Realty stocks gain

A bout of volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices regained strength after paring gains after hitting fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 208.65 points or 0.83%, up about 110 points from the day's low and off close to 50 points from the day's high. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong. The BSE Mid-Cap was up almost 1.4%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.3%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. The market sentiment was boosted by data showing that foreign funds made substantial purchases of Indian stocks on Thursday, 5 June 2014.

Realty stocks gained on renewed buying with DLF, Sobha Developers, Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) and Unitech hitting 52-week high. IT stocks fell as rupee edged higher against the dollar.

The market edged higher in early trade after the European Central Bank on Thursday, 5 June 2014, cut its benchmark interest rates to unprecedented lows, spurring speculation the decision will accelerate capital inflows. A bout of volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices pared gains after extending initial gains and hitting fresh intraday high in morning trade. Volatility continued as key benchmark indices once again trimmed gains in mid-morning trade. Key benchmark indices extended gains in early afternoon trade. The Sensex and the 50-unit CNX Nifty, both, hit three-week high. It regained strength after paring gains after hitting fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade.

The market sentiment was boosted by data showing that foreign funds made substantial purchases of Indian stocks on Thursday, 5 June 2014. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1368.97 crore on Thursday, 5 June 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

At 14:20 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 208.65 points or 0.83% at 25,228.16. The index surged 256.77 points at the day's high of 25,276.28 in mid-afternoon trade, its highest level since 16 May 2014. The index rose 110.25 points at the day's low of 25,129.76 in mid-morning trade.

The CNX Nifty was up 62.85 points or 0.85% at 7,536.95. The index hit a high of 7,543.45 in intraday trade, its highest level since 16 May 2014. The index hit a low of 7,497.65 in intraday trade.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 126.01 points or 1.39% at 9,080.82. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 126.01 points or 1.31% at 9,749.93. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1,947 shares rose and 1,012 shares fell. A total of 116 shares were unchanged.

ONGC (up 7.24%), GAIL (India) (up 4.81%) and HDFC (up 2.85%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

IT stocks fell as rupee edged higher against the dollar. A firm rupee adversely affects operating profit margins of IT firms as the sector derives a lion's share of revenue from exports.

TCS declined 1.11% as the stock turned ex-dividend today, 6 June 2014 for final dividend of Rs 20 per share for the year ended 31 March 2014 (FY 2014).

Infosys dropped 1.46% on reports one more top executive quit the company. Prasad Thrikutam who was in charge of strategic sales, marketing and alliances quit on Thursday, 5 June 2014. President Pravin Rao will take up his portfolio, reports suggest.

Tech Mahindra shed 0.37% to Rs 1,900.60. The stock hit high of Rs 1,923 and low of Rs 1,881.10 so far during the day. The company and Informatica Corporation, the world's number one independent provider of data integration software, after market hours on Thursday, 5 June 2014 announced an expansion of their decade-long strategic association.

The already established global alliance now brings further value to customers through its new data management services. Customers will benefit extensively from Tech Mahindra's rich experience in data management services, along with Informatica's cutting-edge data integration solutions. Together, the two companies will play a critical role in taking data management beyond the domain of special IT projects and making it business-as-usual through data-fueled applications. With the power of the Informatica Intelligent Data Platform, the alliance will deliver a number of data management services, including Data Archive, Data Anonymization, Reference Data Management, Test Data Management, Data Governance, Master Data Management (MDM), Data Migration, Big Data, Data Integration and Data Quality.

Customers utilizing these data management services will benefit from reliable, reusable and repeatable offerings with predictable outcomes. This will be delivered through Tech Mahindra's copyrighted framework: UDMF (Unified Data Migration Framework), DQMS (Data Quality Management Services) and iDecisions, a packaged analytic framework that enables businesses to interpret information, discover knowledge and make innovative decisions.

