Tuesday April 17, 03:30 PM
Bears back in the reckoning... |
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By Equitymaster.com
Persistent selling pressure pushed the benchmark indices to their lowest levels of the day in the final trading hour. The advance to decline ratio ended in the favour of the declines with only 18 of the Nifty stocks ending in the positive. Amongst sectors, buying was witnessed in oil marketing, petrochemicals, pharma and power stocks, while the selling pressure was seen in auto, FMCG, software and telecom stocks.
The BSE Sensex closed at 13,607 (down 89 points) while the NSE Nifty closed at 3,985 (down 28 points). The rupee was trading at 41.86 to the dollar.
After ending significantly higher on the first trading day of the week, markets have closed below break-even during today's trading session. Markets did manage to open in the positive territory today, but with selling pressure stepping in early, the gains did not last long. Subsequently, markets continued to trade in the negative territory with some pullback shown by bulls during the early afternoon session. Selling pressure was not restricted to frontline stocks as declines outnumbered advances in the ratio of 1.8:1 on the NSE. The Asian markets ended the day's proceedings on a weaker note. The European markets have also opened weak.
Petronet LNG, the regasification majors, has declared its results for 4QFY07 and FY07. The topline for the quarter increased by 63% YoY on the back of processing of spot cargoes procured at international prices. Company processed around 12 spot cargoes in FY07, which lead to the volume surge of 22% YoY (4QFY07) and 18% (FY07) YoY respectively increase in the volumes sold by the company. Operating margins were marginally lower as they declined by 250 basis points during the quarter. Net profits registered a growth of 60% YoY, helped by higher other income (increase of 121% YoY) and benign depreciation and lower finance charges. The performance for FY07 has also been impressive with the bottomline growing at 61% YoY on the back of a 4% YoY growth in topline. The company's board has recommended a maiden dividend of 12.5% for the year ended FY07. The stock ended lower (down 1%) with its peers ONGC and Gail (GAIL.BO, news) also down 1% each.
Asia's largest software services firm, TCS, has announced strong results for the fourth quarter and full year ended March 2007. As per Indian GAAP consolidated results for FY07, while revenues have grown by 41% YoY, net profits have recorded a strong 42% YoY growth. Better pricing, increased offshoring and cost control has led to the strong growth. Operating margins have, however, recorded a marginal 10 basis points contraction. There was a gross addition of 32,462 employees during FY07. TCS continued to maintain the lowest attrition rate of 11.3% in the industry. The board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 4 per share. The stock, along with its peers Wipro (WIPRd.BO, news) and Infosys, closed 2% lower.
According to a leading business daily, L&T plans to hive off its integrated engineering services (IES) business into a new entity. While the identity of its IES business as a standalone knowledge business is more recent, the e-engineering business has been around for more than a decade as a part of its engineering and construction business. The company expects to make further inroads in this segment owing to the fact the market is largely under-served and also requires expertise that is largely concentrated in the hands of a few players like itself, ABB and Honeywell. The new entity is likely to be carved out of the parent company in about two years, when the business acquires a critical mass. Engineering stocks ended firm with Alfa Laval (up 9%), Punj Lloyd (up 3%)and L&T (up 1%) being the major gainers.
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