Provisional: Sensex falls nearly 2 pct; Re plummets

The currency fell as far as 62.78 to the dollar, breaching the previous low of 62.03 hit on Friday.

Indian stock markets ended on a weak note with 30-share Sensex shedding over 300 points, extending Friday’s 4 per cent slump on concerns that the recent measures announced by the government to support rupee may be inadequate and could hurt economic growth.

On a provisional basis, 30-share Sensex closed 320.19  points lower at 18,277.99 while the 50-share Nifty shed 93.10 points to end at 5,414.75.

The rupee fell to yet another record low on Monday as the government's steps unveiled last week seemed inadequate to stall the currency's fall.
The currency fell as far as 62.78 to the dollar, breaching the previous low of 62.03 hit on Friday.

India's benchmark 10-year government bond yield rose to 9 percent on Monday afternoon as the rupee continued to make a series of record lows as the government's measures were seen as inadequate to halt the free-fall in the currency.

Axis Bank slips below Rs 1,000 mark

On BSE, stocks of Axis Bank are trading 5.8% low at Rs 994

Shares of Axis Bank, India's third largest private lender, has slipped below Rs 1,000 mark in today's trade. Last the counter traded below this level was in September, 2012.

On the BSE, stocks of Axis Bank are trading 5.8% low at Rs 994. It bounced back after tasting day's lowest point of Rs 987.8.

The fall in Axis Bank's shares have been one of the sharpest among private lenders. In the last three months, after hitting a 52-week high of Rs 1,549 early this year in May. However, since then the counter has lost a whopping over 36%.

Siemens inches on wining two contracts worth Rs 144 crore

Siemens has won two contracts aggregating Rs 144 crore from the Rural Electrification Board, Bangladesh to construct 38 new 33/11kV substations. The projects are funded by Japan Bank for International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and are to be delivered on a turnkey basis. The substations would be located in the Rajshahi and Barisal zones in western Bangladesh.   The projects involve installing new and improving existing distribution facilities in the rural region west of Jamuna River. They aim to achieve an efficient power supply by reducing power distribution losses, strengthening and stabilizing the power supply system, thereby contributing to the progress and the economic development of western Bangladesh. In addition, the projects will contribute to reducing the impact of global warming by improving the efficiency of depreciated power distribution facilities.

The Rural Electrification Board of Bangladesh has been providing service to rural consumers for over 30 years by expanding and providing electricity to households, businesses and industries in Bangladesh. These orders that have been awarded to Siemens are a further milestone in the successful business conducted by Siemens in Bangladesh, where power demand continues to rise.

Benchmark bond yield hits 9 pct, highest since Nov 2011

India's benchmark 10-year government bond yield rose to 9 percent on Monday afternoon as the rupee continued to make a series of record lows as the government's measures were seen as inadequate to halt the free-fall in the currency.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield was trading at 9 percent, up 12 basis points on the day at 12:32 p.m., its highest level since November 15, 2011.
The partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.61/62 per dollar, after hitting a record low of 62.6250.

Sensex falls around 200 pts, Nifty touches 11-month low

The Sensex falls around 200 points, while the Nifty falls 1.3 percent after marking its lowest intraday level in 11 months, extending Friday's 4 percent slump as a record low of rupee weighs.

The rupee fell as much as 62.40 to the dollar in early trade, breaching the previous low of 62.03 hit on Friday as the government's steps unveiled last week seemed inadequate to stall the currency's fall.

Banks slump on tightening short term rates: ICICI Bank Ltd (ICBK.NS) falls 3 percent and HDFC Bank Ltd (HDBK.NS) is down 1.8 percent.

Also, foreign institutional investors sold 5.63 billion rupees of cash shares on Friday, ending a 3-day buying streak, exchange data showed.

Asian markets face a tense few days waiting to see if minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting will provide some clarity on when it might start scaling back stimulus -- with far-reaching implications for borrowing costs across the globe.

BSE Sensex loses 1000 pts in 2 days; Tata Steel outperforms

Bears seem to be taken full control of Dalal Street dragging the equities. The Sensex is down 196.32 points or 1.06 percent at 18401.86, and the Nifty slips 67.55 points or 1.23 percent at 5440.30. About 677 shares have advanced, 1124 shares declined, and 121 shares are unchanged.

The Sensex has fallen 1000 points in the last two days. Laurence Balanco of CLSA believes the trading range for the Nifty has scaled down to 4700-5500 levels and he does not rule out a move on the rupee to 67-68 to the dollar if 63 breaks.

Meanwhile, Asian markets are mixed. Japan reversed its earlier losses after the yen resumed its decline against the usd. Japan's trade deficit came in wider than expected for the thirteenth straight month.

The dollar index inched higher to 81.3 gaining against the yen and euro amidst weak us economic data prompting risk aversion.

Commodities saw Brent crude rise to above USD 110 per barrel - up for the 6th straight session on the back of civil unrest in Egypt and Libya while gold rose to three-month highs and silver was up for the 8th consecutive session.

The rupee opened lower with a gap on the back of poor domestic sentiment and dollar strength in Asia. Some fiis bought dollars while sales came from corpraotes and some PSU banks. Volumes are exceedingly thin.

