Infosys Plunged 5%, Grasim Surged

Ivaylo
11 Jul, 2007
New York City

Lowered earnings outlook from Infosys in rupees and weak trading in global markets added volatility to the Sensex. Auto and banking stocks came under heavy selling pressure, while metals, cement and oil stocks gained. Grasim and Tata Steel led the advancers, while IT stocks underperformed with Infosys leading the decliners. The Indian rupee advances may be arrested with the intervention from Reserve Bank of India.

[R]7:30AM NY – 6:30 PM Mumbai Sensex sheds 99 points after Infosys tumbles.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 99.26 points lower, or 0.66%, at 14,910.62.

The Sensex opened 62 points lower to 14,948. The index plunged to a low of 14,830, down 180 points from the previous close in early deals. Steady performance of metal stocks lifted index into positive zone, touching an intra-day high of 15,015 in morning deals. Weak IT stocks led the index sideways.

Apart from the IT sector, auto and banking stocks also suffered profit taking and declined. However, cement, metal and offshore oil services firms advanced.

The market-breadth was strong, though. Out of 2,694 stocks traded on the market, 1,444 stocks advanced, 1,183 declined, and 67 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 12 advanced, 17 declined and one remained unchanged. The turnover on BSE was Rs 5,473 crore, higher than Rs 5,111 crore on Tuesday. On the NSE daily turnover was reported at Rs 11,183 crore compared to Rs 10,720 crore yesterday.

Economic news

The Reserve Bank of India may intervene and sell the currency to protect exports. The rupee is the second-best performing Asian currency this year as foreign funds accelerate their purchases of local shares in view of the fast growing economy. The rupee has increased 9.5% in 2007.

Infosys

Infosys Technologies Ltd., the second-largest computer-services, reduced its profit and sales guidance after a stronger rupee affected the value of earnings from the U.S., its largest market. The company revised upwards its earnings forecasts in dollar between 28.4% and 29.7% higher than the earlier guidance of 25.7% to 27.7% growth. In rupee terms, the company revised its guidance downwards in the range of 15.6% to 16.8%, lower than the earlier guidance in the range of 20% to 22% growth. It has also cut the revenue guidance in rupee terms in the range of 16.9% to 18.3%, from the earlier guidance of a growth of 22.6% to 24.6%.

Trading highlights

Infosys was also the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 299 crore followed by DLF and Roman Tarmat.

Advancers of the Day

Grasim surged 3.4% to Rs 2,819 and Tata Steel also rallied 3.4% to Rs 655. Reportedly, steel consumption will grow 16% per year until 2012, or twice as fast as in the past five years, powered by strong demand for construction projects worth $1 trillion.

Hopes for strong earnings results drove cement stocks higher. ACC soared over 3% to Rs 1,069, UltraTech Cement Company was up 1.60% to Rs 897 and Birla Corporation gained 4.3% to Rs 286.

Reliance Energy rose 2% to Rs 626 and Hindustan Unilever rallied 2% to Rs 202.

Decliners of the Day

Infosys led the decliners, plunging 4.5% to Rs 1,930. Other IT stocks declined with four of the top five decliners were from the IT sector. Satyam and TCS lost 3.3% each to Rs 481 and Rs 1,147, respectively. Wipro dipped 2% to Rs 510.

Ambuja Cements bucked the trend with the cement stocks and lost nearly 2% to Rs 128. Tata Motors sank 1.7% to Rs 732, and Ranbaxy slipped 1.5% to Rs 357.

ICICI Bank was down 1% to Rs 954 and Mahindra & Mahindra also lost 1% to Rs 781.


[R]6:30AM European markets decline on financial services stocks and exporters.[/R]

European markets were sharply lower Wednesday. The German DAX 30 index slipped 1.4% at 7.858.22, the French CAC-40 index lost 1.1% at 5,955.39 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index declined 0.6% at 6,590.30. National benchmarks declined in all 17 western European markets that were open except Denmark.

Banks fell sharply across the region as investors around the region are worried about the losses in the U.S. mortgage market. Exporters suffer as well as the dollar slid to its lowest level against the euro and the other major currencies.

In London, HSBC Holdings and HBOS led the decliners on concern losses in subprime mortgages in the U.S. will hamper economic and earnings growth. Royal Dutch Shell and BP dropped after Goldman, Sachs & Co. downgraded the shares and crude oil retreated. Among the gainers were BskyB, AstraZeneca and BG Group.

In Frankfurt, industrial group Siemens weighed on the market as the slump in the dollar affected the company which derives 20% of its sales from exports in the U.S. BMW also dipped.

In Paris, Michelin & Cie., Alcatel-Lucent and Alstom SA declined.

Advancers of the Day

BskyB rose 2.2% after the satellite television firm announced that it has added a record number of new customers in the three months to June 30 of 349,000, up 20% from last year.

AstraZeneca gained 1.8% after an upgrade from Morgan Stanley to overweight from a previous rating of equal-weight.

Goldman Sachs upgraded gas explorer BG Group to buy from sell. BG shares rose 1.2%.

Decliners of the Day

Swiss bank UBS lost 1.6%, while Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland second-largest bank, declined 1.3%

Siemens, the largest engineering company in Europe, fell 1.4%. The company derives about 20% of its revenue in the U.S. BMW, the largest maker of luxury cars in the world, lost 1.3%.

Supermarket chain Carrefour outperformed the French market, trading down just 0.4% after it posted second-quarter sales growth of 5.9% to 22.64 billion euros after strong growth in Spain, Greece, Poland and Romania.

Royal Dutch Shell shares lost 1%.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar sank further against the euro Wednesday, as the euro reached $1.3784 overnight before settling back to $1.3740 in morning European trading. The British pound, bought $2.0279 Wednesday, slightly above the $2.0267 it bought late Tuesday. The dollar fell to 121.45 yen from 122.03 yen.

[R]5:30AM Gold advances modestly Wednesday, while copper falls, oil surges.[/R]

The most-active gold for August delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ended up $1.90 at $664.40 an ounce, touching a one-month peak of $667.00, which marked the highest level since June 7. Silver also rallied with a 15.5-cent advance to settle at $12.975 an ounce.

Copper dropped despite diminishing inventories, while steel-coating metals nickel and zinc plummeted on the London Metal Exchange. In New York, copper futures shed 1.95 cents to close at $3.61 a pound on the Nymex.

Crude oil for August delivery added 62 cents a barrel to settle at $72.81 on reports of refinery problems and, as a result, raising prices for refined products. Gasoline futures also rose 2.48 cents to end at $2.3694 a gallon, while natural gas and heating oil prices climbed too.

November soybeans rallied 18.4 cents to end at $9.204 a bushel, while wheat advanced 2.2 cents to close at $6.016 a bushel. December corn gained 6.6 cents to close at $3.57 a bushel.