Money on the markets

LIVE BLOG: Sensex, Nifty plunge to 2011 lows

The BSE Sensex and Nifty plunged to fresh 2011 lows in Wednesday trade, a day before the expiry of derivatives contracts, amid renewed worries about faltering global growth.

Good day for RIL shares

Shares in Reliance Industries, India’s top listed firm, gained 4 percent on Friday, helping the benchmark Sensex post gains of more than 250 points.

RIL, which has the highest weight in the Sensex, ended with volumes of 944,021 on BSE.

The stock had hit an intra-day low of 980 rupees but managed to recover.

Do you think it is the right time to invest in RIL shares?

BSE Power Index gains

Power stocks posted decent gains on Tuesday, sending the power index up 1.15 percent to the top of the sectoral gainers list.

ABB shares topped the index, closing 4.6 percent higher, followed by Siemens which gained 3.7 percent.

JSW Energy, GVK Power and Adani Power were among the stocks on the losing side.

Do you think it’s a good time to invest in power stocks?

Shares in Maruti jump

Shares in automobile companies rose on Wednesday on hopes of buoyant demand during the September-to-December festive season.

Top car maker Maruti Suzuki rose 3.6 percent after Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgraded it to buy from underperform.

Other stocks like Mahindra & Mahindra and Hero Honda gained 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively. Stocks like Tata Motors slipped 0.6 percent.

Would you invest in auto stocks at this stage?

FMCG index up 1.1 pct

Shares in FMCG index posted decent gains on Thursday, with stocks like Nestle India gaining 3.7 percent and ending as top gainer in the index.

Ruchi Soy gained 3.15 percent, while Godrej Consumer Products gained 1.8 percent.

However, HUL shares bucked the trend and lost more than 1 percent.

Would you invest in this sector right now?

Weak day for banking counters

The BSE Banking index ended down 0.5 percent on Tuesday, with stocks such as Union Bank, Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce slipping more than 3 percent.

Bigger players like ICICI slipped 0.9 percent but SBI bucked the trend and gained 0.8 percent in the session.

However, the banking index has done well of late, gaining 16.5 percent since July. Shares in SBI have surged a whopping 23.6 percent during this period.

Would you invest in this sector right now?

Reliance Industries shares gain more than 1 pct

Shares in Reliance Industries, India’s top listed firm, gained 1.1 percent on Tuesday, helping the benchmark index close marginally up.

The stock, which has the highest weight on the main index, closed at 1,026 rupees.

The oil secretary has said that Reliance Industries will be able to pump natural gas at full capacity from its deep-sea field during the year to March 2013, indicating a delay of almost two years. The stock too has been weak off late, and has fallen 5.5 percent since July.

BP Plc is in talks with Reliance Industries to sell its African retail assets that could be worth as much as $500 million, four sources told Reuters last week.

Do you think it’s a good time to invest in this stock?

Infosys shares hit record high

Shares in Infosys Technologies, India’s second-largest outsourcer, rose as much as nearly 2 percent to a record high of 2,882 rupees on Friday on optimism about quarterly earnings next week.

The company unveils its quarterly earnings on June 13. Its earnings are often dubbed as a trendsetter for sectoral peers.

India’s leading information technology exporters should report robust quarterly sales, thanks to improving demand from their mainstay financial clients, but Europe’s debt crisis and rising salaries could cap their outlook.

Macquarie expects Infosys to raise fiscal year 2011 U.S. dollar revenue growth guidance to 17-19 percent from 16-18 percent.

Would you invest in Infosys ahead of its earnings?

Disappointing start to IPO season

Oil India Ltd’s ads in newspapers and business glossies may help in building a much-needed tempo before its public offering of shares, but if the disappointing listing price of Adani Power and NHPC is any cue to go by, then the days ahead for costly IPOs may not be worry-free.

The energy explorer, which deferred an IPO last year amid the global financial crisis, has lined up a $500-$600 million public offering which will open on September 7 and close on September 10. The price band has been set at 950 to 1,050 rupees a share.

Several firms, including state owned, are considering share sales to fund expansion in Asia’s third-largest economy.

First off the block with an IPO was private power producer Adani Power. Its shares are hovering around the issue price of 100 rupees since day one — a reminder of the stock market debut by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power, which raised almost $2.9 billion in India’s largest-ever IPO in early 2008 but has not closed above the issue price.

“Investors apply for IPO listing gains. It would augur well for IPOs to leave more on the table for investors,” Ambareesh Baliga, vice-president at Karvy Stock Broking, said after Adani Power’s listing.

Adani Power’s lacklustre listing has the potential of hitting investor appetite for expensive IPOs.

State-run NHPC Ltd. also made a tepid debut on Tuesday, lagging market expectations after the power company’s $1.25 billion IPO was heavily oversubscribed earlier this month. The power firm produces 4,815 megawatts and has 11 projects under construction that will nearly double its capacity.

Airline stocks face the heat

Airline stocks failed to bring cheer to the market on Monday after the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) called off plans for a one-day strike later this month.

Private airline operators had on Friday announced they would suspend operations on August 18 to protest the lack of government relief for the ailing industry.

India’s airlines suffered a cumulative $2 billion of losses in 2008/09 on high operating costs and a fall in demand amid a global slowdown.

Shares in Kingfisher dropped 2.3 percent, Spicejet ended down 1.3 percent while Jet Airways fell 2.37 percent.

Quarterly results have been a mixed bag for aviation firms with Kingfisher and Jet Airways posting Q1 losses.

Spicejet announced a net profit of 263.4 million rupees in the first quarter. Its shares rose 5.8 percent on results day.

The Indian civil aviation sector is showing an extraordinary growth rate in the last few years and is expected to grow by 25 percent year-on-year, as per the FIA website.