Amway India launches new products in Bihar

Direct selling FMGC major Amway India Enterprises today launched a new brand men’s grooming product ’Dynamite’ and a new line of festive range colours cosmetics under the brand ‘Attitude’ in Bihar.

The new products for Bihar were launched by Deptarag Bhattacharjee, Amway India Vice-President (East) at a function here.

The company introduced two new products — Dynamite Whitening cream and Dynamite Face wash — exclusively for men.

The All New Whitening cream comes with unique Lumiskin formulation and face wash with triActiva complex to bring a sense of strong yet sensitive dynamism to grooming, Bhattarjee told reporters.

The entire Dynamite range includes face wash, whitening cream, shave foam, after shave splash, deodorant, hair cream, shaving cream and disposable razors. They are competitively priced between Rs 45 and RS 360, Bhattacharjee added.

The company also launched a new line of festive range colours cosmetics from Attitude in Bihar. “The monsoon colours comprise six shades lip colours, three shades of nail colours, three shades of lip liner pencils, the Amway VP, said.

He said this year Anway India has also launched women’s category of nutritional supplements under the brand Nutrilite in Bihar as well as a slew of skincare products under the super premium brand Artistry.

Amway India has been doing pretty good in Bihar registering 6 per cent growth in the first eight months of the current year. From January to August, it recorded a turnover of Rs 33.22 crore compared to Rs 31.72 crore in the corresponding period last year, Bhattarcharjee said.

Rupee jumps 158 paise to 1-month high vs US dollar as Federal Reserve defers taper

The rupee had settled just a paise lower at 63.38 against the dollar in Wednesday's trade.

The rupee on Thursday zoomed by 158 paise to trade at over one-month high of 61.80 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on hopes of increased capital inflows after the US Federal Reserve's surprise decision to keep its stimulus programme intact.

The rupee had settled just a paise lower at 63.38 against the dollar in Wednesday's trade.

Traders said besides expectations of increased capital inflows, the dollar's weakness against other currencies overseas, after the US Federal Reserve surprised markets by leaving its massive bond-buying programme unchanged, boosted the rupee's sentiment.

Meanwhile, stock markets were up by nearly 3 % in the opening trade.

The BSE benchmark index soared by 574.13 points, or 2.88 %, to 20,536.29, while National Stock Exchange's Nifty rose by 183.65 points, or 3.11 % to 6,083.10 in opening trade.

Sensex ends at nearly 3-year high, Nifty surges 200 pts

Sensex witnessed the biggest single day gain since May 2009 in absolute terms

Benchmark indices have closed the session on a strong note led by financial and FMCG shares on expectation that fund flows into emerging markets including India would continue as the US Federal Reserve's surprisingly decided to continue its stimulus programme.

The US Federal Reserve late Wednesday surprisingly decided to continue with its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program for at least another month sent.

The 30-share Sensex ended 684 points higher at 20,647 and the 50-share Nifty added 216 points at 6,116 levels. Sensex witnessed the biggest single day gain since May 2009 in absolute terms.  The 30-share Sensex hit the highest levels since November 2010. The 50-unit CNX Nifty hit 16-week high.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 1-2%. The market breadth in BSE ended healthy with 1,428 shares advancing and 998 shares declining.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares and currencies flew higher on Thursday after the Federal Reserve stunned markets by choosing not to taper its asset-buying programme for now, sending global bond yields and the dollar into a tailspin.

From Jakarta to Manila, Tokyo to Sydney investors celebrated the prospect of prolonged stimulus in the world's largest economy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 2.3% to a four-month peak.

US stocks rallied to record highs on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve surprised investors and decided against trimming its bond-buying stimulus programme, which has fueled Wall Street's rally of more than 20% this year.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 146.44 points, or 0.94%, at 15,676.17, according to the latest data. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 20.67 points, or 1.21%, at 1,725.43. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 37.94 points, or 1.01%, at 3,783.64.

Most market participants were expecting the central bank to begin a withdrawal of the bond-buying programme by about $10 billion a month.

RUPEE

The rupee surged on Thursday, hitting its highest in a month, as the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision not to dial back its easy money policy is expected to provide a reprieve to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its policy making. At 15:40 PM, the rupee was trading at 61.94 against dollar.

GOLD

Gold soared around 3% on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve said it would continue buying bonds at an $85 billion monthly pace for now, surprising financial markets that were braced for a reduction in the central bank's economic stimulus.

Citing strains in the economy from tight fiscal policy and higher mortgage rates, the Fed decided against the tapering of asset purchases that investors had all but priced into stock and bond markets.

