Sensex, Nifty cautious ahead of Infy earnings

The Indian equity market ended on a flat note on Thursday as the benchmark indices yet again struggled for direction throughout the day.

The Market opened on a flat note in early trade and from there on it remained stuck in a tight trading range. 

The capital goods, FMCG, realty and the banking stocks were among the top losers. However,? bucking the negative trend were oil and gas, power and the healthcare stocks.

The IT stock were in momentum ahead of results of Infosys is scheduled to be announced on Friday. The stock marginally gained by 0.7% and closed at Rs. 3448 per share.

Amar Ambani Head of research at IIFL said, “Based on our expectation Q3 FY14 revenue growth would be better than that factored in the current revenue guidance, we estimate Infosys to raise FY14 revenue growth guidance to 11.5-12%. On the margin front, Infosys is expected to deliver the best margin performance with sequential improvement of 100bps. But this has to be looked in the context of steep margin fall in previous quarters.”

Shares of gold loan companies were in the limelight after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revised the loan-to-value (LTV) cap for gold loan non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to 75% this quarter from 60%. Shares of Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance both hit 20% upper circuit.

Finally, BSE Sensex closed at 20,713 down 16 points, while NSE Nifty closed at 6,168 down 6 points over the previous close.

Jaihind Projects soars on bagging three orders worth Rs 48.27 crore

Jaihind Projects is currently trading at Rs. 14.45, up by 0.60 points or 4.33% from its previous closing of Rs. 13.85 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 13.48 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 14.45 and Rs. 13.48 respectively.

The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 43.65 on 10-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 12.25 on 10-Dec-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 14.90 and Rs. 13.32 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 14.10 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 66.35% while Non-Institutions held 33.65% stake in the company.

Jaihind Projects has bagged two Work orders worth Rs 44.56 crore from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which includes work order worth Rs 30.39 crore for Composite Mainline and combined station works for re-routing of existing Barauni-Kanpur Pipeline in different stretches between Mughalsarai & Kanpur for dedicated Freight corridor of Indian Railway, and work order worth Rs 14.17 crore for laying of 18 OD, 64Km (app.) cross country crude oil pipeline by extending existing loop lines Group-B-from Dumri to Barauni (about 27 kms) and other associated works.

Meanwhile, the company has received one work order from Gujarat State Petronet (GSPL) worth Rs 3.71 crore for Parle Connectivity Projects (6’ Dia X 5.587).

Jaihind Projects is engaged in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) with a focus on the hydrocarbons, water & infrastructure sectors. Jaihind Projects is a public Listed Company with its shares listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Gujarat Automotive Gears approves sub division of equity shares

Gujarat Automotive Gears Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on January 08, 2014, inter alia, have considered and approved the following; 

1. Shifting of the registered office from Vadodara in the State of Gujarat to Baddi in the State of Himachal Pradesh and thereby altering clause II of the Memorandum of Association.

2. Sub-division of the existing equity share of nominal value of Rs. 10/- each fully paid up into 5 (five) equity shares of nominal value of Rs. 2/- each fully paid up and thereby altering the Capital Clause of Memorandum of Association of the Company consequent upon sub-division of existing equity shares as above.

3. Alteration in Article 130 of the Articles of Association of the Company.The aforesaid proposed alteration in Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association of the Company are subject to the approval of the members of the Company through postal ballot.

4. Postal Ballot Notice to seek the approval of the members of the Company on aforesaid proposals.

5. Appointment of Mr. Sunil D Jaithwar, Chartered Accountant of S. D. Jaithwar & Co. as the Scrutinizer for conducting the Postal Ballot in a fair and transparent manner.

Reliance Industries commences production from the MA-8 well: Report

Reliance Industries (RIL) has reportedly started producing gas from the MA-8 well on January 1. The well has a capacity to produce 1 million to 2 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd) of gas and the output is likely to stabilise by mid January.

At present, the company is producing about 10 mscmd gas from the KG D6 block, sharply lower from the 60 mscmd production at the end of 2010.

Recently, the company said that it is planning to increase gas production of around 1-3 million standard cubic meters per day from its eastern offshore KG-D6 fields in January as it begun the process of reversing the trend of falling output.

Ashok Leyland plans to reduce debt by Rs 1,000 crore this year

Ashok Leyland, the flagship of the Hinduja group and one of the largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles in the country, is planning to pare down its debt burden by optimizing resources, rationalizing working capital and through better planning and execution. The company is on track to bring it down by Rs 1,000 crore this year.

