Sensex fails to retain gains, ends 20 pts up

A strong bout of selling in frontline stocks during the final hour of trade pushed the market, which had opened on a high note and remained well entrenched in the positive territory till then, down to a flat close today.
The Sensex, which rose by over 300 points to an intra-day high of 18,317.28, ended the session with a marginal gain of 19.80 points at 17,825.59, while the Nifty, which touched a high of 5368.15, closed with a small loss of 1.65 points at 5268.40.
Earlier, thanks to a sharp surge on Wall Street and impressive gains posted by stocks on the Asian bourses, the market had got off to a rousing start this morning. However, after moving in a tight band for a better part of the session, equities, led by IT, cement and bank stocks, drifted lower on selling pressure in afternoon trade.
The negative opening on the European bourses contributed to the market's weakness in late afternoon trade. Information technology and cement stocks took a severe beating today. While bellwether Infosys Technologies closed with a loss of 2.65%, Satyam Computer Services and Tata Consultancy Services ended lower by 2.8% and 2.2% respectively. Wipro, which fared relatively better, settled with a loss of 0.95%.
Cement stock Grasim Industries lost over 5% as it settled at Rs 2888.65. ACC and Ambuja Cements eased by 1.75% and 0.35% to Rs 816.05 and Rs 122.90 respectively.
Reliance Energy, which opened on a high note, lost its way midway through the session and finished with a sharp loss of 3.85% at Rs 1631.35. State Bank of India closed with a loss of 1.75% at Rs 2082.55. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank also ended in the negative territory, albeit with marginal losses.
Bajaj Auto opened weak and remained that way right till the end. It ended the session with a loss of 1.4%. Reliance Communications closed 1.3% down at Rs 585.45. DLF, Hindalco and NTPC lost 0.6% - 1%. Cipla, Hindustan Unilever and ITC finished with slender gains.
Tractor major Mahindra & Mahindra rallied smartly on expectations of increased spending in agricultural sector. The stock, which shot up to a high of Rs 678.40 in intra-day trades today, ended at Rs 658.65 with a handsome gain of 4.55%. Housing finance major HDFC notched up a gain of over 4.25%. Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories surged 4.1% to Rs 436.35.
BHEL and Larsen & Toubro, the capital goods heavyweights, ended stronger by 3.8% and 3.2% respectively. Automobile stocks Maruti Suzuki (2.4%) and Tata Motors (0.8%) also had a nice ride up the charts. ONGC moved up by a little over a per cent. Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel closed with marginal gains.
Sun Pharmaceuticals (5.25%) was the biggest gainer in the Nifty index. GlaxoSmithKline Pharma surged 4.65%. Siemens (3.8%), Punjab National Bank (2.05%), Idea Cellular (2%), GAIL India (1.55%) and Tata Power (1.25%) also ended on a firm note.
Nalco, Tata Communications, Sterlite Industries, Suzlon Energy, Zee Entertainment, HCL Technologies, Unitech, Hero Honda, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, SAIL and BPCL were among the prominent losers.
Punjab Tractors, JB Chemicals, CESC, Lanco Infratech, Asian Paints, Spice Telecom, Power Grid, Crompton Greaves, Gujarat Industries & Power, Ispat Industries, ICI India, Tata Chemicals, IndusInd Bank and Gujarat Mineral were among the prominent gainers today.
Midcap stocks TV 18, Bharat Bijli, Elecon Engineering, Renuka Sugars, Ashapura Minechemicals, IVRCL Infrastructure, Indraprastha Gas, Gujarat Alkalies, Walchandnagar Industries, Godrej Industries, Mercator Lines, Prakash Industries, SREI Infrastructure, Astrazen Pharma, Usha Martin and Texmaco gained significant ground on sustained buying support today.
IRB Infrastructure, which made its debut a couple of sessions ago, posted a sharp gain of 10.25% today. The IRB Infrastructure counter on NSE clocked a volume of 14.73 million shares today.

