Key benchmark indices were hovering around the flat line in early afternoon trade. Trading has been lackluster so far during the session. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 15.37 points or 0.08%, up close to 25 points from the day's low and off close to 70 points from the day's high. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive.
Capital goods stocks edged higher. Auto stocks were mixed. Tata Motors gained ahead of its Q3 December 2013 results today, 10 February 2014.
The market edged higher in early trade. The 50-unit CNX Nifty hit highest level in over one-week. It reversed initial gains and hit fresh intraday low in morning trade. It swung between gains and losses in mid-morning trade. It was hovering around the flat line in early afternoon trade.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 267.26 crore on Friday, 7 February 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
At 12:20 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 15.37 points or 0.08% to 20,361.19. The index fell 40.41 points at the day's low of 20,336.15 in morning trade. The index rose 57.94 points at the day's high of 20,434.50 in early trade.
The CNX Nifty was down 4.90 points or 0.08% to 6,058.30. The index hit a low of 6,051.30 in intraday trade. The index hit a high of 6,083.05 in intraday trade, its highest level since 31 January 2014.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 16.89 points or 0.27% at 6,353.73. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 27.83 points or 0.44% at 6,356.59. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,207 shares rose and 917 shares fell. A total of 122 shares were unchanged.
Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 18 stocks rose and rest fell. Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.93%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.78%) and RIL (up 1.07%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Capital goods stocks edged higher. Bhel (up 0.71%), BEML (up 0.85%), L&T (up 0.42%) and Siemens (up 0.3%) gained.
Auto stocks were mixed. Tata Motors gained 1.52% ahead of its Q3 December 2013 results today, 10 February 2014.
Maruti Suzuki India rose 0.64%. The company announced after market hours on Friday, 7 February 2014 that its production fell 11.05% to 1.09 lakh units in January 2014 over January 2013. The company had reported 10.3% decline in total sales at 102,416 vehicles in January 2014 over January 2013. Domestic sales declined 6.3% to 96,569 units in January 2014 over January 2013. Export sales declined 47.7% to 5,847 units in January 2014 over January 2013. The company had unveiled January sales numbers on 1 February 2014.
Ashok Leyland rose 1.24%. M&M fell 0.4%.
Bajaj Auto (down 0.53%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.47%) declined. TVS Motor Company rose 1.82%.
Ansal Properties & Infrastructure lost 3.63% after consolidated net profit fell 90.66% to Rs 1.48 crore on 3.81% decline in sales & operating income to Rs 267.09 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q3 December 2012. The Q3 result was announced after market hours on Friday, 7 February 2014.
Ansal Properties and Infrastructure's consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization) declined 52.48% to Rs 21.08 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q3 December 2012.
Commenting on the company's financial performance, Mr. Pranav Ansal, Vice Chairman and MD, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure said, "The company successfully sold about 2.64 million square feet during Q3 December 2013 and about 10.69 msf during nine months ended 31 December 2013 with the better realisation achieved for sale excluding FSI sales than achieved during nine months ended 31 December 2012. The realisation (excluding FSI sales) for Q3 December 2013 improved by almost 12% to RS 2,281 per square feet from Rs 2,025 per square feet. In addition, during the quarter company managed to sell 2.64 msf for a total value of Rs 326 crore despite lethargic conditions in the real estate market. The profit for nine months ended 31 December 2013 rose by almost 32% from Rs 32.16 crore to Rs 42.60 crore. This was mainly due to profit booked from bulk sale of one of our slow moving project in Greater Noida".
With regard to future business outlook, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure said the company will continue to focus on high growth markets in NCR as well as in other states of Northern India by expanding its existing townships to increased returns through economies of scale as well as entering into collaboration for new projects in order to conserve capital deployment in land aggregation and to achieve better realizations. Further, the company has accelerated its cash flows by monetizing its assets from finished stock sales and sale/exit from non-core assets/slow moving investments to free up cash reserves and reduce the debt. Further, the company said it is in active dialogue with various parties and negotiations for the monetization of certain assets are under way and various aspects of the deal are being deliberated to conclude these sales.
Ansal Properties said that as per the business plan, the company is focusing on the Northern India Territory for township development and has accelerated the development and sales efforts in all the townships that were launched in the past few quarters. The company is in an aggressive mode of completing and delivering the projects in the four states of Northern India (viz. Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan & Punjab) and build on the further saleable area in these states by expanding the existing townships, Ansal said in a statement. In addition, the company will continue to seek private equity participation to increase execution and further mitigate risk for existing shareholders, it added.
Piramal Glass was locked at 20% upper circuit at Rs 92.80 on BSE after the company's board approved delisting of shares from the stock exchanges. The announcement was made during market hours today, 10 February 2014.
Piramal Glass said that the company's board of directors at its meeting held today, 10 February 2014 approved voluntary delisting of equity shares of the company from the stock exchanges.
Piramal Glass had after market hours on Friday, 7 February 2014 said that the company has received a proposal dated 7 February 2014 from Sri Hari Trust acting through its corporate trustee PEL Management Services (proposed acquirer), to acquire the fully paid-up equity shares of Piramal Glass held by public shareholders in accordance and compliance with Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India).
As per the delisting proposal, the objective of the proposed acquirer in making the delisting offer is to give flexibility to the promoter group to provide the desired financial support to the company including modifying the existing capital structure, infusing additional capital and adequately supporting the company's strategic growth initiatives, the company said in a statement.
