Banks, Steelmakers Up Ahead of India Budget

Mayank Mehta
17 Feb, 2010
New York City

In a pre-budget rally, stocks in Mumbai continue to advance. Finance Minister Mukherjee is scheduled to release budget on Feb 26. Tata Steel gained after it reported consolidated profit. Banks surged.

[R]6:00 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – In a pre-budget rally, stocks in Mumbai continue to advance. Finance Minister Mukherjee is scheduled to release budget on Feb 26. Tata Steel gained after it reported consolidated profit. Banks surged.[/R]

Stocks in Mumbai surged for the second day this week on the positive comments from the Reserve Bank of India governor and expectations of a growth-friendly budget.

The Sensex index in India increased 202.23 or 1.25% to 16,428.91 and CNX Nifty index rose 58.25 or 1.2% to 4,914. Among the Sensex 30 stocks, 22 rose and 8 fell.

On BSE trading, 1,678 stocks advanced, 1,118 declined and 93 were unchanged. Metal, banking, consumer durables and auto stocks advanced.

State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank Ltd gained between 1% and 4%.

RBI Governor Subbarao said yesterday that targeting inflation alone is not enough and economic growth should also be considered.

Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday that food prices have started falling and will dip further next month. He added, the government will not restrain large sugar firms from buying sugar from the domestic market.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday the economy may grow at more than 8% in the fiscal year 2010/11, after growing at around 7.5% in the current fiscal year ending March 2010.

He further said that the government''s measures to tame rising inflation would take some time to make an impact.

Excise duty on consumer goods is expected to go up between 2% and 3% in the next fiscal year beginning in March.

Rupee edged higher 5 paisa to 46.10 against one dollar.

Gainers & Losers

Areva T&D India Limited rose 2.6% to Rs 277.50 after the power distributor said on Wednesday it won an order worth about Rs 120 crore from L&T Power Ltd, a unit of Larsen & Toubro, for a power project in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Bajaj Auto Finance Limited increased 6.8% to Rs 315.40.

Bharti Airtel Limited rose 2.2% to Rs 278.70 and it confirmed in a statement that the company is prepared to pay $9 billion of the African assets and assume $1.7 billion in debt from Zain. Investors estimate that the company is paying too much for the acquisition.

Bharat Forge Limited fell 2.5% to Rs 250.20 after surging as high as 4% to Rs 256.80.

Golden Tobacco Ltd increased 5.0% to Rs 139.65 after the cigarette maker today said the company board has approved an agreement with a builder to jointly develop its Vile Parle property in Mumbai.

Hindustan Unilever Limited added 1.4% to Rs 240.50.

Indo Tech Transformers Ltd soared 16% to Rs 319.75 on the expectations that the General Electric Co. may take a stake in the company.

Parsvnath Developers Limited rose 0.6% to Rs 119.00 after promoter revokes pledged shares.

Ruchi Soya Industries Limited gained 3.7% to Rs 90.30 after the company said promoters of the company hiked stake in the firm.

Sree Sakthi Paper Mills Limited advanced 1.4% to Rs 21.20 after the company plans to invest Rs 11.62 crores.

Sujana Metal Products Limited rose 0.9% to Rs 31.55 after the company said one of the promoter group companies increased its stake in the firm.

Tata Steel Limited added 5.7% to Rs 581.55 after the company posted its first consolidated quarterly profit in four quarters and said reviving global demand will further boost earnings in fourth quarter ending in March.

Tata Power Company Limited rose 1.4% to Rs 1,260.00 after the company has entered into an agreement with Korea East West Power Company Ltd one of the largest generation utilities of Korea, to identify and execute operations & maintenance (O&M) opportunities relating to third party generation assets in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Tata Motors Limited rose 4.0% to Rs 710.50 and the company may increase prices of its commercial vehicles as much as 2% to cover the new emission standards from April 2010.