Friday March 28, 03:30 PM
U-turn... |
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By Equitymaster.com
The broader markets swung dramatically into the green during the second half of the day after languishing in the red for much of the first half. Heavyweights from the software, engineering and power sectors aided the indices, while select banking and finance stocks bore the brunt of the selling activity. As regards global markets, while the Asian indices closed in the green, the European indices are witnessing a positive trend currently.
The BSE Sensex closed at 16,371 (up 356 points) while the NSE Nifty closed at 4,942 (up 112 points). The rupee was trading at 39.86 to the dollar.
The markets began poorly and had a weak showing right up to the mid way point before surging into the green in the second half of the day's proceedings. It reinforces the correlation between the US market's performance and the morning session on Indian bourses, and that of the European markets' on the afternoon session, which was on display yesterday as well. While the BSE midcap index ended higher by 4%, the BSE smallcap index closed higher by 5%. The overall market breadth was positive with gainers outnumbering the losers by a ratio of 5:1 on the broader BSE. Tata Steel (TISC.BO, news) (up 10%) and Infosys (up 7%) led the pack of gainers, while HDFC Bank (HDBK.BO, news) (down 3%) and ONGC (down 1%) led the pack of losers.
As per a leading business daily, India Cements plans to incur Rs 20 bn for de-bottlenecking, upgradation of production facilities and setting up of two new grinding units. It will boost its production capacity to about 14 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by December 2008, up from its current 9-mtpa levels. The 1 mtpa grinding units will come up in Chennai and Perli (Maharastra) by the 1QFY09 at a cost of Rs 8 bn. The company also plans to set up two cement plants in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh adding up to 3.5 mtpa by May 2010 at a cost of Rs 12 bn. It may be noted that once the lined up capacities come on stream, the Indian cement industry is expected to face excess supply situation. Thus, the current high realisations for the company may not sustain in future, in turn impacting its performance. India Cement (ICMN.BO, news) closed lower by 1%, while ACC ended 2% higher.
As per a leading business daily, Vijay Mallya, the chairman of Kingfisher Airlines has indicated that Deccan will cease to exist as a result of the merger between the two. However, there is still no clarity over whether the low-fare flights will be continued and the fate of the advance bookings for Deccan flights. It may be noted that this contradicts Deccan founder's earlier position that the two airlines would operate as separate entities even after the merger. The merger gives Kingfisher the option to run an international carrier as Deccan has completed the stipulated five years in the domestic skies. The Karnataka High Court convened meeting to clear the merger will be held on April 17. Deccan Aviation ended 14% higher, while Jet Airways closed 3% higher.
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