Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund files offer document for MOSt Focused Long Term Fund

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund has filed offer document with SEBI to launch an open ended equity linked saving Scheme as 'Motilal Oswal MOSt Focused Long Term Fund'. The New Fund Offer price is Rs 10 per unit.

Entry and exit load charges will be nil for the scheme. The scheme offers growth and dividend option and seeks to collect a Minimum Target Amount of Rs 10 crore.

The scheme will be benchmarked against scheme CNX 500 Index. The minimum application amount is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Rs 500 thereafter.

The investment objective of the scheme is to generate long-term capital appreciation from a diversified portfolio of predominantly equity and equity related instruments.

Gold futures decline ahead of Federal Reserve announcement

Gold futures declined on Wednesday as investors avoided the precious metal ahead of the Federal Reserve's statement on monetary policy and interest rates. However, dollar's weakness against major currencies limited the losses to some extent.

Gold futures for December delivery settled down $4.50 at $1,224.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. While spot gold fell 1.4 percent at $1,210.20 an ounce.

Indian economy can grow at 8-9 percent: Finance Minister

Optimistic over the improving economic condition, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stated that India has the potential to grow at 8-9 percent annual rate. Highlighting that good governance would remain a key for economic growth, Arun Jaitley stressed that if the government follows the best practices and displayed the highest standards of good governance, Indian economy can get back on to high growth path.

Finance Minister also highlighted the importance of audit and said that accountability and transparency are essential as it helps in good governance. After registering an average growth rate of 8% during FY08-FY12, Indian economic growth had slowed down to below 5% over the last two financial years. Factors like high interest rate, stubborn inflation, low investments and slow execution of infrastructure projects have impacted country’s economic growth.

However, Indian economy has shown signs of nascent recovery during the first quarter of current fiscal. India’s economy expanded at its fastest pace in more than two years by 5.7% during first quarter of current fiscal as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in same quarter last year.

Nifty hits 8100 on F&O expiry day; realty stocks in focus

The Nifty has hit 8100 on October F&O expiry day. The 50-share index is up 10.45 points at 8100.90. The Sensex is up 40.25 points at 27138.42. About 581 shares have advanced, 257 shares declined, and 34 shares are unchanged. Dr Reddy's Labs, Infosys, GAIL, HDFC and Wipro are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are BHEL, Tata Motors, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and NTPC.Realty stocks are in focus with Sobha Developer, Prestige Estate and DLF as big gainers. The Indian rupee slipped in early trade. It has opened lower by 16 paise at 61.51 per dollar against previous day close of 61.35. The dollar index rises after the Federal Reserve ended its monthly bond purchase program and signaled confidence the US economic recovery would remain on track despite signs of a slowdown in many parts of the global economy.

US stocks closed with slight losses, finishing off their lows of the session, after the Federal Reserve ended its stimulative monthly bond-buying program and expressed confidence in US economic prospects.

Major indexes were volatile following the central bank's statement, with the S&P 500 down as much as 0.8 percent before pulling back. Material shares were lower throughout the session, a decline in Facebook pressured the Nasdaq, but strength in energy and financial shares helped the market recover.

In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed ended its quantitative easing program of bond purchases, as had been expected. At its peak, the program pumped USD 85 billion a month into the financial system. The Fed also dropped a characterization of US labor market slack as "significant" in a show of confidence in the economy's prospects. Brent crude prices slipped to USD 86 a barrel after the Fed announced it would end its two-year-old bond-buying stimulus program. Gold prices dropped over a percent following a strong dollar.

Moody's retain negative outlook on Indian banks on high corporate leverage

In yet another worrying development for banking sector, international rating agency, Moody’s while retaining its negative outlook for the Indian banking sector, has underscored that high leverage in the corporate sector could prevent any meaningful recovery in asset quality of the banking system over the next 12-18 months, regardless of moderate rebound in economic growth. The rating agency since November 2011 has maintained a negative outlook for the banking system.

Notably, the report of Moody just comes a day after another global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s), in its Country Risk Assessment report on the Indian banking sector, underscored that country’s plan to grant new banking licenses to companies could heighten the risk for banking sector as the aggressive market share gaining tactics, like underwriting standards or undercutting prices by new entrants may adversely impact the banking sector's stability.

Further, Moody’s specified that negative outlook on the Indian banking system pertains mainly to the public-sector banks, which represent more than 70% of total banking-system assets, since these banks have experienced higher growth rates in non-performing and restructured loans, as well as greater weakening in profits, than their private sector peers. 

The agency has estimated that India's corporate sector had an average debt-to-equity ratio of more than 3 times, and would need a stronger economic recovery than currently projected by the credit agency to bring down the leverage.

Moody’s in its report, highlighted that continuing poor asset quality, wherein the NPAs levels were set to touch 4.5% of the system, would require continued provisioning and strengthened capital buffer and highlighted that after provisioning, profitability of public sector banks would generate insufficient internal capital for loan growth. It added that poor asset quality and low capitalization remained to be the primary concerns for Indian public sector banks, which were not expected to improve much in the coming 18 months.

