Sensex closes 0.7% lower; Maruti, Aurobindo hit record high

The market closed lower on Thursday post two big events - Federal Reserve meeting and RBI policy. The Sensex lost 151.24 points or 0.73 percent to 20,708.62, and the Nifty fell 50.50 points or 0.81 percent to 6,166.65, weighed down by banks, capital goods, power, oil & gas and FMCG stocks.

03:10pm Dish TV under pressure 
Shares of Dish TV plunged nearly 4 percent to Rs 59.50 on the BSE as Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has barred company's on-request offering of IndiaCast UTV channels. TDSAT said Dish TV can offer IndiaCast UTV channels on A-la-carte basis. (Disclaimer: TV18 Broadcast and Moneycontrol both are part of the Network18 Group)

 02:59pm Maruti Suzuki hits record high 
Shares of Maruti Suzuki rallied as much as 3.9 percent intraday to touch a life-time high of Rs 1,796.45 on the BSE. Suzuki Motor Corporation is looking at hiking stake in Maruti Suzuki, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. It is learnt that Suzuki Motor is considering various options including open offer and preferential issue to hike stake in Maruti, but it is yet to take final decision on hiking stake.

 02:45pm Aurobindo hits life-time high
 Aurobindo Pharma rallied 3.5 percent intraday to touch a record high of Rs 390 on the BSE. The stock has been buzzing since the biginning of this week, rising nearly 30 percent in five-sessions. Ventura Securities has initiated a buy coverage on the stock with a target price of Rs 466 apiece. At the current market price of Rs 377, the stock is trading at 12.5x and 9.7x its estimated earnings for FY15E and FY16E, respectively, representing a potential upside of around 24 percenet over a period of 24 months, Ventura report said. According to report, given the strong product pipeline (+100 general injectables by FY16E, around 4 penems by FY15, +20 controlled substances in FY15, 25 oncology products and 10 hormonal product by FY17) targeting the largest generic market (US), ARBPL will be a key beneficiary of the increased generic opportunities. Ventura expects Aurobindo Pharma revenues and earnings to grow at a CAGR of 24.2 percent and 57.2 percent to Rs 11,214 crore and Rs 1,131 crore over the forecasted period of FY13-16 expected. "Further, timely approvals for ready to market products can be a game changer for the company and further accelerate the pace of growth," it adds.

02:31pm Equity benchmarks pared losses in last hour of trade with the Nifty inching towards 6200 level supported by Reliance Industries and Tata Motors . Even the cut in losses of banks and capital goods stocks also helped the market recover from day's low. The Sensex slipped 71.91 points to 20,787.95, and the Nifty fell 23 points to 6,194.15. The broader markets are flat. Petrochemical major Reliance Industries gained 0.6 percent and commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors rose 0.4 percent. Maruti Suzuki and Wipro extended gains to 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively. IT majors TCS and Infosys rose over 1.4 percent. However, top private sector lender ICICI Bank dropped 2.6 percent while its rivals HDFC Bank and State Bank of India declined 1.5 percent each. Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro and state-run oil & gas explorer ONGC slipped 2.4 percent each. FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever fell over 0.5 percent while index heavyweights HDFC plunged nearly 2 percent.

Tata Chemicals trades higher on the bourses

Tata Chemicals is currently trading at Rs. 264.00, up by 0.25 points or 0.09 % from its previous closing of Rs. 263.75 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 265.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 266.00 and Rs. 263.35 respectively. So far 21965 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 381.50 on 09-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 234.50 on 04-Sep-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 276.00 and Rs. 257.85 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 6730.66 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 31.06 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 44.32 % and 24.62 % respectively.

Reserve Bank of India has notified that the foreign share holding by Foreign Institutional Investors in Tata Chemicals has reached the trigger limit. Hence, further purchases of equity shares of this company would be allowed only after obtaining prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India.

Tata Chemicals is the world’s second largest producer of soda ash with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The company’s industry essentials product range provides key ingredients to some of the world’s largest manufacturers of glass, detergents and other industrial products.

Sensex recovers a tad, but still down over 100 points

Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, today sought to allay fears over Fed tapering stating that the country is better prepared to deal with the situation arising out of a cut in US bond purchases. He said the Government felt markets had already factored in the impact of such a move.