Source : www.sify.com

Nifty March OI up 1%; Feb PCR rises to 1

Taking global cues, the Indian equity market opened on a buoyant note on Wednesday. National Stock Exchanges' 50-share index was up 1.71 per cent at 5360.25 and Nifty February futures at par at 5361.20.
On Tuesday, US markets closed on a firm note. Dow Jones ended up nearly a per cent, Nasdaq was up 0.75 per cent.
Today, the Asian markets were also in positive territory on favorable news from financial sector. Japan's Nikkei was up 2.24 per cent, Hang Seng higher by 3.40 per cent and China's CSI advanced 2.52 per cent.
In trade so far till 10:25 am, Nifty February futures had touched a high of 5450 and low of 5341, a band of 109 points. Nifty February contract saw an increase in open interest by 0.50 per cent and turnover was at Rs 1,386 crore. The March contract saw open interest increase almost 1 per cent with turnover at Rs 432 crore.
In index options, 5300 call saw the highest turnover at Rs 152.88 crore. Open interest in the contract was down 4.04 per cent. Index call of strike price 5200 was at a premium of Rs 159, up Rs 59 from previous. Nifty 5200 put saw open interest decrease by 2.88 per cent. Open interest in 5400 put was up 11.19 per cent and turnover at Rs 653 crore.
Investors are limiting their downside risk by buying out-of-the money puts at 5000-5200 strike prices.
Tuesday, Nifty put-call ratio was higher at 1.02 against Monday's 0.99. Market-wide rollovers picked up, with 48 per cent of the positions being carried forward into the March series.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in futures and options segment to the tune of Rs 1,193 crore.
In stock futures today, Reliance Industries February was up 1.32 per cent at Rs 2,607.95 against the spot price of Rs 2,613.85. Reliance Natural Resources contract clocked a turnover of Rs 189 crore with open interest up 2.95 per cent. The recent inclusion in Nifty, Power Grid February was up 8.98 per cent with turnover at Rs 62 crore.
In the previous session, short covering was seen in heavyweights Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Reliance Power climbs on 3-for-5 bonus plan

Reliance Power was up sharply after the company's board approved a 3-for-5 bonus share issue to non-promoter shareholders. The bonus issue will reduce initial public offer cost of retail investors to Rs 269 a share, while cost for non-retail investors will fall to Rs 281. At 1.20 pm, the stock gained Rs 27 or 6 per cent at Rs 444.25 on the NSE.

Reliance Power co-promoter Anil Ambani said he will offer a part of his stake in the company in lieu of bonus shares to maintain Reliance Energy's stake in the company unchanged at 45 per cent.

Source : sify.com

Sensex rebounds, gains over 300 pts at close

The market, which opened with a positive gap but soon turned weak amid high volatility this morning, bounced back strongly in afternoon trade thanks to sustained buying in oil and information technology stocks.

Besides strong global markets, some stock specific stories such as reports of Reliance Industries' discussions with Marks & Spencer for apparel and food cafes and Reliance Power's bonus announcement also aided the sentiment.

As the mood turned buoyant, a host of stocks from capital goods, pharma, realty and power sectors too rebounded smartly this afternoon and signed off in style. Midcap stocks, which had a weak morning session, wiped off almost their entire losses. Smallcaps regained a significant portion of lost ground during the final hour of trade.

The Sensex, which had tumbled to 17,137.99 this morning, hit a high of 17,674.06 in late afternoon trade and finally settled at 17,650.57, netting a big gain of 301.50 points or 1.74% for the day. The Nifty, which rose to a high of 5212.35 this afternoon, ended with a gain of 1.76% or 89.95 points at 5200.70.

Reliance Industries (up 5.05% to Rs 2551.70) played a stellar role in lifting the Sensex today. Cement stocks ACC (5.7%), Ambuja Cements (4.45%) and Grasim Industries (4.25%), power stocks Reliance Energy (4.3%) and NTPC (2.75%) and automobile major Maruti Suzuki (4.1%) also moved up sharply.

Among IT majors, Wipro shot up by 4.1%. Satyam Computer Services gained 2.65%. Infosys Technologies posted a gain of 2.15% and Tata Consultancy Services, which remained somewhat subdued, ended with a marginal gain.

Hindalco (2.45%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (2.45%), Larsen & Toubro (1.75%), Cipla (1.75%), Tata Motors (1.7%), Reliance Communications (1.65%), ONGC (1.55%) and BHEL (1.3%) finished with impressive gains. ICICI Bank bounced back well to end nearly a per cent up. ITC, DLF, HDFC, State Bank of India and Tata Steel closed with modest gains. Bharti Airtel ended with a very small gain.

