NTPC rises on the bourses

NTPC is currently trading at Rs. 177.75, up by 0.85 points or 0.48% from its previous closing of Rs. 176.90 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 176.90 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 179.35 and Rs. 176.15 respectively. So far 19,000 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group ‘A’ stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 222.20 on 04-Oct-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 165.30 on 25-May-2011.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 182.00 and Rs. 175.55 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 1,46,563.00 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 84.50% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 11.84% and 3.66% respectively.

National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) may start work at its proposed 1,320 MW thermal project in Khulna at Bangladesh in the next six months and the project will entail an investment of about Rs 8,000 crore.

Recently, NTPC had inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Government of Kerala on July 18, 2011. The company had inked an MOU with the objective to plan and develop around 200 MW Wind Energy based Power Projects in the State of Kerala in association with Government of Kerala, on Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis using state-of-the-art technology subject to establishment of techno-commercial viability.

NTPC, India’s largest power company, was incorporated to accelerate power development in India. Presently, it has emerged as an ‘Integrated Power Major’, with a significant presence in the entire value chain of power generation business. The company’s net profit for the quarter rose by 12.70% at Rs 2075.78 crore as compared to Rs 1841.89 crore for the same quarter last year. Its total income increased by 12.22% to Rs 15167.89 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 13516.31 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Shriram EPC gains on bagging an order from Australian Company

Shriram EPC is currently trading at Rs. 136.20, up by 2.10 points or 1.57% from its previous closing of Rs. 134.10 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 139.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 140.00 and Rs. 136.20 respectively.

The BSE group ‘B’ stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 313.80 on 17-Sep-2010 and a 52 week low of Rs. 123.00 on 24-May-2011.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 144.45 and Rs. 130.80 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 603.00 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 39.44% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 11.14% and 49.42% respectively.

Shriram EPC has been awarded an order from Australian Company which is in partnership with a leading Investment Bank in the USA. The order win, in consortium with Chemie-Tech L.L.C of the UAE, pertains to setting up a 75 million litre diesel tank storage facility in the port of Mackay in Queensland, Australia  and is scheduled to be completed  within 13 months from commencement. The consortium has also signed a MoU with the client for five more such facilities in Australia.

Shriram EPC is one of the leading  service providers  of the integrated designs, engineering, procurement, construction and  project management services  for power plants, renewable  energy projects, process and metallurgical plants and municipal service sector projects throughout India and overseas.

 

Source: www.indothai.co.in

US markets closed lower due to weak manufacturing data

The US markets made soft closing on Monday, though the markets moved higher in early trade as the White House and the Congressional leaders agreed to raise the debt ceiling framework but weak manufacturing data weighed on the investor’s mood and pulled the markets lower. The debt framework agreed by the White House and Congressional leaders was a compromise that pushed the Democratic demand to raise taxes to 2013 and prioritized the spending cuts in two steps as demanded by the most extreme wing of the Republican Party. Most investors were disappointed with the size of spending cuts and lack of new government revenues. The debt deal if passed, will certainly slowdown the economy and keep unemployment rate near or above 10% well into 2013.

The market later slumped on the weak manufacturing report. The US manufacturing index dropped in July and showed nearly no growth in the month. Markets were also unnerved by the weak manufacturing data in Europe, China and India.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 10.75 points, or 0.09 percent, to 12,132.49. The Standard and Poor’s 500 lost 5.34 points, or 0.41 percent, to 1,286.94, while the Nasdaq composite closed lower by 11.77 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,744.61.

The Indian ADRs closed mixed on Monday, Infosys Technologies was up by 1.03%, ICICI Bank was up by 0.71% and HDFC Bank was up by 0.26%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries was down by 0.42%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 0.15% and Wipro was down by 0.12%.

