Friday November 30, 03:30 PM
Firm close... |
|
By Equitymaster.com
The final trading hour saw the benchmark indices tread comfortably near the day's highs and settle there for the rest of the session. Despite sporadic attempts of profit booking, buying in heavyweights across sectors helped sustain the momentum. As regards global markets, while the Asian indices closed a mixed bag, the European indices are trading firm currently.
The BSE Sensex closed at 19,363 (up 360 points) while the NSE Nifty closed at 5,763 (up 128 points). The rupee was trading at 39.67 to the dollar.
After opening to a jittery start, on the back of apprehensions about the release of the GDP growth numbers earlier today, the benchmark indices added to their gains at a nimble pace in the subsequent hours. On the back of firm global cues and confidence inspired by the economic growth rate for 2QFY08, investors showed buying interest across sectors. The benchmark indices traded in the positive territory and scaled higher in every passing hour despite some sporadic attempts of profit booking at the higher levels. The final hour witnessed the BSE Sensex settle nearly 360 points above yesterday's closing levels. The advance to decline ratio was tilted in favour of the former (3:1) on the BSE Sensex. While DLF (up 6%), Reliance (RELI.BO, news) Energy (up 4%) and HDFC (4%) led the pack of gainers on the Sensex today, HUL and Ambuja Cements (down 2% each) were at the receiving end. The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty gained 1.8% and 2.3% respectively during the week.
As per a leading business daily, Hindalco (HALC.BO, news) is prospecting for copper mines in South America especially Colombia, Peru or Argentina. The move is intended to achieve a 60% supply of its requirements from its captive copper mines, up from the current 40%. The company is also scouting for good-quality bauxite reserves. It may be noted that the company acquired Canadian aluminium products maker Novelis Inc for US $6 bn earlier this year. This is a positive development for the company as it ensures regular supply while also absorbing price volatility in the commodities. The stock, along with its peer Nalco, ended 2% higher.
Telecom stocks garnered considerable interest today with the major gainers being Idea Cellular (closed up 4%), Reliance Communications (2%) and Bharti Airtel (3%). As per a leading business daily, Reliance Communications plans to place an order for 70 m GSM lines. The contract is estimated to be of a size of US $5.6 bn (assuming cost of US$ 80 per line). As a matter of fact, the company had recently received government approval to launch GSM services nationwide (it already offers GSM services in 8 circles in the East and Northeast regions). The company has begun talks with Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola for the order.
Infosys is planning to invest Rs 8 bn more in FY08, additional to the Rs 8 bn already invested in the last 2 quarters. Total investment during the current year would be Rs 16 bn, out of which Rs 15 bn would be used by the company to build the country's largest educational complex at Mysore. The company is also expanding the centres that it operates. Infosys is aiming to increase its headcount by 30,000 in the current year. Currently, Infosys operates from 10 locations in the country and Jaipur is the latest new centre, which will come up in the near future. Also, Pune would become a larger center than Bangalore with workforce capacity of about 24,000 as compared to Bangalore, which has a strength of 23,000 people. With the completion of these projects, the company will have larger bench strengths for projects coming their way. The stock (up 2%), along with peers TCS (up 4%) and Wipro (up 3%), closed firm.
|
