Vehicles Sales in India Surge

Chandrasekhar Atreya
08 Oct, 2010
New York City

Indian stocks retreated for a second day and declined for the week after rising for the five weeks in a row. Vedanta offer gets overwhelming shareholder approval from Cairn India takeover at $8.5 billion. Total vehicles sales soar 21.6% in September.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai – Indian stocks retreated for a second day and declined for the week after rising for the five weeks in a row. Vedanta offer gets overwhelming shareholder approval from Cairn India takeover at $8.5 billion. Total vehicles sales soar 21.6% in September.[/R]

India’s stocks retreated for the second day in a row pushing the benchmark index down and snapping five weeks of gains that took the index to a record high.

The BSE Sensex Index dropped 0.32% or 65.06 to close at 20,250.26. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange lost 16.85 points to close at 6,103.45. The Sensex index fell 0.95% in the week.

Rupee ended the day at Rs 44.27 to a dollar after dropping by 7 paisa.

Total vehicles sales in India broke yet another record in September, with SIAM stating Friday that the total vehicles sold in the country last month at 1,329,086 units was better than the mark set in August this year. Dealers are also stocking vehicles ahead of festival season when sales are generally at their peak.

Total domestic vehicles sales including autos and two wheelers during September grew 21.63% from 1,092,687 units in September of 2009, according to data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

Automobile sales in the September increased 30% to 169,082 and sales in the six months period ending in the month increased 34% to 922,281.

SIAM President Pawan Goenka at a news conference in Mumbai said that the industry group has revised its growth outlook between 18% and 20% from 13% to 15%.

Maruti Suzuki domestic sales increased 28.5% to 81,060 and Hyundai sales gained 14% to 31,751. Tata Motors Ltd sales increased 14% to 21,624 units.

Motorcycles sales in the month increased 15.5% to 778,352 units and scooter sales surged 47% to 166,494 units.

India’s third-largest steelmaker JSW Steel Friday reported 8% growth in crude steel output in the fiscal first half ending in September.

The company produced 3.14 million tons of crude steel in the first six months of the current fiscal. Production of flat rolled products for second quarter stood at 1.27 million tons and long rolled products stood at 0.26 million tons, the company said in its regulatory filing.

Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd said Friday it was awarded a contract worth Rs 539 crore for setting up a gas pipeline and terminal for state-run GAIL India.

The company will lay 820 kilometers of the pipeline between Dabhol in Western India and Bangalore in the south. The project has to be completed in 13 months, it said in a statement in Mumbai today.

The Infotel Broadband Services arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries gave a working mandate to 13 banks for its debut offshore loan worth $1 billion, Basis Point reported Friday.

The financing size was increased from $500 million to $750 million proposed earlier, the report said.

Vedanta’s proposal to buy majority stake in Cairn India came a step closer on Thursday as shareholders of parent Cairn Energy overwhelmingly approved the deal, which could be worth $8.5 billion.

Vedanta Resources said it will cut its spending program by as much as $2 billion over the next two years after failing to get clearance to mine bauxite at Niyamgiri in Orissa.

“The capital expenditure revision will have an impact of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion over the next two years,” CEO Mahendra Singh Mehta said on an analyst call on Thursday.

A Coal India subsidiary and three firms of O.P. Jindal group were served show cause notices by the government for inordinate delays in developing a coal block jointly awarded to them.

The Coal Ministry is seeking a response from the companies within a month failing which de-allocation process would be initiated for violating the terms and conditions of the allotment of Utkal-A and Gopal Prasad West coal block in Orissa.

State-run Steel Authority of India said Thursday it achieved the best ever July September quarter sales of 3.17 million tons on account of higher intake by construction and manufacturing sectors.

Sales growth in second quarter this year was due to higher intake by construction and manufacturing sectors. In comparison to sales in the previous quarter, SAIL achieved a growth of 30.8%, the company said in a statement.

Steady demand from sectors like automobile and consumer durables helped domestic steel consumption to rise 9.8% in the first half of the current fiscal to 29.82 million tons as compared to a year ago period of 27.15 million tons, according to provisional data obtained from the Steel Ministry.

Gainers & Losers

Biocon Limited soared 8.7% to Rs 414.00 after the company will sell its insulin portfolio for diabetes treatment to Pfizer.

Binani Industries Limited surged 20.4% to Rs 168.30 and locked at upper circuit limit after the conglomerate agreed to take its subsidiary Binani Cement private and delist the shares.

Electrosteel Steels Limited has traded at Rs 10.80 after a 1.82% discount to the issue price of Rs 11.

GAIL (India) Limited rose 0.4% to Rs 487.05 after the influential foreign brokerage upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral' and raised the target price to Rs 570 from Rs 500.

Greaves Cotton Limited plunged 4.2% to Rs 434.50 after the range of industrial product maker turned ex-dividend October 8, for Rs 10.50 per share.

Hindustan Dorr-Oliver Limited spurted 6.6% to Rs 149.25 after the engineering and turnkey maker reported that Piramal group is looking to invest in the company.

Indian Bank slipped 3.2% to Rs 299.95 on the profit booking after the stock soared 14.91% in the preceding seven trading sessions.

Larsen & Toubro Limited gained 0.1% to Rs 2,041.90 after the engineering construction said its building & factories segment secured orders aggregating Rs 1,585 crore in second quarter September.

McNally Bharat Engineering Co. Limited declined 1% to Rs 274.35 after the engineering company secured a contract worth $18.3 million from Konkola Copper Mines Plc, Zambia for its copper concentrator plant and flotation circuit.

Orient Green Power Company Ltd. was traded at Rs 40.65 after the 13.51% discount to the issue price of Rs 47.

Pioneer Embroideries Limited slipped 4.2% to Rs 27.10 after the exporter of embroidery garment maker board will meet on October 13 to consider raising funds.

REI Agro Limited fell 0.6% to Rs 21.85 after the basmati rice producer second quarter net profit surged 46.49% to Rs 71.65 crore

Ramky Infrastructure Limited has traded at Rs 398.60 after 11.42% discount to the issue price of Rs 450.

Steel Authority of India Limited dropped 1.7% to Rs 222.00 after the steel maker on London Metal Exchange, fell 2.28% to $3,716.10 on October 7.

Surya Pharmaceutical Limited rose 0.7% to Rs 272.90 after the board decided to raise $25 million by issuing global depositary receipt.

Shreyas Shipping & Logistics Limited surged 6.1% to Rs 56.05 after the logistic company plans to invest around Rs 100 crore to expand its shipping, warehousing and inland transportation capacities.

SKS Microfinance Limited plunged 5.6% to Rs 1,228.25 non-banking finance said Securities and Exchange Board of India has asked the company to spell out the reasons behind its decision to let go chief executive officer Suresh Gurumani recently.

Tata Consultancy Services Limited fell 0.8% to Rs 941.55.