcoming Union Budget that boost growth while controlling spending will create more space for monetary policy to support growth, while also ensuring that inflation remains on the projected path of 5 per cent by the end of 2016-17,” the RBI said in its last monetary policy.

Going by the current numbers, inflation too has remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) indicated trajectory. Consumer Price Inflation or the CPI stands at 5.69 percent in February, lower than RBI’s projected target of 6 percent for January 2016.

On account of liquidity concerns, in the beginning last month, yields on the ten-year benchmark bond were trading higher at 7.83 per cent. The central bank has reduced its benchmark repo rate by 125 basis points to 6.75 percent from 8 percent in calendar year 2015.

With advance tax payments to kick in this month, which would lead to tightness of liquidity in the system, the RBI said it will inject adequate additional liquidity using a combination of appropriate instruments, while continuing with its normal Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) operations. “With a view to addressing the expected tightening of liquidity conditions in March on account of advance tax payments by corporates and in order to provide flexibility to the banking system in its liquidity management towards March-end 2016, the Reserve Bank of India will inject adequate additional liquidity using a combination of appropriate instruments, while continuing with its normal LAF operations. Based on a continuous assessment of the evolving liquidity conditions, the tenor and magnitude of additional liquidity operations will be announced a few days in advance of each tranche,” a RBI release said, last month.

Last week, the central bank said it will infuse Rs 15,000 crore liquidity through open market operations (OMOs) purchase of government securities.

After the June rate cut, bank borrowing under the LAF fell to zero on average, in line with the RBI’s strategy of easing its monetary stance. But around the time of the October cut, banks began to borrow again, demanding an average of Rs 1 lakh crore per day, rising to Rs 1.75 lakh crore per day by February 2016, the Economic Survey said. Short-term market interest rates are most influenced by RBI policy. In the periods following the first three rate cuts, the spread between the 91 day T-bill rate and the repo rate declined. But it increased sharply starting in August and continuing after the rate cut in October, it added. 

Live Stock Market Updates - Sensex falls over 150 points; Metal, IT drag

The BSE Mid-cap Index is trading down 0.35% at 10,164, whereas BSE Small-cap Index is trading down 46% at 10,263. A total of five stocks registered a fresh 52-week high in trades today, while 10 stocks touched a new 52-week low on the NSE. The INDIA VIX is up 0.47% at 18.5525. Out of 1,770 stocks traded on the NSE, 938 declined, 444 advanced and 938 remained unchanged today. 

At 9:39 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 24,490 down 169 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 7,436 down 49 points.

The BSE Mid-cap Index is trading down 0.35% at 10,164, whereas BSE Small-cap Index is trading down 46% at 10,263.

Maruti Suzuki, Lupin, HUL, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp and Asian Paints are among the gainers, whereas Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, SBI, ITC, BHEL and TCS are losing sheen on BSE.

Some buying activity is seen in realty and consumer discretionary goods & services, sectors, while metal, IT, banking, industrial, FMCG and consumer durable sectors are showing weakness on BSE.

The INDIA VIX is up 0.47% at 18.5525. Out of 1,770 stocks traded on the NSE, 938 declined, 444 advanced and 938 remained unchanged today.

A total of five stocks registered a fresh 52-week high in trades today, while 10 stocks touched a new 52-week low on the NSE.

The Indian rupee opened at 67.45/$ on Wednesday as against previous close of 67.08/$. Rupee tumbled by 11 paise in early trade on fresh demand for the American currency from importers and banks.  

Global cues are signaling further weakness for the day. Japan's Nikkei and China's CIS300 have lost 1.5% each. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down 0.7%  while South Korea's Kospi is flat.  US stock indices slipped on Tuesday after five straight sessions of gains amid persistent worries over oil prices and slowdown in China.The Dow slid 0.6%, S&P 500 index dropped 1.1% and Nasdaq lost 1.3%. Crude oil futures tumbled as traders bet that weekly data will reveal a fourth straight climb in US crude inventories even as doubts prevail over an output freeze.

Investors on Wall Street were also bracing for a meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) policy makers on Thursday, where are they are expected to announce further stimulus. Earlier, global stocks came under pressure after Chinese trade data showed exports falling for an eighth successive month. Chinese exports fell by a whopping 25.4% in February, compared with a 15% drop expected, while imports were down 13.8%.

Pharmaceuticals stocks could hog some limelight after US industry body said that India agreed to not issue ‘compulsory’ drug licences’. The USTR has placed India on its "priority watch" list for two years in a row saying the country's patent laws unfairly favour local drugmakers.

Stocks like NMDC and Coal India will be in focus as the cabinet is likely to consider mines ministry's proposal to allow auction of 100 mineral blocks for exploration as early as this week as the government tries to revive exploration activity in the country.

The Indian Rupee snapped its six days rising streak and closed weak on fresh demand of the American currency from importers and banks. A firm dollar against some global currencies overseas also weighed on the rupee.

In international markets, US dollar lost ground against the basket of currencies, with Sterling categorically registering an impressive rebound from the lows of 1.39 and moving towards the high of 1.425. Meanwhile, Euro is also trading firm around 1,10 levels. Market focus will be accentuated on ECB policy meeting next week, wherein the central bank is expected to increase the size or the duration of the monthly bond buying program.

Trishakti Power Holdings Private Limited has purchased total 50,000 shares of ACGL in a bulk deal, at a price of Rs. 400.50 from Hina Kirti Doshi in a bulk deal valued at Rs. 2 crore. Tista Tradelinks Private Limited has purchased total 500,000 shares of ADHUNIKIND in a block deal, at a price of Rs. 89.7 from OM Sarvavidya Consultants LLP in a block deal valued at Rs. 4.48 crore.

Any ambiguity faced by companies at the time of takeovers will now be a little more simplified, with SEBI stepping into the picture. With its move to peg shareholding limit at 25 per cent, the Securities and Exchange Board of India appears to signal its control in the area of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), said a Livemint report.

Amid swinging market movements and investor sentiments, as many as 21 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to mop up Rs. 180 crore via initial public offerings (IPO) as they have filed draft papers with the market regulator Sebi in 2016 so far.

The Reserve Bank of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on “Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information” with Bank of Israel.

Suzuki Motorcycle India Ltd. (SMIPL) on Tuesday said that it had started the assembly of its flagship motorcycle Hayabusa at its plant in Gurgaon, Haryana.

Dividend delight! Over a dozen companies to meet today to discuss dividends

Bajaj Auto Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider & declaration of interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016. 

Ajanta Pharma Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider and approve declaration of interim dividend for financial year 2015-16.

Bajaj Auto Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider & declaration of interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.

Bajaj Finserv to consider declaration of interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.

Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd to consider, declaration of interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.

Bajaj Finance to consider & declaration of of interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.

Balkrishna Industries Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider declaration of interim Dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2016.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 08, 2016, inter alia, to consider fund raising by way of secured or unsecured debt issue; declaration of second Interim Dividend for the Financial Year 2015-16 and fixation of the Record Date for the same, if declared.

Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider the declaration of 2nd interim dividend, if any, on the equity shares of the Company.

Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider a proposal for declaration of Interim Dividend for the Financial Year 2015-16.

Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter-alia to consider the declaration of interim dividend, if any, on the Equity shares of the Company, for the financial year 2015-16.

IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider declaration of second interim dividend, if any, for the financial year 2015-16.

Kesar Petroproducts Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, to consider and allot equity shares upon conversion of warrants earlier issued to preferential basis.

Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on March 09, 2016, inter alia, for considering the declaration of 4th Interim dividend for the financial year 2015-16.