Volatility ruled the roost in early trade as the key benchmark indices reversed initial gains only to once again regain positive zone. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, and the 50-unit CNX Nifty, both, scaled record high. The Sensex was up 41.55 points or 0.14% at 29,723.32. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong. Asian stocks were mixed today, 30 January 2015.
NTPC, Tech Mahindra and Bank of Baroda rose ahead of their Q3 December 2014 results today, 30 January 2015. ICICI Bank slipped ahead of its Q3 December 2014 results today, 30 January 2015. Coal India dropped after the government after market hours yesterday, 29 January 2015 set the floor price for its offer for sale (OFS) of Coal India's shares at a discount. HCL Technologies scaled a record high after the company's board of directors at its meeting held today, 30 January 2015 recommended a liberal 1:1 bonus issue.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1723.77 crore yesterday, 29 January 2015, as per provisional data.
At 9:25 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 41.55 points or 0.14% at 29,723.32. The index gained 162.39 points at the day's high of 29,844.16 in early trade, a record high for the index. The index fell 31.44 points at the day's low of 29,650.33 in early trade.
The CNX Nifty was up 12.90 points or 0.14% at 8,965.25. The index hit a high of 8,996.60 in intraday trade, a record high for the index. The index hit a low of 8,942.15 in intraday trade.
The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong. On BSE, 967 shares gained and 455 shares fell. A total of 47 shares were unchanged.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 65.20 points or 0.61% at 10,836.28. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 37.71 points or 0.33% at 11,416.46. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 259 crore by 09:25 IST.
NTPC rose 0.7% ahead of its Q3 December 2014 results today, 30 January 2015.
Tech Mahindra rose 2.12% ahead of its Q3 December 2014 results today, 30 January 2015.
Bank of Baroda rose 0.64% ahead of its Q3 December 2014 results today, 30 January 2015.
ICICI Bank shed 0.47% ahead of its Q3 December 2014 results today, 30 January 2015.
Coal India lost 3.27% to Rs 362.90. The government after market hours yesterday, 29 January 2015 set the floor price for its offer for sale (OFS) of Coal India's shares at Rs 358 per share. The floor price represents a discount of 4.57% to Coal India's closing share price of Rs 375.15 yesterday, 29 January 2015. The government after market hours on Wednesday, 28 January 2015, announced divestment of its stake in the company. The government has offered to sell 31.58 crore equity shares, or 5% equity, of face value of Rs 10 each with an option to sell an additional upto 31.58 crore equity shares, or 5% equity, of face value of Rs 10 each of Coal India, collectively aggregating to 10% of the total paid up equity share capital of Coal India through a sale on the separate window provided by the stock exchanges for this purpose. The sale will commence today, 30 January 2015 at 9:15 IST and will close on the same day at 15:30 IST.
The government has reserved 20% of the size of the sale for retail investors. Retail investors will be offered a discount of 5% to the bid price entered by them in accordance with the Sebi OFS circulars. A minimum of 25% of the sale shares will be reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies.
HCL Technologies jumped 7.48% to Rs 1,769 after scaling a record high of Rs 1,834 in intraday trade after consolidated net profit rose 2.3% to Rs 1915 crore on 6.3% growth in revenues to Rs 9283 crore in Q2 December 2014 over Q1 September 2014. The Q2 result was announced before market hours today, 30 January 2015.
HCL Technologies said that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 30 January 2015 recommended a liberal 1:1 bonus issue.
Bharti Airtel fell 0.77%. Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 0.76%. Bharti Airtel announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Airtel M Commerce Services (AMSL) is seeking to convert its existing Prepaid Payment Instrument license into a Payments Bank license to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It also announced that subject to grant of a Payments Bank license to AMSL by the RBI and all regulatory approvals, Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) will acquire 19.90% stake in AMSL as an investor. AMSL offers mobile money services under the brand name Airtel Money.
Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, We welcome the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) initiative on Payments Bank. The RBI's vision for differentiated banks represents a significant step in furthering India's financial inclusion agenda. The RBI guidelines provide an exciting and challenging opportunity for an entity like us to contribute in a meaningful manner to drive financial inclusion.
On the tie-up with Kotak, Vittal added, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited is one of the leading and most respected private sector banks in India. Kotak's banking expertise coupled with Airtel's strength in telecom will help deliver financial services to millions of unbanked citizens across the country.
Airtel is the largest mobile services provider in India with over 215 million subscribers and with 31% revenue market share. Airtel has deep and wide distribution reach especially in rural and remote parts of the country. Its distribution network reaches over 1.4 million retail points across India. Airtel Money, launched in 2011 was the first mobile based pre-paid payment instrument service in the country and today empowers millions across India to leverage their mobile phones as a secure way for making payments and transferring money.
Separately, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced that it has agreed, subject to regulatory approvals, to invest 19.90% in Airtel M Commerce Services (AMSL), a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, on AMSL obtaining the Payment Bank licence from Reserve Bank of India.
Dipak Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "Payment banks have the potential to leapfrog India's financial inclusion agenda. Basic but critical services such as small savings accounts, remittances, etc. will bring a large number of low income households and small businesses under the formal banking network."
