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Markets this week
The Indian markets opened the week with a positive bias owing to fresh buying in European markets and higher US index futures on hope of early end to the bear phase. Another contributory factor is the positive statement from the Fed Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke that he expects some improvement in the economy early next year.
The benchmark Sensex rose by 187 points to 8,943 in a third straight day of gains and the Nifty also rose by 58 points to close at 2777.
On Tuesday the Sensex snapped its three day gains and closed lower by 80 points to finish at 8864 , while the broader Nifty lost 19 points to end at 2757.
On positive news influencing the market, HCL Technologies bagged a $350-million IT outsourcing contract from The Reader's Digest Association Inc (RDA) on Monday. The order, spread over a seven-year period, translates into an annualised run rate of $50 million. The revenue from the new contract is expected to kick-in from the first quarter of the next fiscal beginning July 2009.
Crisil has revised the long-term rating outlook on Citibank India and three group entities - Citicorp Capital Markets Ltd, Citicorp Finance (India) Ltd and Citicorp Maruti Finance Ltd - to `Negative' from `Stable'.
The rating agency said the revision follows similar rating action taken by its parent Standard & Poor's on Citigroup about a fortnight ago.
In an open bidding on the NSE, some 24 FIIs were allocated limits for investment in corporate debt aggregating to Rs 29,350 crore. The bidding for the FIIs' investment in corporate debt took place on NSE's open bidding platform.
As per a SEBI directive issued recently, $8 billion (approximately Rs 41,000 crore) of the $15 billion cumulative debt investment limit was available for allocation to the FIIs and sub- accounts. FIIs have to utilize the investment limit within 45 days of the allocation.
Norway's Telenor will acquire an additional 7.25 per cent stake in Unitech Wireless over and above the 60 per cent equity it intended to acquire as announced earlier. Interestingly, it will not need to pay anything extra for this additional equity. The entire 67.25 per cent equity will come for the previously agreed sum of Rs 6,120 crore.
With this, the enterprise value of Unitech Wireless will be Rs 10,900 crore against Rs 11,620 crore negotiated in October 2008, when Unitech inked a pact to offload the majority stake in its telecom venture to Telenor.
Advance tax collections from companies in Mumbai have dipped 7 per cent for the fiscal ended March 2009. The city-based corporations paid Rs 38,129 crore in advance tax for the period, as against Rs 40,965 crore in the previous year
The Sensex resumed its upward journey on Wednesday and closed higher by 112 points at 8977, while the Nifty gained 37 points to end at 2795. A firm trend in European and Asian markets aided the positive sentiment.
Cement stocks have witnessed a significant rally in 2009 as compared to the benchmark Sensex. While the Sensex declined 7 per cent , leading cement stocks have delivered an over-20-per-cent return. The stock of UltraTech Cement is up 20 per cent, Shree Cements up 32 per cent, Grasim Industries up 21 per cent and ACC up 14 per cent so far this year.
There has been a significant amount of mutual fund buying in cement stocks. UltraTech Cement and ACC were MF favourites, where the shares accumulated rose 27 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in February.
After a positive opening on Thursday, the bourses slipped into the negative terrain and were volatile throughout the trading sessions. Firm Asian markets and lower inflation of 0.44 per cent for the week ended 7th March assisted the late recovery. The BSE Sensex gained marginally by 25 points to end at 9002 and the broader Nifty rose by 12 points to close at 2807.
The rupee staged a smart recovery against the dollar on Thursday, appreciating by around 92 paise, riding on the greenback's weakness in the overseas markets. The dollar fell sharply against the pound and the Euro after the US Fed Reserve said it will buy back $300 billion worth long term US treasury securities, said currency traders.
Friday was yet another day of range-bound movement for the Indian markets. The benchmark Sensex finished the day lower by 35 points to close at 8967 and the wide-based Nifty ended flat at 2807.
Compiled by S Vasudevan
Podcast by R Venkatesan
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