Sensex Rises 2%, Mixed Earnings

123jump.com Staff
30 Jan, 2009
New York City

Foreign currency rserves of India declined $4.5 billion to $247.6 billion at the end of last week. Core rate of economic growth declined at 2.3% in December. Tata Motors reported 263 crore rupees in the latest quarter. Adani Enterprises net in the quarter dropped 54%. L&T profit nearly tripled.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30 PM Mumbai - Indian foreign currency reserves decline $4.5 billion to $247.6 billion in the week ended January 23. Core growth rate of the nation falls 2.3% in December.[/R]

Indian stocks increased on healthy rollover of derivative positions after the expiry of January derivative positions. Rollover of the CNX Nifty index based positions from January to February series was 66%, a slight decline from 66.5% rollover from December to January positions.

Market-wide rollover of positions was 75% from 76% earlier.

In Mumbai, the BSE 30-share Sensex index rose 2% or 187.96 to 9,424.24, and the CNX Nifty gained 1.8% or 50.85 to 2,874.80.

Of the stocks traded on BSE, 1,382 gained, 1,029 declined, and 64 were unchanged.

Trading Statistics

Daily turnover on the BSE declined to 3,589 crore rupees from 3,825 crore rupees yesterday.

India’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Fall $4.5 billion

Reserve Bank of India reported today that the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell $4.5 billion to $247.5 billion in the week ended January 23.

Foreign currency assets fell $4.5 billion to $238.3 billion and reserves with the IMF declined $15 billion during the period.

Foreign currency reserves have since dropped $62 billion in the current fiscal year.

Core Growth Falls 2.3% in December

India’s commerce and industry ministry reported that the growth rate of crude oil, refinery products, coal, power, cement and finished steel fell 2.3% in December 2008 from 3.2% in the comparable year ago period.

Crude oil production declined 0.3% in December 2008 from 1.4% a year ago, while the steel sector shed 0.8% from 1.8% in December 2007.

Electricity generation dropped 0.7% in December 2008 from 3.9% in the same month previous year.

Petroleum refining and coal production advanced 3% and 9.4% from 1.9% and 8.4%, respectively, in the period, while cement production grew 11.6% in December 2008 compared to 4.4% a year earlier.

According to the report, output growth by the six core sectors during April-December period eased to 3.5% from 5.9% a year ago.

India’s Fiscal Deficit Rises Surges 150%

The Indian government reported that the country’s fiscal deficit in the nine months (April-December) of the current fiscal year increased more than one-and-half-times the original budget to 2,18,262 crore rupees.

Fiscal deficit in the period is 3.63% of the estimated value of the GDP.

Gainers & Losers

Reliance Industries increased 4.5% to 1,325.20 rupees on reports the Bombay High Court has in its interim order lifted stay on sale of RIL gas till the final order.

RNRL rose 4.6% but NTPC declined 0.2%. ONGC gained 3%.

Hindalco Industries rose 6.5% after its net profit remained unchanged in the three months to December from a year ago.

Financial stocks advanced on expectations. HDFC Bank increased 0.3%, State Bank of India edged up 5.1% after its profit gained 37% to 2478.42 crore rupees and ICICI Bank climbed 1.9%.

HDFC rose 0.46% and Punjab National Bank increased 2.6% after its net profit nearly doubled in the December quarter from a year ago.

IT stocks rallied. Wipro jumped 2%, Infosys Technologies slipped 0.3%, HCL Technologies gained 5.4% and TCS jumped 0.6%.

Larsen & Toubro increased 4.4% after its profit more than trebled in the December quarter.

Bharat Heavy Electricals shed 2.6%. The latest profit will increase 2.4% to 790.56 crore rupees in the three months to December from a year ago.

Tata Motors declined 0.6% after it reported a loss of 263 crore rupees in the latest quarter.

Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries fell 6.1% ahead of its third quarter results and Spice Communications climbed 81.2% to 47.74 rupees.

Balrampur Chini increased 9% and Adani Enterprises fell 1.6% after its net profit shed 54% in the December quarter.

Ceat Ltd. rose 2.8% on reports it will post a profit in the Jan-March 2009 period after three consecutive quarters of losses as input prices fall.