Market firms up amid recovery in some Asian markets

Indian equities opened slightly lower tracking mixed global markets. However, they rebounded from early lows to register decent gains mirroring recovery in some Asian markets. However trading was choppy. The market breadth was positive.

At 11:28 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 92.81 points or 0.58% at 16,849.39. Sensex rose 96.50 points at day’s high of 16,849.36 hit in mid-morning trade. The barometer index had opened 61.56 points lower at 16,691.30 and slipped further to touch a low of 16,626.35 in early trade. At the day’s low, Sensex lost 126.51 points.




The broader based S&P CNX Nifty gained 16.65 points or 0.34% at 4,974.55

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1232 shares advancing as compared to 933 that declined. 69 remained unchanged.

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 20 advanced while the rest slipped.

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, the country’s largest state run oil exploration company in terms of sales, slumped 4.57% to Rs 950.50. It was the top loser from Sensex pack




India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rebounded from early low of Rs 2484 and was now up 0.86% to Rs 2522.90. 1.82 lakh shares were traded on the counter.

Ambuja Cement (down 1.57% to Rs 109.80), NTPC (down 2.34% to Rs 187.80), and HDFC Bank (down 1.46% to Rs 1460.50), edged lower from the Sensex pack.

India’s top private sector aluminium company in terms of sales, Hindalco Industries surged 4.20% to Rs 187.50 on 5.79 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack.




Bharti Airtel, the country’s top cellular services provider in terms of market capitalisation advanced 1.55% to Rs 834. Bharti Airtel on Tuesday, 13 May 2008, said its talks for South Africa's MTN were still exploratory and it has not made any bid.

The Asian Wall Street Journal said on Monday, 12 May 2008, that Bharti was considering raising its offer to around 175 South African rand ($22.84) a share for control of MTN. It said an official bid could come this week. MTN's market value has risen to $38.8 billion, after an 8.8% increase in its share prices since 2 May 2008, the trading day before the company said it was in talks with Bharti.




Housing Development Finance Corporation (up 2.51% to Rs 2725), Jaiprakash Associates (up 1.56% to Rs 257.20), Tata Steel (up 2.34% to Rs 871.25), and Maruti Suzuki India (up 2.86% to Rs 792.15), were the other gainers from Sensex pack.

Shares of oil marketing firms were subdued following reports that the Union government will issue bonds worth Rs 15000 crore to state oil refiners for the quarter ended on March 2008. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 0.13% to Rs 234.70), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (down 0.59% to Rs 346.45), and Indian Oil Corporation (down 2.12% to Rs 409.55), declined.




The oil bonds will be issued to oil marketing firms so as to compensate half the revenue loss incurred for selling fuel at state-set low prices. During 2006/07, the government had compensated 42.7% of the revenue losses of state oil refiners.

PSL was down 0.14% to Rs 339.85 despite its subsidiary PSL FZE, Sharjah, UAE winning an order worth $45 million for supply of steel pipes. The company made this announcement after trading hours on Tuesday, 13 May 2008.

KEC International slipped 1.53% to Rs 586.50 even as the company said it has secured a contract worth Rs 111.41 crore from Power Grid Corporation of India for supply and construction of 400 kilovolt transmission lines. The company made this announcement during trading hours on Tuesday, 13 May 2008,




Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investments hit 5% upper circuit at Rs 418.75 after the company said it will consider splitting its shares in the board meeting scheduled on 22 May 2008. The company made this announcement during market hours today, 14 May 2008.

Jyoti rose 0.24% to Rs 84.45 after the company said it has received an order worth Rs 27.24 crore from Aravali Power Co for 600 megawatt Indira Gandhi super thermal power plant - Jhajjar. The company made this announcement after trading hours on Tuesday, 13 May 2008.




Asian markets were off early lows, still trading mixed today, 14 May 2008. Sanghai Composite (up 2.17% at 3,637.43), Seoul Composite (up 0.11% at 1,844.77), Nikkei 225 Average (up 0.67% at 14,047.61), Taiwan Weighted (up 0.32% at 9,018.42), advanced. However, Hang Seng (down 1.37% at 25,203.86) and Straits Times (down 0.51% at 3,186.98) edged lower.