Monday, November 23, 2009

Market Outlook 23rd Nov and Weekly Update

INTRADAY calls for 23rd Nov 2009
+ve Sector, Scripts: IT, BANK, DenaBank, Jindaldril, Albk, Bajajholding
Buy HDFCBank-1754 for 1774-1790+ with sl 1740
Buy ACC-766 for 780-793+ with sl 744
Buy BPCL-520 above 526 for 540-548+ with sl 518
Buy TVtoday-113 for 134-139+ with sl 104 [positional]
Buy Auropharma-785 for 820+ with sl 773
Buy Canbank-370 for 392-406+ with sl 362
 
NIFTY FUTURE LEVELS
SUPPORT
5033
4978
4925
4872
4819
RESISTANCE
5076
5090
5143
5195
 
NIFTY FUTURES (F & O): 
Below 5033 level, expect profit booking up to 4978-4980 zone and thereafter slide may continue up to 4925-4927 zone by non-stop.
Hurdle at 5076 level. Above this level, rally may continue up to 5088-5090 zone by non-stop.

Sell if touches 5141-5143 zone. Stop Loss at 5193-5195 zone.

On Negative Side, break below 4872-4874 zone can create panic up to 4819-4821 zone by non-stop. If breaks & sustains this zone then downtrend may continue and have caution.
 
Short-Term Investors: 
 Bearish Trend. Problem is that, we are trading near Stop Loss level of 5082.00. If bears can able to control below this level, then traders can expect a target of 4842.20 level.
Risk is that, if closes above 5082.00 level for consecutive 3 days then traders can expect short covering up to 5201.90 level by non-stop.
 
Today's Expectation:
SGX NIFTY is trading at 5065.00. (09.09 AM IST)
This trend is on expected lines.
If weakness continues, then it may continue for 1 (or) 2 days.
If short covering starts, then it can continue up to 1 day, 1 Week (or) even 1 Month.
 
BSE SENSEX:  
Friday's rally was not a surprise, as per technicals. Expect profit booking today. 
Short-Term Investors:
 
Bullish Trend. Target at 17499.70.
Stop Loss is too far on down side, can be placed at around 16666.70.
  
 
 
Strong & Weak  futures
This is list of 10 strong futures:
Dena Bank, Jindal Steel, Orient Bank, MLL, McDowell-N, Sesa Goa, Vijaya Bank, Ashok Ley, PFC & Allahabad Bank.  
And this is list of 10 Weak futures:
EKC, ICSA, Tata Comm, Unitech, TTML, Bharti Airtel, India Cement, GMR Infra, Idea & Sterling Biotech.
Nifty is in Down trend  
 
POSITIONAL BUY:
Buy RISHABH DIGHA ST (BSE Cash & BSE Code: 531539) 
Buy with a Stop Loss of 19.55. Above 23.55, it will zoom.
 
Today: Expect Profit Booking.

1 Week: Expect Profit Booking.

1 Month: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

3 Months: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

1 Year: Sideways, surprisingly going up.
 
Buy BHAGYANAGAR (I) (BSE Cash & BSE Code: 512296) 
Buy with a Stop Loss of 25.70. Above 27.90, it will zoom.
 
Today: May hold on gains.

1 Week: Expect Profit Booking.

1 Month: Bullish, as per current market conditions.

3 Months: Bullish, as per current market conditions.

1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
Buy RELIANCE INDS (NSE Cash) 
Friday's rally was surprising. Buy with a Stop Loss of 2084.10. Above 2161.90, it will zoom.
 
1 Week: Bullish, as per current market conditions.

1 Month: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

3 Months: Bullish, surprisingly going down.

1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
Buy STATE BANK (NSE Cash) 
May hold on gains.  Buy with a Stop Loss of 2272.55. Above 2372.60, it will zoom.
 
1 Week: Expect Profit Booking.

1 Month: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

3 Months: Bearish, surprisingly going up. 

1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
  
 
FII DATA
FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category Date Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
FII 20-Nov-2009 2049.92 2513.81 -463.89
DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category Date Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
DII 20-Nov-2009 1314.97 1296.51 18.46
 
STOP INDEX LEVELS
NSE Nifty Index   5052.45 ( 1.27 %) 63.45       
  1 2 3
Resistance 5099.57 5146.68   5230.07  
Support 4969.07 4885.68 4838.57

BSE Sensex  17021.85 ( 1.41 %) 236.20     
  1 2 3
Resistance 17163.84 17305.84 17569.88
Support 16757.80 16493.76 16351.76
 Day Trading Guide


 
Positive sentiment stays, but volatility to rise

Focus now on yuan appreciation.

The weekly outlook for Dalal Street's key indices appears positive.

One school of thought pointed out that the closer reality does not bode a negative turn in sentiment – liquidity continues to emerge each day. Dollar's weakness is a blessing for local equity assets.

Another group, who loves to take a not-less-than-two-year view, said that the longer horizon is rosy for Indian economy and stocks – so it is wise to buy now.

Dramatic surge

Without a roaring cheer for the earlier experience, the Sensex has crossed 17,000 points again. But an all-round conviction in a dramatic surge is still amiss. This has put volatility on the movement of indices.

Those who look at the charts also expect volatility to continue in the short-term, but do not predict a breakout.

Some market players claim that global market trends would continue to influence the local market to an extent this week. However, key local indices may not reflect the moves on the eastern or western hemispheres.

Fed move

The US Federal Reserves Chairman, Mr Ben Bernanke's reiteration last week of the commitment to keep policy rates "exceptionally low" for an "extended period" and the benign outlook for inflation were well received by bond markets, as well as other risky assets.

A Morgan Stanley economist, Mr Manoj Pradhan, however, said the Fed Chief's sanguine outlook embedded in US bond market creates risks for central banks wishing to tighten policy ahead of their counterparts in the developed economies. He said: "Low bond yields in the US and other major economies tend to put downward pressure on bond yields elsewhere in the world." The chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission recently said low interest rates in the US and a weak dollar affected global asset prices and generated speculation.

"Following the principles of initiative, controllability and gradualism, with reference to international capital flows and changes in major currencies, we will improve the yuan exchange rate formation mechanism," the Peoples' Bank of China said in a 46-page third quarterly monetary policy report ahead of the US President's visit.

Yuan movement

At the end of the visit, China, however, remained silent on yuan.

But some market analysts hope that China may soon provide some clues.

The yuan had strengthened by nearly 20 per cent against the dollar until concern over the impact of the global financial crisis prompted Beijing to apply the brakes in the middle of last year to protect its exporters.

If resumption of yuan appreciation takes place, the immediate impact on the equity assets in Asia could be positive.

Interesting findings on web:
U.S. stocks fell, halting a two-week advance, as a worsening outlook for technology company earnings added to concern that the eight-month rally in equities outpaced the prospects for economic growth.

U.S. stocks fell for a third straight day on Friday as investors took weaker-than-expected results from computer maker Dell (DELL.O) and homebuilder D.R. Horton (DHI.N) as a further sign that the recovery would be anemic.

Worried investors curb riskier bets.

Weak results from Dell, D.R. Horton weigh.

Following the S&P 500's gain of more than 60 percent from its 12-year closing low of March 9, investors have become more sensitive to signs of weakness as they sought to justify lofty share valuations.

"While it appears to us that the recession is over, there are a lot of lingering signs of pain on Main Street," said Sasha Kostadinov, portfolio manager and research analyst at Shaker Investments in Cleveland, Ohio. "Unemployment is very high, lots of people out of work and that is still causing significant stress."

The news of a 54 percent slide in Dell's quarterly profit rounded off a rocky week for the technology sector, which has been a market darling since March as investors bet on a strong recovery to spur corporate and consumer spending.

Unease about the economy's prospects drove investors to snap up defensive stocks seen better able to withstand an uncertain economy, limiting the Dow's losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 14.28 points, or 0.14 percent, to 10,318.16. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX dropped 3.52 points, or 0.32 percent, to 1,091.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC slipped 10.78 points, or 0.50 percent, to 2,146.04.

RUSSELL584.68-1.00-0.17%

TRAN5453.21-14.61-0.27%

UTIL371.841.14+0.31%

S&P 100508.79-1.56-0.31%

S&P 400687.54-3.85-0.56%

NYSE7084.47-33.17-0.47%

NAS 1001764.39-8.80-0.5%

With the year-end fast approaching, there was also a push by some investors, including hedge funds, to lock in profits from the recent rally going into 2010, analysts said.

"It is normal for stocks to pull back after such a strong run," said Lawrence Creatura, a Rochester, New York-based money manager at Federated Investors Inc., which oversees $390 billion. "It's reasonable for investors to take a pause when they're faced with such a broad variety of uncertainties."

Intel Corp. dropped 2.9 percent, the steepest retreat in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as Bank of America Corp. said computer-chip supply may overwhelm demand. Dell Inc. tumbled 7.2 percent after profit decreased by more than half. Stocks also slid as yields on Treasury three-month bills turned negative for the first time since financial markets froze last year. Metals producers rose as gold climbed to a record and the dollar fell.

About 80 percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported third-quarter results beat analysts' predictions, including Sears Holdings Corp., Ltd. Brands Inc. and GameStop Corp. this week. That exceeds the record pace of 72.3 percent for the period ended in June, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Caterpillar, GE and Cisco were the day's biggest decliners on the Dow. Merck and Pfizer rose.

Dell, the No. 3 personal computer maker, slid 10 percent to $14.29 a day after it reported a sharp drop in third-quarter profit and sales that missed estimates. Dell was the Nasdaq's top drag.

D.R. Horton Inc (DHI.N) tumbled 15.4 percent to $10.37 after the homebuilder reported a fourth-quarter loss that was wider than expected and said market conditions were "still challenging."

A rebound in the U.S. dollar pressured prices of global commodities, including crude. Energy stocks were hurt, such as Chevron Corp (CVX.N), which fell 0.7 percent to $76.77.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and Texas Instruments Inc., the second-biggest U.S. chipmaker, dropped after being cut to "neutral" from "buy" at Bank of America. The bank cut its outlook for the semiconductor industry to "negative" from "positive," sending technology stocks to the steepest drop of 10 industries in the S&P 500. Intel lost 2.9 percent to $19.24 and Texas Instruments slid 2.8 percent to $24.74.

SanDisk Corp., the world's largest maker of flash-memory cards used in digital cameras and mobile phones, dropped 7.8 percent to $20.24.

Raw-materials producers rallied 1.4 percent, the second- most among the 10 industries in the S&P 500, as commodity prices rose, led by gold and copper.

"If the economy is turning, which it is, industrials and materials should continue to do better," said David Katz, who oversees $1.2 billion at Matrix Asset Advisors in New York. "Materials might be the better gainer because of their gold exposure."

Barrick Gold Corp. rose 2.5 percent to $43.98 and Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. added 3.7 percent to $84.57 as bullion climbed to a record $1,153.40 an ounce on Nov. 18. The precious metal has fallen only once this month as investors speculated the dollar will extend its steepest plunge since 1986, boosting gold's appeal as an alternative investment.

Consumer discretionary stocks dropped 1.1 percent, the second-steepest decline among 10 industries. Target Corp. fell 3.1 percent to $47.46 as the second-biggest U.S. discount chain said it is planning for a "modest" decrease in fourth-quarter comparable-store sales. Home Depot Inc. slumped 0.6 percent to $27.18 after the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer posted third-quarter profit that fell 8.9 percent as homeowners curbed large purchases and professional contractors spent less.

Sprint Nextel Corp. climbed the most in the S&P 500, rising 21 percent to $3.76. The third-largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier rallied after it finished paying off a $4.5 billion loan, helping lower expenses to counter a shrinking subscriber base.

Hewlett-Packard Co. and Deere & Co. are among 10 companies in the S&P 500 scheduled to report results next week. A report will probably show sales of existing U.S. homes increased in October to the highest level in more than two years, spurred in part by a tax credit that lured first-time buyers, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Hewlett Packard [HPQ  50.04    0.22  (+0.44%)   ], which reports earnings on Monday, advanced.

Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) was up 1.1 percent and drug company Merck & Co (MRK.N) rose 3.2 percent to $36.46.

Dow component General Electric Co (GE.N) and Vivendi SA (VIV.PA) were at least $1 billion apart in their valuation of Vivendi's stake in NBC Universal, the Financial Times reported, dampening hopes of a swift sale.

GE shares shed 1.1 percent to $15.59.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) declined 1.6 percent to $170.01 after the Wall Street Journal reported large shareholders have asked the investment bank -- on track to award employees the biggest bonuses in its history -- to pass more profits to investors. A Goldman spokesman said major shareholders had not contacted the company about lowering its bonus pool.

Software maker Intuit [INTU  29.66    -0.61  (-2.02%)   ] posted a smaller-than-expected loss.

Gap [GPS 21.95    0.09  (+0.41%)   ] hit its earnings target, helped by strong sales at its lower-priced Old Navy stores.

Ann Taylor [ANN  13.62    -0.19  (-1.38%)   ] beat earnings expectations but its topline was a little light — sales dropped 12.3 percent and the women's apparel chain said sales would continue to slide in the fourth quarter.

Procter & Gamble [PG  61.80    -0.35  (-0.56%)   ] saw its shares slip amid news that the company is targeting a share repurchase of less than $8 billion.

The VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, dropped to 22.19. The index, which is known as Wall Street's fear gauge, is down from a record 80.86 in November 2008 yet above its 20.28 average over its 19-year history.

