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all asian stock markets in green.sensex to open positive........ Nikkei up 0.3 pct as trading houses gain
Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:09pm EDT
(Updates with opening)

TOKYO, April 15 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.3 percent on Tuesday, bouncing back from the two-week closing low hit the previous day as resource-related shares such as trading house Mitsui Co Ltd (8031.T: Quote, Profile, Research) gained after oil closed at a record high.

As of 0001 GMT, the benchmark Nikkei average .N225 added 35.14 points to 12,952.65. It fell 3.1 percent on Monday to book its lowest close since April 1.

The broader TOPIX index was up 0.7 percent at 1,248.31. (Reporting by Aiko Hayashi)

Hindustan Zinc raises zinc, lead prices

New Delhi, April 14: Hindustan Zinc Ltd, the country's largest producer of the metal used in making galvanising steel, alloys, batteries, rubber and paint, on Monday said it has has increased zinc prices by Rs 1,600 a tonne and lead prices by Rs 500 a tonne.

The increase in prices could push rates of materials in which zinc and lead are used as raw materials, stoking inflation further.

Headline inflation touched a 40-month high of 7.41 per cent for the week ended March 29, fuelled partly by high metal prices.

The company release said that zinc would now cost Rs 107,100 per tonne and lead Rs 131,300 per tonne.

Lead is used as raw material in batteries and paints.

The price hike would be effective from April 12, it added.

How to lock horns with bears on Dalal Street ..................

Volatile market: Investors should reinvest returns from liquid scheme in mkt
15 Apr, 2008, 0701 hrs IST,Madhu T,

Bears are an ugly sight. They can be scary, too. No wonder , nobody likes them at Dalal Street. Ever since bears have started moving in, many investors have been looking for ways to deal with them. Can you beat the bears, many were heard asking themselves . But looking at the pattern in the market last week, it seems they have to really slug it out if they want to succeed.

Sure, there are still some positive attitude left in the market. However , bears have enough ammunition—be it the global economic woes, spiralling inflation or possibility of a slowdown—to keep bulls from going on the rampage. At least, for sometime. What can an extra cautious investors, who wants to adopt a defensive strategy, can do in such a situation?

“I think it would be more of an academic exercise. I wouldn’t want a lay investor to get worried about short term blips in the market and change his investment style,’’ says a senior mutual fund manager. “It may do more harm to his portfolio than earning extra or protecting the corpus.’’

His point is: staying in the market over longer period of time is the only way to make money from the market. You must have heard the mantra: invest regularly in small sums over a longer period of time is the proven method to make money from the stock market. Sure, nobody is advocating investors to cash out at the mere sight of a bear somewhere in Dalal Street. But some “academic exercise’ ’ once in a while won’t do any harm, right?

Our fund manager gives in. “One of the commonsensical, or genuine reaction to a volatile market is the tendency to book profit and sit on the sidelines,’’ he says. “If you have achieved your profit target or very close to it, you may consider booking profit. Then wait for a better opportunity to re-enter the market,’’ says the fund manager.

Suresh Sadagopan, chief financial planner, Ladder 7 Financial Advisories, offers a more refined solution to the problem. Whatever money you are taking out of the market, park it in a relatively safe avenue like liquid scheme of a mutual fund and use the systematic transfer plan (STP) to enter the market. This would address two problems. One, you wouldn’t redeploy the money at one go, so that timing would become crucial.

Two, since you are transferring the money at regular intervals and investing in the market , you can benefit from the cost of averaging . This means your purchasing cost would average out over a period of time and it would enhance your potential returns. If you want to be even more defensive, use only the returns you are getting from the liquid scheme to reinvest in the market, says Sadagopan.

Another way out could be hunting down companies with a very good dividend paying record. Look for companies that pay dividend consistently in the last few years and invest in them. This would assure that you would get returns irrespective of the movement of the stock in the market. “It is a very good plan as it would assure that you would get a return of around 6-7 %,’’ says Sadagopan. Remember to do your homework thorough here, though.

Uncle scam is the scarecrow in the market at the moment, right? Find out sectors that wouldn’t be affected by a possible economic recession in the US economy and also not dependent on dollar earnings. “I think, for example, FMCG and infrastructure won’t be affected by the US slowdown. These sectors should continue to grow,’’ says Sadagopan. Having said that he says over a long period dips are good buying points if you want to create wealth.

Now, all these strategies were for people who want to be in the stock market, but want to play safe. But what about people who want to take the risk at all. Well, they have to park their money in debt instruments like fixed maturity plan. Though in theory you may not lose money in the stock market over a long period, it is still a risky investment. If you want assured returns plus safety of your corpus, you should chose debt instruments.