Hindustan Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra ended slightly behind their previous closing levels. Bajaj Auto lost a little over 4%. HDFC Bank (down 3.5%) eased on selling pressure. The boards of HDFC Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab have given their in-principle approvals for a merger of the two entities. Centurion Bank of Punjab went down by 14.2% to Rs 48.35.

GAIL India, HCL Technologies, Nalco, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Idea Cellular, Unitech, Hero Honda, Cairn India, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, BPCL, Siemens, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Petroleum, Tata Communications and Zee Entertainment were among the prominent gainers from the Nifty index. Suzlon Energy lost 2.4%. Tata Power posted a loss of 0.6%.

Reliance Power rose sharply on sustained buying on the back of the company declaring a bonus issue in the ratio of 3:5. The stock, among the most sought after scrips today, ended the session with a handsome gain of 8.05% at Rs 450.40. IPCA Laboratories, HMT, Jaiprakash Associates, India Cements, Gujarat Narmada, TVS Motor and Century Textiles were among the other prominent gainers from BSE 'A' Group.

KS Oils, M&M Financial Services, Gujarat NRE Coke, REI Agro, Prakash Industries, Usha Martin, Religare Enterprises, Educomp Solutions, Karnataka Bank, Shree Precoated Steels, Jain Irrigation Systems, Great Offshore, Texmaco and Triveni Engineering were some of the major gainers in the midcap index.

Tulsi Extrusions made a sparkling debut today. The stock, which was among the most actively traded on the bourses today, ended at Rs 140.85, a premium of nearly 66% to its IPO price of Rs 85. IRB Infrastructure ended its maiden outing with a modest gain of 2.55% at Rs 189.65.

Though the premier indices ended with impressive gains, the market breadth remained weak today. Out of 2740 stocks traded on BSE, 1605 stocks closed weak. 1066 stocks posted gains and 69 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.

Source : sify.com

IRB Infrastructure ended at Rs189 recording gains of 2%

IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, developers of various infrastructure projects in the road sector through several Special Purpose Vehicles got listed at Rs192 against issue price of Rs185. After initially slipping heavily below its issue price, the scrip constantly gained ground thought out the session.

Finally, the stock ended at Rs189 recording gains of 2% after hitting an intra-day high of Rs200 and a low of Rs168 and recorded volumes of over 2,00,00,000 shares on NSE.

IRB Infrastructure, raised about Rs9.44bn through its IPO last month. IRB Infrastructure offered 51mn equity shares through the IPO, constituting 15.36%of its fully diluted post issue paid-up capital. The issue got subscribed by over four times. The issue price at the lower end of price band of Rs185-220.

Source : www.indiainfoline.com

Tulsi Extrusions lists 17.5% up from issue price

Shares of PVC pipes maker Tulsi Extrusions Ltd on Monday rose 17.5 per cent at Rs 99.90 from its initial public offer price of Rs 85 per share.

At 9:56 am, the shares were trading at Rs 105 after touching a high of Rs 118 on the BSE.

The Jalgaon, Maharashtra-based company raised Rs 48.45 crore by offering 5.7 million shares in the public issue.

The company plans to use the proceeds for expanding manufacturing capacity for pipes and moulded fittings at Jalgaon and for working capital requirements.

Source : sify.com

Bonus issue plans spur Reliance Power shares

Reliance Power's plans to issue bonus shares powered on the Anil Ambani-led firm's shares Monday, cheering investors after the firm's shares tumbled following a record Rs 12,500 crore IPO. After soaring to a high of Rs 429.60, the company's share gave away some gains, but was up 8.47 per cent at Rs 417.30 with volume traded at 70,84,865 against two-week average of 2,44,41,018 shares at 1pm.

The board is scheduled to meet on Feb 24 to consider issuing bonus shares and/or other measures which it said would effectively reduce the cost of the company's shares. Reliance Power's shares, which listed on the stock exchange on Feb 11, slumped to a low of Rs 332.50 on Feb 13, way below its issue price of Rs 450. The share, however, recovered to close at Rs 384 on Friday, helped by three-day market rally.

The slump in Reliance Power infuriated investors, many of whom complained they were lured to invest in the company because of promises from the firm. The company, on the other hand said its shares were hit by weak market sentiment following the global rout.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Nalco gains over 7%; Reliance Power stays firm

Thanks to some strong buying at lower levels, a few blue chip stocks have regained a bit of lost ground and mirroring the recovery, the Sensex too has wiped off a portion of its losses now.