SECTORS

BSE Bankex and BSE Realty index surged between 5-7%. Sectors like Capital Goods, PSU, FMCG, Metal, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Auto and Power gained between 3-4%. Infact, all the major BSE sectoral indices ended in safe zone.

STOCKS

Shares of rate sensitive sectors such as automobiles, real estate, infrastructure and banking rallied up to 25% on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may roll back its tightening measures taken in order to contain the forex volatility in its monetary policy review on tomorrow.

YES Bank, ICCI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank from banking, DLF, HDIL and Unitech from realty, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra and Mahindra from automobiles were among few trading higher by between 5-25%.

Banking stocks zoomed as the US Federal Reserve announced its intention to leave its stimulus programme intact.

Analysts said that the move by Fed is expected to benefit banks the most on account of foreign currency loans taken by them.

"In the past 15 months or so, banks had taken huge exposure in terms of dollar loans from the external market. The continuing of the QE3 stimulus programme would mean higher demand for banking papers in the external market," said G Chokkalingam, MD & CIO, Centrum Broking.

Bharti Airtel rallied over 5% on reports that Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel), the largest foreign investor in the company pledges support to lead a consolidation drive of the local telecoms industry.

Other notable gainers are Tata Steel, Tata Power, L&T, ONGC and HUL.

This year's best performing sectors--information technology and consumer goods--underperformed as stocks in the high beta, rate sensitive sectors, including banking, realty and auto surged. Wipro was down by over 2%.

Shares of oil marketing companies such as BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil, along with ONGC and GAIL India rallied by up to 8% after the Indian Rupee (INR) hits one month high against the US Dollar (USD) today.

State-owned downstream oil marketing firms, BPCL and IOC are most benefited by the strong INR to USD rates as their revenues are linked to USD, their EBITDA margins are thin (3%-5%) and they are highly leveraged.

Strides Arcolab rises on receiving US FDA nod for Italian Semi-solids and Oinment facility

Strides Arcolab has received US FDA approval for Beltapharm's facility at Milan, Italy. This state-of-the-art, EU and TGA (Australia) approved facility located in Milan, Italy, manufactures liquids, semi-solids, ointments and creams. The Company is expecting its first approval of a niche semisolid product by Q1 2014. Strides is developing a portfolio of liquids and semi-solids products for the US and EU markets and currently has over 12 products at various stages of development/approvals. Strides already sell semi-solids in the UK market.

Strides Arcolab is currently trading at Rs. 881.00, up by 2.35 points or 0.27% from its previous closing of Rs. 878.65 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 882.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 892.90 and Rs. 871.00 respectively. So far 4399 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 1224.90 on 05-Dec-2012 and a 52 week low of Rs. 552.65 on 01-Aug-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 917.20 and Rs. 839.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 5218.54 crore.

FMC stops futures trading in non-farm items on Saturdays

The commodity markets regulator has said futures trading in non-farm items will not be permitted on Saturdays from now on.

Futures trading in farm commodities will continue on Saturdays as per the current schedule and the matter will be reviewed after three months.

"All the commodities exchanges shall keep their trading platform closed for non-agricultural commodities futures on Saturdays with immediate effect," the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) said.

Currently, bourses permit futures trading in all commodities from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays. On regular week days, futures trade in farm items is allowed from 10 am to 5 pm while non-farm futures trading takes place from 10 am to 11.55 pm.

FMC's decision follows feedback from exchanges, commodity brokers and physical market participants. They had said the rationale for futures trading in non-agricultural commodities on Saturdays does not hold good because the international commodities futures markets are closed on the day.

It was also suggested that Saturdays should be used by the exchanges and their members for housekeeping, maintenance of records and attending to compliance matters.

FMC regulates 21 commodity exchanges in the country, of which six operate at the national level.

Bharti Airtel rallies as SingTel pledges support for consolidation drive

SingTel, the largest foreign investor in Bharti pledges support to lead a consolidation drive of the local telecoms industry.

Bharti Airtel has rallied over 5% at Rs 355 on reports that Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel), the largest foreign investor in the company pledges support to lead a consolidation drive of the local telecoms industry.

“India desperately needs consolidation. Globally, the mobile industry is a scale game," said Simon Israel, chairman of SingTel, in an Economic Times report.

The Indian government is announcing new merger and acquisition rules in October, which is expected to further help consolidate the fragmented telecoms sector. It recently lifted a cap on foreign investments, allowing local telcos to be 100% foreign investments, added report.

