Bharti Airtel rises 3%; leapfrogs others to become a pan-India 4G provider

The company's acquisition of Aircel's 4G airwaves has made India's No. 1 telco, a pan-India 4G player even before the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio launches commercially. 

Bharti Airtel jumped 3% to Rs. 360.20. The company's acquisition of Aircel's 4G airwaves has made India's No. 1 telco, a pan-India 4G player even before the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio launches commercially.

Moreover, Bharti Airtel, has added the maximum number of subscribers to its account in March 2016. With the addition of 25.5 lakh subscribers, the top telco’s grand total of subscribers now stands at 251.24 million.

The scrip opened at Rs. 350 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 364.3 and Rs. 350 respectively. So far 1425783(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 139729.12 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 5 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 452.45 on 21-Jul-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 282.3 on 29-Jan-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 352.4 and Rs. 325.7 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 65.62 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 25.4 % and 8.93 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading above its 200 DMA.

Mphasis drops 1%; sets open offer price at Rs.457.54 per share

Mphasis has set its open offer price to public shareholders at Rs.457.54 per share. 

Mphasis dropped 1% to Rs. 485. Mphasis has set its open offer price to public shareholders at Rs.457.54 per share.

In a filing to the BSE, the company said, "JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited has submitted to BSE a copy of detailed public statement, in respect of the Open Offer to the Public Shareholders of Mphasis Ltd, in compliance with Regulations 3(1) and 4 read with Regulations 13(4) and 15(2) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 and subsequent amendments thereto (“SEBI (SAST) Regulations”), pursuant to the public announcement in relation to this Offer dated 4 April 2016 (“PA”)."

The scrip opened at Rs. 490.3 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 493.15 and Rs. 485 respectively. So far 63846(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 10301.1 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 534 on 29-Oct-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 362.5 on 03-Jun-2015. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 502.1 and Rs. 451.25 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 60.48 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 32.13 % and 7.23 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading above its 100 DMA.

Axis Bank shines 1.8%; cuts 1 year MCLR by 15 bps to 9.35%

The bank has also reduced the base rate by 5 bps to 9.45 per cent per annum from the existing 9.50 per cent effective from April 18, 2016.

Axis Bank gained 1.8% and is trading at Rs.411.20 on BSE. The bank has reduced its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 15 basis points (bps) across all tenors. This follows the reduction in policy rates by RBI on April 05, 2016. The reduced MCLRs will be effective from April 18, 2016. Further, the bank has also reduced the base rate by 5 bps to 9.45 per cent per annum from existing 9.50 per cent effective from April 18, 2016.

The scrip opened at Rs. 439 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 442.7 and Rs. 438.35 respectively. So far 1811167(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 103332.09 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 613.4 on 16-Jul-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 366.65 on 18-Jan-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 436.45 and Rs. 417.55 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 29.91 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 56.5 % and 10.04 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading above its 200 DMA.

Wipro climbs 2.8%; to consider buyback of equity shares

Wipro, in a filling to the BSE, said that the Board of Directors will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company on April 20, 2016. Wipro will announce its Q4 FY16 and full financial year results on April 20, 2016. 

Wipro climbed 2.8% to Rs. 584.45 on Wednesday. The company, in a filling to the BSE, said that the Board of Directors will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company on April 20, 2016. Wipro will announce its Q4 FY16 and full financial year results on April 20, 2016.

The scrip opened at Rs. 583.75 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 591.95 and Rs. 582.3 respectively. So far 678534(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 140383.89 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 624.4 on 13-Apr-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 508.9 on 29-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 570.05 and Rs. 542.1 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 73.35 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 15.52 % and 10.53 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading above its 200 DMA.

Crude Oil: Perception v/s Reality

The resurgence is attributed to production freeze by OPEC at January levels, wherein major producers concurred on the decision, while Iran was provided a special exemption to expand the output, considering that the Islamic Republic has just got the monkey of its back (free from economic sanctions).

Perception
Oil prices have witnessed handsome recovery, with WTI rebounding from the lows of US$26.5/bbl during February and now trading above US$40/bbl. The resurgence is attributed to production freeze by OPEC at January levels, wherein major producers concurred on the decision, while Iran was provided a special exemption to expand the output, considering that the Islamic Republic has just got the monkey of its back (free from economic sanctions). Markets are deriving courage from the fact that major oil producers are willing to stem the fall in oil prices. There is a perception that OPEC will move away from the laissez fare policy and will be no more a passive onlooker, if selling resurfaces in oil markets.
 