The Sensex, which had slipped to a low of 17,900.96 earlier this afternoon, has recovered to 18,016.25 now, cutting down its loss to around 0.55% or 99 points. The Nifty is down with a loss of 0.7% or 37.15 points at 5265.75. Earlier, following a strong bout of selling this afternoon, the Nifty has tumbled to 5224.

The market breadth, thanks to good buying interest in several midcap and smallcap stocks, remains fairly positive. On BSE, advances outscore declines by nearly 2 to 1 at present.

Nalco, the biggest gainer among Nifty stocks, is up by over 7% at Rs 388.70. Siemens, which touched a high of Rs 1637 earlier in the day, has eased to Rs 1612, but still holds on in the positive territory with a sharp gain of 3.1%.

Cairn India, Mahindra & Mahindra, GAIL India, Hindustan Unilever and ICICI Bank are up by 1% - 2%. Bajaj Auto, Tata Power, Hindalco and ITC are also up with notable gains.

Sterlite Industries, Idea Cellular, Suzlon Energy, Unitech, Tata Motors, BHEL, Tata Communications, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Hero Honda, Wipro, ONGC, Satyam Computer Services, Reliance Industries, Grasim Industries, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, HDFC, HCL Technologies, Infosys Technologies and Maruti Suzuki have lost 1% - 2%.

Reliance Power, which is up with a sharp gain of 7.9% at Rs 414.75, rules the turnover chart today. On the National Stock Exchange, the Reliance Power counter has clocked a turnover of over Rs 680 crore on a volume of around 16.21 million shares.

RNRL is up by nearly 3.25% at Rs 141.50. The RNRL counter on the National Stock Exchange has clocked a volume of over 40 million shares today.

Source : www.sify.com

Feb at 18 pts discount; Nifty resistance seen 5,400

The proposed bonus issue of Reliance Power and overseas cues saw the Indian bourses open higher Monday. Most of the Asian markets were trading higher today. Japan’s Nikkei was higher by 1.28 per cent, Hang Seng up 0.63 per cent, Taiwan’s TWI up 0.61 per cent and Singapore’s Straits Times up 0.46 per cent. Back home, Nifty February futures contract was at a discount of 18 points to the spot index. The contract opened at 5306.55, up 15.30 points from the previous close and was trading at 5255.70.

In trade so far, the near month touched a high of 5313.40 and low of 5232, a band of 81 points. Open interest was up 3.30 per cent and turnover at Rs 2,400.95 crore. The sell quantity in Nifty February was higher than buy, which shows bearish sentiment in the market. In stocks futures, highest turnover was seen in February contracts of Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 332.47 crore), Reliance Power (Rs 288.25 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 265.29 crore). Reliance Power Feb saw open interest rise by 5.63 per cent. The futures opened at Rs 407.40, and rose to a high of Rs 425.80. At 11:30 am, it was at Rs 414.75, up 7.81 per cent from the previous close. It was trading flat to the spot price.

In index options, Nifty February call with strike prices 5000 and 5100 were at premium of Rs 322 and Rs 245 respectively. Premium is the upfront payment made to book an option contract. The index option with strike price of 5300 saw the highest turnover of Rs 111.12 crore. In stock options, Reliance Power 400 call was at premium of Rs 27.40. Open interest in the option was down 4.27 per cent.

Turnover was Rs 26.13 crore. Nifty put option of 5400 strike price was at premium of Rs 248.15. The 5200 put saw the highest turnover of Rs 94.43 crore in index options. The index options hint at strong resistance for Nifty spot around 5400 and support at 5200 level. If the Nifty breaks the support of 5200, the next strong support is seen at 5100 level.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Sensex slips 176 pts as selling gathers momentum

Due to sustained selling pressure, Tata Motors, ONGC, Satyam Computer Services and BHEL have slipped sharply from their previous closing prices today. While Tata Motors is down with a loss of 2.8%, the other three stocks have lost 2.35%, 2.25% and 2.1% respectively.