Chidambaram's statement had some impact on the stock market as the indices rebounded a bit. The BSE Sensex had opened on a positive note but panic selling had set in.

Selling spree

Technically, the BSE Sensex, at about 12.44 p.m., was down by over 100 points from its previous close.

The Sensex had tanked nearly 370 points from the day's high in morning trade. It is still off 267 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 21,017.45 points and a low of 20,646 before trading at 20,750.33.

It is down by about 109 points from the previous day's close of 20,718.73. The Sensex opened with a gap of 100 points at 20,959.

Biggest losers

During the session, ICICI Bank was the biggest index loser, down by 2.9% to Rs 1,065. HDFC shed 2.57% to trade at Rs 777.90, Airtel lost 2.44% to quote around Rs 320, L&T was down by 2.43% at Rs 1,066 and ONGC eased by 2.43% to Rs 275.

Top gainers

Among the gainers were Wipro, up by 2.42% at Rs 535.05, Sun Pharma rose 2.04% to 584.55, Jindal Steel gained 2.01% to Rs 253.45, TCS added 1.96% to Rs 2,094.60 and Sesa Sterlite was up by 1.91% at Rs 205.20.

Sector-card

On the BSE, Bankex dived 2.28% and Capital Goods 1.52%. Realty was down 0.65 per cent.

IT (up 2.09%), Healthcare (+1.11%) and TECK (+1.47%) were among the gainers.

Liquidity tightening

The Indian markets, which responded positively to the RBI's move to keep the repo and CRR unchanged yesterday, are now looking at the possibility of liquidity tightening, albeit gradually.

It is true that the US Fed has not specified a timeframe for ending the bond buying programme and has set a modest initial figure of $10 billion a month cut in the stimulus programme-from $85 billion to $75 billion a month.

But a general view is that the tapering might gather pace if the US economy continues its recovery. The US Dow Jones index yesterday celebrated the announcement of outgoing Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke rallying by about 290 points.

In Asia, while Japanese Nikkei index was up strongly by about 250 points, two other key indices -- Singapore Straits Times and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were only marginally trading higher.

Mirroring fears over rupee weakening against the US dollar because of possible FII selling, the rupee was trading down at 62.27 against the US dollar.

Kotak Mahindra Bank plans to open 100 branches in current fiscal: Report

Private sector lender, Kotak Mahindra Bank is reportedly planning to open 100 new branches during the current financial year, which includes 24-34 new branches in rural areas and another 25 in semi-urban areas. Till September 2013, the bank had around 503 branches and looks to take its tally to over 600 by March 2014.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has reported 25.74% rise in its net profit at Rs 352.54 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 280.38 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income of the bank has increased by 13.56% at Rs 2469.46 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 2174.50 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.

Sun Pharma leads the pack on BSE, up nearly 2%

Pharma and IT stocks were the predominant gainers on the bourses on Thursday morning, with Sun Pharma and Cipla among the top gainers along with IT majors TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

At 11.10 a.m. Sun Pharma was the top gainer on the BSE. It was quoting at Rs 584.45 as against Rs 573.15 at close yesterday, a gain of 1.97 per cent.

Jindal Steel was also up nearly 2 per cent to quote at Rs 253.25 as against Rs 248.45 at close on Wednesday.

TCS was trading at Rs 2,092 as against its overnight close of Rs 2,054.30, representing a gain of 1.84 per cent.

Infosys held gains of 1.80 per cent to quote at Rs 3,520 as against Rs 3,457.80 at close on Wednesday. Both Infosys and TCS have indicated that they would be recruiting freshers in the coming year.

Wipro was trading at Rs 531, up 1.65 per cent on its overnight close of Rs 522.40.

Cipla held gains of 1.13 per cent to quote at Rs 397.50 as against its previous close of Rs 393.05.

Glenmark Pharma gains as Merrill Lynch picks up 0.79% stake in company

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is currently trading at Rs 528.00, up by 5.75 points or 1.10% from its previous closing of Rs 522.25 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs 524.45 and has touched a high and low of Rs 530.95 and Rs 520.40 respectively. So far 24352 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Re 1 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 612.00 on 12-Jul-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs 458.00 on 28-Mar-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 532.70 and Rs 518.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 14238.13 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 48.31% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 40.86% and 10.83% respectively.

Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana SA SV has reportedly bought 21.40 lakh shares or 0.79% stake of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals through the open market route. The shares were purchased on an average price of Rs 518.80 valuing the transaction to Rs 111.52 crore.