Oil,Gold & Currencies:

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, December crude CLZ9 settled down 74 cents, or 0.96 percent, at $76.72 a barrel, the last day of the contract.

Gold settling at $1,146.40, after setting a record above $1,150 earlier this week.

The dollar rose for a second straight session Friday as risk tolerance declined, with investors cutting exposure to assets and currencies perceived as higher risk ahead of a holiday-shortened week in the United States.

Bonds:

Demand for longer-term Treasurys fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to 3.37 percent from 3.34 percent.

What to expect:

MONDAY: Existing-home sales; two-year note auction; earnings from Campbell Soup, HP, ADI and Brocade

TUESDAY: GDP (2nd look); Conference Board consumer confidence; Sheila Bair press briefing; Five-year note auction; Fed minutes; Earnings from American Eagle, Barnes & Noble, Dollar Tree, Hormel, Medtronic and TiVo

WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage apps; weekly jobless claims; durable goods; personal income; Reuters/U of Mich consumer sentiment; new-home sales; weekly crude inventories; 7-year note auction; Earnings from Deere, Tiffany

THURSDAY: Thanksgiving—all US financial markets closed

FRIDAY: Black Friday—US markets open but NYSE closes early

Asia:

Asian stocks rose as higher metal prices boosted mining companies, James Hardie Industries NV forecast earnings at the top of a range and on speculation Korea Exchange Bank will get a takeover offer.

Newcrest Mining Ltd. added 3 percent in Sydney as gold prices increased for the seventh straight session. Rio Tinto Group climbed 2 percent after metal prices in London had their biggest weekly advance in a month. James Hardie surged 7.8 percent after forecasting full-year earnings at the top range of analyst estimates. Korea Exchange Bank gained 3.8 percent after Hana Financial Group Inc. said it would consider a bid.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan Index added 0.3 percent to 408.72 as of 10:16 a.m. in Tokyo, where markets were closed for a national holiday. The gauge has risen 65 percent this year, on course for its steepest annual gain since 1993, as governments worldwide enacted spending programs and cut borrowing costs to revive growth.

"The global economy, whilst in recovery mode, is still vulnerable," said Chris Weston, an institutional dealer at IG Markets in Melbourne. "Take away the stimulus at the wrong time and it could send it back into a double-dip scenario."

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.8 percent. The gauge has rallied 50 percent from a five-year low on March 6 as government measures including cash handouts and infrastructure spending helped Australia skirt a recession. South Korea's Kospi Index slipped 0.1 percent today.

Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.3 percent. The index slipped 0.3 percent on Nov. 20 as earnings at Dell Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc. trailed analysts' estimates and concern grew that European Central Bank policy makers will phase out measures to stimulate the economy.

Tokyo closed for a public holiday.

HSI 22567.89 +112.05 +0.5%. (08.08 AM IST)

SSE Composite 3308.35 3321.35 3333.79 3309.69 + 0.39. (08.10 AM IST)

Rupee:

We did't get Rupee Update. Inconvenience is regretted. 

INDIA:

Source: Bloomberg.

Reliance Industries increased 1.9 percent to 2,123.3 rupees. Hindalco added 3.5 percent to 134.6 rupees.

State Bank of India Ltd., the nation's biggest lender, gained 2.4 percent to 2,334.95 rupees, snapping an earlier 1.8 percent decline. ICICI Bank Ltd., the country's second-biggest lender, advanced 1.2 percent to 897 rupees. The stock had earlier dropped 3.2 percent.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI IN), the largest mobile-phone operator, fell 1.6 percent to 288.75 rupees after it cut roaming charges by 60 percent, sparking concern among investors that the ongoing price war among Indian telecom companies will hurt their profitability.

Bhushan Steel Ltd. (BHUS IN) gained 1.7 percent to 1,360.7 rupees after the Economic Times reported the company plans to sell a 5 percent stake to strategic investors for about 4 billion rupees. Managing Director Neeraj Singal declined to comment on whether the Indian steelmaker is looking to sell a stake when contacted by telephone today.

Jindal Drilling & Industry Ltd. (JDDL IN), a drilling services company, surged 10 percent to 575.8 rupees, the most in three months, after it won an order worth 6.35 billion rupees.

New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV IN) rose 8.1 percent to 144.2 rupees after Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., the owner of Food Network and HGTV, agreed to pay $55 million for 69 percent of NDTV Lifestyle, a unit of NDTV Group.

Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd. (TRE IN) climbed 2.3 percent to 104.5 rupees after the company's profit more than doubled to 682.2 million rupees last quarter from a year earlier.

Source: Reuters.

Higher European markets lift sentiment from early slide

State Bank of India, ICICI Bank among major gainers

Outsourcers, autos rise on improving outlook

Bharti falls after it slashes roaming charges

Indian shares climbed 1.4 percent on Friday and helped stretch weekly run of gains to three in a row, after higher European markets lifted investor confidence from an early slide. Banks led the gainers with sentiment also boosted by an assurance the government was not planning to tax foreign capital inflows. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and a close confidant of the prime minister, told Reuters the government wants an increase in foreign investment and there was no proposal to tax overseas funds.

Curbs on foreign inflows imposed by Brazil and Indonesia have raised worries other countries may tighten rules to stem their strengthening currencies as investors move money into faster growing economies. The 30-share BSE index .BSESN closed up 1.41 percent, or 236.20 points, at 17,021.85, taking gains for the week to 1 percent. Twenty-six components closed in the green. The benchmark is up more than 76 percent this year, supported by foreign portfolio investment of $15.4 billion. In 2008, the index had fallen more than a half as foreigners pulled out over $13 billion. "If the rally gains momentum and crosses 18,000-18,500, we will move from a stretched valuation scene to a bubble zone," said A.V. Srikanth, executive director of private wealth management at Anand Rathi Financial Services. State Bank of India (SBI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), the country's top two lenders, gained 2.4 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. "Banking sector is looking good, as with the economy growing the sector has good potential," said R. Ganesh, director of Systematix Shares. Energy giant Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) rebounded 2.1 percent to 2,125.15 rupees, after falling more than 3 percent over three days on the absence no major announcement at its annual general meeting earlier this week. Outsourcers climbed on improving outlook in their mainmarkets in the United States and Europe. Infosys Technologies (INFY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped to a record high of 2,447 rupees, before settling at 2,427.50, up 0.75 percent. Sector leader Tata Consultancy (TCS.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) gained 2 percent and smaller rival Wipro (WIPR.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) firmed 0.7 percent.

Top vehicle maker Tata Motors (TAMO.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) closed 1 percent higher at 642.20 rupees, after CLSA upgraded the stock to 'outperfomer' from 'sell' on Thursday. "We now recognise that JLR's demand environment is better than we expected and, combined with cost-cutting measures, should support a strong profit rebound over FY11-12," CLSA said in a note, referring to Tata Motors' Jaguar Land Rover brands. Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) dropped 1.4 percent to 288.75 rupees, after the leading mobile operator said it had launched a new bill plan that would slash mobile roaming rates by nearly 60 percent.

In the broader market, gainers outpaced losers in the ratio of 1.2:1 on moderate volume of 411 million shares. The 50-share NSE index .NSEI closed 1.3 percent higher at 5,042.45.

STOCKS THAT MOVED

Thermax (THMX.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 3.6 percent to 598.15 rupees. The engineering firm said it had received an order worth 4.77 billion rupees to set up a captive power plant for a ferro alloy unit in the eastern state of Orissa.

* NDTV Ltd (NDTV.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) rallied 7.5 percent to 144.05 rupees after U.S. media firm Scripps Networks Interactive Inc (SNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said it would buy a majority stake in the broadcaster's lifestyle unit for $55 million.

MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME * Suzlon Energy (SUZL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 28.2 million shares * Unitech (UNTE.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 13 million shares * Dena Bank (DENA.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 9.5 million shares

Source: India Infoline.

Weekly:

The BSE Sensex hit an intra-week high of 17,098 and low of 16,635 and the NSE Nifty hit an intra-week high of 5,079 and low of 4,932.

The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs26.18bn during the week. While the Domestic Institutions were net sellers to the tune of Rs8.15bn during the week.

The top gainers: The top gainers in the Sensex were Tata Steel (up 6.2%), Reliance Capital (up 5.1%), Hero Honda (up 4.6%), Maruti Suzuki (up 4.4%) and ACC (up 3.7%).

The Top Losers: The top losers in the Sensex were Reliance Infrastructure (down 4.9%), Bharti Airtel (down 4.4%), ICICI Bank (down 1.3%), ONGC (down 1.3%) and Tata Power (down 0.7%),

The BSE IT Index (up 2.1%): The top losers in IT sector were Patni Computer (down 12.3%), Mphasis (down 7.6%), Mahindra Satyam (down 4.9%), HCL Tech (down 3.1%) and Financial Tech (down 0.9%).

Wipro gained 2.6% during the week. The company's subsidiary signed a five-year deal with the US-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc, to provide IT infrastructure services.

Infosys advanced 3% during the week. According to reports, the company's consulting arm is planning to acquire a small consulting company with revenues in the US$100-140mn as part of its inorganic growth initiatives in the US.

TCS was the other notable gainer in the week, the stock rose 3.4%.

According to a report released by IIFL during the week, "With salary hikes and a likely pick-up in hiring along with the risk of a rising rupee, can margin compression upend a volume-led recovery for Indian IT services vendors? We believe the answer is a negative. Margin risks due to rising salaries are low, given the excess supply in the 'fresher' pool (low hiring and delay in campus intake during 2009 meant top vendors' headcount has risen only upto 6.5% in 2QFY10 YoY). As such, the distribution of wage hikes is likely to be skewed towards laterals. Also, current utilisation rates of top-tier vendors are low (67-73%) and have a considerable scope to increase (during the FY03 recovery, Infosys's utilisation had risen to 79%). Meanwhile, while the appreciation of INR vs US$ remains a risk, top tier vendors – Wipro and TCS have diversified their revenue streams away from US. Also, our estimates for FY11 are based on an average US$/INR exchange rate of 46".

The BSE Consumer Index: The top gainers in the consumer durables space were Samtel Color (up 9.1%), Whirlpool (up 4%), Videocon Industries (up 1.7%) and Su-Raj Diamonds (up 1.4%).

The BSE Healthcare Index (up 1.4%): The top gainer in the Pharma space was Glenmark Pharma. The stock rose over 14% during the week after reports stated that Glenmark Generics settled all pending litigation with Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp relating to patent actions on Fluocinonide.

Strides Arcolab (up 5%), IPCA Labs (up 4.6%), Natco Pharma (up 4.3%) and Orchid Chemical (up 3.4%) were among the other major gainers.

The top losers in were Morepen Labs (down 3.6%), Torrent Pharma (down 3.2%), Zandu Pharma (down 2.5%), Divi's Labs (down 1.5%) and Suven Life Sciences (down 1.5%).

Dr Reddy's Labs advanced by 1% during the week, a recent report released by IIFL stated, "Dr Reddy's management, in investor meetings hosted by us, reiterated that it is on course to its goal of US$3bn revenues and 25% ROCE in FY13.

• Overall FY10 US sales could be significantly higher than in FY09—this is a major upside to our numbers.

• The company successfully completed its FDA inspection last week without any major observations.

• German business remains unpredictable; minor intangible writedowns and one-time retrenchment expenses possible.

• No major problems foreseen in Russia, but growth rates may temper.

• Dr Reddy's continues to be our top pick in pharma space".

The BSE Banking Index (up 0.5%): The top gainer in the banking sector was OBC. The stock rose over 9% during the week as the company has reportedly sought capital support of Rs10bn from the government to implement its expansion plan.

Bank of India (up 6%), Allahabad Bank (up 5.8%), Andhra Bank (up 3.5%) and Union Bank of India (up 3.2%) were among the other major gainers.

The top losers were Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.1%), Canara Bank (down 1.8%), Yes Bank (down 1.4%), ICICI Bank (down 1.3%) and Karnataka Bank (down 0.5%). 

The BSE Auto Index (up 2.2%): The top gainers in the auto space were Eicher Motors (up 5.2%), Hero Honda (up 4.6%), Maruti Suzuki (up 4.4%), Tata Motors (up 3.5%) and Ashok Leyland (up 3%).

The top losers were Swaraj Mazda (down 2.1%) and Hindustan Motors (down 0.4%).

The BSE Oil & Gas Index (up 0.3%): The top gainers in the oil & gas space were Jindal Drilling (up 12.6%), Great Offshore (up 4.5%), Chennai Petroleum (up 2.4%), Cairn India (up 2.2%) and Essar Oil (up 1.7%).

The top losers were Hindustan Oil (down 9.8%), Shiv-Vani Oil (down 3.2%), HPCL (down 2.9%), MRPL (down 1.9%) and Gujarat NRE Coke (down 1.8%).

The BSE Capital Goods Index (0.0%): The top gainers in the capital goods space were Aban Offshore (up 11.2%), Thermax Ltd (up 9.8%), Elgi Equipments (up 3.9%), Gammon India (up 3.2%) and Esab India (up 2.2%).

The top losers were Crompton Greaves (down 3.1%), Kirloskar Brothers (down 2.8%), Usha Martin (down 2.4%), Alstom Projects (down 2.3%) and Bharat Electronics (down 1.9%).