DLF is down nearly 2% at Rs 861.65. Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, Grasim Industries, Reliance Industries, Ambuja Cements and State Bank of India trade lower by 1% - 1.75%. Infosys Technologies has lost 0.95%. HDFC, Maruti Suzuki and Larsen & Toubro have also declined sharply. HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel are down by around a quarter per cent while ACC, the other loser in the Sensex, is down marginally from its previous closing price.

The Sensex is down with a big loss of 175.52 points or 0.97% at 17,939.73 at present. At 5236.70, the Nifty is 1.25% or 66.20 points behind its previous closing mark.

Reliance Energy (1.45%), ICICI Bank (1.25%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (1.25%) have come off their higher levels due to profit taking. Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel, Reliance Communications, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto and Ranbaxy Laboratories have also shed most of their gains now. Cipla and NTPC are up with small gains.

Alstom Projects, CESC, HCL Infosys, Jindal Stainless, Sterlite Industries, HCL Technologies, Suzlon Energy, Idea Cellular, JSW Steel, MphasiS, Indian Hotels, Tata Communications (VSNL), Pidilite Industries, Finolex Cables, HTMT Global and Rolta India are among the prominent losers at present.

Though the indices have come down sharply, the market breadth remains fairly positive thanks to some strong buying in mid and smallcap stocks.

Out of 2632 stocks seen in action on BSE, 1650 stocks are up in the positive territory. 936 stocks have posted losses and 46 stocks trade flat.

Source :sify.com

Nifty February ends at 43 pt discount

Positive global cues and on-expected IIP figures failed to support Indian equities Tuesday. Key indices opened sharply higher but were unable to sustain the levels and ended a volatile session marginally in the negative territory.

Nifty February futures ended at 4795.35, discount of 43 points to the Nifty which closed at 4838.25.

"The initial positive trade was due to covering of short positions," said Siddharth Bhamre analyst at Angel Broking.

The near month future touched a high of 4928 and low of 4772.65 intraday, a band of around 155 points. The contract saw an increase in open interest by 6.65 per cent with the total turnover at Rs 14,505.98 crore.

In stocks futures, the highest turnover was seen in Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 2080.81 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 1787.52 crores), Reliance Energy (Rs 1712.46 crores) and Reliance Industries (Rs 1556.09 crores).

Highest number of contracts were traded in Reliance Power, Reliance Industries, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Communications.

New entrant, Reliance Power February contract closed near the spot price of Rs 354.45.
“As crude oil is trading higher at $93 per barrel, the oil exploration companies can see some positive movement,” Bhamre said.

On the economy front, Index of Industrial Production grew at 7.6 per cent in December 2007 as against 13.4 per cent for the same month in 2006. Cumulative growth for the April-December period was 9 per cent compared with 11.2 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The numbers were broadly in-line with expectations, with the month on month performance after seasonal adjustment being fairly good

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Market extends global rally; Sensex ends up 800 pts

Investors were on a buying spree driving key indices sharply higher tracking positive global cues. Power, realty and capital goods posted maximum gains. The BSE Sensex closed 817.49 pts up at 17,766.63 while the NSE Nifty closed 272.55 pts up at 5,202.

Biggest index gainers were BHEL (up 13.54%), Reliance Energy (10.39%), Reliance Communications (9.94%), Hindalco Industries (9.37%) and ONGC (9.33%). Infosys Technologies, down 0.12 per cent, was the only Sensex loser.

The BSE Mid-cap Index ended 5.33 per cent higher, while the CNX Mid-cap Index added 5.99 per cent. Power Finance Corporation (up 22.51%), IndusInd Bank (16.38%), HPCL (14.81%), Syndicate Bank (13.92%), IOC (13.83%), Reliance Petroleum (13.56%) and Neyveli Lignite (13.14%) were the major gainers. Market breadth on BSE showed 2,068 advances and 684 declines.
Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Globus Spirits defers public issue

Delhi-based alcohol beverage company Globus Spirits has postponed its public issue. It was scheduled to open on February 19 and close on February 22, 2008.

This is the fourth victim of bad market conditions. Biggest and well known brands in markets like Emaar MGF and Wockhardt Hospitals have already withdrawn their public offers in last week despite lowering price band and exending issue period. SVEC constructions also lowered its price band to Rs 80-90 from Rs 85-95 and extended the issue till February 13, 2008. This issue got subscribed just 0.24 times till now.

All these companies said that they will again tap capital market in near term once this market condition recovers and market stabilizes.