Volumes are even thinner in the bond markets with no one wanting to enter for fear they cant exit. The 10-year bond, which is the only one that traded a little is down over 50 paise, with yields rising 7 basis points to 8.95 percent on a mix of high crude and poor cash liquidity.

Sesa Goa surges as merger with Sterlite becomes effective

Shares of Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries gained nearly 4 per cent in an otherwise weak market as the proposed merger of the Vedanta group companies becomes affective from today.  The group's Chairman Anil Agarwal will head the new entity.

"Anil Agarwal, Navin Agarwal and M S Mehta have been appointed as Chairman, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, respectively, for Sesa Sterlite," Vedanta said in a statement.

The statement said the group consolidation and simplification has received all the necessary approvals and thereby the merger of its subsidiaries Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries has become effective, to create Sesa Sterlite.

Sesa Sterlite will have exposure to zinc-lead-silver, iron ore, oil & gas, copper, aluminium and commercial power, with assets located in India, Australia, Liberia, South Africa, Namibia, Ireland and Sri Lanka.

At 11:40AM, Sesa Goa gained 4 per cent at Rs 135.90 while Sterlite Industries rose 3.8 per cent to Rs 78.65 in today's trades.

MCX hits the roof on bargain hunting

MCX hit an upper circuit limit of 5% at Rs 255.40 at 10:28 IST on BSE on bargain hunting after the stock crashed 67.23% in the preceding 17 trading sessions to Rs 243.25 on 16 August 2013, from a recent high of Rs 742.25 on 22 July 2013.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 239.29 points, or 1.29%, to 18,358.89.

On BSE, 5.07 lakh shares were traded in the counter compared with average volume of 89,643 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a low of Rs 238.30 so far during the day, which is also a record low from the counter. The stock hit a record high of Rs 1,617 on 13 November 2012.

The stock had under performed the market over the past one month till 16 August 2013, sliding 65.37% compared with the Sensex's 6.31% decline. The scrip had also under performed the market in past one quarter, falling 74.20% as against Sensex's 8.15% fall.

The small-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 51 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Shares of MCX witnessed selling pressure recently as National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), was engulfed in a crisis after it suspended trade on 31 July 2013, raising concerns about possible default of Rs 5600 crore due to investors, including 7,000 small investors.

MCX and NSEL are group companies of Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL).

MCX issued a clarification during trading hours on Friday, 16 August 2013, that it has no exposure to crisis-hit NSEL.

MCX and NSEL are totally different entities with no financial commitments or exposure to each other whatsoever, MCX said in a filing with the BSE.

MCX is in full compliance with the directive of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the commodity markets regulator, on investments, loans and advances, it said in the filing.

That apart, the exchange has effective risk management system and monitoring of warehouses, it added.

MCX is a debt-free company and has a net worth of Rs 1214 crore in the quarter ended 30 June 2013. The market share continues to be above 86% of the total commodity futures trade in the country, the filing added.

MCX's net profit fell 7.14% to Rs 60.11 crore on 3.02% increase in total income to Rs 151.35 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012.

MCX is a dominant player in commodity exchanges in India.

SAIL gains on commencing projects worth Rs 2,700 crore in April-June'13

Steel Authority of India’s (SAIL) relentless drive to fast-track its modernization and expansion plan (MEP), resulted in commissioning of projects worth Rs 2,700 crore in April-June’13, the highest in any quarter , since inception. The company’s capital expenditure during Q1FY14 was Rs 2,082 crore. Under the MEP, the cumulative orders worth Rs 58,579 crore were placed and an expenditure of Rs 46,064 crore incurred until June ’13. In April-June’13 quarter, the significant projects which have commenced production, included the new 7 meter tall battery complex along with coke dry cooling plant and the 2500-mm wide slab caster, both at Rourkela Steel Plant.

Besides, maintaining its thrust on higher sales, the company achieved a growth of 5% in total sales during the quarter April-June’13 which were 2.62 million tonnes (MT), as against 2.49 MT in the corresponding quarter of last year. Production of value added steel touched the best ever Q1 mark, at 1.29 MT, a y-o-y growth of 4%.

Further, efficiency in production also got a boost with specific energy consumption lower by 2% than corresponding period of last year, and BF productivity better by 1%. There was an improvement of 2% in concast production, and captive power generation increased by 8 % compared to corresponding period of last year.

Canara Bank launches two new products in Retail Expo 2013 in Goa

Canara Bank, a leading nationalized bank, had organized Canara Retail Expo 2013 in state of Goa on August 14, 2013. The bank launched two new products in the expo, Canara MSE Pragati and Canara MSE Unnati for entrepreneurs. The unique feature of these new products is that they only required a viable project and the bank would not insist on collateral or guarantee.

The chairman of the bank also disbursed loans worth Rs 1.01 crore to 1,000 borrowers to mark the occasion.

On standalone basis, the bank has posted a rise of 2.17% in its net profit at Rs 792.07 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 as compared to Rs 775.24 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income has increased by 14.65% at Rs 10507.88 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 9165.47 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012.