Mentha oil futures edge higher on rising demand

Mentha oil futures edged higher on MCX as speculators enlarged their positions amid rising demand from consuming industries in the spot market. Besides, tight supplies in physical markets on restricted arrivals from producing belts too supported mentha oil prices’ uptrend.

The contract for October delivery was trading at Rs 675.90, up by 0.67% or Rs 4.50 from its previous closing of Rs 671.40. The open interest of the contract stood at 1730 lots.

The contract for November delivery was trading at Rs 686.70, up by 0.53% or Rs 3.60 from its previous closing of Rs 683.10. The open interest of the contract stood at 9181 lots on MCX.

Wipro gains on plan to expand its operations in Romania

Wipro is currently trading at Rs. 555.10, up by 1.00 points or 0.18% from its previous closing of Rs. 554.10 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 556.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 560.00 and Rs. 555.00 respectively. So far 40854 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 621.50 on 07-Oct-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 465.40 on 27-Nov-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 585.90 and Rs. 548.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 137554.74 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 73.43% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 13.64% and 10.99% respectively.

Wipro is planning to expand its operations in Romania with the addition of about 150 employees by end of next calendar year. The company is planning to increase its employee strength in Romania by 25% to 750 employees by December 2015.

At present, the company’s facilities in Romania serve more than 20 customers in Eastern Europe, supported by over 600 employees. Wipro's customers in Romania span across sectors like retail and consumer goods, healthcare, manufacturing and telecom industries, among others.

Meanwhile, the company is in discussions with local universities to partner and develop curriculum for enhancing local capabilities.

Wipro is a leading provider of analytics and information management solutions - enabling customers to derive actionable business insights from data to drive growth, enhance cost management and strengthen risk management.

Dr Reddy's Labs Q2 disappoints, net falls 17% to Rs 574 cr

Drug maker Dr Reddy's Laboratories ' second quarter consolidated net profit fell 16.8 percent to Rs 574 crore compared to Rs 690.2 crore in the year-ago period. Profit was slightly above estimates but topline and operational performance missed street expectations. Profit was expected at Rs 537 crore on revenue of Rs 3,702 crore (up 10.3 percent) for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Net sales grew by 6.9 percent to Rs 3,588 crore in the quarter ended September 2014 compared to Rs 3,357 crore in same quarter last year. Consolidated operating profit during the quarter declined 12.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 646.5 crore and margin dropped 400 basis points to 18 percent as against expectations of Rs 800 crore (up 8.8 percent) and 21.6 percent, respectively.

IDBI Bank firms up on raising $350 million from overseas bond sale

IDBI Bank is currently trading at Rs. 68.40, up by 0.15 points or 0.22 % from its previous closing of Rs. 68.25 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 68.75 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 68.95 and Rs. 68.25 respectively. So far 55123 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 116.50 on 09-Jun-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 52.95 on 30-Jan-2014.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 69.00 and Rs. 65.30 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 10971.06 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 76.50 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 13.92 % and 9.58 % respectively.

State-run IDBI Bank has raised $350 million in an overseas bond sale highlighting pick-up in forex fund raising by domestic corporates.  The city-based lender raised $350 million in overseas senior unsecured notes through its Dubai branch. Global credit rating agency, Fitch has assigned the senior unsecured notes issue due April 2020 a final rating of ‘BBB-‘.

IDBI Bank is new generation public sector universal bank that rides on a cutting edge Core Banking Information Technology platform. This enables the Bank to offer personalized banking and financial solutions to its clients through its 1,217 branches and 2,101 ATMs.

Sensex adds over 150 pts, Nifty firm; Hero up 2%, HUL gains

The market has once again opened higher. The Nifty is inching closer to 8100, up 49.45 points at 8077.05.  The Sensex is up 172.73 points at 27053.55. About 471 shares have advanced, 85 shares declined, and 16 shares are unchanged. Hero, Tata Motors, HUL, M&M and ONGC are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Dr Reddy's Labs and TCS.
The Indian rupee opened marginally higher at 61.25 per dollar against 61.32 Tuesday.
Dollar was subdued as investors waited for the latest guidance from the Federal Reserve, while a surprisingly dovish message from Sweden's Central Bank saw the currency slump to four-year lows. 
In the US, stocks rose, with the Dow industrials extending gains into a fourth day and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite higher on the month, as investors embraced corporate earnings, a rise in consumer sentiment and anticipated the end of the Federal Reserve's bond buys. 
European stocks ended firmly in positive territory, regaining some of Monday's losses, as investors reacted to third-quarter earnings and prepared for a key monetary policy decision from the US.
In commodities, Brent crude prices were steady above USD 86 per barrel after industry data showed a rise in us crude inventories that was in line with expectations. From precious metals space, gold hovered near USD 1,230 an ounce, clinging to gains from the previous session.