27 Sep 07 CLSA maintains BUY on Infosys Technologies

Leading Indian IT company, Infosys Technologies has zoomed by about 5% today after news that CLSA has maintained the BUY rating on Infosys Technologies hit the markets. Many analysts were expecting CLSA to downgrade its BUY rating on Infosys Technologies in view of the unprecedented appreciation of the Indian Rupee against the American Dollar.

26 Sep 07 Infosys Q2 results and dividend : Infosys to come out with Q2 results on October 11

Software major Infosys technologies has informed the stock exchanges that the board of directors of Infosys technologies  will meet on Oct 11 to consider the audited Q2 financial results. The market grapevine has it that the board of Infosys technologies might also announce a generous dividend on October 11 2007. Infosys technologies’ result will decide the market direction in the short term.

25 Sep 07 Sun Outage : NSE and BSE Market Timings Changed

There will be a change in both the NSE and BSE market timings from September 25, 2007 to October 09, 2007 due to sun outage, which affects V-SAT connectivity in India. NSE and BSE will open at 9.55 AM as usual but will remain open till 4.15 in the evening (instead of the usual 3.30 pm). There will be a break (pause) in trading between 11.25 and 12.10 in the noon. BSE closing session will be from 04:25 PM to 04:45 PM and the NSE closing session will be from 04:35 PM to 04:45 PM.

19 Sep 07 Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s view on Investing in the Stock Market at an all time high

The Indian stock markets have hit another new all time high. The 16000 peak has finally been successfully scaled. Investing in the stock market won’t be easy from here on. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala came on TV today and gave his piece of advise to investors. He said Indian stock market has exellent potential but investors should not expect to get the kind of returns that they have got in the last 3 years. The Indian stock market has quadripiled with SENSEX going from 4000 to 16000 in the last 3 years. However, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala says a similar return cannot be expectued from here on adding that he doesn’t see the sensex near 64000, atleast not during his lifetime. From here on there would be stock specific rallies and hence investors investing in the stock markets need to pay more attention to the kind of stocks that they pick. The quality of portfolio will matter a lot. I feel retail, capital goods and construction sectors are looking good at the moment.

10 Sep 07 Gammon India collapses along with the Hyderabad Flyover

An under-construction flyover in hyderabad, which was being constructed by Gammon India, today collapsed suddenly. As soon as the news of this flyover collapse broke out, the stock prices of Gammon India plunged by over 11%. Does a flyover collapse (which probably was insured) justify a fall in stock prices of this magnitude? This is probably an opportunity to buy the shares of Gammon India at a low price.

05 Sep 07 Akruti Nirman and Dubai World to bid for Dharavi redevelopment project

The bidding for the ambitious Dharavi redevelopment project, which has a lot of political, social, environmental and economic implications for the various stakeholders involved, is scheduled to begin soon. Akruti Nirman which specialises in slum rehabilitation projects has joined hands with Limitless, a subsidiary of Dubai World to bid for the Dharavi redevelopment project. Dharavi is Asia’s largest slum and houses tens of thousands of people. It is strategically located very close to Bandra Kurla Complex, which is Mumbai’s second largest business district (after Nariman point, Fort area) and hot real estate property. Akruti Nirman and Dubai World will form an SPV for this project. Akruti Nirman will hold the majority stake in this project. There will be huge competition for the Akruti Nirman – Dubai World combine as many leading developers from India and abroad are likely to participate in the bidding process for the Dharavi redevelopment project.

02 Sep 07 Bajaj Auto – TVS Motors Spat : A tale of 2 spark plugs

Bajaj Auto has threatened to take chennai based TVS Motors to the courts for alleged copyright infringement of the DTSi (Digital Twin Spark ignition) technology that Bajaj Auto claims to have patented. Bajaj Auto has been using the DTSi technology in its pulsar and discover bikes which cover 50% of Bajaj Auto’s total sales. Two spark plugs have been used previously in the engines of many foreign bikes and is hence not a new concept. However, Bajaj Auto claims that it had first used the technology in smaller engines (100-200cc). On the other hand TVS Motors claims that their new controlled combustion variable timing intelligent technology engines (CC-CTi) are a product of their in-house R&D in their housur facility for the past 2-3 years. With the news of copyright infringenment coming out during the weekend, it would be interesting to see how the share prices of TVS Motors and Bajaj Auto move at the opening bell on Monday.

01 Aug 07 Indian Stock Markets Crash : SENSEX and NIFTY tumble

Today, August 01, 2007 will be remembered by most investors investing in the stock markets in India, for a long time,  as the day on which the leading indices, SENSEX and NIFTY recorded their third largest intraday fall in the history of the Indian stock markets. Today, the Sensex crashed by about 616 points. In terms of number of points, today’s stock market crash will fall third in the list of the biggest single day falls in the history of the Indian stock markets, falling just behind the fall of 826 points on 18 May 2006 and the 617 point (missed by 1 point) fall on April 02, 2007. The crash was broadbased involving almost all the sectors. ICICI Bank fell below the IPO issue price of Rs. 890 (for retail investors). However it ended the day at Rs. 891 just above the IPO issue price. L&T and BHEL, which were having a dream run till now, also fell by about 4% each. Nice opportunity to start acumulating quality stocks?