Glenmark’s current portfolio consists of 90 products authorized for distribution in the US marketplace and 53 ANDA’s pending approval with the USFDA. In addition to these internal Filings, GGI continues to identify and explore external development partnerships to supplement and accelerate the growth of the existing pipeline and portfolio.

Hindalco’s arm to expand aluminium automotive grade production capacity in US, Germany

In a bid to expand its aluminium automotive grade production capacity in the US and Germany, Hindalco Industries’ US-based subsidiary, Novelis Inc is planning to invest $205 million.

With the said investment, the company will make new finishing lines at its plants in Oswego, New York, and Nachterstedt, Germany, dedicated to the production of aluminium automotive sheets. The two new lines will each have a capacity of 1,20,000 tonnes a year.

Novelis is one of the world's leading providers of aluminium automotive sheet, which auto manufacturers are turning to for making structural components and exterior body panels. The company’s products are used in over 180 different vehicle models produced by leading automakers around the globe.

Strides Arcolab crashes 58% to adjust to special dividend

Share price of Strides Arocolab crashed 58 per cent on Friday to adjust to special dividend announced by the company.

Last week, Strides had announced a blockbuster dividend of Rs 500 a share in the wake of the $1.75-billion sale of Agila Specialities, its injectable drugs unit, to Mylan Inc of the US.

The company said the record date for the payment of special dividend will be December 20 and it would be paid on or after December 27.

Shareholders whose name appears on the company's book on December 20 would be eligible for the special dividend.

The stock is currently ruling at Rs 374, down Rs 508.9 or 57.7 per cent over the previous day's close of Rs 882.90.

Initially, the company had planned to distribute $700-800 million pre-tax to the shareholders. But the board has approved the special dividend of Rs 500 a share, which would result in a pre-tax distribution of about $525 million.

The sale of Agila Specialities to Mylan was announced on February 28 this year for an aggregate value of $1.6 billion in cash and potential additional consideration of up to $250 million.

Suzlon bags 2 contracts in France

Suzlon Group subsidiary REpower Systems SE has concluded two contracts, totalling 40 MW, with GDF-SUEZ Futures Energies.

These are for the supply of 20 wind turbines MM92 and MM82 types with a nominal output of 2.05 MW each. REpower will provide with the full maintenance of these two wind farms for a minimum of five years.

Suzlon's shares were up 3.54 per cent at Rs 9.65 on the BSE in morning trade.

To fulfil the requirements of the Somme Soude wind farm site in the northern-eastern region of Champagne-Ardenne will be supplied with nine turbines with 92 metres rotor diameter at different hub heights (80m and 100m) and one turbine with 82 meters rotor diameter. Project deliveries are planned for spring 2014, and commissioning for September, 2014.

Ten MM92 turbines with 100 metres hub height are intended for Hangest wind farm located in the Northern region Picardie. The delivery and the erection of the wind turbines are planned for summer 2014, and the commissioning for October 2014.

Pierre Parvex, Director of the Renewable Energy Division – GDF SUEZ Energie France said: “These contracts are the results of many fruitful exchanges between both our companies. The commissioning of the wind farms of Hangest sur Somme and Somme Soude is perfectly in line with our development strategy in wind energy. Today, GDF SUEZ operates over 1,200 MW of wind energy, and is the first wind operator in France.”

Olivier Perot, Managing Director – REpower S.A.S. added, “With over 1,500 MW installed in France, we are proud to contribute to the development of French wind energy, particularly in Picardie and Champagne-Ardenne regions where REpower has a strong footprint.”

Biocon trades in fine fettle for second consecutive session

Biocon, Asiais premier biotechnology company, and Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a world leader in the discovery and development of siRNA -based therapeutics, have entered into a Licensing & Collaboration agreement for the development of a range of siRNA (small interfering RNA) based novel therapeutics.

This collaboration will enable Biocon to co-develop, manufacture & commercialize QPI-1007, a novel siRNA drug candidate for ophthalmic conditions, for India and other key markets. Biocon will have access to Quark's innovative and proprietary siRNA technology platform that can be leveraged for the development of novel therapeutics for various unmet medical needs.

Biocon is India’s largest and Asia’s leading Biotechnology Company with a strategic focus on biopharmaceuticals and research services.