The Cement Sector: The top gainers in the cement space were Ultratech Cement (up 8.4%), Mangalam Cement (up 4.9%), JK Cements (up 4.7%), ACC (up 3.7%) and Prism Cement (up 2.3%).

The top losers were Gujarat Sidhee (down 4.3%), Kakatiya Cement (down 3.7%), Binani Indus (down 3.6%), India Cements (down 1.4%) and Dalmia Cement (down 1.3%).

Grasim gained 1.5% during the week. According to a report released by IIFL, "The merger ratio between Grasim's two subsidiaries—the 65%-owned Samruddhi Cement (SCL) and 55%-owned UltraTech Cement (UCL)—has been fixed at 4 shares of UCL for 7 shares of SCL. The merger ratio balances the medium and long-term prospects of two subsidiaries, in our view. Based on book values of SCL and UCL as on 1 October 2009, the merger ratio works out to 1 share of UCL for 2.2 shares of SCL; based on our FY11 estimates for SCL and UCL, the merger ratio works out to 1 share of UCL for 1.1 share of SCL. We expect the merger ratio to be EPS-accretive for UCL for FY11 and FY12, given the poor fundamentals of west and south regions for the next two years (UCL's current cement capacities are concentrated in west and south regions). We upgrade our FY11 earnings estimate for UCL by 18% and downgrade it for Grasim by 16% to reflect the effect of restructuring and our pricing assumptions. We retain ADD rating on both companies with revised target prices of Rs2,732 for Grasim (including shareholders' direct holding in SCL) and Rs874 for UltraTech".

The Telecom Sector: The top losers in the telecom sector were WWIL (down 8.9%), Bharti Airtel (down 4.4%), TTML (down 3.9%), Tata Communication (down 2.9%) and MTNL (down 2.5%).

The top gainers were Shyam Telecom (up 5.3%), Idea Cellular (up 1.3%) and RCom (up 0.1%).

The Realty Sector (down 1.1%): The RBI's recent move which aims to curb lending to real estate sector continues to act as an overhang on the sector.

The top losers were HDIL (down 5.4%), Parsvnath Developers (down 3.6%), Unitech (down 3.1%) and Omaxe Ltd (down 1.1%).

The top gainers in the real estate space were Anant Raj Indus (up 6.9%), Sobha Developers (up 3.5%), Mahindra Lifespace (up 2.6%), Ansal Props (up 1.9%) and DLF (up 1.9%).

HDIL fell 5.5% during the week. A report released by IIFL during the week stated that, "HDIL differentiated itself from other real-estate companies by rapidly executing Phase I of the Mumbai airport rehabilitation project in the face of liquidity constraints through a large part of the last 18 months. Its new strategy—to transform itself from a seller of FSI and TDR to a 'construct and sell' developer—will bring in-house the attractive developer margins on such projects and substantially add to its value. The favourable decision at the Bandra Kurla Complex SRS scheme reflects its ability to work with SRS regulators. HDIL will control ~70% of the TDR supply in Mumbai over FY10-16ii and is the largest beneficiary of the buoyancy in TDR prices. The company derives 70% of its NAV from Mumbai, the most resilient real-estate market in India. We recommend BUY with target price of Rs436/share, at one-year-forward NAV".

The Metals sector (up 3.6%): The top gainers in the metal space were Bhuwalka Steel (up 25.2%), Lloyds Metals (up 11.8%), Jindal Stainless (up 11.1%), Tata Metaliks (up 10.6%), Monnet Ispat (up 10.2%) and Jindal Steel (up 4%).

JSW Steel surged 7% during the week after the company inked a deal with Japan's JFE Steel to jointly develop a 10mn ton steel project in West Bengal. The companies also agreed on a production tie-up and may acquire stakes in each other.

SAIL surged over 5% during the week. Reports stated that the government is set to dilute its holding in SAIL by 20%. While the company will make a fresh issue of 10% equity, the government will divest 10% of its stake.

Source: Kotak Securities.

Among the Sensex pack 26 stocks closed in green while 4 ended in red. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained strong as 1,452 stocks closed in positive while 1,240 stocks closed in negative while 98 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.

The BSE Sensex closed higher by 236.20 points or (1.41%) at 17,021.85 and NSE Nifty closed up by 63.45 points or (1.27%) at 5,052.45. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap also closed up by 69.02 points and 32.53 points at 6,465.61 and 7,527.32. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,041.79 and intraday low of 16,635.75.

Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are ACC (4.55%), Hindalco Inds (3.47%), JP Associates (2.73%), Tata Steel (2.66%), HDFC (2.58%), M&M (2.47%), SBI (2.42%) and DLF (2.29%).

Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Bharti Airtel (1.40%), Reliance Infra (0.62%), Maruti Suzuki (0.26%) and Bhel (0.06%).

On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, closed in negative. Taiwan Weighted, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai Composite closed lower by 0.99%, 0.83%, 0.54% and 0.37% at 7,682.97, 22,455.84, 9,497.68 and 3,308.35 respectively.

European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in positive. In London FTSE 100 is up by 0.53% at 5,295.66 and in Frankfurt DAX index is trading higher by 0.50% at 5,730.62 and in Paris the CAC 40 is up by 0.47% at 3,777.96.

BSE REALTY index was at 3,858.83 up by 30.03 points or by (0.78%) The main gainers were Peninsula Land up by (5.27%) at Rs.79.95, Anant Raj Inds up by (2.82%) at Rs.144.1, Dlf up by (2.29%) at Rs.374.75 and Ackruti City up by (2.07%) at Rs.546.1.

BSE METAL index was at 16,095.74 up by 217.04 points or by (1.37%) The main gainers were Jindal Saw up by (6.91%) at Rs.872.2, Hindalco Inds up by (3.47%) at Rs.134.35, Steel Authority up by (3.24%) at Rs.191.35, Tata Steel up by (2.66%) at Rs.551.6, Jindal Steel up by (1.92%) at Rs.722.6.

BSE BANKEX index was at 10,253.14 up by 196.35 points or by (1.95%) The main gainers were Allahabad Bank up by (5.24%) at Rs.139.5, Oriental Bank up by (4.9%) at Rs.289, Iob up by (4.51%) at Rs.115.95, Canara Bank up by (4.15%) at Rs.371, Union Bank up by (3.97%) at Rs.272.25,

BSE AUTO index was at 6,923.70 up by 49.86 points or by (0.73%) The main gainers were Ashok Leyland up by (3.07%) at Rs.53.8, Mahindra & Mahindra up by (2.47%) at Rs.1039.75, Tata Motors up by (0.99%) at Rs.642.4, Exide Inds up by (0.93%) at Rs.108.35, Hero Honda up by (0.64%) at Rs.1651.55.

BSE CD index was at 3,484.39 down by 47.84 points or by (1.35%) The main losers were Titan Inds down by (2.72%) at Rs.1364.8, Rajesh Exports down by (1.54%) at Rs.79.95, Blue Star down by (0.98%) at Rs.337.05.

BSE HC index was at 4,684.27 up by 44.57 points or by (0.96%) The main gainers were Glenmark Pharma up by (2.94%) at Rs.254.1, Aurobindo Phar up by (2.16%) at Rs.786.15, Biocon up by (1.82%) at Rs.267.9, Sun Pharma Adv up by (1.63%) at Rs.84, Sun Pharma up by (1.56%) at Rs.1437.

BSE OIL&GAS index was at 10,170.93 up by 152.39 points or by (1.52%) The main gainers were Bharat Petro Cor up by (2.6%) at Rs.521.1, Reliance Inds up by (2.07%) at Rs.2125.15, Aban Offshore up by (1.79%) at Rs.1372.4 and Hindustan Petro up by (1.58%) at Rs.340.7.

BSE IT index was at 4,842.94 up by 41.59 points or by (0.87%) The main gainers were Niit up by (2.27%) at Rs.65.35, Moser Baer up by (2.1%) at Rs.85.25, Tcs up by (2.02%) at Rs.693.3 and Rolta India up by (1.72%) at Rs.174.75.

Nagarjuna Constructions Company (NCC) closed up by 1.96% at Rs. 166.45. The company is set to form a joint venture with an Indonesian coal mining company to help supply of coal for its Rs 14,000-crore thermal power plant in Andhra Pradesh. The stock is now trading higher by (1.32%) at Rs. 165.40.

Jindal Drilling & Industries surged 10.42% to close at Rs. 576.35. The company has bagged an order worth Rs 635 crore from ONGC for hiring a drilling unit ''''Noble Ed-holt'''' for a five-year period. This rig is likely to get deployed in the month of December 2009. The stock is now trading higher by (9.31%) at Rs. 570.55.

Edelweiss Capital closed up by 0.86% at Rs. 485.25. The company has entered into a joint venture agreement with Japan-based Tokio Marine Holdings to form a life insurance JV. The company said companies would invest Rs 550 crore as initial capital in JV. The stocks is now trading higher by (0.81%) at Rs. 485.

Source: Bloomberg.

Aban Offshore Ltd. Ltd. (ABAN IN): India's largest oil rig company raised 6.98 billion rupees selling shares to institutional investors, it informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock advanced 1.6 percent to 1,374.20 rupees.

Adhunik Metaliks Ltd. (ADML IN): The maker of products for automotive and engineering sectors sold 18.96 million shares at 98.23 rupees, according to a regulatory filing. Adhunik shares fell 1.1 percent to 99.45 rupees.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL IN): Alstom SA, the world's third-largest power plant builder, plans to set up a venture with Nuclear Power Corp. of India and Bharat Heavy to supply equipment in India, three people familiar with the matter said. Bharat Heavy and Nuclear Power agreed in April last year to form the venture with an overseas company to provide engineering, procurement and construction services. Bharat Heavy shares fell 0.1 percent to 2,261.4 rupees.

Edelweiss Capital Ltd. (EDEL IN): Galleon Group LLC, the U.S. hedge fund whose founder Raj Rajaratnam has been charged with insider trading, sold its stake in Edelweiss Capital for 2.6 billion rupees. New York-based Galleon sold 5.27 million Edelweiss shares at 485 rupees, according to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares of Edelweiss rose 3.2 percent to 500.5 rupees.

Essar Oil Ltd. (ESOIL IN): Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks to acquire a 10 percent stake in Essar Oil, the Economic Times reported on Nov. 21 citing unidentified people. Shell will buy the stake, valued at about $364 million, as part payment for selling three of its European refineries to Essar, the newspaper said. Shares of Essar rose 1.5 percent to 136.85 rupees.

ICICI Bank Ltd. (ICICIBC IN): India's second-biggest lender will sell $750 million of bonds due March 2015, according to bankers involved in the transaction. The notes may be priced to yield 337.5 to 350 basis points more over Treasuries, the bankers said. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Group AG and HSBC Holdings Plc are managing the sale. Shares of the lender rose 1.2 percent to 897 rupees.

Punjab National Bank. (PNB IN): The state-owned lender plans to raised 7 billion rupees selling bonds. The stock fell 1.7 percent to 914.45 rupees.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL IN): India's biggest company by market value bid for bankrupt chemicals and fuels maker LyondellBasell Industries AF, as it seeks to take advantage of the global financial crisis to expand overseas. The refiner and energy explorer controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Nov. 21 offered an undisclosed amount of cash to buy a controlling stake in LyondellBasell. The Mumbai-based company may have to pay at least $12 billion, the Times of India reported, citing an unidentified banker. Reliance's shares rose 1.9 percent to 2,123.3 rupees.

Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUEL IN): The founders of India's biggest maker of wind turbines have pledged a total 28.28 percent of shares, according to a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Suzlon declined 2.9 percent to 73 rupees.

Techno Electric & Engineering Co Ltd. (TEE IN): The company has agreed to buy Simran Wind Project Pvt. Ltd., a power generating company with capacity of 50.45 megawatt. Shares of Techno Electric rose 2 percent to 167.5. 
 
INVESTMENT VIEW
Modern Dairies-Calling Attention

BSE 519287
 
  

-A BSE listed milk processor based out of Karnal, Haryana sees it's stock hit 9 upper circuits to nearly gain 70 per cent in value at Rs 49.65..in a matter of 9 trading sessions.

 

-So is something amiss?

 

-For one there is the extra-ordinary record of the promoters..2 years ago fed by rumours of private deals with Reliance Dairy, the stock was ratcheted up to Rs 200 from Rs 29 in a matter of six months.

 

-Nearing the top, the company announced a Bonus issue of 1:1, after which the stock kept falling till it reached Rs 50.

 

-IFC Washington was brought in with a Equity placement of 46.50 lakh shares at Rs 60 or a 20 per cent stake.

 

-A large number of warrants exercisable at Rs 80 were issued to promoters, a part of which were excercised but mostly allowed to lapse.

 

-Then after consecutive quarters of substantial losses, the stock fell to Rs 11.

 

-Modern Dairies immediately after approached the Corporate Debt Restructuring mechanism created by GOI Banks for write-offs/bail-out and got one package approved in March 2009.

 

-On the financial front though nothing changed, neither did the reporting competence of the management.

 

-Results for quarter ending June 2009 were released in November 2009, while results for quarter September 2009 also released in November 2009.

 

-Both quarters again show losses, though on a reduced scale beyond which the company has bothered to share no further communication with it's investors.

 

-Finally, bulk deals of the nature of circular trading appeared in the counter on Friday November 20th 2009, which is represented below.