Weak listing of Reliance Power also added to these sentiments. Experts believe that new listings as well as current issues, which are opened, will see weak response from investors and this situation will continue for one month at least. They also feel that investors will be back to primary market once the secondary market starts showing strong momentum.

Globus Spirits had come out with public issue aggregating to Rs 68 crore through the book building route. The price band was Rs 135-148 per share.

The company with this money proposed to modernise and expand its production facilities at Behror, Rajasthan and Samalkha, Haryana; develop and acquire IMFL brands; and revamp its storage and bottling capacity.

The book running lead manager to the proposed issue was SREI Capital Markets Ltd.

Source : www.moneycontrol.com

SVEC Constructions IPO to be withdrawn

The list of the casualties seems to be growing on the IPO front. The lead mangers of Hyderabad based SVEC Constructions Ltd have decided to withdraw the IPO, which was to close on Wednesday. As on 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the issue was subscribed only by 25 per cent. The company had reduced the price band and extended the deadline.

Last week, two high-profile IPOs – Emaar MGF and Wockhardt – were called off following poor investor response. Analysts said that these IPOs failed due to aggressive pricing and the current market sentiments. Amidst the chaos, some companies are still willing to take a chance to go ahead with its issues. GSS America Infotech Ltd went on with its IPO as planned.

The issue opened on Monday and is expected to close on February 15. The company is offering a total of 34.9-lakh equity shares to the public and the price band is fixed between Rs 400 and Rs 440.

As per the latest data available on the NSE Web site, 7 per cent of the issue was subscribed.

“The last day is when most of the investors will be subscribing to the issue; the first few days do not hold much relevance so as to decide the fate of the issue. GSS America is a unique company and the issue has been reasonably priced,” said Mr Rajeev Mehrotra, Executive Vice-President and Co-Head of Investment Banking, Edelweiss Capital Ltd.

Another company that is braving the choppy markets is Kerala based V-Guard Industries Ltd. The company has set the IPO dates for February 18 with an issue size of 80-lakh equity shares. The price band is fixed between Rs 80 and Rs 85.

Rural Electrification Corporation too will be going ahead with its issue, which will hit the markets on February 19 and will close on February 22. The company plans to raise about Rs 1,600 crore from the issue. The company has fixed the price band between Rs 90 and Rs 105. In the past one month, stock markets have witnessed high volatility with the Sensex falling more than 20 per cent. Some companies are even re-thinking on when to enter capital markets. Globus Spirits, a Delhi-based manufacturer of alcohol, was expected to announce its IPO dates soon.

But due to the current market conditions, the company has decided to wait. “We will wait till the markets stabilise and seem more attractive,” said Mr R. Ramnath, Vice-President, Investment Banking, SREI Capital Markets Ltd, the book running lead managers to the issue.

Source :www.thehindubusinessline.com

IRB Infrastructure IPO subscribed four times

Braving the present adverse market sentiment relating to primary issues, the maiden offering by IRB Infrastructure Developers has sailed through comfortably. At the close of the book building process, the IRB Infra issue was subscribed 4.3 times. Compared to 5.1 crore shares on offer, total demand was for nearly 22 crore shares, NSE data showed.

On the other hand, Wockhardt Hospitals decided to extend the issue closure day by two days, to February 7 now. The offering for Emaar MGF Land, another big-size initial public offer, is set to close on Wednesday.

In the IRB Infra issue, what's interesting is that the company went ahead with its pre-issue price band of Rs 185-220 per share.

In the IRB Infra offering, the institutional portion was subscribed 6.4 times and the high networth individuals (HNI) 1.6 times. Retail and employee portions were also fully subscribed. Deutsche Equities India is the book running lead manager (BRLM) while Kotak Mahindra Capital Co is Co-BRLM for the issue.

IRB Infra's works involve building roads and highways.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Wockhardt down as hospital IPO withdrawn

Shares of Wockhardt on Friday opened down more than 6 per cent after its subsidiary Wockhardt Hospitals withdrew its initial public offer due to low subscription.

At 10:54 am on the NSE, the share was Rs 331.30, down 2.73 per cent from the previous close but up from the low of 321.15.

Late Thursday, Wockhardt Hospitals called off the IPO after the qualified institutional buyers’ portion was undersubscribed.

