Sensex ends 230 points up, shies away 10k level

Mumbai: Amid volatile trading, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today closed higher by over 230 points - still below 10,000 points level - on emergence of buying by funds in heavyweight stocks led by Reliance Industries and select power segment stocks.
The Sensex, which commenced the day lower at 9,631.59, shot up in volatile trade to regain 10,065.37 in the mid-session, but ended at 9,964.29 with a gain of 230.07 points.
A firm opening for the European stock markets also helped the upsurge to some extent.
The National Stock Exchange’s 50-share benchmark index Nifty rose by 90.35 points at 2,973.00, after touching the day’s high of 3,010.00, as most of the heavyweight stocks recorded handsome gains.
Reliance Industries, the Sensex-heaviest, surged by Rs46.30 at Rs1,217.85. The scrip rose to Rs1,239 and a low of Rs1,152 during the day.
Oil and gas sector index gained the most by 196.63 at 6,013.57 followed by metal sector index by 158.89 points at 5,152.33.

Zensar Tech bags 7 mn dlr insurance biz

MUMBAI: Zensar Technologies Ltd, an IT and BPO services provider, today said it has received a seven million dollar (over Rs 28.27 crore) insurance deal from a South African insurance company.

With this deal, Zensar's insurance business reaches the 10 million dollar mark, having won a three million dollar contract from a US mid-west-based provider of insurance products, and a million dollar initial contract for BPO service from a Latin American insurance client.

"We are delighted to take our business in the 'Insurance Vertical' to its 10 million dollar mark, with the acquisition of a new insurance account in South Africa," Zensar Technologies Deputy Chairman and Managing Director Ganesh Natarajan said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Read more in The Economic Times

Key indices make slight recovery

MUMBAI: Key indices were weak but off early low as selling pressure eased a bit. The market started the week sharply lower as weakness in stocks overseas weighed. Realty, capital goods stocks were worst hit.

“The undercurrent is weak. Sensex has support at 14700 and Nifty at 4280. If these levels are violated, the fall could be sharper,” said Suresh Kumar Iyer, technical analyst at Asit C Mehta Investment Interrmediates.

Iyer advises traders to go short and exit longs and warns longer-term investors to stay away from the market, as he expects further correction.

At 11:10 AM, National Stock Exchange's Nifty was down 92 points or 2.4% at 4309.25, recovering from a low of 4267.15.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was at 14836.69, lower by 301 points or 1.9%from the previous close, but off the low of 14705.58 made earlier.

Read more in The Economic Times

Global cues drag Sensex down 360 pts

MUMBAI: The market opened sharply lower Monday following global weakness. Realty, capital goods stocks were worst hit.

At 10:10 am, National Stock Exchange's Nifty was down 105 points or 2.4% at 4295.70. The 50-share had slipped to a low of 4267.15.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was at 14,797.04, lower by 341 points or 2.25%. The benchmark index had sunk to a low of 14705 earlier.

HDFC Bank, down 3.67%, was the biggest Sensex loser as the market turned weak. Hindalco (down 3.6%), ACC (3.57%), ICICI Bank (3.33%), Reliance Energy (3.25%) and Reliance Communications (3.21%) were the other losers.

None of the stocks in the 30-share index made it to the list of gainers due to the severity of the fall.

Market breadth showed 836 declines and 91 advances on NSE, while BSE saw 1254 losers and 392 gainers.

RBI mulls currency futures exchange

Foreign institutional investors unlikely to get a look-in.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is exploring a dedicated currency futures exchange, after taking an in-principle decision to launch rupee-denominated futures.

In its meeting with market participants in Juyly, the RBI has also decided to revive interest rate futures which have failed to take off after being introduced in June 2003.

The central bank is not in favour of currency futures being traded on stock or commodity exchanges as they are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and Forward Markets Commission (FMC), respectively.

This could dilute RBI’s regulatory power on domestic foreign exchange market which, in turn, could have implications on exchange rate management — RBI’s sole prerogative.

Moreover, the discussion also highlighted the legal issues if futures are allowed on commodity exchange as it happens internationally or on stock exchanges like NSE or BSE.

Read more in Business Standard

Sensex sheds 474 points in early trade

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex crashed over 474 points in early trade on Wednesday on heavy selling by funds, triggered by weak global trend.

The BSE-30 share index, which gained 290 points on Tuesday, plunged 474.91 points at 15,076.08 in the first five minutes of trading.

The wide base National Stock Exchange's Nifty dropped 146.05 points at 4,382.80.

Sensex sheds over 380 points at open

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex tumbled over 380 points on Friday on heavy selling by funds, triggered by weak global markets.

The BSE-30 shares index, which closed 76.98 points up on Thursday, lost 380.13 points at 15,396.18 in the first five minutes of trade.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's Nifty toppled 139.20 points at 4,480.60.

The selling was sparked by reports of a major slide in leading global markets. All the index related stocks in Nifty and Sensex were in red.

India gets a new realty index

On Tuesday, Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd (IDFC) and the FTSE Group which is owned by The Financial Times of London and the London Stock Exchange launched an infrastructure index which will keep an eye on the performance of 63 companies.

The index features companies in transportation, infrastructure like roadways, railways and aviation; power generation, communications infrastructure and would also include those involved in water supply as well. Firms have to be listed on either the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) or the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

It is estimated that in the next few years India will invest as much as $320 billion on infrastructure. Rajiv Lall the managing director of IFDC said last afternoon that the 63 companies have grown at an average compounded annual growth (CAG) of 58% as opposed to 25% growth posted by the NSE and BSE.

Corp bonds to trade on bourses from July 1

The much-awaited trading in corporate bonds will start on the National and the Bombay Stock Exchanges from July 1. This is expected to energise the moribund debt market.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will ask the two stock exchanges to start trading in corporate bonds shortly, sources close to the developments said.

To begin with, trading would be through order matching as recommended by the R H Patil Committee. The committee had suggested various measures to activate the corporate bond market. The anonymous order matching would come into place only at a later stage, when the exchanges were ready, the sources added.

Banks and institutions will be allowed to trade through either the stock exchanges or via the OTC (over-the -counter). If they wanted to go through the stock exchanges, they could conduct the trading through the stock broking members, the sources added.

In order-matching system, the best buy order is matched with the best sell order. Experts said an efficient corporate debt market required a proper order-matching and guaranteed settlement systems.

Earlier this month, the capital market regulator extended the corporate bond reporting platform to the National Stock Exchange (NSE). From January 2, Sebi had asked the players to report the deals in the corporate bond market on the BSE’s reporting platform.

All transactions in corporate bonds of the value of Rs 1 lakh or above are required to be reported to the corporate bond platform. As the platform is purely for reporting purposes, the stock exchanges had no role or liability for settlement of these trades. The intermediaries and contracting parties were asked to settle the trades bilaterally.

The move to allow both the NSE and the BSE to start a trading platform is, however, at variance with the Patil Committee’s recommendation of a unified exchange for the corporate bond market.

The exchanges have also been asked by Sebi to provide details such as the issuer name, maturity date, current coupon, last price and amount traded, yield and weighted average yield.

The number of trades in the corporate bonds that took place today were 12 and the average traded value was Rs 100 crore. Presently, no trading takes place in the bonds’ segment of the BSE.

The Sebi move comes after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call, during the inauguration of the Sebi headquarters last year, to activate the debt market.

The Prime Minister had said that the debt markets in India have failed to rise to the expectations. There was a need to make efforts to understand why the debt market has not taken off and to take appropriate policy measures to make it deeper, broader and more liquid, he had said.

A deeper and active debt market would help generate the necessary long-term funds required for the infrastructure sector.