 

-Sebi/BSE are requested to look into this highly un-usual stock move and conclude of nefarious agencies are at play in the counter.


(Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints.)
 

--
Arvind Parekh
+ 91 98432 32381
 
 

Friday, November 20, 2009

Market Outlook 20th Nov 2009

 
 
NIFTY FUTURE LEVELS
SUPPORT
4972
4939
4907
RESISTANCE
4997
5016
5050
5115
5148
__________________________________________________________________
Strong Futures
This is list of 10 Strong Futures: Sesa Goa, Jindal Saw Steel, McDowell-N, PFC, Hind Zinc, MLL, Orient Bank, Tata Motors, IDFC & Recltd..
Weak Futures
This is the list of 10 Weak Futures: EKC, Tata Comm, TTML, India Cement, ICSA, Unitech, Idea, Bharti Airtel, GMR Infra & Punj Lloyd
_________________________________________________________________
 
Daily trend of the market is down.
Market has taken resistance at 5050 level and started to come down. And as the trend of the market is still down on daily charts, so it is advisable not to create any long positions in Nifty.
___________________________________________________________
 
NIFTY FUTURES (F & O):
Selling may continue up to 4972-4974 zone for time being.
Hurdles at 4997 & 5016 levels. Above these levels, expect short covering up to 5048-5050 zone and thereafter expect a jump up to 5081-5083 zone by non-stop.

Sell if touches 5113-5115 zone. Stop Loss at 5146-5148 zone.

On Negative Side, break below 4939-4941 zone can create panic up to 4907-4909 zone by non-stop. If breaks & sustains this zone then downtrend may continue and have caution.
 
Short-Term Investors:  
1 Week: Bearish with a SL of 5024.00. Target at 4531.55.
1 Month: Bullish with a SL of 4620.00. Target at 6289.00.
3 Months: Bearish with a SL of 5080.00. Target at 2951.00.
1 Year: Bullish with a SL of 2575.00. Target at 6201.65.
 
Today's Expectation:
SGX NIFTY is trading at 4956.00. (08.21 AM IST)
This trend is on expected lines.
If this downtrend continues, then it may continue for 1 (or) 2 days.
If short covering starts, then it can continue up to 1 day.
 
BSE SENSEX:
Sell with a SL of 17083.20. Target at 16666.70. 

Short-Term Investors:  
1 Week: Bearish with a SL of 16909.74. Target at 15330.56.
1 Month: Bullish with a SL of 14937.03. Target at 18381.96.
3 Months: Bearish with a SL of 17361.47. Target at 12425.52.
1 Year: Bullish with a SL of 15197.60. Target at 18289.88.
 
BUY:
Buy AMIT SPINNERS (BSE Cash & BSE Code: 521076) 
Buy with a Stop Loss of 1.63. Above 4.39, it will zoom.
 
Today: May hold on gains.

1 Week: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

1 Month: Bullish, as per current market conditions.

3 Months: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
Buy ROCK HARD PETRO (BSE Cash & BSE Code: 524194) 
Buy with a Stop Loss of 4.47. Above 7.09, it will zoom.
 
Today: May hold on gains.

1 Week: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

1 Month: Bearish, surprisingly going up.

3 Months: Sideways, surprisingly going up.

1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
SPOT INDEX LEVELS TODAY
NSE Nifty Index   4989.00 ( -1.30 %) -65.70       
  1 2 3
Resistance 5040.40 5091.80   5130.15  
Support 4950.65 4912.30 4860.90

BSE Sensex  16785.65 ( -1.25 %) -213.13     
  1 2 3
Resistance 16956.31 17126.97 17248.96
Support 16663.66 16541.67 16371.01
 
FUNDS DATA
FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category Date Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
FII 19-Nov-2009 2056.64 2515.82 -459.18
DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category Date Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
DII 19-Nov-2009 1235.81 1119.02 116.79