A volatile secondary market had forced the company to lower the price band to Rs 225-260 from Rs 280-310 earlier even before the issue was scheduled to open on Jan 31, which also postponed its opening to Feb 1.

But even when this failed to draw investors, Wockhardt Hospitals extended the closing date by two days to Feb 7 from the earlier Feb 5.

However, the extension did not help matters. As per NSE data, at close of issue, the QIB category was subscribed 0.06 times, non-institutional investors 0.0048 times and retail portion about 0.51 times.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Emaar MGF withdraws IPO due to poor response

Uncertainty in stock markets has taken its toll on the IPO market, with realty major Emaar MGF today becoming the second company in two days to withdraw its public offering due to poor response from investors.

Wockhardt Hospitals withdrew its initial public offer yesterday. The IPO of Emaar MGF, a joint venture between Dubai based Emaar Properties and India's MGF Development, was subscribed only 43 per cent as per the latest data available on the stock exchang es. The company, however, claimed that Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) and High Networth Individuals (HNI) portions were fully subscribed and the book was already close to 85 per cent.

"The company decided to take this step as a result of the prevailing adverse market sentiments, fuelled by renewed indications of a US recession and global meltdown," the company said in a statement.

Emaar MGF had floated an IPO of 10.25 crore equity shares to raise about Rs 6,450 crore at the upper band of Rs 530-630 a share of Rs 10 each. The decision has been taken after the subscription level fell to 43 per cent from 85 per cent in the morning, i ndicating that subscribers had started cancelling their applications. - PTI

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

Infratel IPO to take 'Power' cue

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infratel proposes to offer price discount and staggered payment facility to retail investors bidding for its book built issue that is expected to raise Rs 5,000-6,000 crore.

Mr Ambani’s Reliance Power also offered same sops to the retail investors who had applied for its recently-concluded Rs 11,560 crore IPO, the country’s largest primary market issue so far.

It had offered a flat discount of Rs 20 a share to them, nearly 4% of the issue price of Rs 450 and a part-payment facility wherein an investor could apply for the issue with a 25% payment.

Although the exact amount of the discount for the RITL issue will be determined later, bankers close the IPO said they will be in line with Reliance Power. Reliance Power was the first company to offer discount to retail investors after the market regulator, Sebi permitted such freebies with a cap of 10% of the issue price.

RITL proposed the idea of offering these sops in the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) of the issue which was submitted to Sebi on Monday. ET was the first to report on the forthcoming issue and the possibility of filing the DRHP with Sebi this week in its Monday edition.

According to DRHP, the entire book built issue will hawk 8.91 crore shares, representing 10.05% of the post-issue equity capital of the company, of face value of Rs 5 each. RCom, the Ambani group’s telecom company, now holds 95% stake in RITL. Post issue, the equity capital of the company will go up to Rs 443.6 crore from Rs 399 crore.

Going by the expected issue size of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore, the issue is likely to be priced at Rs 560-670 a share. The proceeds of the issue will be spent to finance the company’s’ expansion plan which entails setting of 16,000 towers for over Rs 4,600 crore next year. It has tower sites of 23,434 in the country’s each 22 circles on December 31, 2007.

The draft prospectus says RITL posted a net profit of Rs 154 crore in the nine months ended December, 2007 on total income of Rs 902 crore. Its operating profit before tax at Rs 247 crore. A Macquarie Equities research report valued RITL at Rs 54,400-71,000 crore while RITL’s valuation stands at $13.1 billion to $14.9 billion (Rs 51,247 crore to Rs 58,288 crore), according to a Deutsche Bank report. Both the valuations were based on the discounted cash flow (DCF) method.


Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Nifty futures at 12 points premium

Nifty futures on Thursday moved from discount to premium and vice versa with the spot market showing marked volatility. The Indian market has little to go by, by way of cues, with most Asian markets closed for Lunar New Year.

The US market closed weak Wednesday on renewed inflation fears, after a warning on price pressures from a US Federal Reserve official.

At 1:20 pm, Nifty February futures was 5215.00, a premium of 12 points to the spot index. In trade so far, the near month has charted a high of 5326.90 and low of 5151.05.

The 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was at 5203.45, down 2.24 per cent from the previous close. So far it has seen a high and low of 5344.60 and 5202.70, respectively, a band of 142 points.

