Pakistan asks for information

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, Aug 18: A day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said terror groups based in Pakistani territory were plotting attacks against India, Pakistan on Tuesday said it couldn’t take such remarks “lightly” and asked New Delhi to share information on such threats. “If the (Indian) Prime Minister says something like this, we can’t take it lightly,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters on the sidelines of an official function in Islamabad.

“If there is such information with (India), share it with the Government of Pakistan so that we can pre-empt such an act,” he said. “We have conveyed this to them and let’s see what is their response,” he added.

Rupee crosses 49 mark, closes at 48.95

Rupee crosses 49 mark, closes at 48.95
Date : Aug-18-2009 10:07



Due to the declining equity markets, the Indian rupee was affected where on August 17 it dropped down by 71 paise to close at a one-month low of 48.95/96 against the dollar. Moreover, due to the hope of increased capital outflows and huge dollar buying by foreign funds, it recorded the largest fall in absolute terms in more than three months.

In addition, the domestic unit resumed sharply lower at 48.53/54 a dollar from last Friday''s close of 48.24/25 per dollar at the inter bank foreign exchange trade while later it moved further lower to cross 49 level to a low of 49.02 before ending the day at 48.95/96 a dollar, a fall of 1.47%. However, due to the slow global markets along with the low monsoon, the Indian standard sensex fell by 626.71 points or 4.07%.

Sharma to unveil foreign trade policy on August 27

Sharma to unveil foreign trade policy on August 27
Date : Aug-18-2009 10:33



In order to discuss the details of the new five-year Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) which is to be unveiled on August 27, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma met Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. However, the new FTP is likely to look into the problems of exporters due to the huge slump in their traditional markets of the U.S. and the European Union and in addition it would give some incentives to exporters to broaden their global markets outside the U.S., the EU and Japan and venture into new markets including those of Africa.

Additionally, it is said that the government could give support but however, would not be able to create demand in the Western economies which were contracting. Moreover, the policy would outline the priority sectors as also sops, besides focusing on employment and labour intensive areas like textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, and handicrafts.

Post Session Market

Post Session Market
Date : Aug-18-2009 16:34



Domestic market ended the session with handsome gains backed by significant buying that emerged after Asian markets reversed losses. Higher US index futures also added to sentiments. Market touched the day’s high during afternoon trade mirroring firm European markets though afterwards pared gains a bit. However, monsoon worries continued to remain a key concern as 9 States have declared drought. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that government has no proposal to write off loans taken by farmers as it did in 2008 in its first term in office. Further, India’s July export is down 26% from a year earlier. The BSE Sensex ended above 15,000 level and NSE Nifty closed above 4,450 mark.

Market opened on flat note today after reporting heavy selling in previous session. The US stocks markets closed lower on Monday, marking the worst single-session percentage loss in six weeks due to huge selling pressure. Slower-than-expected economic growth in Japan prompted a global sell-off on worries that an economic rebound may be further off than previously considered. Investors were not exciting by the news that the empire state manufacturing index moved into positive territory, signaling growth for the first time since April 2008. Further, Indian benchmark indices bounced back, as investors looked for some bargain chasing after yesterday’s sharp fall. Market touched day’s high during afternoon trade in line with recovery in other Asian stocks along with positive European markets.

Finally, market closed on positive note on account of sustained buying. From the sectoral front, all indices ended in green. Among those, most of the buying was seen in Capital Goods, Realty, Metal, Power, PSU, Auto, Bank, and FMCG stocks. Broader markets also followed the same trend as BSE Midcap and Smallcap stocks gained more than 2% each.

Among the Sensex pack 26 stocks ended in green territory and 4 stocks ended in red territory. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained positive as 1741 stocks closed in red while 896 stocks closed in green and 78 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 250.34 points or (1.69%) at 15,035.26 and NSE Nifty ended up by 71 points or (1.62%) at 4,458.90. BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps closed with gains of 111.04 and 129.74 points at 5,496.55 and 6,341.45 respectively. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 15,134.51 and intraday low of 14,740.26.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Hindalco (6.08%), JP Associates (4.73%), L&T Ltd (4.66%), HUL (3.45%), Tata Steel (3.14%), HDFC (3.06%), DLF Ltd (2.95%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (2.89%), Bharti Airtel (2.87%), BHEL (2.76%), HDFC Bank (2.39%), RCom (2.36%), ICICI Bank (2.10%), Reliance Infra (2.08%), Maruti Suzuki (2.04%), ONGC (1.46%) and SBI (1.21%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Infosys Tech (0.59%), Grasim Industries (0.35%), TCS Ltd (0.19%), Sun Pharma (0.19%).

