Monday April 9, 03:30 PM
Bulls back in business... |
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By Equitymaster.com
Markets continued with their uni-directional journey as further gains were witnessed in the final hour of trade. The optimism amongst the participants could be gauged from the fact that advances to decline ratio on the benchmark Nifty ended in the favour of advances with only 6 of the stocks ending in the red. Buying interest was not restricted to specific sectors but was rather secular in nature.
The BSE Sensex closed at 13,178 (up 322 points) while the NSE Nifty closed at 3,844 (up 92 points). The rupee was trading at 43.02 to the dollar.
The Indian indices continued with the strong trend witnessed towards the latter half of last week. Bulls stamped their authority over the day's proceedings, as the indices opened firm and gained further ground with every hour of trade. The day also emerged as the one, where there was hardly any significant volatility. As regards the overall market breadth, it was quite strong, with advances outnumbering declines by a ratio of over 4.8 to 1 on the NSE. Amongst global markets, the Asian indices have closed in the positive; the European indices have also opened on a firm note.
According to a leading business daily, ONGC has entered into service contracts for development of 14 onshore marginal fields. The contracts have been signed with Hydrocarbon Resources Development, Deep Industries Ltd, BG Shirke Construction Technology, KEI-RSOS Maritime Ltd and Shiv Vani Oil and Gas Exploration. The commercial feasibility of the production from the marginal fields has increased over the past few years with the surge in crude oil prices. Thus, in order to augment the stagnant production levels, the development of marginal fields is one of the focus areas for the company. To accelerate faster development of these fields and optimally utilise its manpower, ONGC has entered into service contracts with various players specializing in this field. ONGC expects to increase its production by 4 to 5 MMTPA (million tonnes per annum) from these fields over the medium term. The stock of ONGC ended firm (up 3%) along with its peer Reliance (RELI.BO, news) Industries (up 2%) and Cairn India (up 1%).
Power major NTPC is planning to set up 6,000 MW of nuclear generation capacity over the next few years. The company is expected to have 2,000 MW of nuclear power generation by the middle of the 12th Plan (2012-17) and would simultaneously start work on two power plants of 2,000 MW each. NTPC has been in talks with international players such as GE Energy for setting up the new nuclear facilities. NTPC is looking at four states, including Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, for setting up these nuclear plants. India currently has a nuclear capacity of about 3,300 MW, less than 2% of the total installed capacity of 128,000 MW, and plans to ramp it to 20,000 MW by 2020. This will help NTPC take advantage of the opportunity and increase its market share. NTPC ended the day's proceeding marginally higher. Tata Power (TTPW.BO, news) (up 1%) and Reliance Energy (up 2%) ended the day on a firm note.
As per a leading business daily, Ranbaxy plans to acquire a 15% stake in Jupiter Bioscience, a maker of specialised organic compounds as part of its strategy to expand its product portfolio through partnerships and strategic investments. Jupiter Bioscience will allot preferential equity share warrants to Ranbaxy. The proposed warrant allotment is a part of the term sheet signed between the companies earlier, which includes forging a strategic business tie-up on peptide pharmaceuticals for the global market. Jupiter Bioscience makes specialised organic compounds like peptides and has a wholly owned US subsidiary Jupiter Bioscience Inc to cater to markets of peptides and peptide components in the US, Europe, Canada and Japan. This is likely to be a positive for Ranbaxy and will enable it to gain a foothold in the niche biotech segment going forward. Pharma stocks ended the day's trade on a firm note with the major gainers being Divis Laboratories (up 6%) and Biocon and Wockhardt (both up 4%). The stock of Ranbaxy also ended firm (up 1%).
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