FIs triple inflow into India funds
15 Apr, 2008, 0205 hrs IST,

NEW DELHI: Foreign investors nearly tripled their inflows into India-dedicated funds to $156 million in the second week of April, compared to the previous week, a latest report says. Asia equity funds received a record $2.18 billion during the week ended April 9, their biggest in 18 weeks, according to data complied by international fund tracking firm EPFR Global.

The inflows helped in reducing the net redemptions in the year for the region to $9.3 billion compared to net inflows of $16.4 billion for the entire 2007. India-dedicated funds had received an inflow of $60.4 million in the first week of April, which has nearly tripled to $156 million last week. The flows are the largest in the year so far and higher when compared to an average $111 million for the week in 2007 when net inflows were reported.

Realty stocks to face more challenging times: Citigroup
14 Apr, 2008, 1806 hrs IST,


NEW DELHI: Global economic uncertainties have cast a shadow on India's realty market as property stocks declined by upto 46 per cent in the first quarter of this year, and more challenging times are on the cards, says global financial services major Citigroup.

"Indian property stocks are down as much as 46 per cent in the past three months and have corrected 50-67 per cent from their highs in January this year, but we expect more volatility," Citigroup Global Markets said in its latest report.

India's property development story is structural, the markets remain tough because of rising inflation, a sharp fall in property transactions, stagnating prices and supply risks, the report added.

On December 31, 2007, the realty index of the Bombay Stock Exchange was quoted at 12,727.42 points and it tumbled to 7,554.80 points, a fall of 5,172.62 points or 40.6 per cent, as on March 31, 2008.

K P Singh-promoted DLF has suffered loss of Rs 427.30 in the January to March period, while Unitech lost Rs 212.10 during the period under review.

The other real estate biggies such as Indiabulls Real Estate fell by Rs 258.65, Housing Development and Finance Corporation shed Rs 488.70, Parsvnath Developers lost Rs 241.35 and Omaxe by Rs 365.55 in the first quarter of this calender year.

Citigroup said this decline can be largely attributed to the weakening global economy, sharp reduction in risk appetite and the uncertainty about appropriate valuations for property stocks in emerging markets including India.

Odds stacked in favour of bulls if Sensex closes above 16,500
14 Apr, 2008, 0402 hrs IST,

By Manish Shah

The Sensex has been mimicking leading global indices even more so in the past few weeks. If we take Dow Jones as the leading index, we can observe the consolidation in Dow Jones being replicated in the Sensex within a 700-point range between 15,300 and 16,000. The crucial level for Dow to come out of this consolidation is placed at 12,800 on a closing basis. This will induce upward movement in other replicating markets as well.

The upward breakout of this price pattern is placed at 16,500, which is also the recent high. If the upward breakout materialises, then it may change the intermediate trend in the upward direction.

Does this mean we are out of the woods? Probably yes. But for this, the Sensex essentially needs to surpass 16,500 on a closing basis to halt the ‘lower top-lower bottom’ formation thereby converting the intermediate trend in an upward direction. Until then, the range-bound movement is expected to continue. If we were to talk of the road ahead from here, the 200 moving average placed at 17,250 will remain a level to watch out for on the journey upwards. On the other hand, the downward breach of 15,300 on a closing basis, may trigger a fresh selling spree tightening the bear grip even more on the markets.

The past three months have seen many stocks correct more than 50% from their all-time-high levels. If the Sensex was to breach the upward trend reversal level of 16,500, then the most prominent sectors for investment at current levels are utility and oil & gas. These sectors are least likely to come under pressure compared to others at current levels as the downside seems to be limited. Thus the odds are more in favour of bulls than bears at current levels.

Among the sector indices, BSE power index is showing signs of bottoming out with the double bottom formation seen near 3,000 levels. RSI and Stochastic oscillators also indicate an upward movement in the offing. Hence, this sector is expected to perform better than the Sensex in an upward movement above 16,500. The stocks in this sector to watch out for are CESC, Reliance Energy and Tata Power.

Observing these stocks on the daily charts clearly reveal they are on the verge of an upward breakout. Volume accumulation is also observed near their recent bottoms.

The BSE oil & gas sector index after forming a bottom of 9,494 is now moving upwards with a steeper slope. On the daily chart, this sector index has exhibited an ascending triangle price pattern. If and when the break out from this triangular pattern is seen, the BSE oil & gas sector Index is likely to test the earlier intermediate level of 11,500. The stocks to watch out for in this pack are Reliance Industries, IOC and Gail.

(Author is Associate Director, Motilal Oswal Securities)

Satyam to set up software R&D campus in Australia
15 Apr, 2008, 0045 hrs IST,

HYDERABAD: Satyam Computer Services has announced the setting up of a 2,000-seater campus in Victoria to deepen its presence in Australia. The 25-acre campus, which will have a software development centre and facilities for R&D and training, will be able to house 2,000 employees in the next few years.