 
Interesting findings on web:
U.S. stocks extended a global drop as concern grew that the rally has outpaced the prospects for economic growth. The yen and the dollar strengthened, oil tumbled and yields on Treasury three-month bills turned negative for the first time since financial markets froze last year.
U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as another batch of economic data pointed to the fragility of the recovery and a brokerage's dim view on the semiconductor sector hit technology shares.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI shed 93.87 points, or 0.90 percent, to end at 10,332.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX slid 14.90 points, or 1.34 percent, to 1,094.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC dropped 36.32 points, or 1.66 percent, to 2,156.82.
RUSSELL585.68-14.47-2.41%
TRAN3956.09-72.53-1.8%
UTIL370.7-4.96-1.32%
S&P 100510.35-6.19-1.2%
S&P 400691.39-14.50-2.05%
NYSE7117.64-109.07-1.51%
NAS 1001773.19
The Labor Department released its weekly report on initial jobless claims, showing that the number of claims was unchanged from the prior week.
The government said that jobless claims totaled 505,000 in the week ended Nov. 14. This was very close to the forecast of 504,000 claims, according to a consensus of economist opinion compiled by Briefing.com.
"Claims remain high enough to signal further payroll declines, but they are heading in the right direction," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients. "[W]e are sticking to our view that employment will level off in the first half of next year, perhaps as soon as the end of the first quarter," he said.
A report on leading economic indicators showed an increase of 0.3% in October, below the 0.4% forecast and the 1% rise in September. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve survey, a reading on regional manufacturing, rose slightly.
There was also more disconcerting news in housing. A record one in seven U.S. mortgages were in foreclosure or at least one payment was past due in the third quarter, according to fresh data signaling that the housing market's recovery will be tepid at best.
The U.S. dollar's gain was another headwind for stocks as it pressured prices of natural resources like crude oil and gold, pushing down shares of companies such as Alcoa (AA.N) and U.S. Steel Corp (X.N). The S&P materials index .GSPM shed 1.5 percent as the U.S. dollar index .DXY rose 0.2 percent.
"The market has definitely been trading off the dollar recently," said Ron Kiddoo, chief investment officer at Kozad Asset Management. "I think the stronger dollar is a bigger factor than the jobless claims."
The benchmark S&P 500 suffered its worst one-day percentage fall in three weeks as investors feared that weakness in housing and labor markets would persist, making current stock valuation seem unjustified.
"There's this feeling that the economy has lost momentum from the third quarter," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Advisors in Boston. "The market gained traction to the downside when the disappointing economic indicators came out."
Stocks slid amid speculation the eight-month, 68 percent rally that drove the valuation of the MSCI World Index to the most expensive level in seven years already reflects forecasts for a 25 percent rebound in corporate earnings next year. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development doubled its growth forecast for the leading developed economies next year to 1.9 percent in a report today, while saying that mounting debt burdens will keep the expansion in check.
"It makes perfect sense that the market's going to take a little bit of a breather," said Michael Mullaney, who manages $9 billion at Fiduciary Trust Co. in Boston. "Sentiment had gotten a little too bullish."
The S&P 500 retreated from a 13-month high for a second day even as the Labor Department said the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits held at a 10-month low and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's general economic index rose more than estimated.
Rates turned negative on some bills maturing in January, according to Sarah Sobeck, a Treasury trader at primary dealer Jefferies & Co. The three-month bill rate was at 0.0051 percent, the least this year. Six-month bill rates dropped to the lowest since 1958. Treasury bills turned negative last December for the first time since the government began selling them in 1929 as investors scrambled to preserve principal and were willing to sacrifice returns in the months following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Bill Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said the "systemic risk" of new asset bubbles is rising with the Fed keeping interest rates at record lows.
"The Fed is trying to reflate the U.S. economy," Gross wrote in his December investment outlook posted on the Newport Beach, California-based company's Web site today. "The process of reflation involves lowering short-term rates to such a painful level that investors are forced or enticed to term out their short-term cash into higher-risk bonds or stocks."
Thursday's market sell-off was broad-based, with all but four of the Dow's 30 stocks ending lower. Among other hard-hit sectors were financials, industrials and consumer discretionaries.
Financials also took a hard knock, with the KBW bank index .BKX down 2 percent, while the Dow Jones home construction index .DJUSHB declined 1.7 percent.
Health insurance stocks fell a day after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released an $849 billion healthcare reform bill that analysts said would extend coverage to tens of millions of the uninsured.
Goldman Sachs said in a note the bill may cause problems for managed-care companies regarding profit margin regulation.
The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index .HMO fell 1.2 percent. Even so, the benchmark S&P 500 is up 61.8 percent from its 12-year closing low of March 9.
Intel, the world's largest maker of semiconductors, fell 4.1 percent and Texas Instruments, the second-biggest, dropped 3.4 percent. Dan Heyler, head of Asian semiconductor research at Merrill, said the supply of chips is growing faster than demand, putting earnings at risk. Intel and Texas Instruments were lowered to "neutral" from "buy" and the global chip industry was cut to "negative" from "positive."
Semiconductor stocks in the S&P 500 lost 3.7 percent as a group, the largest tumble among 24 industry groups.
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch cut its 2010 growth outlook for the semiconductor industry on concerns about a rising inventory glut. It downgraded 10 stocks, including Intel Corp (INTC.O), Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.N) and Marvell Technology Corp. (MRVL.O).
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said notions of a strong rebound for the semiconductor industry next year may not be realistic.
Texas Instruments shares fell 3.4 percent to $24.88 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Marvell Technology Corp (MRVL.O) shares declined 5.1 percent to $15.27 on Nasdaq.
The stock of iPod and iPhone maker Apple Inc (AAPL.O) slid 2.7 percent to $200.51 and was a top drag on Nasdaq.
Tech news took an even gloomier tone after the closing bell as computer maker Dell Inc (DELL.O) reported a slide in quarterly profit. Dell's revenue missed Wall Street's expectations as sales to large business continued to struggle.
Dell's stock fell 6.6 percent to $14.82 in after-hours trading. On Nasdaq, it had closed at $15.87.
Dell (DELL, Fortune 500) said net income fell 54% to $337 million, or 17 cents per share, for the quarter ended Oct. 30. Results included charges of 6 cents per share for cost cutting and other one-time expenses.
Without the charges, the PC maker said it earned 23 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecasted adjusted earnings of 28 cents per share.
Investors have ridden the tech wave since the S&P 500 hit a 12-year closing low on March 9. Shares of Dow component Intel fell 4.1 percent to $19.30 on Nasdaq. The PHLX Semiconductor Index .SOXX dropped 3.4 percent.
The downgrades were a setback for those betting that the technology sector would fare better than others as the recovery takes hold. Chips are essential to a broad range of products, including computers and mobile devices.
Alcoa Inc. declined 3.9 percent for the second-steepest drop in the Dow as aluminum, copper, lead, nickel and tin all retreated.
ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, slipped 1.9 percent and Chevron Corp. lost 2 percent as crude fell for the first time in four days. Schlumberger Ltd., the world's biggest oilfield-services provider, lost 3.3 percent. Crude for delivery next month tumbled 2.6 percent to $77.50 a barrel.
Energy producers in the S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent as a group, the biggest drop among its 10 industries. Technology shares, the largest group in the index, lost 1.6 percent and contributed the most to the decline.
Bank shares slid after Meredith Whitney, the analyst who correctly predicted in 2007 that Citigroup Inc. would cut its dividend, said lenders "are still grossly overvalued" and reliant on government purchases of mortgage-backed securities.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest U.S. bank, and Wells Fargo & Co., the fourth-biggest, each dropped 1.9 percent. The S&P 500 Financials Index slumped 2 percent.
JPMorgan Chase [JPM  42.57    -0.81  (-1.87%)   ] shares fell 1.9 percent after the company announced it is buying the half of European investment bank Cazenove that it doesn't own, in a deal valued at $3.4 billion.
At the same time, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said JPMorgan is likely to increase its dividend in early 2010 due to its capital position and recent repayment of government bailout money.
Writedowns of mortgage-backed debt contributed to a combined $1.7 trillion of losses by financial companies globally since the beginning of 2007. Mortgage delinquencies have continued to rise as job losses render consumers unable to stay current on their debt payments.
One out of every six home loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration was late by at least one payment and 3.32 percent were in foreclosure in the third quarter, the highest for both since at least 1979, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today.
Retail apparel maker Gap Inc. (GAP, Fortune 500) reported quarterly results that were in line with analysts' expectations. The company said after the closing bell that net income rose by 25% in the quarter on improved profit margins and strong sales at its discount chain Old Navy.
Sears Holdings (SHLD, Fortune 500) posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss of $127 million, or $1.09 a share, an improvement from the loss of $146 million, or $1.16 a share, a year earlier. Results were helped by the first increase in same-store sales at its Kmart unit in four years.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) said Thursday it was buying the half of U.K. broker Cazenove that it does not already own for about $1.67 billion.
GE shares lost 2.1 percent after Vivendi said it wants to exit NBC Universal, the parent of CNBC, but isn't quite there yet.
"We are not interested in staying onboard a new GE-Comcast ownership of NBCU," said Vivendi CFO Philippe Capron. "[W]e will exit and it will give us more headroom."
As for that tie-up between Reckitt Benckiser and Colgate Palmolive [CL  84.43    -1.44  (-1.68%)   ], both companies say there is no truth to that speculation. Colgate shares dropped 1.7 percent.
Blackstone Group [BX  15.27    -0.28  (-1.8%)   ] is reportedly about to acquire food maker Birds Eye for more than $1.3 billion. Birds Eye would become part of Blackstone's Pinnacle Brands unit, which owns such familiar brands as Duncan Hines and Swanson.
A couple of companies announced job cuts today:
Insurer Aetna [AET  28.66    -0.55  (-1.88%)   ] is cutting 625 jobs, or about 1.8 percent of its workforce.
And Time Warner's [TWX  32.31    -0.51  (-1.55%)   ] AOL unit is expected to lay off about one-third of its workforce as the company is pushing aggressively to cut costs in preparation for its spinoff.
Reports indicated that AOL was asking about 2,500 workers to take voluntary layoffs in an effort to cut $300 million in annual operating costs.
The last remnants of earnings season trickled in, with Sears Holding [SHLD  72.95    -2.82  (-3.72%)   ] providing an upside surprise due to the first positive performance from Kmart in several quarters.
Limited Brands [LTD  17.67    -0.60  (-3.28%)   ] beat analysts' earnings expectations and raised its outlook, helped by an improvement at its Bath & Body Works stores, but its Victoria's Secret brand disappointed.
Williams-Sonoma, [WSM  22.06    1.03  (+4.9%)   ] beat by a wide margin and raised its full-year outlook but Dick's Sporting Goods [DKS  22.49    -2.33  (-9.39%)   ] reported sales declined.
VIX22.631.00+4.62.
Oil,Gold & Currencies:
The price of oil fell $2.12 to settle at $77.46 a barrel.
The price of gold recovered from earlier losses to settle at a record high of $1,141.90 per ounce, up 70 cents from the previous day's closing price.
The dollar was up against all major currencies except the yen. The dollar index (DXY), which gauges the U.S. currency against a basket of rivals, rose 0.2% to 75.32.
Bonds:
Treasury prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, fell to 3.34% from 3.36% late Wednesday.
What to expect:
FRIDAY: Fed's Plosser speaks; state-by-state jobs report
Asia:
Asian stocks fell, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to its longest losing streak in more than four months, after Merrill Lynch & Co. cut its outlook on the global semiconductor industry and commodities retreated.
Advantest Corp., the world's biggest maker of memory-chip testers, lost 2.6 percent in Tokyo. Sony Corp., the maker of the PlayStation 3 game machine, slid 2.8 percent after pushing back its profitability targets by two years. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, slid 1.6 percent, snapping a four-day advance, after oil and metal prices fell.
"It seems investors are rushing to sell off stocks," said Juichi Wako, a senior strategist at Tokyo-based Nomura Holdings Inc. "Since sentiment is bad, any news could drag shares lower."
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3 percent to 117.14 as of 10:02 a.m. in Tokyo. The gauge is headed for a fourth day of declines, the longest losing streak since July 8. The index has dropped 0.9 percent this week.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average retreated 0.4 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.3 percent in Sydney.
Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.1 percent. The index retreated 1.3 percent yesterday, the most since Oct. 30. Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc., the second-largest U.S. chipmaker, slumped after Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit cut its ratings on the chipmakers.
OECD Forecasts
"There's a growing disparity between supply growth and consumption, therefore the downside risk to earnings is increasing," Dan Heyler, Hong Kong-based head of Asian semiconductor research, said yesterday. "We think the supply chain will be aggressively replenished through to March."
He cut Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest custom chipmaker, to "neutral" from "buy," and United Microelectronics Corp. to "underperform" from "buy."
Crude oil for December delivery retreated for the fist time in four days yesterday, plunging 2.7 percent to $77.46 a barrel in New York. The London Metals Index, a measure of six metals including copper and zinc, sank 1.5 percent.
Stocks around the world have rallied since March amid signs the global economy is recovering from its worst slowdown since World War II. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development doubled its growth forecast for the leading developed economies next year to 1.9 percent, the Paris-based organization said in a report yesterday.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has climbed 31 percent in 2009, outpacing gains of 21 percent by the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and 24 percent for Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian gauge are valued at 22 times estimated earnings, compared with 17 times for the S&P and 15 times for the Stoxx.
Nikkei 225 9,429.59     -119.88 ( - 1.26%). (07.57 AM IST)
HSI 22453.93 -189.23 -0.84%. (07.58 AM IST)
SSE Composite 3320.61 3292.42 3309.38 3280.18 -0.85. (07.59 AM IST)
Rupee:
The partially convertible rupee INR=IN ended at 46.6850/6950 per dollar on yesterday, weaker than its previous close of 46.20/21.
INDIA:
India's stocks fell the most in more than two weeks on concern a surge in foreign capital inflows will make the currency stronger and cut exporters' competitiveness.
Infosys Technologies Ltd., the second-largest software exporter, retreated 1 percent. Indian IT exporters derive at least 40 percent of earnings from the U.S. Unitech Ltd., India's second-biggest developer, dropped 5.3 percent, while DLF Ltd., the No. 1, slid 3.7 percent.
"A stronger rupee is a concern for exporters," said Vetri Subramaniam, head of equity funds at Mumbai-based Religare Asset Management Co., which manages about $3 billion in assets. The local currency's appreciation against the U.S. dollar has been driven by capital inflows, he said.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, retreated 213.13, or 1.3 percent, to 16,785.65, extending losses for a second day as it fell the most since Nov. 3. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange lost 1.3 percent to 4,989. The BSE 200 Index fell 1.4 percent to 2,088.66.
Infosys declined 1 percent to 2,409.95 rupees. Larger rival Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. also slid 1 percent, to 679.9 rupees.
Unitech, India's second-biggest developer, sank 5.3 percent to 81.65 rupees. DLF lost 3.7 percent to 366.25 rupees. Jaiprakash Associates Ltd., a builder of dams, roads and bridges dropped 4.6 percent to 226.55 rupees. Renu Karnad, Joint- Managing Director of Housing Development Finance Corp., the biggest mortgage lender, yesterday said she expects interest rates to rise, or "harden," by the middle of next year.
Rupee's Advance
The rupee has climbed 6.7 percent against the dollar in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That reduces the value of sales abroad when converted to the local currency, while increasing the dollar price-tag of exporters' products.
Foreign funds purchased a net 732.5 billion rupees ($15.77 billion) of Indian stocks this year, after being net sellers in 2008. Over the past month, Brazil and Taiwan imposed capital controls to check appreciation in their currencies.
Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla today said the government may take steps to slow funds' entry.
"As the situation evolves we'll see what needs to be done," Chawla said in New Delhi. "As of now, inflows are not a cause for serious concern."
Indian stock markets have been driven higher by foreign inflows and investors need to be "cautious" at these levels, U.K. Sinha, chairman and managing director of UTI Asset Management Co., said yesterday. The Sensex has gained 74 percent this year, set for its best annual performance in 18 years.
'Be Cautious'
"There is no particular domestic news that has led the market to come to this level," said Sinha. UTI, 26 percent owned by T. Rowe Price Group Inc., has $17 billion of assets. "It is primarily driven by foreign inflows. So, if it is only driven by liquidity, then one has to be cautious."
State Bank of India Ltd., the nation's biggest lender, fell 2 percent to 2,281.35 rupees. ICICI Bank Ltd., the No. 2, slid 2.1 percent to 886.45 rupees. HDFC Bank Ltd., the third-largest, lost 1.7 percent to 1,719.55 rupees.
India's central bank has been draining an average daily 1 trillion rupees in the past month, which indicates the amount of excess money held by commercial banks after meeting their lending requirements. The Reserve Bank of India on Oct. 27 took the first step toward withdrawing its record monetary stimulus by ordering lenders to keep more cash in government bonds.
The government also has to reduce its spending to spur the economy "sooner or later" or excess liquidity may sow the "seeds of another crisis," said Sinha.
India plans to spend $8.95 billion in the year to March 31 building networks of roads and telephones, power plants and irrigation facilities. The Reserve Bank has injected 5.85 trillion rupees of cash since September 2008 to protect the nation's economy from the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.
Banks drop on concerns fin sector reforms may take time
Markets expected to stay volatile in the short term
Foreign fund inflows could slow as year winds down
Indian shares fell 1.25 percent to their lowest close in a week on Thursday, as doubts about the pace of global recovery spooked world markets and a stronger dollar pushed investors away from riskier equities. ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), the country's No. 2 lender, and energy major Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), which together account for more than a fifth of the main index, led the fall. "Global economic doubts and the strengthening dollar are not good news for stocks globally and India is no exception," Jayesh Shroff, a fund manager at SBI Mutual Fund, said. He expected market to stay volatile in the short term but remained bullish in the mid to long term as liquidity, which has been driving markets, is still flush.
The 30-share BSE index .BSESN fell 213.13 points to 16,785.65, its lowest close since Nov. 12. All but three components fell. The benchmark has risen about three-quarters this year, boosted by foreign portfolio inflows of $15.3 billion, but fresh doubts about the global economic recovery and a reviving dollar could push investors to other assets.
The dollar climbed further away from 15-month lows, forcing gold prices lower while global equities slipped from the top of their recent range. The dollar index, which tracks the currency against major currencies, was up nearly half a percent .DXY. A six-month low in U.S. housing construction in October and news that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T: Quote, Profile, Research), Japan's largest bank, will have to raise $11 billion in new shares to meet stricter capital requirements have underscored how the climb back from the worst economic crisis in generations will be slow.
Banks led losses as investors feared the government may delay financial sector reforms, especially the much anticipated rule changes for insurance and pension sector. Bills take time to pass in India and progress in key sectors could drag. Any substantial move on insurance or pensions would send a signal of a renewed effort to modernise the economy.
Top lenders State Bank of India (SBI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) was down 2.2 percent at 2,280.45 rupees, to a two week low and ICICI fell 2.2 percent to 885.55 rupees, its lowest close since Nov. 9. Reliance dropped 1 percent to 2,081.95 rupees on concerns a weak global economy would hurt demand for oil and petrochemicals. Analysts said foreign fund inflows could slow down as the year winds down. Other emerging markets have also seen a surge in inflows, prompting some, including Brazil and Taiwan, to impose controls. Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla said India was not planning to cap overseas borrowing by corporates, and while flows were being monitored they were not yet a concern.
In the broader market, 1,698 losers led 1,095 gainers, on relatively lower volume of 386.16 million shares. The 50-share NSE index .NSEI shed 1.3 percent to 4,989.
STOCKS THAT MOVED
JSW Steel (JSTL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) hit its 2009 high of 1,039 rupees after India's No. 3 steel maker and Japan's JFE Steel said they had struck a deal for a production tie-up and may take stakes in each other. The share ended down 0.7 percent at 959.35 rupees after having been up for most of the session.
Suzlon Energy (SUZL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) rose 2.5 percent to 75.20 rupees after the wind turbine maker said it would cut its stake in unit Hansen Transmissions (HSNT.L: Quote, Profile, Research). The company is placing 35 percent of Hansen's issued share capital through a secondary placement of depositary interest.
Sugar stocks fell sharply after farmers signalled their discontent by protesting low state-controlled sugarcane prices.
Shree Renuka Sugar (SRES.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), Balrampur Chini (BACH.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), Bajaj Hindusthan (BJHN.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Triveni Engineering & Industries (TREI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) fell between 3.5 percent to 6 percent.
MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME * Suzlon on 39.93 million shares * Ispat Industries (ISPT.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 8.85 million shares. * Unitech (UNTE.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 8.52 million shares.