Number of contracts traded in Nifty February was 2,41,580 and turnover Rs 6382.82 crore. Open interest in the near month was 4,00,92,150, up 4.79 per cent from Wednesday's close.

Nifty futures for March at 5179.85 was at 23.6 points discount and April at discount of 28 points at 5175.00.

On the stock futures front, the most actively traded February contracts were led by the Reliance pack Reliance Natural Resources, Reliance Energy, Reliance Capital, Reliance Petroleum, Reliance Industries, and Reliance Communications. The others were Essar Oil and NTPC.

Traders in the domestic and overseas markets will eye the Bank of England and European Central Bank meets later today for news on rate cuts, to decide on the future movement in stocks.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Sensex plummets 613 pts at close

The market, due to weak global cues, opened on a listless note this morning. As the mood remained highly cautious, the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty moved in a tight band around their previous closing levels for nearly three hours. However, several midcap and smallcap stocks marched on to higher levels on sustained buying interest.

And then, reeling under a severe bout of selling pressure this afternoon, stocks cutting across sectors plunged sharply into the red. Mirroring the fall, the Sensex crashed by over 650 points to 17,492.28 and finally ended the day at 17,526.93 with a huge loss of 612.56 points or 3.38%. With today's loss, the Sensex has lost over 1,100 points in just two sessions.

The Nifty, which fell to a low of 5113.85 in intra-day trades, settled at 5133.25 with a loss of 3.56% or 189.30 points.

All the sectoral indices ended in the red with sharp losses today. The Consumer durables index, which went down by a per cent, suffered the least damage while the Oil & Gas (down 4.41%) was the worst hit. BSE Metal lost a little over 4%. Rest of the indices drifted down by 2% - 4%.

Mid and smallcap stocks too gave up their gains and a good many of them ended with sharp losses. While BSE Midcap lost 2.38%, the Smallcap index eased by around 2%.

The market breadth, which remained quite strong this morning, turned weak in afternoon trade. Finally, when trade ended for the day, out of a total of 2849 stocks seen in action on BSE, as many as 2002 stocks were down in the red. 803 stocks closed on a positive note and 44 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.

Cement stock ACC (up 1.05%) was the lone gainer from the Sensex pack. From the Nifty, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma (1.15%) made the grade.

Hindalco, Reliance Communications and NTPC lost 5.6%, 5.5% and 5.1% respectively. Reliance Industries went down by nearly 5%. Satyam Computer Services, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Cipla, Wipro, Tata Steel and Reliance Energy lost 3% - 4.5%.

Tata Motors, DLF, Ambuja Cements, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Auto, HDFC, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Grasim Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India and Infosys Technologies eased by 1% - 3%. BHEL, HDFC Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra ended with modest losses.

HCL Technologies (down 7.85%) was the biggest loser in the Nifty. Unitech lost 7.05%. VSNL ended with a loss of over 6%. Punjab National Bank lost 5.1%. Cairn India, SAIL, Reliance Petroleum, Idea Cellular, Zee Entertainment, Sterlite Industries, Nalco, GAIL India, Suzlon Energy, Siemens, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Hero Honda also ended with sharp losses.

Source : http://sify.com/

Bear hug continues; Sensex closes 650 pts down

Gains made in the relief rally beginning in February were wiped out on Thursday as uncertainties in global markets continued to weigh down investor sentiment.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex plunged 643.46 points or 3.55 per cent to close at provisional 17,496.03. The benchmark swung 706.4 points intra-day touching a low of 17,492.28.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at provisional 5131.60, down 190.95 points or 3.59 per cent. The index fell to the low of 5113.85 and oscillated 230.7 points from its day’s high of 5344.60.

Declines were led by Reliance Communications (down 5.5%), Hindalco (5.46%), NPTC (4.96%), Reliance Industries (4.94%), ICICI Bank (4.58%) and Bharti Airtel (4.49%).

ACC, up 1.2 per cent, was the lone gainer in the 30-share index.

On BSE, 1,994 declines outnumbered 809 advances.

All Asian markets, barring Japan, were shut today on account of Lunar New Year. Japan’s Nikkei and Topix were up 0.82 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively. In Europe, FTSE 100 was down 0.78 per cent, DAX 30 fell 0.79 per cent and CAC 40 declined 0.99 per cent.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/