Satyam Australia has presence in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra with a diverse workforce of over 1,400 associates serving the country. More than 42% of employees in Satyam’s Australia centres are local nationals.

Satyam will engage in a range of collaborative activities with Deakin, including staff exchange, a work integrated learning programme for students, a graduate employment programme and joint research, a company press release said.

“Economic modelling estimates that the Satyam Technology and Learning Center will significantly boost Victoria's economy,” Premier of Victoria John Brumby said. “Satyam is well established in Australia and today’s announcement reinforces our ongoing commitment to the local ICT market,” Satyam’s co-founder and managing director Rama Raju said.

Tele Atlas acquires equity position in Kalyani group
14 Apr, 2008, 1741 hrs IST,

MUMBAI: Pune-based Kalyani Group on Monday said it has signed a definitive agreement with Tele Atlas to acquire substantial equity position in Kalyani Net Ventures.

The closing of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain usual and customary closing conditions, Kalyani said in a statement.

Kalyani Net Ventures is a map provider serving consumer application, business-to-business and business-to-government market segments. Tele Atlas delivers digital maps and dynamic content that power some of the world's most essential navigation and location-based services.

"With this rich and exciting map offering, Tele Atlas will position itself as a major player in the emerging but highy promising Indian market for location based services and navigation products," Tele Atlas CEO Mark Steele said.

"By combining our experience and technology with Kalyani's regional expertise, we will be able to meet growing global customer requirements and local market demand for highly accurate digital maps of India," he added.

After closure of the transaction, the company will be renamed Tele Atlas Kalyani and would leverage Tele Atlas' production platform to develop India map and navigable data products with extensive coverage and content.

"The joint venture will allow us to leverage Tele Atlas' industry-leading technology and help enable us to deliver the highest quality digital map solutions of India to a range of established and emerging growing markets," Kalyani Group Director Amit Kalyani said.

Infosys Q4 net profit up at Rs 1249

Bangalore, April 15: IT industry bellwether Infosys technologies on Tuesday released its Q4 results almost in line with its own expectations, primarily owing to a downturn in the US economy and the late announcement of IT budgets for the calendar year 2008 by some of its clients.

The net profit for the fourth quarter stood at Rs 1249 crore. The results can be considered credible as it comes on consolidated profit of Rs 4659 crore. Commenting on the results Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said, “The short term challenge is the global downturn.”

He further added that the company has added one USD 300 mn client in Q4. As far as net sales are concerned the company posted consolidated net sales of Rs 16,692 crore up from Rs 13893 crore up 20 %.

The company is expecting earnings per share at Rs 92.32-93.92 for FY’09. It has raised dividend payout to 30 per cent from 20 percent. The FY'09 guidance is based on dollar at 40.02/$1.

The FY08 EPS stood at Rs 81.56.

The results have also been helped by a surge in rupee as there was about 1 percent rupee depreciation against the US dollar during the quarter. The rupee ended at 40.72/73 against the dollar on March 17, its weakest since Sept 06.

During the past three quarters, the Indian IT sector has been grappling with issues like sharp currency appreciation against the dollar, increased wages and impending US recession.

In the overseas markets, US stocks edged lower for a second day after an unexpected quarterly loss from Wachovia Corp dragged down the financial sector, overshadowing strong gains in energy companies as oil closed at a record.

OVL qualifies for oil and gas contracts in Iraq

New Delhi, April 14: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, on Monday qualified to bid for oil and gas contracts in Iraq to develop one of the world's largest oil fields, a company official said.

OVL is the only Indian company in the list of 35 firms that the Iraqi government, headed by Nouri al-Maliki, has found to be eligible for bidding for the contracts, the official said.

The list contains four Chinese firms – CNOOC, CNPC, Sinochem and Sinopic Group. It also names seven energy majors from US, including Chevron, Conoco Phillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon and Occidenal Petroleum.

Reliance Industries had not participated in the qualification round after Baghdad threatened to blacklist the firm for signing contracts for two oil blocks with Kurdistan regional government.

BG group of UK, ENI of Italy, Inpex of Japan, KOGAS of Korea, Lukoil of Russia, BHP Billiton and Woodside of Australia, Mitsubishi Corp of Japan, Petronas of Malaysia, Pertamina of Indonesia, Repsol of Spain, Shell, Statoil Hydro of Norway, and Total of France were also among the qualified companies.

The official said in all 120 companies had sought to pre-qualify for the first Iraqi licensing round after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime.

OVL already has license for Block 8 in Iraq and as such was qualified even before the announcement by the Iraqi Oil Ministry today.