The stock opened at Rs 345 and touched high of Rs 359 on NSE. A combined 2.15 million shares change hands on the counter so far on NSE and BSE.

Asian markets rally in early deals as Fed refrains from tapering

All the Asian equity markets were trading jubilantly in Thursday’s morning deals as Fed refrained from tapering stimulus program at its highly anticipated monetary policy meeting. The Fed said it would continue to purchase bonds at a pace of $85 billion per month. The Japanese stock market rose sharply, with investors indulging in some brisk buying at several counters, tracking the overnight surge on Wall Street following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its economic stimulus program in place. Meanwhile, the country’s exports climbed 14.7 percent year on year, beating expectations for an increase of 14.5 percent after collecting 12.2 percent in the previous month. Imports jumped an annual 16.0 percent versus forecasts for 18.5 percent after showing an increase of 19.6 percent a month earlier.

Hang Seng surged 394.67 points or 1.71% to 23,512.12, Jakarta Composite zoomed 198.24 points or 4.44% to 4,661.49, KLSE Composite strengthened 18.68 points or 1.05% to 1,790.08, Nikkei 225 soared 218.50 points or 1.51% to 14,723.86 and Straits Times was up by 51.49 points or 1.61% to 3,245.34.

Stock markets in China, Taiwan and South Korea remained shut for the trade today on account of public holidays.

FICCI’s 12 points action plan for manufacturing seeks streamlining and cutting existing rules

Industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), concerned over the slowdown in manufacturing has suggested a 12-point action plan to stimulate growth in the sector, which exhorts the government to devise a roadmap for streamlining and cutting existing rules and procedures for manufacturing sector.

The measures suggested by the industry body includes, issuance of rupee bonds to non-resident Indians (NRIs), avoiding retrospective amendments in tax laws, adoption of a consultative approach in designing tax policies, establishing coal linkages and strengthening of power distribution network. One of its suggestions include, setting up of a single quasi-judicial regulatory authority for dispute resolution to enable faster rollout of infrastructure projects.

It has also suggested reducing the threshold for minimum investments and said that 'The threshold for minimum investments needs to be reduced from Rs 100 crore to Rs 10 crore to encourage investments by smaller investors. Further, the period for which the (investment) allowance is available should be increased from two years to five years.”

The action plan has also shown its concern over employment in manufacturing and has suggested measures including creation of an enabling policy framework to attract skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled workers, affordable housing for industrial workers. Earlier too it has suggested specific amendments in the Factories Act, Contract Labour Act and Industrial Disputes Act to align them with the international best practices and ensure faster employment generation.

Coal India advances on the plans of importing 15 mt of coal for power utilities

Coal India is currently trading at Rs 300.05, up by 2.55 points or 0.86% from its previous closing of Rs 297.50 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs 301.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs 305.00 and Rs 299.70 respectively. So far 66435 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 376.00 on 21-Sep-2012 and a 52 week low of Rs 238.35 on 30-Aug-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 299.60 and Rs 283.50 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 189806.75 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 90.00% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 7.65% and 2.35% respectively.

In a bid to meet the fuel supply agreement obligation, Coal India is planning to import 15 million tonnes of coal for power utilities. In this regard, the company has received interest for 15 million tonnes from IPPs (independent power producers) and state owned entities. Around 60 companies, that include mostly private power producers like Damodar Valley Corporation and state generation companies, have shown interest to import coal on behalf of them.

Thus, the coal miner will float tender to select an agency (like MMTC, STC) who will import the coal on its behalf and the same will be completed within this fiscal.

Coal India is the world’s largest coal mining company. It also produces non-coking coal and coking coal of various grades for diverse applications.

Rupee at over one-month high after Fed meeting

Rises to as high as 61.65/dollar, its strongest since August 16

The rupee and bonds surged to more than one-month highs on Thursday morning as the US Fed refrained from withdrawing monetary stimulus as had been widely expected by global markets.

Emerging Asian currencies rallied with most Southeast Asian units up around 2% after the US Federal Reserve surprised investors by postponing the start of reductions to its stimulus programme.

At 9:30am, the rupee was trading at Rs 61.78 compared with previous close of Rs 63.39 per dollar. The unit rose to as high as 61.65/dollar, its strongest since August 16.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield was trading at 8.18%, after dropping to 8.14%, its lowest since August 8.

India's 1-year OIS rate was trading down 32 bps at 8.80% while the benchmark 5-year OIS down 28 bps at 8.02%, dealers said.

Currency dealers expect the rupee to trade near Rs 61 by the end of the trading session today.