India Government to Reveal Second Stimulus Plan

123jump.com Staff
29 Dec, 2008
New York City

India government will announce the second stimulus package for this fiscal year and the one for 2009 to 2010 in the next few days to boost economic growth.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30 PM Mumbai- India to unveil second stimulus package in the next few days.[/R]

Indian market indices rose in choppy trading as index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Satyam Computer Services were highly volatile.
The market was leveraged by gains in Asian stocks.

In Mumbai, the BSE 30-share Sensex Index rose 2.2% or 204.60 to 9533.52, and the CNX Nifty soared 2.3% or 64.95 to 2922.20.

Of the stocks traded on BSE, 1302 rose, 1091 declined, and 86 were unchanged.
Trading Statistics

Daily turnover on BSE stood at 3398 crore rupees from 3,175.04 crore rupees on Friday last week.

Government to Unveil Second Stimulus Plan

Economic Times of India reported today that Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia Chandrasekhar said government will unveil the second stimulus package for this fiscal year and the one for 2009 to 2010 in the next few days to boost economic growth.

Government will make the announcement after coordinating a number of different steps.

“I am hoping that we will get something. I can assure you that the main thing is to make sure that expenditure we have already provided and the new expenditure gets done. In the Planning Commission, we are not proposing any new expenditure for the current year,” said Ahluwalia.

Jet Airways to Cut Fares by 40%

Jet Airways said today it will slash the basic fare on economy class on all its domestic flights by 40% effective today.

A Mumbai-Delhi economy class basic fare has been lowered to 2,000 rupees, for Mumbai-Kolkata has been cut to 4,065 rupees, while fares for Bengaluru-Mumbai will be reduced to 1,220 rupees.

Gainers & Losers

Ranbaxy rose 8.2% to 234.80 rupees, Jaiprakash Associates jumped 7.9% to 79.45 rupees, and Grasim jumped 6% to 1260 rupees.

Satyam Computer Services gained 10.4% to 149.55 rupees after reporting today that two other independent directors-Mangalam Srinivasam and Dham- resigned. The company also suspended today''s board meeting consider more options than a share buyback.

IT stocks rose as the rupee fell to 48.49 against the dollar from 48.45 on Friday last week. Infosys gained 0.2% to 1112 rupees, Wipro jumped 0.9% to 229 rupees and Tata Consultancy Services advanced 1% to 476.85 rupees.
Core Projects & Technologies increased 5.2% to 46.95 rupees after announcing that it has acquired a US-based company for $20 million.

Financial stocks rose. ICICI Bank advanced 6% to 442.90 rupees on news it will cut interest rates by 50-75 basis points across the board, HDFC Bank gained 2.2% to 993.80 rupees and State Bank of India edged up 2.3% to 1272.70 rupees.

Reliance Industries climbed 3.2% to 1251 rupees after Reliance Petroleum last week began processing crude at its 5,80,000 barrels per day refinery.

Telecom stocks increased. Bharti Airtel jumped 3.7% to 712 rupees and Reliance Communications climbed 3.7% to 212.60 rupees.

Commodity stocks rose. Tata Steel increased 1.7% to 215 rupees, Steel Authority of India soared 11% to 78.20 rupees and Sterlite Industries gained 3.3% to 257.20 rupees.

Hindalco Industries rose 1.3% to 49.20 rupees on news it might spend 25,000 crore rupees over the next five years for expanding capacity by as much as three times in aluminium and copper.

Hindustan Zinc climbed 4% to 340.20 rupees after the company hiked zinc prices by 3%.

Bharat Heavy Electricals edged up 3.7% to 1348 rupees on reports it has received a 5,040 crore rupees contract from Jindal Power for setting up 2,400-megawatt power plant in Chhatisgarh.

Real estate stocks were mixed. Indiabulls Real Estate fell 2.2%, DLF dropped 0.1%, but Unitech increased 6.5%, and Housing Development and Infrastructure gained 1.8%.

Auto stocks fell on forecasted depressed December sales. Mahindra & Mahindra shed 3.6% to 256 rupees and Maruti Suzuki India dropped 2.1% to 499.80 rupees.

Airlines rose on low oil prices. Jet Airways India rose 2.6% to 190.50 rupees after cutting basic domestic fares by 15% to 40% effective today.