Market seen opening higher

The market is likely to open higher on mostly positive Asian stocks. Trading of CNX Nifty futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could gain 23 points at the opening bell. Most Asian stocks rose tracking overnight gains from Wall Street.

Tata Power Company after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 said that a meeting of the board of directors of the company has been convened on 27 February 2014 to consider various fund raising options including but not limited to equity issuances by way of a rights issue, preferential issue, qualified institutions placement or any combination thereof.

Ranbaxy Laboratories before market hours today, 25 February 2014 said that the company is currently examining processes and controls at all company's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Manufacturing and Quality units. This action has led to temporarily putting on hold shipments from company's API facilities of the Toansa and Dewas Plants.

This voluntary decision was taken as a precautionary measure and out of abundant caution to better allow the company to assess and review the processes and controls. The company will resume shipments after reassuring them about the processes and controls at these facilities, Ranbaxy Laboratories said.

In the meanwhile, a committee of the Board has been constituted in February 2014 as the "Quality & Integrity Committee". The Committee's objective is to help and assure good governance to all Ranbaxy stakeholders. Its primary role is to provide oversight on the company's manufacturing and quality operations, systems, organization and integrity, the company said.

Cadila Healthcare announced after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 that it has received the final approval from the USFDA to market Clonidine Hcl Injection 0.1 and 0.5 mg/ml, 10 ml in the United States. Clonidine hydrochloride injection is a centrally acting analgesic solution for use in continuous epidural infusion devices which is indicated in combination with opiates for the treatment of severe pain in cancer patients that is not adequately relieved by opioid analgesics alone.

Cadila Healthcare said that the company now has 90 approvals and has so far filed 216 ANDAs since the commencement of filing process in FY 2003-04.

Tech Mahindra announced after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 the launch of its Near Field Communication (NFC) test lab in Bangalore, India.

The NFC Testing and Consulting capabilities in the lab will cater to the fast-growing needs of chipset manufacturers, OEMs, Service Providers, Acquires and Issuers from the banking industry. The state-of-the-art ISO 17025 Accredited Lab, has 100% capability to meet the Wave1 test requirements as mandated by the NFC Forum. It also has the infrastructure to meet the upcoming Wave2 test requirements of the Forum.

According to a leading research company, with nearly 400 million NFC-enabled smartphones deployed worldwide, and growth projections nearing 1 billion handsets by 2016, we are reaching critical mass for large-scale application and infrastructure deployments. The Tech Mahindra NFC Testing Lab is also gearing to support the above demand and to also offer Payments Certification and Testing Solutions to the leading global banks.

Speaking on the occasion, Sirisha Voruganti, Head, Device Testing, Tech Mahindra said, The convergence of payments schemes on the smartphones from leading banks has caused a lot of interoperability and compliance issues in the network as well. With this test lab, we are geared to help the Chipset manufacturers, OEMs and Service Providers to reduce the failure rates to NIL in the field and hasten their market growth. Our Lab focuses on troubleshooting and consulting with global clients while providing cost-effective test solutions

Additionally, Tech Mahindra had also announced acquisition of lab assets and operations of the Type Approval Lab in Lund, Southern Sweden from Sony. It is now company's flagship lab in Europe serving key customers and providing end-to-end test solutions to device manufacturers and Global Carriers.

Tech Mahindra already has 6 Test Labs located across the globe offering Operator Acceptance Test Schemes, Conformance Tests, Regulatory and R&D test support to its customers and the latest lab addition in Bangalore catering to the enterprise sector, further enhances the test market reach.

NHPC announced after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 that an memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed on 22 February 2014 amongst NHPC, Bihar State Power Generation Company and Pirpainti Bijlee Company (PBCPL) for participation in PBCPL, to develop 1320 (2X660) megawatts (MW) Pirpainti Supercritical Thermal Power Project in Distt Bhagalpur of Bihar state.

United Bank of India issued clarification after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 regarding news reports A Rs 800 crore credit line goes out of control at one of the bank's New Delhi branches that the bill discounting against letter of credit, issued by the reputed banks is an accepted practice in banking industry, Such type of credit line extended, is regarded as exposure on counter party banks.

The said credit lines were extended against letter of credits, issued primarily by public sector banks and duly accepted for payment on due dates, by the LC-issuing banks. The present outstanding has come down to about Rs 163 crore after receiving payments from LC-issuing banks.

As the exposure is on counter party banks, the bank does not foresee any problem in realisation on due dates, the bank said.

Petron Engineering Construction announced after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 that the company has received Letter of Intent dated 19 February 2014 from JBF Petrochemicals, Mangalore for Composite works comprising Civil, Structural, Underground Piping, Buildings, Mechanical Piping, Insulation, Painting, Electrical & Instrumentation works for its JBF PTA OSBL Project at Mangalore for an approx. contract value of Rs 196 crore plus service tax.

Elecon Engineering Company announced after market hours on Monday, 24 February 2014 that the company's Subsidiary company namely Elecon EPC Projects, has been awarded a prestigious order from NTPC for Ex-works (India) supply for Coal Handling Plant Package of Gadarwara Super Thermal Power Projects, Stage - I (2x800MW) aggregating worth of Rs 246.78 crore.

The market may remain volatile as traders roll over positions in the futures and options (F&O) segment from the near-month February 2014 series to March 2014 series. The near month February 2014 F&O contracts expire tomorrow, 26 February 2014. The stock market remains closed on Thursday, 27 February 2014, on account of Mahashivratri.

The Reserve Bank of India next undertakes monetary policy review on 1 April 2014. Citing price pressures, 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.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan in a television interview said the government and the central bank shared similar views on inflation management, while reiterating a call for the US Federal Reserve to be more sensitive to emerging economies.

Rajan's comments on Monday, 24 February 2014 come after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram last week chided the central bank over its focus on fighting inflation, saying the RBI needed to abide by government policy to promote economic growth.

Rajan said the central bank panel report on inflation was consistent with the government's stance. Rajan also reiterated his call for the Federal Reserve to take into account the impact of its withdrawal of monetary stimulus on emerging economies, despite saying he was comfortable with the current pace of tapering.

Key benchmark indices edged higher on the first trading session of the week on Monday, 24 February 2014 with the market sentiment boosted by data showing that foreign funds remained buyers of Indian stocks on Friday, 21 February 2014. The S&P BSE Sensex garnered 110.69 points or 0.53% to settle at 20,811.44, its highest closing level since 24 January 2014.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 266.87 crore on Monday, 24 February 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Most Asian stocks rose tracking overnight gains from Wall Street. Key benchmark indices in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea rose by 0.1% to 1.34%. Key benchmark indices in China and Indonesia fell by 0.06% to 0.25%.

US stocks climbed on Monday, boosted by M&A activity, an upbeat German confidence report and bets that the S&P 500's foray into new high ground could spur further buying.

The latest data showed the Chicago Fed National Activity index fell to -0.39 in January from 0.16 in December while financial data firm Markit's preliminary February reading on the services sector fell to 52.7 from 56.7.

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.

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