On the investment in AMSL, Gupta added, "Bharti Airtel has the technology and physical infrastructure, a well-entrenched distribution network in rural and remote areas of the country and has the largest telecom customer base, coupled with our banking expertise, this clearly is a win-win for both." AMSL is in the process of applying for Payment Bank License to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
IDFC rose 0.38%. On a consolidated basis, IDFC's net profit fell 15.79% to Rs 421.60 crore on 15.98% increase in total income to Rs 2462.08 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q3 December 2013.
GAIL (India) slipped 0.4%. GAIL (India) said its LPG recovery plant at Lakwa, Assam would be converted to supply feedstock for the petrochemical unit of Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer (BCPL) being set up at Lepetkata near Dibrugarh.
Denying media reports that the plant was being shut down, GAIL said there is no such plan and the plant was only being converted to supply feedstock to the petrochemical unit and would continue to function under BCPL.
Towards accomplishment of the Assam Accord, the Government of India had entrusted GAIL the responsibility of setting up the petrochemical plant which is coming up near Dibrugarh at a cost of Rs 8920 Crores. The project is being executed by BCPL which is a joint venture company of GAIL, Oil India (OIL), Numaligarh Refinery (NRL) and the Government of Assam, the company said in a statement. GAIL is the majority stakeholder in the project.
BCPL is in the process of commissioning the petrochemical plant and to make it operational and viable, supply of natural gas from OIL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Naphtha from NRL has been arranged for feed stock. To make the project viable, gas available in and around Lakwa region is also being considered for making available as feedstock to BCPL, the statement said.
Since gas available at Lakwa was to be processed for producing C2+ feed, economics were worked out for transporting natural gas vis-a-vis C2+ feed through pipeline from Lakwa to BCPL at Lepetkata with respect to the capital cost and it was found that transportation of C2+ feed is economical. C2+ is the hydrocarbon needed for production of polyethylene, it said.
Hence, it was decided in the larger interest of the project to convert the existing LPG plant to C2+ recovery unit for BCPL. More facilities in term of Gas Sweetening Unit, DM Water plant, Boiler, enhanced nitrogen plant, air plant are being set up in the existing premises at Lakwa to convert the LPG plant into C2+ recovery unit, it added.
The company also clarified that as Lakwa plant will continue to operate with change in product, requirement of majority of contract workers will still exist and contractors will be persuaded to continue with the workers as and when any change in contract takes place.
With respect to apprehension that there would be shortfall in the supply of LPG to Assam and the North East region, it may be mentioned that GAIL had informed Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) at the beginning of project about the conversion of GAIL's LPG plant into C2+ recovery unit by BCPL. IOCL on behalf of the Ministry of the Petroleum and Natural Gas is taking necessary action to ensure that there is no shortage in supply of LPG in the state, the company said.
Shriram City Union Finance rose 0.53%. The company's net profit rose 10.73% to Rs 142.94 crore on 11.13% increase in total income to Rs 902.45 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q3 December 2013.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is widely expected to keep its main lending rate viz. the repo rate unchanged at 7.75% after a monetary policy review next week. The sixth bi-monthly monetary review from the RBI is scheduled on Tuesday, 3 February 2015. The central bank may focus on the details of the upcoming Union Budget 2015-16 which is scheduled on 28 February 2015, before taking a call on further monetary policy easing. The RBI surprised financial markets by announcing a cut in the repo rate by 25 basis points in an unscheduled monetary policy review on 15 January 2015, citing easing of inflationary pressures in the economy. The annual rate of inflation based on the combined consumer price indices (CPI) for urban and rural India rose to 5% in December 2014 from 4.4% in November 2014. Over the long term, the RBI aims to restrict consumer price inflation to 4%, within a two-per-cent band.
Asian stocks were mixed today, 30 January 2015. Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia rose by 0.01% to 0.63%. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan fell by 0.05% to 0.97%.
Japan's industrial output rose a seasonally adjusted 1% in December from the previous month, government data showed today, 30 January 2015 signaling the economy may have started to recover slowly following last year's consumption tax hike. The rise in December came after a 0.5% fall in November.
Taiwan's economy expanded more slowly in the fourth quarter, as falling oil prices hurt petrochemical exports, though demand for electronics remained strong. Taiwan's gross domestic product rose 3.17% from a year earlier in the final quarter of 2014, the lowest rate in five quarters, and 1.17% from the previous quarter, an initial official reading showed today, 30 January 2015. The economy expanded 3.63% in the third quarter of 2014.
US stocks closed higher yesterday, 29 January 2015 as an upturn in oil prices and a rally in Apple and Boeing shares helped offset some disappointing earnings and lingering questions over US monetary policy.
In economic news, the number of people who applied for US unemployment-insurance benefits plunged 43,000 to 265,000 in the week that ended Jan. 24, hitting the lowest tally in 14 years, according to Labor Department data released yesterday, 29 January 2015.
Separately, pending home sales cooled in December, which the National Association of Realtors attributed to fewer homes available for sale and a slight rise in prices. The pending home sales index fell 3.7% during December, though the year-on-year gain was 11.7%, the highest since June 2013.
The US Commerce Department releases its first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP today, 30 January 2015.
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