Reality
A freeze on the OPEC output does not translate in to anything, as it fails to mitigate the prevalent global surplus. The reality remains that oil markets were oversupplied and will remain in a surplus for quite some time to come. For instance, global oil markets were in a surplus of 2.2mbpd during 2015 and 3.1mbpd during the first 2 months of 2016. In the first three months of 2016, OPEC has produced around 33mbpd, which is substantially higher than the cartel’s production quota of 31.5mbpd.

Source: Bloomberg, India Infoline Research
 
Perplexing signals
The focus is now shifting towards April 17th talks in Doha, wherein 17 oil producers are expected to participate. Market participants are looking forward to the possibility of another announcement of production freeze. However, Saudi Arabia officials have stated that they will freeze production only if Iran and other major producers do so. In such case, April 17th meeting of various oil producers can prove futile as Iran has clearly expressed that they will not freeze output levels unless they attain production of 4mbpd, a substantial upside from the March level of 3.2mbpd. If the meeting yields no concrete agreement on freezing output, we can witness another rout in oil prices. Nevertheless, Kuwait has tried to soothe concerns by ascertaining that the freeze proposal will materialize during April 17th meeting even without the participation of Iran. This is in contrast with Saudi’s stance.

Source: Bloomberg, India Infoline Research
 
Russian oil output inversely correlated to Ruble
On the non-OPEC front, although Russia is considering a number of options to co-operate with OPEC as far as price stability is concerned, its crude production is reported to have hit record highs during March. Russian output levels have constantly remained above 11mbpd during past nine months. Steep depreciation in the Ruble seem to have helped the oil producers, as weaker domestic unit ensures higher realization for the exports in spite of falling prices in international markets. As a matter of fact, Russia has no other option but to produce more oil in order to generate revenues in order to finance country’s fiscal budget which is predominantly dependent on the oil industry.

Source: Bloomberg, India Infoline Research
 
US high inventory levels counterbalancing decline in output
US production during March has moderated to an average of 9.05mbpd, when compared with the peak of 9.7mbpd during last year. Rig counts (as measured by Baker Hughes) have fallen off a cliff, from 1550 in 2014 to the current level of 350. Looking forward, projections call for further decline in US output levels due to sharp cutbacks in investment spending. However, high inventory levels in US remain at gigantic levels (more than 80 year high), which in a way is compensating for the decline in output.

Source: Bloomberg, India Infoline Research
 
Outlook
We infer that Saudis will soften their stance as they cannot afford to witness another rout in oil markets, given the deterioration in their fiscal health and slowing global demand scenario. Consequently, Riyadh will move away from the obsession of gaining market share and concur on the production freeze even without the participation of Iran. However, we do not rule out the probability of weakness re-emerging in event of a failed outcome of April 17th meeting. Having said that, oil prices can lose ground but we do not buy the opinion that it will re-visit 2016 lows. For a sustainable and a substantial recovery in oil prices, markets need concrete supply side response, including curtailment in output. In this respect, we sense that OPEC will eventually taper its production during the second half of this year, as the cartel will have to concede to the fragile global economic backdrop. On price front, we expect WTI crude to trade within US$32–45/bbl range over the course of April and May and then gradually shift its range towards US$50-60/bbl post June.

Cipla completes allocation of shares to FIL Capital Investments

The board of directors of Cipla Health Limited, a subsidiary of the Company has allotted shares to FIL Capital Investments (Mauritius) II Limited and consequently, the transaction has now been completed. 

Cipla Ltd has now informed BSE that the board of directors of Cipla Health Limited, a subsidiary of the Company has allotted shares to FIL Capital Investments (Mauritius) II Limited and consequently, the transaction has now been completed.

Stock view:

Cipla Ltd ended at Rs. 503, up by Rs. 0.4 or 0.08% from its previous closing of Rs. 502.6 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 503 and touched a high and low of Rs. 509 and Rs. 501 respectively. A total of 3758202(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 40410.23 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 748 on 17-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 495.2 on 29-Mar-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 513.05 and Rs. 497.5 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 36.79 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 34.79 % and 26.33 % respectively.

The stock traded below its 200 DMA.

Sanghvi Forging & Engineering bags order worth Rs.12 crore

Sanghvi Forging & Engineering Ltd has announced that the company has bagged an order worth Rs. 12 crore. The new orders are essentially from the oil and gas and power sectors.

