Money on the markets

Maytas Infra gains in falling market

The BSE Sensex ended 1.6 percent down on Monday but shares in Maytas Infra ended nearly 5 percent higher at 112.80 rupees after the company’s board received a proposal to replace the existing founder of the firm.

The CLB has instructed Maytas’ board to induct ILFS as new promoters and allow them to assume management control through appointment of four directors, including the chairman.

IL&FS, which owns 14.5 percent stake in Maytas, intends to buy additional stake of 22.51 percent with an investment of 1.5 billion rupees.

Realty shines

The BSE real estate index jumped 3.8 percent on Friday and emerged as the best sectoral performer of the day as shares of top realty firms rose.

Unitech gained 5.7 percent to end at 99.1 rupees and was the most traded counter on the BSE with volumes of over 31 million shares.

Rival DLF rose 5.3 percent to 413.1 rupees, but Omaxe led the index with gains of over 9 percent.

DLF shares have gained over 30 percent and Unitech, 25 percent since July, compared to the 33 percent rise in the realty index.

Would you invest in this sector now?

Tata Steel shares slip after results

Shares in Tata Steel slipped over 5 percent on Thursday after the firm posted disappointing June quarter numbers.

The company which is the world’s No.8 steelmaker by output, posted a consolidated June quarter net loss of 22.39 billion rupees, compared with 39.15 billion rupees profit a year earlier.

Poor demand at the company’s European unit, Corus, and lower steel prices weighed on earnings.

Tata Steel shares closed at 436 rupees after falling by 24 rupees, and remained the top loser among the components of Sensex and BSE Metal Index.

Tata Steel has seen rating upgrades since June, including from Macquarie and Nomura. Its shares have gained over 100 percent since April.

At this stage, would you take advantage of this fall and buy this stock?

Aban Offshore shares surge

Investors in offshore and oilfield services provider, Aban Offshore, have a reason to party tonight – its shares jumped 27 percent to close at 1536 rupees, making it the top gainer on the Bombay stock exchange on Wednesday.

The company said on Tuesday that it expects revenue of $695 million (around 3,400 crore rupees) from two contracts it signed for deploying four rigs. The trading volumes in this counter were high and stood at 3.8 million shares, its highest single day volume since mid-May.

The company posted a consolidated net profit of 1.11 billion rupees on net sales of 7.93 billion rupees in the quarter ended June.

Its shares have risen by over 71 percent since July and an astonishing 284 percent since April this year, data from Thomson Reuters shows.

Technical analyst Ashwani Gujraj says the stock has the potential to touch 1700 rupees.

Will you buy this stock after the upsurge?

Good day for IT stocks, Aptech shines

Technology stocks traded firm on Tuesday in an otherwise weak market, with the BSE IT index rising nearly 2 percent as the rupee weakened.

Thirteen of the 15-stock BSE IT index closed in the green, with Aptech leading the pack with a 16.5 percent jump.

Investors in Aptech have been lucky as the stock has generated huge returns in the past. Since April, it has jumped a whopping 206 percent.

In June, the company offloaded its 50 percent stake in its China joint venture. The company’s Q1 net jumped on this one-time gain.

The IT index has been on a roll this year, gaining over 80 percent since April and 26 percent since July. This is far higher than the return of the Sensex or Nifty index.

Would you invest in Aptech or any other IT stock at this juncture?

Fortis Healthcare shares rise

Shares in Fortis Healthcare posted smart gains on the BSE on news that Fortis planned to spend over 9 billion rupees to acquire 10 hospitals from Wockhardt.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by December end and will enhance the aggregate bed capacity of the Fortis Network to over 5,000, Fortis said in a statement.

Shares in Fortis Healthcare gained 6.5 percent to close at 116.05 rupees.

The stock was among top gainers of the BSE Healthcare index on Monday. Fortis was also one of the top traded stocks on the BSE.