Further, Tech Mahindra and Informatica announced plans for joint investments in developing solutions at Tech Mahindra Research Centers in Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The Research Centers will focus on building portable frameworks, solutions and offerings and make them Informatica Vibe-enabled. The Informatica Vibe Virtual Data Machine is an embeddable data management engine that can access, aggregate and manage numerous types of data. Vibe provides developers the power to map data in single instance and deploy anywhere, in an application and/or on an appliance or device, regardless of the data format. It also provides further flexibility to users as the data can reside on-premise or in the Cloud.

L. Ravichandran, chief operating officer (Telecom), Tech Mahindra, said, "We are excited about this strategic offering with Informatica in the data management space. This offering comes at an appropriate time when organizations have started moving toward being data driven. There is a tremendous potential for this unique offering, and we're confident that Informatica and Tech Mahindra's customers will reap extensive value from these offerings. We consider these offerings as key enablers to achieve our Mission 2015."

Anil Chakravarthy, executive vice president and chief product officer, Informatica, said, "The relationship between Tech Mahindra and Informatica brings together two technology leaders who share a vision for helping our mutual customers gain a competitive advantage from their data. With this expanded alliance, the two companies will build on our individual strengths - Tech Mahindra's rich experience in IT services and Informatica's differentiated technology offerings, including the Intelligent Data Platform. Together, we are focused on building and delivering solutions and services that are the foundational elements for the deep insight necessary to make the promise of flexible IT and agile business a reality."

HCL Technologies dropped 0.51%. Wipro rose 0.85%.

Realty stocks gained on renewed buying. DLF gained 3.78% to Rs 227.95 after hitting 52-week high of Rs 231.10 in intraday trade.

Sobha Developers surged 11% to Rs 509.95 after hitting 52-week high of Rs 527.90 in intraday trade.

Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) gained 2.38% to Rs 105.50 after hitting 52-week high of Rs 107.80 in intraday trade.

Unitech gained 3.28% to Rs 31.45 after hitting 52-week high of Rs 32 in intraday trade. .

Strides Arcolab surged 8.87% after the company said it has received approval from the US Food & Drug Administration for Methoxsalen Capsules USP, 10 mg (Soft Gelatin Capsules). The announcement was made during market hours today, 6 June 2014. According to IMS data, the US market for generic Methoxsalen Capsule is approximately $13.6 million, with no generic player, Strides Arcolab said in a statement. The product will be manufactured at the company's USFDA approved oral dosage facility at Bangalore and marketed directly by Strides in the US market, the company said.

Methoxsalen is a drug used to treat psoriasis, eczema, vitiligo and some cutaneous lymphomas conjunction with exposing the skin to UVA light from lamps or sunlight. Methoxsalen modifies the way skin cells receive the UVA radiation, clearing up the disease, Strides said.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar after the European Central Bank on Thursday, 5 June 2014, cut its benchmark interest rates to unprecedented lows, spurring speculation the decision will accelerate capital inflows. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 59.1925, compared with its close of 59.33/34 on Thursday, 5 June 2014.

The crucial South West monsoon rains arrived over India's southern Kerala state today, 6 June 2014, around five days later than usual. After arriving over Kerala, the monsoon usually spreads over the entire country by mid-July. L.S. Rathore, director general of India Meteorological Department was quoted as saying by a news agency today, 6 June 2014, that the monsoon has finally arrived but it is currently moving at a slow pace as the parameters that support its progress are either weaker than their normal positions or not properly placed.

India's rainy season usually starts in the first week of June. With the majority of the country's agricultural land dependent on rainfall, not manual irrigation, variations in the rains' arrival date can seriously affect plans for sowing summer crops such as rice, sugar cane, cotton and oilseeds.

