Physical rubber prices showed some firmness on Wednesday

Physical rubber prices showed some firmness on Wednesday due to enquiries from the non-tyre sector. Spot prices for RSS-4 variety remained unchanged at Rs 120/ kg, while RSS-5 variety improved to Rs 112/ kg compared to its previous closing of Rs 110/ kg.

In the futures market, contract of February delivery weakened to Rs 120.50 compared to its previous closing of Rs 121.25, while March delivery closed at Rs 121.33 compared to its previous close of Rs 122.17 on the National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE).

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala hikes stake in Polaris Consulting

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has hiked his stake in Polaris Consulting and Services from 1.58% at the end of September 2014 quarter to 3.83% in December quarter. Polaris is a full-spectrum Financial Technology major, using technology as an enabler to drive unprecedented operational productivity in Retail, Corporate and Investment Banking. Polaris services over 200 banks across the world, including 9 of the top 10 banks, with a comprehensive suite of products, services and consulting offerings.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 139.34 crore in index futures and options segments on January 21

According to the data released by the NSE, the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 139.34 crore in index futures and options segments, as per Wednesday’s data, January 21, 2015. FIIs were buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 483.32 crore and they sold index options worth Rs 343.98 crore. In the stock segment, FII’s were net buyers of stock futures worth Rs 114.88 crore, while they bought stock options worth Rs 39.57 crore.

Religare MF introduces Invesco Fixed Maturity Plan - Series 25 - Plan B (1098 Days)

Religare Mutual Fund has launched the New Fund Offer (NFO) of Religare Invesco Fixed Maturity Plan - Series 25 - Plan B (1098 Days), a close ended income scheme. The NFO opens for subscription on Jan 22, 2015 and closes on Jan 28, 2015.  No entry load or exit load will be applicable for the scheme. The minimum subscription amount is Rs 5000 and in multiples of Re. 1 thereafter. The scheme’s performance will be benchmarked against CRISIL Composite Bond Fund Index and its fund manager is Nitish Sikand. The investment objective of the scheme is to investing in a portfolio of debt and money market instruments maturing on or before the date of maturity of the Scheme.

Gold futures edge marginally lower on Wednesday

Gold futures dropped marginally on Wednesday as investors weighed some mixed economic data from the US with housing starts rising more than expected, while building permits issued dropped unexpectedly in December. Gold prices weakened further as profit-taking entered the market following the reports of a proposed bond-buying program for the European Central Bank (ECB).

Gold futures for February settled down 0.04 percent at $1,293.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. While spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,294.61 an ounce.

IOC unveils ‘XtraRewards’ Cash Customer Loyalty programme in Kerala

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has launched its ‘XtraRewards’ Cash Customer Loyalty programme in Kerala. This is the first on-line loyalty programme in the country which facilitates instant earning and burning of reward points. The reward points thus earned through the ‘XtraRewards’ loyalty programme can be instantly redeemed for free fuel or other gift items from the catalogue, at their participating Retail Outlets. Currently, about 30 Indian Oil Retail Outlets in Kochi are part of this programme. The company aims to cover 400 to 500 retail outlets in Kerala by March, 2016, thereby offering wide reward earning options for their Retail Auto Fuel Customers in Kerala. IOC is the largest enterprise in the country and the foremost ranked Fortune Global 500 Company in India and has presence in the complete hydrocarbon value chain from downstream refining & marketing, pipeline transportation, Petrochemicals, E&P and Gas Marketing.

Moser Baer commences upgraded solar cell manufacturing line

Moser Baer has commenced operations of its upgraded solar cell manufacturing line. The company’s revival plan of cell & module manufacturing comes in wake of government’s programs focused on domestic content requirement (DCR) of solar cells & modules for solar farms. This upgraded cell line operations allows the company to participate & supply to DCR projects and further entrench our position as India’s pre-eminent solar manufacturer. The new government has set an ambitious target of solar power capacity to touch 1 lakh mw by 2019. In the upcoming fiscal, around 3,000 Mw has been kept for solar projects to be based on domestically sourced solar cells. Moser Baer India headquartered in New Delhi, is a leading global tech-manufacturing company. The company also emerged as the first to market the next-generation of storage formats like Blu-Ray discs in India.

Poddar Developers raises Rs 125 crore via QIP

Mumbai based real estate developer Poddar Developers has raised Rs 125 crore through selling shares to investors through qualified institutional placement (QIP). Goldman Sachs, ICICI Pru and IDFC Capital are the lead investors in the issue. Poddar will issue shares at Rs 1,125.21 per share. Equirus Capital was lead manager to the QIP.

The company is engaged in the manufacturing Color & Additive Masterbatches for dope dyeing of man- made fibres, various plastic applications and engg. plastics & compounds

Essar Ports hits 10% upper circuit on block deal

Essar Ports suddenly zoomed in early morning deals and hit 10 per cent upper circuit limit at Rs. 134 on the BSE after a block deal of 56.6 lakh shares was executed on BSE at Rs 113.05 per share. 

The stock has pared some of its initial gains, and is now up over 8 per cent at Rs. 120. 

 The counter has witnessed huge volume of around 5.8 million shares as compared to its two-week daily average volume of 91,000 shares on the BSE.

Sensex hits 29,000, all time high

At 9:19AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 29,009 up 120 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,747 up 18 points.

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

Auto, Consumer Durables, Power, banking, capital goods, FMCG,  healthcare metal, realty, Oil and gas indices are the gainers, while Teck and IT indices are losers.

GAIL, BHEL, COALINDIA,SUNPHARMA,TATASTEEL, Reliance, Hindalco are among the gainers, whereas HDFC Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank, HUL are losing sheen on BSE.

The much awaited Union budget will be on a Saturday this time (Feb 28). The Budget session will begin on February 23 with the traditional Presidential Address to both the houses of Parliament.  The Railway Budget will be presented on February 26 followed by the tabling of the Economic Survey on February 27.

The US stock market ended with slight gains. Asian markets are mixed. Japan's Nikkei is lower while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is higher. China's Shanghai index is marginally up.

Bank of Baroda and Corporation Bank will see stock-splits today.

Poddar Developers, which has presence in the affordable housing segment in Mumbai, raised Rs. 125 crore through stake sale. Not many real estate companies have managed this.  

The Coal Ministry kicked off the process of re-allotting mines, starting with central and state public sector units on Wednesday. Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said all the 36 blocks earmarked for allotment will be offered for PSUs to cherry-pick from in a single phase. The Centre proposes to complete the whole process by February 20. Priority will be given to PSUs with units close to the mines, Swarup added, a report stated.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s full-fledged Budget is likely to propose a fresh round of indirect tax reforms by removing existing anomalies such as the inverted duty structure. This is being done to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme. Power generation machines, telecom equipment, and petroleum products are among the categories affected by the inverted duty structure, according to a report.

Indian officials will brief their US counterparts on steps taken to promote manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ campaign and improve ease of doing business, in a meeting in New Delhi today.

SEBI will come out with fresh norms for algo trading shortly, according to UK Sinha, Chairman, SEBI said. Meanwhile, SEBI is expected to discuss changes to norms governing issuance of partly paid shares and warrants as well as amendments to regulations for securitisation trustees, according to a report. Besides, the board is likely to take up amendments to certain regulations related to listing of debt securities, the report added.

The Finance Ministry has initiated the process of disinvesting 10 per cent stake in Hyderabad-based mining company NMDC.

Standard & Poor's Ratings  Services believes political developments in a few Asia-Pacific sovereigns  could become important factors in shaping credit trends in the next few years,  said a report published today, titled "Asia-Pacific Sovereign Rating Trends,