Indian markets extended losses for the second straight trading session on Thursday as traders and investors preferred to book some profits at 5,000 plus levels. After starting off with a negative bias, markets remained under pressure throughout the day.
Weak global cues coupled with offloading seen in the interest rate sensitive stocks dragged the NSE Nifty to shut below the 5000 levels. Even the Mid-Cap and the Small-Cap stocks were not sparred.
The BSE Sensex slipped 213 points to end at 16,785 after touching a high of 17,000 and a low of 16,16712. The index opened at 17,000 against the previous close of 16,998. The NSE Nifty lost 66 points to close at 4,989.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Realty index was the top loser, shedding 4.3%, followed by the Banking index that was down 2% and the BSE Metal index was down 1.7%.
The BSE Mid-Cap index ended lower by 1.7% while the BSE Small-Cap index was down by 1%.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 27 stocks ended in the red and only HDFC, ACC and Wipro ended in the positive terrain. SBI, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Infosys and HDFC Bank were among the top losers.
Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Exide Ind, IB Real, Moser Baer and IVRCL Infra. On the other hand, gainers included P&G, PTC, PFC, United Spirits and GVK Power.
NDTV announced that, NDTV Networks Plc., a UK subsidiary of the company has repurchased the US$100mn Step up Coupon Bonds due 2012. The Bonds have been repurchased for US$72.4mn. NDTV Networks Plc. has financed the repurchase through Bank Loans.
The repurchase has allowed NDTV Networks Plc to significantly reduce its outstanding borrowings and also to cut down on interest burden.
Consequent to the repurchase of the Bonds by NDTV Networks Plc, the restrictive covenants, which were applicable have ceased, allowing NDTV Networks Plc and its subsidiaries flexibility for re structuring and financing the businesses including being able to access bank finances for working capital and other requirements.
Shares of NDTV fell 1.5% to Rs134.05 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs138 and intra-day low of Rs132.55 recording volumes of over 47,000 shares on BSE.
Power Finance announced that a Joint Venture agreement has been signed between the company and NTPC Ltd. Power Grid and Rural Electrification Corporation on November 19, 2009 for incorporating a Joint Venture Company with equal equity contribution (i.e. 25% each) from all the 4 CPSUs.
The Company shall be incorporated to carry out and promote the business of energy efficiency, energy conservation and climate change.
Shares of Power Finance surged by over 3% to Rs253. The stock opened at Rs247 and made an intra-day high of Rs256 and a low of Rs243. Total traded volumes stood at 0.63mn shares.
Shares of BPL shot up by over 8% to Rs43 after the company's Health Management Solutions division inked a strategic alliance with Welch Allyn Inc introduce a range of mercury free medical devices.
Under the alliance, BPL would market and service Welch Allyn's range of diagnostic products in India like Stethoscopes, lights and Blood Pressure measurement.
The next phase of the alliance would focus on product development and manufacturing. These devices which are all US FDA approved are available at price points starting from Rs2,000.
Shares of Mukand surged by over 2% to Rs58 after reports stated that the company plans to sell off a portion of its land-bank to reduce its debt of around Rs15bn over the next one year.
"We plan to sell-off some of our land-bank over the next one year to reduce our debt, which currently stands at around Rs15bn," Mukand Co-Chairman and MD Rajesh Shah said.
The company has land-holdings in Maharashtra, especially in the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik belt and in the southern state of Karnataka.
JFE Steel to form capital alliance with JSW Steel, JFE plans to acquire 10% stake for up to 50bn Yen.
JFE Steel Corp will license technology to JSW Steel to make steel sheets for Japanese Automakers in India according to the Nikkei Newspaper.
Shares of JSW Steel erased early gains and ended lower by 0.6% at Rs959. The stock opened at Rs975 and made an intra-day high of Rs1039 and a low of Rs952. Total traded volumes stood at 3.7mn shares.
Shares of Great Offshore surged by over 3.5% to Rs535 after Bharati Shipyard and ABG Shipyard received approval from the markets regulator for their offer bids to buy additional stakes in the Great Offshore, reports stated.
Shares of Bharati shipyard advanced by 1% to Rs165 on the other hand, ABG Shipyard added 0.6% to Rs203.
Among the Sensex pack 27 stocks closed in red while 3 ended in green. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained weak as 1,682 stocks closed in negative while 1,052 stocks closed in positive while 87 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.
The BSE Sensex closed lower by 213.13 points or (1.25%) at 16,785.65 and NSE Nifty fell by 65.70 points or (1.30%) at 4,989. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap also closed lower by 108.44 points and 81.60 points at 6,396.59 and 7,494.79. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,004.98 and intraday low of 16,712.33.
Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are HDFC (0.44%), ACC (0.41%) and Wipro (0.08%).
Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are JP Associates (4.53%), Reliance Infra (3.90%), DLF (3.68%), Hindalco Inds (3.46%), Reliance Comm (2.41%), Sterlite Inds (2.22%) and ICICI Bank (2.18%).
BSE REALTY indexwas at 3,828.80 down by 174.68 points or by (4.36%) The main losers were Indiabulls Real down by (5.48%) at Rs.223.4, Hdil down by (5.41%) at Rs.343.45, Unitech down by (5.39%) at Rs.81.65, Orbit Corp down by (4.21%) at Rs.321.75.
BSE METAL index was at 15,878.70 down by 286.53 points or by (1.77%) The main losers were Hindalco Inds down by (3.46%) at Rs.129.85, Jai Corp down by (2.89%) at Rs.223.5, Ispat Inds down by (2.85%) at Rs.20.45, Jindal Saw down by (2.71%) at Rs.815.85.
BSE BANKEX index was at 10,056.79 down by 199.82 points or by (1.95%) The main losers were Iob down by (4.23%) at Rs.110.95, Kotak Mah Bank down by (3.63%) at Rs.785.2, Yes Bank down by (3.4%) at Rs.249.9, Union Bank down by (3.18%) at Rs.261.85, Idbi Bank down by (2.56%) at Rs.123.9.
BSE AUTO index was at 6,873.84 down by 93.75 points or by (1.35%) The main losers were Exide Inds down by (5.5%) at Rs.107.35, Bharat Forge down by (3.76%) at Rs.263.5, Apollo Tyres down by (3.12%) at Rs.52.85, Ashok Leyland down by (2.97%) at Rs.52.2, Escorts down by (2.86%) at Rs.107.15.
BSE TECk index was at 3,035.68 down by 41.44 points or by (1.35%) The main losers were Aptech down by (6.11%) at Rs.174.4, Balaji Tele down by (4.86%) at Rs.55.75, Moser Baer down by (4.52%) at Rs.83.5, Tech Mahindra down by (4.1%) at Rs.974.45.
BSE IT index was at 4,801.35 down by 58.94 points or by (1.21%) The main losers were Aptech down by (6.11%) at Rs.174.4, Moser Baer down by (4.52%) at Rs.83.5, Tech Mahindra down by (4.1%) at Rs.974.45, Rolta India down by (3.78%) at Rs.171.8.
KEC International Ltd closed up by 2.02% at Rs. 537.90 as the company and an RPG group company, has won a rural electrification order in the state of Madhya Pradesh and a substation order in Ghana, Africa.
JSW Steel closed higher by 0.65% at Rs. 959.35 as JFE Steel Corporation, the world renowned Japanese steel company and JSW Steel Ltd have bonded together in a historic collaboration agreement.
Pratibha Industries fell 8.32% to close at Rs. 240.35 despite the Company has secured the contract of ''Circulating Water and Make-up Water System Civil Works Package for Mauda Super Thermal Power Project (2 X 500MW)'' from NTPC Ltd. The total value of the contract is Rs. 58.85 crores.
Wockhardt slipped by 2.86% to close at Rs. 175.20. The company has received final approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) for marketing the 25mg/10 ml injection of Nicardipine HCI.
 
MARKET BUZZ:
 
(May not be useful for day-traders.)

Panasonic Carbon-Value Buy

BSE 508941; CMP Rs 145.45
 
  
With a forecast EPS in excess of Rs 12 for FY10, the Matsushita Japan owned Panasonic Carbon is a value play. Growing urbanisation and wide usage of mobile appliances like search lights, cameras, radio and portable TV and Music systems create a captive market for stored energy devices like batteries-for which Panasonic supplies midget electrodes.
 
Background
 
Panasonic Carbon India Co. Limited (PCIN) formerly Indo Matsushita Carbon India Co. Ltd was incorporated on 6th September, 1982. PCIN entered into a Foreign Collaboration Agreement with Matsushita Group, Japan on 6th January 1982 for obtaining Technical know-how and assistance for manufacture and sale of Midget Electrodes (Carbon Rods).

The supply of quality product plays an important part for every business organization on account of stiff competition throughout the World. Realising this, the Company, since its inception, is committed to provide Quality Carbon Rods (Midget Electrodes) through its advanced technology to various Dry Cell Battery Manufacturers in and outside India.

The Company achieved success by setting up a Quality Management System. A system which ensures commitment of all employees towards compliance of stringent quality standards and also to meet the requirement of customers and achieve higher levels of Customer Satisfaction A committed effort is to give more than what the customer needs from the company's products and services.  A commitment of all employees perfectly guided by the top management of the company. 

As part of this process the Company established the Internationally Accepted Quality Management System and got certified for ISO 9001:2000 Standards in October, 1995. 

Consequently series of, surveillance, inspection and recertification audits have become a part of an annual calendar of activities. This system has been successful in demonstrating company's commitment to quality. 

The Company established Environmental Management System and got certified for ISO 14001 Standards in July 1998. Consequently series of surveillance, inspection and recertification audits have become a part of an annual calendar of activities. This system has been successful in demonstrating company's commitment to environmental Management System.

(Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints.)
 
--
Arvind Parekh
+ 91 98432 32381

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Market Outlook 19th Nov

 
NIFTY FUTURES LEVELS
SUPPORT
5037
5029
5006
4988
RESISTANCE
5065
5069
5076
5094
5100
5117 
 
Strong & Weak  futures
This is list of 10 strong futures:  
Jindal Saw Steel, Sesa Goa, Renuka , MLL, IDFC, Ashok Ley, McDowell-N, Hind Zinc, Recltd & Neyveli Lignite.  
And this is list of 10 Weak futures:
TV-18, ICSA, Punj Lloyd, Sterling Biotech, TTML, Bharti Airtel, Idea, GMR Infra, India Cement & Tata Comm.
Nifty is in Down trend  
 
 
NIFTY FUTURES (F & O):  
Below 5037 level, selling may continue up to 5029-5031 zone and thereafter slide may continue up to 5012-5014 zone by non-stop.
 
Hurdles at 5065 & 5069 levels. Above these levels, expect short covering up to 5074-5076 zone and thereafter expect a jump up to 5092-5094 zone by non-stop.
 
Sell if touches 5098-5100 zone. Stop Loss at 5115-5117 zone.
 
On Negative Side, break below 5006-5008 zone can create panic up to 4988-4990 zone by non-stop. If breaks & sustains this zone then downtrend may continue and have caution.
 
Short-Term Investors:  
1 Week: Bullish with a SL of 5024.00. Target at 5516.45
1 Month: Bullish with a SL of 4620.00. Target at 6289.00.
 
3 Months: Bearish with a SL of 5080.00. Target at 2951.00.
 
1 Year: Bullish with a SL of 2575.00. Target at 6201.65.
 
Today's Expectation:
SGX NIFTY is trading at 5045.00. (08.12 AM IST)
 
This trend is on expected lines.
 
If this downtrend continues, then it may continue for 1 (or) 2 days.
 
If short covering starts, then it can continue up to 1 day, 1 Week (or) even 1 Month.
 
BSE SENSEX:  
Sell with a SL of 17083.20. Target at 16666.70.  
 
Short-Term Investors:  
1 Week: Bullish with a SL of 16909.74. Target at 18488.92.
1 Month: Bullish with a SL of 14937.03. Target at 18381.96.
 
3 Months: Bearish with a SL of 17361.47. Target at 12425.52.
 
1 Year: Bullish with a SL of 15197.60. Target at 18289.88.
 
BUY:
Buy ROCK HARD PETRO (BSE Cash & BSE Code: 524194)  
Buy with a Stop Loss of 4.47. Above 5.78, it will zoom.
 
 
Today: May hold on gains.
 
1 Week: Bearish, surprisingly going up.
 
1 Month: Bearish, surprisingly going up.
 
3 Months: Sideways, surprisingly going up.
 
1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
Buy MARAL OVERSEAS (BSE Cash & BSE Code:521018)  
Buy with a Stop Loss of 13.90. Above 15.55, it will zoom.
 
Today: May hold on gains.
 
1 Week: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
1 Month: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
3 Months: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
1 Year: Bullish, as per current market conditions.
 
 
FII DATA
FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category Date Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
FII 18-Nov-2009 2597.45 2185.32 412.13
DII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category Date Buy Value Sell Value Net Value
DII 18-Nov-2009 1091.23 1347.96 -256.73
 
NIFTY INDEX LEVELS
NSE Nifty Index   5054.70 ( -0.15 %) -7.55       
  1 2 3
Resistance 5075.45 5096.20   5113.10  
Support 5037.80 5020.90 5000.15