Besides, the company plans to launch up to 18 different types of trucks this year under its new brand for commercial vehicles, ‘Captain’.

Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja Group flagship company in India, is engaged in the manufacturing of commercial vehicles and related components. The company’s products include buses, trucks, engines, defense and special vehicles.

Reserve Bank allows NBFCs to lend against gold jewellery up to 75 percent of LTV

In the view of moderation in the growth of gold loan portfolios of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) in the recent past, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed NBFCs to lend against gold jewellery up to 75 percent of Loan-To-Value (LTV) of metal from 60 percent at present.

The RBI further noted that the value of the jewellery for the purpose of determining the maximum permissible loan amount will be only the intrinsic value of the gold content excluding the other cost elements such as making charges. Further, the central bank clarified the need to give a certificate on the purity of gold cannot be dispensed. The certified purity should be applied for determining the maximum permissible loan and the reserve price for auction.

The NBFCs can include suitable caveats to protect themselves against disputes on redemption. Earlier, NBFCs had raised concerns over certification of the purity of gold jewellery accepted as collateral and underscored that under the current practices it was possible only to arrive at the proximate purity of the gold and such a certification could lead to dispute with the borrowers.

Torrent Pharmaceuticals eyes more acquisitions in the future: Report

After Rs 2,004-crore Torrent-Elder deal, Torrent Pharmaceuticals is reportedly eyeing more acquisitions in the future, both in domestic and overseas market. The company will prefer a much smaller acquisition, in the range of Rs 50-100 crore. Though, the company has not specified which areas it is going to foray for an acquisitions.

Earlier in December 2013, the company entered into a definitive binding agreement with Elder Pharmaceuticals (Elder) to acquire its branded domestic formulations business in India and Nepal (India Business) for a consideration of about Rs 2000 crore.

Torrent Pharmaceuticals is flagship company of the Torrent group, a leader in cardiovascular and central nervous system segments. It also has presence in gastro-intestinal, diabetology, anti-infective and pain management segments.

Goldman Sachs Investments Mauritius offloads 3.9 lakh shares of Strides Arcolab: Report

Goldman Sachs Investments Mauritius has reportedly offloaded 3.9 lakh shares of Strides Arcolab through the open market route. The shares were sold on an average price of Rs 888.66 valuing the transaction to Rs 35.39 crore. On the other hand, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) PTE has bought 5 lakh shares in the company for an average price of Rs 894.98, through open market route valuing the transaction at Rs 44.74 crore.

Strides Arcolab is a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bangalore, India that develops and manufactures wide range of IP-lead niche pharmaceutical products with an emphasis on sterile injectables.

RBI to hand out banking licences by March 2014

Both government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have fast-tracked the process for banking licences and are in bid to issue these by March 31, 2014, two months before the General election in April-May.

The screening panel, headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan, has already reviewed all the applications and has sought additional details from RBI. This screening process is expected to be completed within current fiscal and new banking licences will be handed soon after that. The committee will hold another two meetings for elimination of applicants which do not meet the ‘fit and proper’ criteria for getting a licence.

As many as 26 applications were given for setting up new banks, of which two were later withdrawn, from Tata Sons and Videocon Industries' subsidiary, Value Industries, while one more, from KC Land & Finance, was added.

Further, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Anand Sinha is likely to be appointed as officer on special duty for three months after his term expires on January 18, to help complete the work on new bank licences that he has been overseeing. However, since Sinha will be appointed as consultant to RBI after his current term ends, the government would appointment a new deputy governor to replace him.

India heading towards the better times: PM

Dismissing apprehensions of the Indian diaspora on the state of the economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that there was no need to worry about the future growth of Indian economy as the country was heading towards better times. Manmohan Singh urged people to remain engaged in the future of this country with confidence despite the concerns about the social challenges, better governance and future of the Indian economy. Highlighting the perceptions outside India that the country is losing its growth momentum in the past decade, which is amplified by the political uncertainty on account of coming general election, he clarified that despite a number of weak external and domestic factors, Indian economic fundamentals are strong.

Prime Minister dismissed perceptions that Indian economy was struggling with slowdown in past decade saying that economy has done well over the past decade with averaged healthy growth rate of 7.9 percent per annum. India’s savings and investment rates are still over 30 percent of GDP and business sentiments in India is escalating. Referring to the decade low growth of 5 percent in previous fiscal, Manmohan Singh pointed out that a number of international as well as domestic factors have contributed to low growth in FY13. Prime Minister expects that domestic economy is likely to grow at 5 percent in the current fiscal.