Market Awaits RBI Decision

123jump.com Staff
28 Jan, 2008
New York City

Global market worries dragged Sensex lower. The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index fell on Monday with a loss of 1.1% or 208.88 to 18,152.78. Larsen & Toubro reported third quarter earnings rise of 41% from a year ago to 481 crore rupees on 54% rise in sales. L&T fell 1.6% to 3,830 rupees.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai – Global market worries dragged stock index lower. L&T third quarter profit jumped 41%.[/R]

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index fell on Monday with a loss of 1.1% or 208.88 to 18,152.78.

The market had slipped into the red in the afternoon but recovered during the late trading hours lifted by heavy buying in banking and auto shares and in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and L&T.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was down 109.25 points or 2.03% at 5,274.10.

On the BSE, 1,844 shares declined, 881 advanced, and 34 shares remained unchanged. Of the BSE 30-share Sensex index, 21 declined while the rest were up.

Turnover on the BSE was 3,901 crore rupees and on the NSE was recorded at 11,224 crore rupees. Reliance Natural Resources recorded turnover of 239.08 crore rupees followed by Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy, Essar Oil, and Reliance Petroleum.

Of the BSE stocks, Bajaj Auto advanced 6.2% to 2,405 rupees. It led the gainers was the top gainers in the Sensex index. DLF slipped 5.2% to 896 rupees. It led the losers in the Sensex index.

Maruti Udyog surged 4.4% to 866 rupees while Mahindra & Mahindra added 2.8% to 693 rupees.

Banking shares recovered from early lows, ahead of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)''s quarterly monetary policy review scheduled on Tuesday.

State Bank of India lost 4.3% to 2,302.9 rupees. HDFC Bank was down 2% to 1,570 rupees and ICICI Bank advanced 1.2% to 1,274 rupees.

Reliance Industries, The fourth largest oil refiner in the world, fell 2.07% to 2,555.5 rupees. According to local news reports, RIL plans to foray in engineering, procurement and construction business to reach turnover of 5,000 crore rupees during the first year.

Larsen & Toubro declined 1.6% to 3,830 rupees. During the market hours, the company reported 40.1% surge in net profit to 481.79 crore rupees on 53.48% rise in total income to 6,483.55 crore rupees in third quarter ending in December 2007.

Reliance Energy gained 2.1% to 2,073 rupees and ACC added 2.6% to 807.8 rupees.

Ranbaxy Laboratories was down 5.1% to 349.2 rupees and Bharti Airtel shed 4.9% to 870.05 rupees. Infosys Technologies lost 4.6% to 1,451 rupees.


[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo- Subprime fears and comments from IMF Chief led Tokyo stocks down 3.97%.[/R]

Stocks in Japan dropped as exporters declined on a strengthening yen and on observations by the IMF that global economic conditions will worsen.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 fell 3.97% or 541.25 to 13,087.91, while the broader Topix Index slumped 51.74 to 1,293.03. Market sold-off after comments from IMF Chief in Switzerland, worsening economic indicators, and worries that the U.S. stimulus package will not be enough to avert a recession in the U.S.

In first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 8.3 billion shares valued at 989 billion yen were traded and in the second section 493 million shares valued at 4.7 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 shares 5 rose, 216 declined, and 4 were unchanged. Dainippon Sumitomo led advancers with a rise of 3.17% followed by Meiji Seika climbing 1.12%.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at the weekend during a public debate on the global economy at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that there was no doubt that “there will be a serious slowdown that will require a serious response”, adding that governments cannot rely on monetary instruments alone to forestall a global economic slowdown.

Just months ago he had said that monetary stimulus will be sufficient and had urged the U.S. to restrain from any fiscal stimulus. His reversal of stance is partly from the worsening credit crisis in the U.S., spreading of American contagion to UK, and persisten choppiness in the global financial markets.

Bloomberg news reported today that Goldman Sachs chief economist in Japan Tetsufumi Yamakawa reported in a research note published today that declining domestic demand and wages, and falling industrial output will lead Japan into a recession.

Tetsufumi added that export shipments to China in the fourth quarter, though expected to offset a shrinking U.S. market, were growing at a much slower pace in volume terms than in the previous quarters.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency announced on its website yesterday that Kanto Local Bureau issued an administrative order against Teramento Corporation requiring it to submit correction of shareholdings reports submitted Friday on securities filings worth 20 trillion yen.

In the filings Teramento Corporation claimed majority shareholdings in Astellas Pharmaceutical Company, Sony Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Toyota Motor Corporation, Fuji Television Network Incorporated, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.

Japan’s National Tourist Organization announced today that foreign tourists visiting Japan rose 13.8% from previous year to 8.3 million in 2007 on increasing number of tourists from Asian countries spurred by robust economic growth in the region.

About 2.6 million visitors were from South Korea, 1.3 million were from Taiwan and visitors from China jumped 16.2% from a year earlier to 943,400.

JNTO also added that the number of Japanese traveling abroad fell the most in five years by 1.3% year-on-year to 17 million.

Of the Nikkei 225 index shares Dainippon Sumitomo led advancers with a rise of 3.17% followed by rises in Meiji Seika of 1.12%, in Tokyo Dome Corporation of 0.87%, in Comsys Holdings of 0.36%, and in KDDI Corporation of 0.28%.

Tokyo Dome Corporation gained on Nikkei news online reports that transactions of office buildings and commercial facilities in Japan soared 31% from a year ago to 177 cases in December buoyed by strong demand for properties in the Tokyo metropolitan area from overseas investors.

KDDI Corporation rose after reporting Friday that net profit for the nine months to December rose 12.4% to 214.8 billion from a year ago period.

The company also reported that revenue increased 7.2% for the period under review to 2.64 trillion yen led by a rise of 1.9 million subscribers to its “au” mobile phone service.

KDDI president Tadashi Onodera added that the company now expects a record operating profit of more than 400 billion yen.

Sumco Corporation led decliners in Nikkei 225 stocks with a plunge of 11.46% followed by losses in Fanuc Limited of 9.09%, in Mitsumi Electric Company of 8.85%, in Fuji Electric House of 8.19%, in Mitsumi Engineering & Shipbuilding of 8.17%.

Exporters also fell after the yen gained from 106.72 to 106.08 against the dollar at the close of trade. Canon Incorporated fell 4.94%, Sony Corporation shed 3.52% and Toyota Motor Corporation declined 2.51%.