BSE Sensex  16998.78 ( -0.30 %) -51.87     
  1 2 3
Resistance 17078.91 17159.04 17219.29
Support 16938.53 16878.28 16798.15
Interesting findings on web:
   U.S. stocks slipped, pulling the Standard & Poor's 500 Index down from a 13-month high, as technology companies slid after profit forecasts at Autodesk Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. trailed some analyst estimates.
Stocks closed slightly lower Wednesday, paring deeper losses, after a drop in new home construction made investors jittery about the economic recovery and wary profit outlooks weighed on the technology sector.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 11.11 points, or 0.11 percent, to 10,426.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX dipped just 0.52 of a point, or 0.05 percent, to finish at 1,109.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 10.64 points, or 0.48 percent, to end at 2,193.14.
RUSSELL600.15-2.19-0.36%
TRAN4028.62-20.98-0.52%
UTIL375.66-1.42-0.38%
S&P 100516.540.45+0.09%
S&P 400705.89-3.46-0.49%
NYSE7226.71-7.35-0.1%
NAS 1001801.74-10.47-0.58%
The S&P 500 has ended down only three times in the last two weeks.
Stocks opened lower and struggled for most of the day before moving off session lows in the last 30 minutes of trade.
The modest retreat, which came one day after the major indexes closed at their highest levels in 13-months, was sparked by government data that showed initial construction of new single-family homes fell to a six-month low in October.
The unexpected drop came despite government efforts to stimulate the battered housing industry, and highlighted fears that stocks may have gotten ahead of economic reality.
The government reported that housing starts fell more than 10% to an annual rate of 529,000 in October, the lowest level in six months. An annual rate of 600,000 housing starts was expected, according to a forecast from Briefing.com consensus. The revised rate for September was 592,000.
The government reported that the annual rate of housing permits fell 4% to 552,000 in October, from the revised September rate of 575,000. This was lower than the 580,000 permits expected for October, according to Briefing.com consensus.
"A lot of people were betting on a housing recovery," said Abigail Doolittle, a portfolio manager at Johnson Illington Advisors. "The decline in construction starts is probably making some people nervous."
The government also reported its Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation, rose 0.3%.
The CPI was expected to rise 0.2% in October, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% in October. That was slightly more than the 0.1% increase expected for October, according to Briefing.com consensus.
But with the major indexes up some 30% from the lows of early March, many investors have become reluctant to push the market higher until they see more concrete signs that an economic recovery is underway.
"At the margin, the economic data has been stabilizing," said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager with Federated Clover Investment Advisors. "It's been 'less bad' and that has been enough for investors up to now. Whether 'less bad' continues to be enough remains to be seen."
Analysts said the volume of shares trading hands recently has been low, suggesting that many big investment funds have moved to the sidelines to avoid jeopardizing gains before publishing year-end results.
"Expectations have risen due to the positive earnings season we've had, and companies that are reporting are finding it hard to live up to the high expectations," said Robert Stimpson, a money manager at Oak Associates Ltd. in Akron, Ohio, which oversees $860 million. "There's still a lot of skepticism for the retail investor wanting to buy equities again."
Tobias Levkovich, the chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup Inc., increased his 2009 and 2010 year-end estimates for the S&P 500 to 1,100 and 1,150, respectively, based on improving corporate profits and low interest rates.
"I'm only looking for the equity market to consolidate and flatten out for the next three to six months," said Thomas Nyheim, a money manager at Christiana Bank & Trust Co. in Greeneville, Delaware, which manages $4.7 billion.
Per-share earnings topped estimates at 80 percent of S&P 500 companies that have released third-quarter earnings, a record for a full quarter in Bloomberg data going back to 1993, even as profits slumped for a record ninth straight quarter.
Autodesk, the biggest maker of engineering-design software, slid 10 percent after saying job losses in core markets are making the company's recovery "challenging." Salesforce.com, the largest seller of Web-based customer-management software, tumbled 3.1 percent. The market's decline was limited as Bank of America Corp. rallied after John Paulson's hedge fund said the shares may almost double, while takeover speculation lifted Colgate-Palmolive Co. and E*Trade Financial Corp.
Autodesk slid 10 percent, them most in 10 months, to $24.20. The biggest maker of engineering-design software projected fourth-quarter profit excluding some items of 24 cents a share at most, trailing the average analyst estimate of 25 cents.
Salesforce.com lost 3.1 percent to $63.61. The largest seller of Internet-based customer-management software forecast fourth-quarter profit of 14 cents to 15 cents a share. Analysts, on average, expected the company to earn 15 cents, according to Bloomberg survey.
"Technology has been a strong area of the market, and those two results broke the momentum," said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research and senior equity index analyst at MF Global in Chicago.
Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, jumped 3.7 percent to $16.35 for the biggest gain in the Dow average. Paulson & Co., the hedge-fund firm run by billionaire John Paulson, said in a quarterly letter to investors that the shares may rise to $29.81 by December 2011.
Paulson made his comments in an investor note that was reported by Bloomberg News.
"Banks will have passed the current writedown cycle and have visibility for growth in 2012," the letter said. Bank of America dropped to $2.53 in February amid concern that the U.S. might seize lenders that ran short on capital. While Bank of America's stock "has risen from when we purchased the stock, we believe considerable upside remains," the letter said.
Bank of America helped lead financial shares in the S&P 500 to the biggest of three gains among its 10 industry groups. Health-care and telephone shares posted the other advances.
Pall Corp. lost 3 percent to $33.59. The maker of filters for refineries and drugmakers reported first-quarter sales of $546.9 million, missing the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg of $573.8 million.
Western Digital Corp. dropped 1.6 percent to $38.45. The second-largest maker of hard-disk drives was cut to "underperform" from "buy" and had its share price estimate lowered to $35 from $44 at Bank of America, which said the "easy money" in cyclical hard-disk-drive stocks has been made.
Pulte Homes Inc. added 4.6 percent to $10.04. The homebuilder that bought competitor Centex Corp. in August was raised to "buy" from "hold" and its share price estimate increased to $12 from $11 at Citigroup Inc., which said the company was "undeservedly out of favor."
Pulte led a gauge of homebuilders higher even after Commerce Department figures showed housing starts unexpectedly plunged 11 percent in October as the sales outlook dimmed with the looming expiration of a government tax credit. The index of 12 builders in S&P indexes climbed 0.7 percent.
While the decline in new construction raised concerns about the recovery, it could bode well for removing remaining inventory from the market, something analysts say must happen for the housing sector to recover.
Colgate-Palmolive surged 3.7 percent to $85.87. The Daily Telegraph reported that Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc is close to a "multibillion pound cross-border transaction" and "well- placed sources" think the most obvious candidate is Colgate- Palmolive.
E*Trade Financial Corp. rallied 9 percent to $1.69. TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s chief executive officer said buying an online brokerage is the best use of the company's cash and that he would consider a deal with E*Trade at the right price, according to Reuters.
Techs finished mostly lower but AMD [AMD  7.32    0.70  (+10.57%)], which announced a private debt offering of $500 million, and Analog Devices [AMD  7.32    0.70  (+10.57%)], which was put on Goldman Sachs' "conviction buy" list, advanced.
Tech giant Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) was among leading decliners on the Dow, while Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) bucked the trend. HP [HPQ  50.44    -0.88  (-1.71%)] was the biggest drag on the Dow, down 1.6 percent.
In other analyst action, Collins Stewart reiterated its "buy" rating on Microsoft [MSFT  30.11    0.11  (+0.37%)].
A bevy of mining and energy shares declined, even as the dollar fell and gold hit a record high above $1,150 an ounce. Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N) was off 0.8 percent at $84.69, while ConocoPhillips (CVX.N) slipped 0.2 percent to $53.58.
Dell [DELL  16.07    0.12  (+0.75%)] rose 0.7 percent ahead of the computer maker's quarterly results, due out Thursday.
An interesting twist in the Cadbury [CBY  53.42    -0.58  (-1.07%)] saga: Hershey [HSY  37.65    -0.76  (-1.98%)   ] is reportedly considering a joint bid with Italy's Ferrero, famous for its Nutella spread and Ferrero Rocher choclates, for the British chocolatier. Up until now, Kraft Foods [KFT  27.23    -0.41  (-1.48%)   ] was the only bidder but Cadbury wasn't happy with the offer.
In other M&A news, American Express [AXP  41.56    0.20  (+0.48%)   ] agreed to buy Internet-payment company Revolution Money for $300 million.
And Delta Air Lines [DAL  7.76    -0.14  (-1.77%)   ], along with its alliance partners, is offering $1 billion to Japan Airlines to sway the money losing carrier from its affiliation with American Airlines [AMR  5.76    -0.23  (-3.84%)   ].
Retail earnings have been in focus this week as the holiday shopping season approaches.
BJ's Wholesale [BJ  35.64    -0.70  (-1.93%)   ] shares fell nearly 2 percent after the warehouse-club operator reported its quarterly profit dropped 37 percent and said pricing has been "extremely aggressive" heading into the holiday season.
Limited Brands [LTD  18.26    0.23  (+1.28%)   ] will have its quarterly numbers after the closing bell.
JCPenney [JCP  29.14    -0.72  (-2.41%)   ] announced plans to stop publishing its twice-yearly "big book" catalog as more consumers are doing their shopping online.
Toyota [TM  79.47    -0.84  (-1.05%)   ] posted its first year-over-year global sales increase in October in 15 months, with sales rising 5 percent.
VIX21.63-0.78-3.48%.
Oil,Gold & Currencies:
The price of oil rose 56 cents to end at $79.58 per barrel after hitting a high of $80.33 earlier in the session.
Gold rose $1.80 to settle at another all-time high of $1141.20 an ounce. It also hit a record trading high of $1,149.40 an ounce.
The dollar, which has suffered from recent weakness, was down versus all major currencies. The dollar index (DXY), which measures the U.S. currency's value against a basket of rivals, was down 0.3% to 75.14
Bonds:
Treasury prices fell as investors focused on Wednesday's inflation report. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.36% from 3.32% late Tuesday. 
What to expect:
THURSDAY: EU chooses new president; Fed's Plosser, Fisher speak; Ghosn, Rattner speak; weekly jobless claims; leading indicators; Philly Fed; Geithner speaks; Earnings from Sears, Dell, Gap
FRIDAY: Fed's Plosser speaks; state-by-state jobs report
Asia:
Japanese stocks fell, dragging down the Topix index for a seventh consecutive day, after companies announced plans to sell shares.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank by market value, tumbled 5 percent after announcing plans to sell as much as 1 trillion yen ($11.2 billion) in securities. Nomura Real Estate Residential Fund Inc. plunged 7.5 percent after its proposal to sell stock. Nihon Nohyaku Co. plummeted 15 percent as the maker of insecticides said earnings fell.
"There's no reason to buy into Japan," said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees the equivalent of $450 million in assets in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. "Domestic investors are looking more at foreign countries since Japan lacks any clear potential for growth."
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.4 percent to 9,541.99 as of 10:13 a.m. in Tokyo, set for the lowest since July 17. The broader Topix index lost 1.7 percent to 835.76, on course for its lowest since April 28, as four times as many stocks declined as advanced.
The Topix has fallen 1.1 percent this year, the only decline among the world's 40 largest equity markets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with increases of 23 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index in the U.S. and 26 percent for the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index in Europe. The global recession has sapped demand for Japanese companies' products and the stronger yen has hurt exporters.
The ratio of investors who want to be "overweight" Japanese stocks during the next year against those who plan to be "underweight" dropped this month to the level of November 2002, according to a report dated yesterday from Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch & Co. brokerage.
Banks Slump
Banks fell the most today among the 33 industry groups in the Topix, after Mitsubishi UFJ announced its second share sale since January. The lender lost 5 percent to 460 yen. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. slumped 6 percent to 156 yen, on course for the lowest close since September 2003. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. tumbled 5.3 percent to 2,700 yen, set for its lowest in eight months.
Nomura Real Estate Residential plunged 7.5 percent to 356,000 yen, falling the most since Dec. 11. The company said it plans to raise as much as 11.5 billion yen in new shares.
T&D Holdings Inc. retreated 4.6 percent to 2,060 yen, heading for the lowest since Feb. 19. The insurer had its rating reduced to "neutral" from "above average" at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co.
Nihon Nohyaku plummeted 15 percent to 469 yen, set for the sharpest slide since October 2008. The maker of insecticides and fungicides said full-year net income fell 19 percent to 1.66 billion yen, missing its forecast by 21 percent. It expects profit to further drop this fiscal year.
Nikkei 225 9,584.01     -92.79 ( - 0.96%). (07.49 AM IST).
HSI 22760.91 -79.42 -0.35%. (07.51 AM IST)
SSE Composite 3303.23 3305.03 3329.03 3304.40 + 0.05. (07.52 AM IST) 
RUPEE:
The partially convertible rupee INR=IN ended at 46.20/21 per dollar on yesterday, above its previous close of 46.30/31.
INDIA:
India's benchmark stock index fell, snapping a three-day 2.1 percent gain. ICICI Bank Ltd. slid after HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Stephen Green said new rules may reduce the amount of credit available.
ICICI Bank, the nation's second-largest lender, declined 1.6 percent after Green said there is a danger that requirements to increase capital held by banks may have the effect of reducing credit in the global economy.
"Investors need to be cautious," said U. K. Sinha, chairman at UTI Asset Management Co., India's oldest money manager. "After September results, nothing positive has happened to drive markets higher."
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, declined 51.87, or 0.3 percent, to 16,998.78. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange slid 0.2 percent to 5,054.70. The BSE 200 Index was little changed at 2,117.61.
ICICI Bank lost 1.6 percent to 905.50 rupees, while State Bank of India, the biggest lender, slid 1 percent to 2,327.80 rupees. Central bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao on Oct. 27 asked lenders to keep more cash in government bonds.
Mercator Lines Ltd., Great Eastern Shipping Co. and Shipping Corp. of India Ltd., gained after the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, rose to a 14-month high.
Shippers Gain
Mercator, the only Indian shipping company to list shares in Singapore, climbed 7.9 percent to 61.95 rupees. Great Eastern Shipping, India's second-biggest, added 4.7 percent to 283.45 rupees, while Shipping Corp. of India Ltd., the country's No. 1 sea carrier, rose 3.1 percent to 150.15 rupees.
Pratibha Industries Ltd., an engineering and construction company, surged the most in more than two years after it won an order worth 2.94 billion rupees ($64 million). The shares jumped 17 percent to 259.20 rupees, its biggest advance since April 2006.
Redington (India) Ltd. gained 3.5 percent to 315.95 rupees after 2.2 percent of its equity traded in a single block on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Index eases 0.3 pct after rising nearly 11 pct in 2 weeks
Robust foreign portfolio inflows should help stocks-traders
Outsourcers gain on the back better prospects, hiring plans