The company needs capital infusion to correct its gearing and liquidity issues, which the promoter is willing to provide. However, with the promoter group shareholding being almost 75%, capital infusion options in the company are limited due to the current state of capital markets. Thus, the delisting proposal would give the company flexibility to deleverage itself and recognize its operations to improve its performance. Additionally, given the trading volume of the company's shares, the promoter group believes that the delisting proposal is the best interests of the public shareholders as it comes with an opportunity to exit, Piramal Glass added.
The promoters have fixed an indicative offer price of Rs 100 per share for public shareholders, which represents a premium of approximately 30% to the closing price on NSE as on Friday, 7 February 2014, being the date of the letter of proposed acquirer, Piramal Glass said in a statement.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 62.185, higher than its close of 62.28 on Friday, 7 February 2014.
The Union Cabinet on Friday, 7 February 2014 cleared the Bill for the creation of Telangana. The Bill will be introduced in the Parliament on 11 or 12 February 2014. The Bill will be presented in the Rajya Sabha in the present form and the government will move 32 amendments when it is taken up for consideration. The Bill will be tabled along with a summary of 30-odd pages on the proceedings in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Council, along with a number of amendments proposed by the State legislators.
The Indian economy is expected to continue to expand at a pace of less than 5% in the year ending 31 March 2014, according to a government forecast released after trading hours on Friday, 7 February 2014. In the latest official forecast for the fiscal year ending next month, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation projected a 4.9% expansion for 2013-14. The weak growth projection underscores the severity of the slowdown in the south Asian economy which grew close to 9% as recently as in the year ended 31 March 2011. The statistics ministry's estimates show that the manufacturing output is expected to contract 0.2% during the current fiscal year while mining output is expected to fall 1.9%. However, farm output growth is expected to be much better this year on the back of higher-than-usual rainfall. The ministry estimates a 4.6% expansion in farm output, compared with the 1.4% increase in the last fiscal year. Output of services, which contribute about 60% to India's GDP, is expected to grow 6.9% this year, almost the same as the 7% expansion last fiscal year.
On 31 January 2014, the statistics ministry revised down GDP growth for the previous fiscal year to 4.5%, from an earlier estimate of 5%.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present the Vote-on-Account or interim budget on 17 February 2014. The objective of a Vote-on-Account is to get Parliament's nod for expenditure to be incurred in the months prior to elections. The next full-fledged budget will be presented by the new government which comes to power after the Lok Sabha polls in April-May 2014.
The government will unveil data on inflation based on the combined consumer price index (CPI) for urban and rural India for the month of January 2014 on Wednesday, 12 February 2014. The CPI inflation slowed to 9.87% in December 2013, from 11.16% in November 2013.
The government will unveil data on inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for the month of January 2014 on Friday, 14 February 2014. The WPI inflation eased to 6.16% in December 2013, from 7.52% in November 2013.
Data on industrial production for December 2013 will be out on Wednesday, 12 February 2014. Industrial output declined 2.1% in November 2013, recording decline for second consecutive month after 1.6% dip in October 2013.
The Reserve Bank of India next undertakes monetary policy review on 1 April 2014. Sighting elevated consumer price inflation, the Reserve Bank of India raised its key lending rates by 25 basis points after Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 2013-14 on 28 January 2014.
Asian stocks rose on Monday after US jobs data spurred the biggest two-day rally for US equities since October. Key benchmark indices in China, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan rose 0.04% to 1.93%. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong and Singapore fell 0.06% to 0.18%.
China's central bank signaled volatility in money-market interest rates will persist and borrowing costs will rise, underscoring the risk of defaults that could weigh on confidence and drag down growth.
Japan's current-account deficit widened to a record in December on soaring imports, adding to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's challenges as he tries to drive a recovery in the world's third-biggest economy. The 638.6 billion yen ($6.2 billion) shortfall surpassed November's gap of 592.8 billion yen, the finance ministry said in Tokyo today.
Business activity across emerging markets expanded in January at the slowest pace in four months, dragged down by sluggish services sectors in the BRIC quartet of big developing countries, a survey showed on Monday. HSBC's composite emerging markets index of manufacturing and services purchasing managers' surveys slipped for the second month running to 51.4 in January. It stayed under the 2013 average of 51.7 and well below the score of 64.1 posted last January.
But the monthly index remained above the 50 threshold which marks the difference between expansion and contraction. Based on data from purchasing managers at about 8,000 firms in 17 countries, the survey showed signs of manufacturing and export revival in some countries but Chinese factory output fell below the 50 mark, Brazilian manufacturing growth slowed and output fell in Russia and Indonesia. Growth was stronger in India, Poland, Taiwan and Mexico. January services activity in the biggest emerging markets was at a six-month low. India and Brazil both posted declines, while growth rates in China and Russia were weak, HSBC said.
Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could gain 3 points at the opening bell on Monday, 10 February 2014. US stocks surged on Friday amid optimism economic growth is robust enough to weather stimulus cuts even as data showed weaker-than-forecast hiring.
Payrolls rose less than projected in January and the jobless rate unexpectedly dropped to the lowest level in more than five years, clouding the outlook for the US economy and Federal Reserve. The 113,000 gain in hiring fell short of the estimates and followed a 75,000 increase the prior month, Labor Department data showed in Washington. Unemployment declined to 6.6%, the least since October 2008, from 6.7% in December.
Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen takes center stage on Capitol Hill tomorrow, delivering her first semi-annual monetary testimony as markets weigh how mixed economic reports last week will affect the central bank's plan for reducing stimulus.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review on 18-19 March 2014. After a monetary policy review, the FOMC on 29 January 2014 announced it will reduce monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion to $65 billion. The Fed also signaled that it is likely to keep reducing bond purchases in the coming months, citing a pickup in US economic activity and improvement in the US labor market.
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