The IMD will issue an update on the forecast of the South West monsoon rains in this month. IMD in April 2014 predicted below-normal rains this year, saying that there is a 60% possibility of the emergence of the El Ni weather phenomenona warm weather system that starts in the southern Pacific can affect weather around the world. El Ni last affected India's monsoon in 2009 when the monsoon rainfall was 23% below normal. Annual rains are important for India as most of its farmlands are dependent on rain for irrigation and more than half of its workforce is employed in agriculture.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to table Union Budget for 2014-15 in Lok Sabha by mid-July 2014. An interim budget was presented by P. Chidambaram in February this year. Essentially, in the nature of a vote on account, the interim budget was intended to get Parliament approval for expenditure to be incurred during the first few months of fiscal year 2014-15 due to Lok Sabha elections.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) next undertakes monetary policy review on 5 August 2014. The RBI kept its main lending rate -- repo rate -- unchanged at 8% after a monetary policy review on 3 June 2014. The central bank at that time signaled it would ease monetary policy if inflation slows faster than targeted.

European stock markets edged lower in choppy trade on Friday, 6 June 2014, ahead of US jobs data due later in the global day. Key benchmark indices in Germany and France were down 0.01% to 0.1%. UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.23%.

German industrial output rose in April in a sign that Europe's largest economy is poised to continue growing at a solid pace. Production, adjusted for seasonal swings, increased 0.2% from March, when it declined a revised 0.6%, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates to record lows on Thursday, launched a series of measures to pump money into the sluggish euro zone economy, and pledged to do more if needed to fight off the risk of Japan-like deflation. The ECB lowered the deposit rate to sub zero -- negative 0.1%. It cut its main refinancing rate to 0.15%, and the marginal lending rate - or emergency borrowing rate - to 0.40%.

For the first time, the ECB will charge banks for parking funds at the central bank overnight in an attempt to force them to lend to small- and medium-sized businesses. The measures were also aimed at easing pressure on the strong euro, which is threatening economic recovery and importing disinflation.

ECB President Mario Draghi outlined a four-year 400 billion euro ($544.86 billion) scheme giving banks that have been holding back credit due to looming stress tests an incentive to increase lending to businesses in the euro zone. "Now we are in a completely different world," Draghi said, citing "low inflation, a weak recovery and weak monetary and credit dynamics". The package, adopted unanimously, was aimed at increasing lending to the "real economy", he said.

Other steps included extending the duration of unlimited cheap liquidity for euro zone banks, injecting about 170 billion euros by stopping tenders that withdrew funds spent on past government bond purchases, and preparing for possible future purchases of asset-backed securities to support small business. "If required, we will act swiftly with further monetary policy easing," he said, adding that the policy-setting Governing Council was unanimous in its commitment to use unconventional instruments if needed "to further address risks of too prolonged a period of low inflation".

UK interest rates have been held at the record low of 0.5% for another month by the Bank of England on Thursday. The size of the Bank's bond-buying economic stimulus programme was also kept unchanged at 375 billion. The decision was widely expected, despite continued signs of strength in the UK economy.

Asian stocks edged lower in choppy trade on Friday, 6 June 2014, before US payrolls data due later in the global day. Key benchmark indices in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China were off 0.07% to 0.69%. Key benchmark indices in Indonesia and Singapore were up 0.1% to 0.6%.

Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could gain 25 points at the opening bell on Friday, 6 June 2014. US stocks rose to records on Thursday as European Central Bank stimulus boosted optimism in the global economy before US jobs report.

The Fed said in its Beige Book business survey that the economy expanded at a modest to moderate pace last month as auto sales led household spending and the labor market improved. The survey, released two weeks before policy makers meet in Washington, supports Chair Janet Yellen's view that the economy is rebounding from a 1% contraction in the first quarter caused largely by harsh winter weather. Claims for American unemployment benefits climbed by a more-than-estimated 312,000 in the week to May 31, data yesterday showed.

The influential US nonfarm payroll data for May 2014 is due for release today, 6 June 2014.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review at a two-day meeting on 17-18 June 2014. The Fed on 30 April 2014 said after a monetary policy review that it will keep the benchmark interest-rate target at almost zero for a "considerable time" after its bond-buying program ends. The FOMC also reduced monthly debt purchases to $45 billion, its fourth straight $10 billion cut, and said further reductions are likely in "measured steps" if the economy continues to improve.

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