Indian shares snapped a three-day winning streak and shed 0.3 percent on Wednesday as investors took profits after the market had climbed nearly 11 percent in two weeks. Energy major Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) led the losses, falling 1.5 percent to 2,102.45 rupees, on disappointment there were no announcements on acquisitions or specific project plans at its annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday.
The 30-share BSE index .BSESN dropped 51.87 points to 16,998.78, with 18 components closing in the red. "There is resistance coming in as we move towards the level from where we had corrected last month," said Rajen Shah, chief investment officer at Angel Broking.
The index had retreated after hitting nearly 17,500 in October. The benchmark, which fell by more than half last year, is up about 76 percent in 2009 and has more than doubled from a March low. Heavy foreign fund investment of $15.3 billion in 2009 have propelled the market higher and traders are optimistic that a weak dollar will encourage more inflows even as valuations looked expensive.
Indian officials have said on recent occasions they welcomed the inflows, but Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday also noted that India was ready to deal with theflows if they became a problem. "It is not a matter of concern as we have the system of monitoring," he told reporters. "And whenever we will find that there are some distortion, then we will have the arrangement to counteract it," he said on the sidelines of an event. "Therefore, it would not be disturbing," Mukherjee added.
Outsourcers, which get most of their revenue from exports,were in demand on the back of a pick up in hiring plans as their business environment improves. Traders said better demand from banking, financial services and insurance companies were helping outsourcers. Infosys (INFY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Wipro (WIPR.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) climbed 1.5 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, but sector leader Tata Consultancy (TCS.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) erased early gains and slipped 0.5 percent.
Banks faltered after an early rise as investors locked in profits after a big rally this month. Top lender State Bank of India (SBI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) shed 0.9 percent to 2,330.60 rupees, but is still up more than 6 percent in November. Rival ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) fell 1.5 percent to 905.25 rupees after rallying more than 14 percent this month.
Engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro (LART.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) dropped 1.7 percent, but is up 7 percent in two weeks.
In the broader market, gainers led losers in the ratio of 1.4:1 on relatively moderate volume of 404 million shares. The 50-share NSE index .NSEI closed down 0.15 percent at 5,054.70.
STOCKS THAT MOVED
State oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corp (IOC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) fell between 0.5-2.4 percent as oil rose towards $80 a barrel. These companies are required to sell retail fuel at state-set low prices.
Steel maker JSW Steel (JSTL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) rose as much as 7.4 percent on a media report it aimed to raise $300 million to $500 million via a stake sale of about 7 to 11 percent to Japan's Nippon Steel (5401.T: Quote, Profile, Research). The stock erased some gains and closed 4 percent higher at 965.65 rupees, after Nippon denied it was in talks to buy the stake.
MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME
Suzlon Energy (SUZL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 12.2 million shares.
Ispat Industries (ISPT.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 11.6 million shares.
Mahindra Satyam (SATY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on 8.7 million shares.
After rallying for three straight days, bulls seem to have lost some steam as the BSE Sensex ended below the 17,000 mark, however, the NSE Nifty managed to hold on the 5050 mark. 
Weak cues from the Asian and the European markets coupled with selling pressure in the Oil & Gas and the Banking stocks dragged the Sensex to end below the 17,000 levels.
The BSE Sensex slipped 52 points to end at 16,998 after touching a high of 17,098 and a low of 16,958. The index opened at 17,050 against the previous close of 17,050. The NSE Nifty ended flat at 5,054.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Oil & Gas index was the top loser, shedding 1%, followed by the Banking index that was down 0.91% and the BSE Capita Goods index was down 0.7%.
Major gainers were BSE Metals index up 1.2% and BSE FMCG index up 0.6%.
The BSE Mid-Cap index ended flat while the BSE Small-Cap index was up by 0.7%.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 18 stocks ended in the red and 12 ended in the positive terrain. Reliance Infra, L&T, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Grasim were among the top losers. On the other hand, among the major gainers were Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ITC, Infosys and JP Associates. 
Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Mphasis,Exide Ind, Spice Tele, Jain Irrigation and Fin Tech. On the other hand, gainers included Pantaloon Retail, GE Shipping, GTL Infra and Sintex Ind.
Shares of SAIL advanced by 0.5% to end at Rs187. Reports stated that Jharkhand government has agreed to renew the company's lease for the Buddhaburu mine, having reserves of 810mn tons.
The company also announced that it was planning to spend Rs600bn for expansion in next 3 years and the company is also reportedly planning to jointly develop a limestone project at Arki in Himachal Pradesh with a 3MTPA capacity.
BHEL announced that it formed a joint venture with Madhya Pradesh Power Generation for 1600MW power plant. Shares of BHEL ended flat at Rs2275. The stock opened at Rs2273 and made an intra-day high of Rs2283 and a low of Rs2255. Total traded volumes stood at 0.11mn shares.
Union Bank of India plans to raise US$500mn by selling bonds by March; the Chairman M.V. Nair was quoted as saying. The bank plans to use the proceeds to fund its overseas operations.
The stock ended at Rs270 adding 1.7%, it opened at Rs266 and made an intra-day high of Rs271 and a low of Rs262. Total traded volumes stood at 0.11mn shares.
Wockhardt announced that it launched anti-hypertensive drug Nicardipine injections in USA. The stock erased early gains and ended lower by 1.5% at Rs180 after it opened at Rs183. It made an intra-day high of Rs187 and a low of Rs179. Total traded volumes stood at 0.14mn shares.
Shares of Redington surged by over 3% to end at Rs316 after 2.2% of its equity, or ~1.7mn shares were traded in a single block on the BSE. The deal was transacted at an average price of Rs310 per share on the BSE.
The stock opened at Rs307 and made an intra-day high of Rs324 and a low of Rs306. Total traded volumes stood at 1.9mn shares.
Lloyd Electric & Engineering announced that through Janka Engineering s.r.o., (a wholly owned subsidiary company) having its registered seat at Prague, Czench Republic has signed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of assets (no liabilities) with Trademarks and 'JANKA' brand of Janka Radotin a.s., a leading czech based manufacturer of diversified Air Handling Product portfolio well positioned in the Czech market for a total consideration of approx. Euro 3.66mn, which is subject to the adjustment on the closing date.
The stock rose over 2% to end at Rs55.5. The stock opened at Rs54.6 and made an intra-day high of Rs56.85 and a low of Rs53.60. Total traded volumes stood at 0.18mn shares.
Among the Sensex pack 18 stocks closed in red while 12 ended in green. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained strong as 1,598 stocks closed in positive while 1,166 stocks closed in negative while 82 stocks remained unchanged in BSE.
The BSE Sensex closed lower by 51.87 points or (0.30%) at 16,998.78 and NSE Nifty fell by 7.55 points or (0.15%) at 5,054.70. The BSE Mid Caps and Small Cap closed up by 18.57 points and 59.76 points at 6,505.03 and 7,576.39. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 17,098.79 and intraday low of 16,958.41.
Gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors (3.14%), Tata Steel (1.68%), ITC (1.61%), Infosys (1.54%), JP Associates (1.06%), DLF (0.67%), Tata Power (0.58%) and Maruti Suzuki (0.52%).
Losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Reliance Infra (3.20%), L&T (1.72%), ICICI Bank (1.47%), RIL (1.47%), Grasim Inds (1.17%), Sun Pharma (1.13%) and SBI (0.88%).
On the global markets front, the Asian markets that opened before the Indian market, closed mixed. Seoul Composite, Shanghai Composite and Taiwan Weighted closed up by 1.13%, 0.62% and 0.43% at 1,603.97, 3,303.23 and 7,766.69 respectively while Strait Times, Nikkei and Hang Seng indices closed lower by 0.72%, 0.55% and 0.32% at 2,745.04, 9,676.80 and 22,840.33 respectively.
European markets, which opened after the Indian market, are trading in green. In London FTSE 100 is up by 0.27% at 5,360.52 and in Frankfurt DAX index is trading higher by 0.52% at 5,808.25 and in Paris the CAC 40 is up by 0.52% at 3,848.92.
BSE REALTY indexwas at 4,003.48 up by 26.46 points or by (0.67%) The main gainers were Sobha Dev up by (5.45%) at Rs.242.65, Anant Raj In up by (2.77%) at Rs.142.6, Housing Dev up by (1.71%) at Rs.363.1, Unitech Ltd up by (1.29%) at Rs.86.3, Ackruti up by (0.76%) at Rs.542.85.
BSE METAL index was at 16,165.23 up by 191.87 points or by (1.2%) The main gainers were Ispat Indust up by (4.21%) at Rs.21.05, Jsw Sl up by (4.03%) at Rs.965.65, Jindal Steel up by (2.92%) at Rs.727.2, Sesa Goa Ltd up by (2.42%) at Rs.368.05, Jai Corp Lim up by (2.22%) at Rs.230.15.
BSE BANKEX index was at 10,256.61 down by 80.47 points or by (0.78%) The main losers were Bank Of Baroda-Pari Passu down by (1.9%) at Rs.533.7, Kotak Bank down by (1.77%) at Rs.814.8, Icici Bank L down by (1.47%) at Rs.905.25, State Bank Of India down by (0.88%) at Rs.2330.6, Federal Bank down by (0.88%) at Rs.235.9.
BSE FMCG index was at 2,846.86 up by 20.72 points or by (0.73%) The main gainers were I T C Ltd up by (1.61%) at Rs.258.7, Unitd Spr up by (0.96%) at Rs.1164.9, Britania In up by (0.82%) at Rs.1675, Godrej Cons up by (0.69%) at Rs.278.7, Nestle Ltd up by (0.28%) at Rs.2647.15.
BSE CD index was at 3,555.65 up by 21.69 points or by (0.61%) The main gainers were Blue Star L up by (0.93%) at Rs.347.7, Rajesh Expot up by (0.78%) at Rs.83.7, Videocon Ind up by (0.7%) at Rs.222.55, Titan Ind. up by (0.55%) at Rs.1386.45.
BSE OIL&GAS index was at 10,120.56 down by 86.07 points or by (0.84%) The main losers were Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. down by (2.35%) at Rs.338.35, Indian Oil C down by (1.56%) at Rs.293.9, Reliance down by (1.47%) at Rs.2102.45, Bharat Petroleum Corporation L down by (0.45%) at Rs.516, Gail India down by (0.22%) at Rs.385.8.
BSE IT index was at 4,860.29 up by 33.89 points or by (0.7%) The main gainers were Infosys Technologies Ltd.-Ordi up by (1.54%) at Rs.2433.6, Oracle Fin up by (0.99%) at Rs.2259.55, Rolta Ind up by (0.88%) at Rs.178.55, Hcl Techno up by (0.56%) at Rs.338.9, Wipro Ltd. up by (0.4%) at Rs.644.9.
Pratibha Industries Ltd surged 18.27% to close at Rs. 262.15. The company has secured the contract of Meerut Water Supply Project from U. P Jal Nigam, Meerut. The total value of the contract is Rs. 294.30 crores.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd advanced 1.49% to close at Rs. 246 after Glenmark Generics Inc, a US subsidiary of the company, settled all pending litigations with the Medicis Pharmaceutical.
Reliance Industries slipped by 1.47% to close at Rs. 2,102.45 despite the company announced the record date for dividend as 27 November 2009 for the 1:1 bonus share issue.
Adhunik Metaliks Ltd. (ADML IN): The Indian manufacturer of steel products plans to sell shares to large investors, the company said in a filing to the National Stock Exchange. The company will sell shares for at least 98.23 rupees apiece, the filing said. The shares rose 0.5 percent to 101.7 rupees.
Housing Development Finance Corp. (HDFC IN): India's biggest mortgage lender said it expects interest rates to "harden" by the middle of next year. Rates may increase by as much as 50 basis points, Joint Managing Director Renu Karnad said in Mumbai. The stock fel 0.5 percent to 2,735.1 rupees.
JSW Steel Ltd. (JSTL IN): India's third-biggest steel producer is close to entering into a strategic alliance with a global steel company that may see the foreign company buy a minority stake and provide technology to help the Indian firm make speciality steel products, the Economic Times reported, citing two people close to the matter. The stock rose 4.1 percent to 965.4 rupees.
Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC IN): India's largest state- owned oil explorer said billionaire Lakshmi Mittal's exit from a venture in Kazakhstan won't affect the exploration project. ONGC shares rose 0.6 percent to 1,179.85 rupees.
Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. (PF IN): India's biggest retailer is seeking to buy a fast-moving consumer goods company to get a manufacturing base and expand its line of food and personal care private-label products, DNA reported. The stock rose 5.4 percent to 341.4 rupees.
Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (PATNI IN): The software service provider was downgraded to "neutral" from "overweight" at JPMorgan Chase & Co. The stock rose less than 0.1 percent to 476 rupees.
State Trading Corp. (STC IN): India's second-biggest government-owned trading company extended the deadline for a tender to import 10,000 metric tons of rice to Nov. 23 from Nov. 17, a government official, who didn't want to be identified because the information is confidential, said yesterday. State Trading shares fell 0.2 percent to 354.85 rupees.
Reliance May Enter Low-Cost Housing Business, Standard Reports
Reliance Industries Ltd. may enter India's low-cost housing business by 2010, the Business Standard newspaper reported, citing a company official it didn't identify.
The company may use land it owns in special trade zones in Mumbai and near the capital New Delhi to build the housing projects, the newspaper said.
Reliance Industries is India's most valuable company.
 
INVESTMENT VIEW
Abbott Laboratories -Turning Into A Mega Pharma Entity
  
  
Abbott Labs has announced it is buying a potential chronic pain drug from PanGenetics BV for as much as $190 million.  

Abbott said the drug is in early-stage clinical testing as a treatment for pain cause by arthritis. If that trial is successful, Abbott may test it against chronic lower back pain, cancer pain, and diabetic nerve pain. It said the drug blocks a chemical called nerve growth factor, or NGF, which is released at sites where tissues are damaged or inflamed.
 
PanGenetics, based in the Netherlands, will receive $170 million upfront from Abbott, and $20 million in milestone payments if the drug advances through development. Abbott said the deal will close before the end of 2009, and while it will take one-time charges related to the deal, the company said it does not need to change its profit guidance for the year.

(Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints.)
  
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Arvind Parekh
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