India''s exports fell 26% from a year earlier in July, federal Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said on Tuesday. The country''s imports during July fell 35%-36% from the same month last year.

On the global markets front the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, ended with gains. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, Singapore''s Straits Times Index and Seoul Composite closed higher by 40.25, 169.20, 16.35, 21.74 and 3.18 points at 2,910.88, 20,306.27, 10,284.96, 2,567.72 and 1,550.24 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in green helped by some upbeat German economic data. In Frankfurt the DAX index is trading higher 29.77 points at 5,231.38 and in London FTSE 100 is trading up by 31.39 points at 4,676.40.

The BSE Capital Goods index was at 12,313.50 up by 432.33 points or by (3.64%). The main gainers were Siemens Ltd up by (5.2%), Punj Lloyd up by (4.86%), Larsen & Toubro Ltd. up by (4.66%), Aiaengineer up by (3.98%) and Jyoti Struct up by (3.68%).

The BSE Realty index was at 3,750.40 up by 87.70 points or by (2.39%). The main gainers were Indbul Real up by (5.47%), Housing Dev up by (4.01%), Penland Ltd up by (3.43%), Anant Raj In up by (3.03%) and DLF Ltd up by (2.95%).

The BSE Metal index was at 12,213.25 up by 274.34 points or by (2.3%). The main gainers were Hindalco up by (6.08%), JSW Steel up by (3.8%), Nalco up by (3.55%), Jindal Saw up by (3.48%) and Welsp Guj Sr up by (3.27%).

The BSE Power index was at 2,868.06 up by 59.30 points or by (2.11%). The main gainers were Siemens Ltd up by (5.2%) at Rs.453.95, Suzlon Energy up by (3.57%), Gmr Infrastr up by (3.44%), Crompton Greaves Ltd. up by (3.12%) and BHEL up by (2.76%).

The BSE PSU index was at 8,202.09 up by 144.20 points or by (1.79%). The main gainers were Andhra Bank up by (5.1%) at, Power Finan up by (5%), Corporation up by (4.47%), Contain Corp up by (4.38%) and Mangalore Refineries & Petroch up by (3.81%).

The BSE Auto index was at 5,393.24 up by 89.74 points or by (1.69%). The main gainers were Bharat Forge up by (8.5%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd up by (2.89%), Ashok Leylnd up by (2.73%), Escorts Ltd. up by (2.44%) and Apollo Tyre up by (2.3%).

Ahluwalia Contracts India Ltd advanced by 4.13%. The company informed regarding the recent Awards of New Projects worth of Rs 215.06 Crores.

HDFC ended up by 3.06%. The leading mortgage lender has started its Rs 4,300 crore immediate fund raising exercise. The amount to be raised from the issue of NCDs would be about Rs 4,000 crore. Further the company is issuing 1.1 crore warrants, each convertible into one equity share of the company within three years, at a price of Rs 3,000. The stock is now trading higher by (3.12%) at Rs. 2,320.

Bharti Airtel ended higher by 2.87% after telecom major received bids from more than a dozen overseas banks keen to fund its around USD 23-bn merger deal with top South African mobile company MTN.

Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd spurted 7.18% after the Reserve Bank of India raised the foreign portfolio investment limit in the company to 40%.

Moser Baer increased by 1.88%. The company launched new optical Media high-end products in India.

HCL Technologies Ltd. lost 0.85%. The company said that it has been informed by Reader''s Digest Association (RDA) that the latest developments at its end do not affect its relationship and engagement with HCL.

Tata Communications closed lower by 0.56%. The company, together with its supplier, Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today announced that they have completed the installation, testing and commissioning of the TGN-lntra Asia {TGN-IA) Cable System.