Sanghvi Forging & Engineering Ltd has announced that the company has bagged an order worth Rs. 12 crore.

Notably, fresh orders have come in from the oil and gas and power sectors.

The scrip opened at Rs. 44 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 44 and Rs. 41.45 respectively. So far 2523(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 61.36 crore.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 76 on 15-Apr-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 37.1 on 21-Mar-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 44 and Rs. 40.55 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 67.73 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 0 % and 32.27 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading below its 200 DMA.

Shilpa Medicare climbs 11%

The company received GMP compliance certificate for two API sites (Unit-1: Deosugur Industrial Area, Deosugur-584170, Raichur, Karnataka, India; Unit-2: Plot nos. 33, 33A, 40 to 47, Raichur Industrial growth Centre, Wadloor Road, Chicksugur-584134, Raichur, Karnataka, India) from PMDA-Japan. 

Shilpa Medicare Ltd was higher by 11% at Rs. 485. The company received GMP compliance certificate for two API sites (Unit-1: Deosugur Industrial Area, Deosugur-584170, Raichur, Karnataka, India; Unit-2: Plot nos. 33, 33A, 40 to 47, Raichur Industrial growth Centre, Wadloor Road, Chicksugur-584134, Raichur, Karnataka, India) from PMDA-Japan.

The scrip opened at Rs. 480 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 503.65 and Rs. 475 respectively. So far 232626(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 3373.21 crore.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 1 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 623.35 on 05-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 355 on 20-Jan-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 445 and Rs. 425.55 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 53.05 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 23.36 % and 23.59 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading above its 200 DMA.

RIL invites bids to develop deepwater oil & gas blocks

Development programmes for the KG-D6 and NEC blocks were kept on hold, pending clarity from the Centre on the gas price, says the financial newspaper. RIL currently has four oil & gas blocks

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Tuesday floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) to develop its oil and gas blocks, including some of the discoveries in the KG-D6 block off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, reports a business daily.

Development programmes for the KG-D6 and NEC blocks were kept on hold, pending clarity from the Centre on the gas price, says the financial newspaper. RIL currently has four oil & gas blocks.

RIL is eligible to a higher price for natural gas produced from these discoveries under the new norms if it withdraws arbitration proceedings against the Government, according to the daily.  

The EoI includes contracts for conceptual engineering/front-end engineering and design, and other works for blocks under the New Exploration & Licensing Policy (NELP), says the paper.

A company executive has been quoted as saying that based on the bids, RIL would give a revised field development plan to the Government. 

RIL is also looking to place engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning contract for sub-sea facilities and pipelines for deepwater field development and offshore platform modification work. 

For KG-D6, RIL has invited an EoI for all operation and maintenance services, equipment and materials.

UPI has ushered in new era for banking sector

The mega app promises to bring every banking function to the smartphone and reduce the cost and time taken for making simple payments. One can use the app to pay for any transaction below Rs. 1 lakh for as low as Rs. 50. 

The announcement by ten of the country's biggest banks along with the Reserve Bank of India to launch a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has just ushered in the Uber moment for Indian banking and promises to change the landscape for the industry, which has been facing multiple headwinds over the past few months.

The mega app promises to bring every banking function to the smartphone and reduce the cost and time taken for making simple payments. One can use the app to pay for any transaction below Rs. 1 lakh for as low as Rs. 50.

While the biggest impact of the app will be on third-party payments, it also promises to separate the wheat from the chaff in the banking system itself. It will also quicken the much-awaited consolidation process in the banking sector, leaving fewer and stronger players in the field.

The banking industry, which has already been facing a lot of pressure of late from rising competition, shortage of capital, stressed loan books and falling margins now has another challenge in front of it: that of embracing technology at superfast speed. Domestic lenders that fail to keep pace with this technology upgradation may fall behind the competition and eventually go out of the race altogether. Since this massive technology overhaul will itself require massive expenditure on capacity building, lenders with weaker balance sheets are going to face the pressure most.

This has come about at a time when the sector has been witnessing dramatic technological changes and disruptive innovations besides the asset quality challenge. With RBI issuing “differentiated” licences, the competitive landscape for incumbent banks is changing like never before.

Yet, till date the incumbent banks continued to enjoy a competitive advantage, which also acted as an entry barrier for the new entrants. Technology has now made those classic advantages redundant.