The BSE Healthcare index has gained 7.6 percent since July, almost equalling the rise in the benchmark. The sectoral index however lags the rise in the Sensex by around 25 percent since April.

Would you buy shares of Fortis at current price?

Will you buy Bharti Airtel shares?

Shares in Bharti Airtel gained 2.8 percent on Friday, contributing well to the benchmark’s gain of over 200 points on the last trading day of the week.

The company is in exclusive talks for a stake in South Africa’s MTN, a deal which will create the world’s No. 3 mobile firm. On Thursday, the two firms said they were extending talks till Sept. 30, their second such extension this year.

Bharti’s chairman said on Friday that they were not looking to sweeten its offer to buy a stake in South Africa’s MTN.

The deal is complex and is the main reason for the further extension, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a report.

Bharti Airtel is India’s top mobile operator and is valued at around $31 billion.

Bharti shares have gained over 10 percent after dipping to rupees 374 on August 10, which was its lowest since mid-May.

Do you think it is the right time to invest in shares of Bharti Airtel?

Investors and the IPO craze

The UPA government’s deferred divestment programme seems to have had a smooth take-off. State utility NHPC’s IPO was subscribed 23.5 times at close.

This is to be followed by an offering from another state heavyweight, Oil India Ltd, on September 7. But what do these high decibel IPOs mean for the stock market and small investors in particular?

On its part the government hopes to raise 18.54 billion rupees ($386 million) from stake sales in the two firms this fiscal. Its efforts bolstered by an upbeat stock market that has risen over 90 percent from 2009 lows in early March mainly on an influx of foreign funds.

Small investors are likely to flock to these state-backed IPOs because of their attractive pricing and a good track record. “The perception is that they leave something for investors on the table,” says VK Sharma, head of research at Anagram Capital.

The entry of IPOs often sees some pressure building up on the secondary market as retail investors tend to sell existing shares to fund investments in big-ticket IPOs. “Small investors are always under pressure for money. There will be some pressure on the secondary market, but that will not be big enough to impact it,” says Sharma.

The stock market closed at a 2009-high of 15,924 on August 3 and has been see-sawing since the opening of the NHPC offering. What needs to be watched is whether the market moves up or remains range bound in the coming months as Asia’s third-largest economy embraces a raft of equities offerings from private and public sector undertakings.

Small caps shine

The BSE Small-cap index gained over 4 percent in Thursday’s market rally with stocks such as Firstsource Solutions and SpiceJet gaining over 12 and 10 percent respectively.

From the 463 stocks in the small cap index, around 30 posted double-digit gains, data from Thomson Reuters showed.

Firstsource Solutions, a company involved in IT-enabled services, was the top traded counter of the day. Its stock has jumped by 153 percent in 2009.

The small cap index has been on a roll and has gained 96 percent since April this year, beating its mid-cap counterpart.

But small cap stocks are generally considered more risky when compared to large or mid-cap counters.

Do you think your investment portfolio should contain such stocks to cash in on their rise?

Healthcare index stays firm

The BSE healthcare index traded firm and gained 1.3 percent on Wednesday in a market that ended marginally lower.

Ranbaxy Labs was up 4.5 percent while other stocks like IPCA Labs, Sun Pharma and Cipla posted decent gains.

Natco Pharma jumped 20 percent to close at 113.35 rupees after yesterday’s rise of nearly 19 percent. The stock which has gained 42 percent in just two trading sessions, also hit its 52-week high on Wednesday.

Several stocks in this sector rose on Tuesday after Ranbaxy Laboratories, Strides Arcolab and Cipla expressed readiness to meet the expected demand for Tamiflu, which is used to treat H1N1 infections.

The healthcare index however has been a quiet mover recently. It has gained just 30 percent this year and 36 percent since April, a time when most other sectoral indices have rallied.

In view of the recent rally in some pharma stocks, do you think it would be ideal to invest in this sector now?