Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Bulls run out of gas…

Nifty (5192) Sup 5140 Res 5250

We expect the market to open in the red owing to some softening across the globe. Thereafter things will be rangebound and sideways due to lack of triggers.

FIIs were net sellers of Rs2.37bn (provisional) in the cash segment yesterday while the local institutions pumped in Rs4.57bn. In the F&O segment, they were net buyers of Rs897mn. On Friday, foreign funds were net buyers of Rs7.2bn in the cash segment. Mutual Funds were net sellers of Rs762mn on the same day

Asahi India, DCB, Eveready Industries and Torrent Pharma will declare their results today

Todays Pick - Union Bank of India

We recommend a buy in Union Bank of India from a short-term perspective. From the charts of Union Bank of India, we see that the stock was on a medium-term down trend from Rs 230 to Rs 130 (between early January and mid March 2008).

However, the stock is in a steady up-move since this trough. During this up move, the stock penetrated the 21 and 50-day moving averages and it has been forming higher peaks and higher bottoms. The daily momentum indicator is on the verge of entering the bullish region. Besides the daily moving average convergence and divergence has entered the positive zone indicating bullishness.

Our short-term outlook for the stock is bullish. We anticipate the stock’s medium-term uptrend to continue to our price target of Rs 191 in the upcoming sessions. Investor with short-term perspective can buy the stock, while keeping the stop-loss at Rs 159 level.

Corporate News

Bharti Airtel is in talks to acquire South Africa’s MTN. (ET)
State Bank of India has hiked the interest rates on FCNR (B) deposits in different currencies and on NRE (rupee) term deposit across varying maturities, with effect from May 1, 2008. (BL)
The Supreme Court has directed Reliance Industries to pay Rs500mn within two weeks to BPCL for the price difference in naphtha supplied by BPCL to RIL plant in Raigad. (DNA)
Nineteen companies, including Welspun India, Bombay Dyeing and Alok Industries, have expressed interest to form joint ventures to run government-owned National Textiles Corporation's (NTC) 12 mills. (BS)
Patel Engineering has bagged the US$280mn Taum Sauck Upper Reservoir Dam reconstruction project in USA. (ET)
Leela Hotels has acquired seven acres of land near the Taj Mahal for building a five star deluxe hotel with 300 rooms. (ET)
M&M to set up a tractor plant in Tamil Nadu to make 50,000 tractors a year. (Mint)
L&T plans to look for orders for constructing passenger cruise ships at its proposed facility at Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu. (Mint)
Sesa Goa has stepped up efforts to expand and add iron ore prospecting and mining leases as also increase third party mining opportunities. (BL)
To overcome the rise in raw material cost, JSW Steel has been scouting for more mine ores even as many of them will go on stream by end of 2009. (BL)
VF Corp looking to buy out 40% stake held by Arvind Mills in Indian JV VF-Arvind brands. (ET)
Ranbaxy is set to fight a prolonged battle with the Government and NPPA for fixing price of one of its key antibiotic brands. (ET)
Perlecan Pharma, the integrated drug development company set up by Dr. Reddy’s has dropped second more new drug plan. (DNA)
Punj Lloyd is looking to divest its stake in its telecom and broadband business, Spectranet. (Mint)
ADAG is planning to apply for modernization project of Prague airport, for which bids are shortly to be invited. (BS)
Sterling Urban Developments, a joint venture floated by HDFC Property Fund and Bangalore-based Sterling Developers will take up development of 150 acres in Whitefield at a cost of Rs40bn. (BS)
Union Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank have increased interest rates on short-term deposits to raise resources and manage asset-liability mismatch. (BS)
Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering conglomerate, is looking to set up a manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh to manufacture steam turbines and generators needed for the power sector. (BL)
Coal India is looking to partner with private sector companies such as Reliance Power to acquire coal blocks overseas. (Mint)
UCO Bank has received Government approval for capital restructuring. (BL)
Kesoram Industries has lined up Rs8.4bn expansion programme at its Uttarakhand tyre complex. (BS)
UTV Software Communications will invest Rs8bn in its businesses in FY09. (DNA)
American formal wear giant Hartmarx is inking a deal with Arvind Mills for tapping India’s premium-to-luxury segment. (ET)
Finolex Industries plans to sell off its SEZ land in Pune for Rs4bn. (DNA)
Secondary steel makers including Bhushan Steel and Uttam Galva, have decided to cut the prices of cold-rolled coils and galvanized sheets by ~Rs500/ton. (ET)
HPCL officers to go on indefinite nationwide strike starting May 6, 2008. (ET)
Reliance Infra, an ADAG company, is set to begin work on the country’s first greenfield central business district. (BL)
HCL Infosystems has acquired Jaipur-based niche banking software product firm, Natural Technologies for Rs83.9mn. (ET)
NDTV Imagine is entering movie production business and its first project is likely to go on floor in two to three months. (BL)
BNP Paribas and Geojit Financial Services have worked out a plan to overcome the regulatory hurdle that has come in the way of the French banking group picking up the majority stake in the Kerala-based broking firm. (BL)
Murugappa group intends to spend Rs13bn on capacity expansions in 2008-09. (BL)
The Hinduja’s are planning investments of ~US$50bn in the next five years in India and abroad. (DNA)
Nirmal Lifestyle is in talks with PE funds to raise US$800mn. (ET)
Aircel plans to raise US$1.6bn debt and to come out with an IPO in a year. (ET)
Genpact, a pioneer in the actuarial process outsourcing (APO) business, which has been largely dependent on the US and UK has tapped five insurance clients in Australia. (FE)
Maxis Communications, Malaysia plans to invest US$4-5bn by 2009-10 to expand its network in India. (DNA)
Generic Electric is planning to manufacture windmills and gas turbines in India. (ET)
Bangalore-based Manipal Health Systems has plans to build a 200-bed to 250-bed hospital in Mysore. (BS)
Shell is closing down temporarily 15 of its retail outlets in south India from May 7,
Nissan Motor will soon launch its premium SUV Murano in India.