While all banks by and large have their own digital platforms by now, the non-linear benefits of this technology boom will only accrue to those players who can move fast to capture the market and build superior cross-selling capabilities and also offer a diversified products portfolio to monetise their customers better. That means the benefit will accrue mainly to the early movers who can scale up quickly and expand transaction activity and product capabilities.

The private sector players have been faster than their public sector peers on this front with better success rate in encouraging transaction activity levels and float. Analysts say the eventual winners on the digital banking platform will be those entities which can quickly master the ‘small value, high volume’ transactions war. 

February IIP rises 2% yoy and other Top Economy news

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy launched the Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price e-Reverse Auction portal through which distribution utilities can procure short-term power. 

IIP grew 2% in February.

CPI inflation eased to 4.83% in March from 5.2% in February. 

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy launched the Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price e-Reverse Auction portal through which distribution utilities can procure short-term power.

Retirement fund body EPFO settled 11.8mn claims in 2015-16, out of which 96% claims were settled within 20 days.

The India Meteorological Department has projected an above normal monsoon for 2016, spelling good news for farmers and policymakers battling two years of consecutive drought.

Owing to the slowdown in China, low crude oil prices and overall sluggish trend in advanced economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its global growth forecast at 3.2% in 2016. However, the Fund forecasts Indian economy to grow at the fastest pace of 7.25% in 2016.

Top 15 stocks in focus today: Axis Bank, Inox Leisure, Jaiprakash Associates

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

Axis Bank: Axis Bank, India’s third largest Private Sector bank reduced its MCLR by 15 bps across all tenors. This follows the reduction in Policy rates by RBI on April, 5, 2016. The reduced MCLRs will take effect starting April 18th.

Reliance Industries: Reliance Industries Ltd floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) to develop its oil and gas blocks, including some of the discoveries in the KG-D6 block off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, reports a business daily.

Jaiprakash Associates Ltd: The company has pulled out of the Rs. 34,000-crore project to set up an electronic chip making unit, reports a business dailly.

Supreme Infrastructure: Supreme Infrastructure India Ltd has put its portfolio of operational road assets on the block to help it fund delayed or under-construction projects amid cost over-runs and high interest costs, reports a business daily.

Inox Leisure: Reserve Bank of India has notified that the foreign shareholding by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios Investors (RFPIs) in Inox Leisure Limited has reached the trigger limit.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd: L&T has announced that Larsen & Toubro Infotech Limited, a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Limited, has filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on April 12, 2016 in order to undertake an initial public offering of its equity shares of face value of Rs. 1 each (the Equity Shares).

Tata Steel: Moody’s Investors Service reportedly said that Tata Steel UK Ltd’s signing of an agreement to sell its European long products business to UK-based investment firm Greybull Capital is credit positive for its parent.

Lux Industries Ltd: The board of directors of the company has approved and recommended the following:Sub division of the equity shares of the Company from the existing face value of Rs. 10/- per equity share to face value of Rs. 2/- per equity share.

JKumar Infra Projects: Reserve Bank of India has notified that the foreign shareholding through Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios Investors (RFPIs) in JKumar Infra Projects Ltd. has crossed the permissible limit.

Wipro Ltd: The IT Company will consider share buyback at its upcoming meeting of Board of Directors, to be held on April 20.

Kaveri Seed Company: The company announced that it has opened a new plant at Molangur Village, in Telangana State. The total investment made in the plant is over Rs.21 crores.

Bharti Airtel: India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel emerged as the top gainer, adding 25.5 lakh GSM subscribers in the month of March.

Shilpa Medicare Ltd: The company received GMP compliance certificate for two API sites from PMDA-Japan.

Godawari Power and Ispat: The company has commenced commercial production in the merged Ari Dongri iron ore mining area of 138.96 ha (Original area 106.60 ha and additional area 32.36 ha) of land situated at Village Kachche, Dist: Uttar Baster, Kanker, Chhattisgarh.

Bajaj Corp: The company reported standalone net profit of Rs. 54.02 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, registering decline of 0.74% yoy, but growth of 8.93% qoq.

MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd: The companyin a joint venture (JV) with its Spanish partner has been declared as a successful bidder (L1) by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for a project under the Hybrid Annuity namely Four laning of Kante – Waked section of NH-66 (erstwhile NH-17) in the State of Maharashtra with Bid Project Cost Rs.826.28 Crores.

Mphasis: The company open offer price to the public shareholders has been set at Rs.457.54 per share.

Ramco Systems: The company has won a Logistics ERP software order from SK Logistics, part of Australian logistics and transport provider, GTI Logistics Limited.