08 Jul 07 Right Time for Investing in the Stock Market? SENSEX to cross 50000 mark by 2020!

Nifty and Sensex touched all-time highs last week. Indian companies are rushing in to tap the capital markets and raise funds. The price of crude is rising. Interest rates have risen tremendously. Looking at the various macro economic indicators, one wonders if this is the right time for investing in the stock market. Will there be enough liquidity in the system to lap up the new public issues? Do rising crude prices and rising interest rates signal the end of the bull run? No, says Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley believes SENSEX will touch 50,000 by 2020. Most people would laugh this out. At the moment a target of 50000 for the sensex seems impossible. I had the same feeling a few years back when I saw an interview of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala on CNBC predicting a target of 12000-15000 for the SENSEX when the SENSEX was below 6000. Everybody including the anchor of the show laughed it out thinking Jhunjhunwala was just trying to be humourous. But he wasn’t. He was damn serious. Last week the SENSEX reached his target of 15000. When SENSEX first hit the 12000 mark, Jhunjhunwala revised his target to 25000. Now Morgan Stanley has indicated a target of 50000 for the SENSEX. If Indian companies continue to grow at the pace they are presently growing at, SENSEX will cross 50000 much sooner than 2020. My top 3 picks continue to remain

1. Larsen & Toubro
2. BHEL (and)
3. IVRCL Infrastructures

02 May 07 BF Utilities Limited, Garware Offshore Services Limited, Karuturi Networks Limited to list on NSE on 3rd May

BF Utilities Limited, Garware Offshore Services Limited, Karuturi Networks Limited will be listed and admitted to trading on the national stock exchange tomorrow, the 3rd of May 2007. The NSE symbol for these companies shares will be

BF Utilities Limited – BFUTILITIE
Garware Offshore Services Limited – GARWOFFS
Karuturi Networks Limited – KNL

Trading on the NSE in these three scrips will be in the Normal Market segment, Compulsory Demat (Rolling Settlement) for all classes of investors.

24 Apr 07 RBI keeps key rates unchanged Bank and Real Estate stocks surge

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left the key lending rate unchanged at 7.75% today, despite worries about inflation. Analysts say that RBI took these steps to ease the upward pressure on the Indian Rupee which touched a 9 year high against the dollar earlier today.

RBI estimates the economy to grow at 8.5% in the financial year ending March 2008. This is lower than the 9.2% expected for financial year ending March 2008.

RBI kept the reverse repo rate unchanged at 6% and held the bank rate steady at 6%. There was also no change to the cash reserve ratio CRR beyond a previously announced increase to 6.5% due on 28 April 2007.

RBI reduced interest rate ceilings on non resident deposits. RBI also proposed allowing corporates to repay more external commercial borrowings (ECBs) ahead of schedule. RBI also proposed increasing the aggregate ceiling for overseas investment by mutual funds to $4 billion from $3 billion and increased the foreign portfolio investment limit for listed firms.

The realty sector which is interest rate sensitive and has a very high leverage spurted after this announcement was made today. After remaining subdued for the last few months this announcement served as a major boost for real estate stocks. Real Estate majors such as Unitech, Indiabulls Real Estate, Ansal Housing, Mahindra Gesco Developers, Parsvnath developers, Akruti Nirman, and Sobha Developers had surged ahead in today’s trading. These scrips registered gains between 5% and 10% each.

Another sector that surged after the RBI announcement was made is the banking sector. Banking stocks spurted. Banking majors such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank registered gains between 3% and 6%.

20 Apr 07 Reliance Industries at an all time high

Reliance Industries, an index heavyweight, rose 2.39% to Rs. 1529. Earlier in the day Reliance Industries hit a high of Rs 1534.85 which is a new all time high for Reliance Industries. Overas 4.7 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The board of Reliance Industries will meet on 26 April 2007 to consider Q4 March 2007 and FY 2007 results.

Boosted by Reliance Industries’ pre results rally, coupled with strong results by IT majors wipro and satyam, the SENSEX touched a2-month high. The asian markets and american markets are witnessing a strong rally. If this trend continues SENSEX is likely to break its all time high and set a new high in the coming few weeks.

20 Apr 07 Balaji Telefilms and STAR group go in for a joint venture

Balaji Telefilms and STAR group have decided to go in for a 49-51 joint venture in which Balaji Telefilms would invest Rs. 60 crores for a 49% stake and STAR will hold 51% stake. The mission of the JV is to create a network of regional language general entertainment television channels. The popular Tamil channel “STAR Vijay” which is already owned by the Star group will be transferred to the joint venture, as part of the deal.

Balaji Telefilms dominates the television content business. It provides content to most Hindi satellite channels apart from Gemini in Telugu and Udaya in Kannada. After the joint venture announcement was made, the shares of Balaji Telefilms surged by 4.75% to Rs. 170

17 Apr 07 NSE moves 9 scrips to trade to trade segment

NSE has moved 9 scrips to the trade to trade segment (series - BE). A circuit filter price band of 5% will apply to these scrips. The settlement of these scrips will be done on a trade-to-trade basis and no netting off will be allowed. The list of 9 shares is given below.

1 Infomedia India Limited
2 JCT Electronics Ltd.
3 LML Ltd.
4 Nova Petrochemicals Limited
5 Oil Country Tubular Ltd
6 Orient Press Ltd
7 Remsons Industries Ltd
8 Samtel Color Ltd.
9 Vintage Cards & Creations Limited

16 Apr 07 Financial Technologies ties up with NextVIEW, to provide intraday data

Financial Technologies India Limited has informed both the major Indian stock exchanges that Tickerplant Infovending Limited, a Wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, has entered into partnership with NextVIEW Pte Ltd, a Singapore based leading Pan-Asian financial information vendor, to offer real-time Indian equities and commodities market data services in India and globally. Seems like this would benefit technical analysts since the current data source, yahoo finance, only provides EOD data.