NHPC, Aurobindo Pharma and Jyoti may witness some action today

State-run hydro power generation company NHPC would invest around Rs 15,000 crore for developing two projects in the neighbouring country Myanmar. NHPC is preparing detailed project report (DPR) for 1,200 MW Htamanthi and 660 MW Shwezaye Hydro Power Projects on Chindwin River in Myanmar. The cost incurred for producing one megawatt of hydro power is approximately Rs 8 crore. Currently, NHPC has 14 operational power stations with a total installed capacity of 5,295 MW. NHPC has commissioned the 14.1 MW Devighat Project in Nepal and 60 MW Kurichu Project in Bhutan on turnkey basis. The company is providing its technical expertise in the area of hydro power development in countries like Myanmar, Bhutan and Tajikistan. The company is also preparing DPRs for the 670 MW Chamkarchhu-I and 1,800 MW Kuri-Gongri HE projects in Bhutan.

City based-drug maker Aurobindo Pharma is eyeing overseas and domestic acquisitions to achieve a $2 billion turnover by 2014. The company may lose $40 million in revenues due to the ongoing import ban issued by the US Food and Drug Administration on production from the company’s Unit-VI facility. The company board recently appointed a restructuring committee to examine if the company needs to be restructured and its businesses spun off or demerged into separate formulations and bulk actives companies. Another proposal under consideration by the company is to acquire a city-based branded formulations marketing company.

GVK Power & Infrastructure has emerged as the frontrunner to develop and operate the 330 km stretch Shivpuri-Dewas national highway in Madhya Pradesh. The Rs 2,815 crore project had received responses from 14 bidders on opening of the bids. The bidders included Indian construction majors like Reliance Infrastructure, Gammon Infrastructure, L&T Infrastructure Development Infrastructure amongst others. GVK emerged as the best bidder by offering an annual premium of Rs 180.9 crore to NHAI. The premium will increase by 5 percent every year during the concession period of 30 years.

Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals is planning to enter into manufacturing of formulation drugs in three new therapeutic segments in the current fiscal. The company would invest around Rs 200 crore to support the new business. The proposed investment is to support the company’s foray into therapeutic segments in which manufacturing process is difficult and has less competition. The current fiscal’s investment of Rs 200 crore will be on setting up of a facility to manufacture the new products.

Electrical equipment maker Jyoti entered into collaboration agreement with DMW Corporation for manufacturing pumps for large power and irrigation projects in India. The company announced the collaboration yesterday. The collaboration marks company’s entry into larger business segment. Jyoti is anticipating its business to grow by Rs 200-300 crore in next five years. Recently, Jyoti invested close to Rs 100 crore in capacity and expansion, which will be utilised to manufacture pumps for large power and irrigation projects in India. DMW Corporation is a 101-year-old Japanese company, engaged in manufacturing pumps for nuclear and thermal power projects and large irrigation projects.

Drugmaker JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals is in talks with South African drug makers for new long-term contract manufacturing opportunities. The mid-sized company agreed in May to sell its over-the-counter business in Russia to an affiliate of US-based Johnson & Johnson for $260 million. The company is now fully focused on formulations and contract manufacturing business to drive growth.

ABB has won orders worth Rs 16.1 crore to supply turnkey power and automation solutions for three photovoltaic (PV) solar power plants with a combined capacity of 11 megawatts (MW) in India. The order comprises of two 5-MW PV solar power plants and one 1-MW PV solar power plant, which on completion in October this year, will have an annual generating capacity of 17.6 gigawatt-hours of electricity. This will save CO2 emissions of 12,500 MTs per year, equivalent to the emissions of 3,100 cars annually.

Tata Motors reported total sales during July, 2011, to 63,761 units from 67,800 units in the same month of 2010 recording a decline of 5.96%. The firm’s total passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market stood at 17,192 units in July, a fall of 38.30% from 27,865 units in the same month last year. Tata Nano’s sales stood at 3,260 units during the month, down 64%. The ‘Indica’ range reported sales of 5,860 units, down 32% against July, 2010. The ‘Indigo’ family recorded sales of 4,877 units, a decrease of 30% in comparison to the same month last year while sales of ‘Sumo’, ‘Safari’ and ‘Aria’ fell by 2% to 3,195 units. In the commercial vehicles segment, the company sold 40,798 units in the domestic market during the month under review, compared to 35,694 units in the same month last year, translating into an increase of 14.30%.

Fortis Healthcare (India) is likely to start six new hospitals in southern and western India that could entail an investment of up to Rs 1,050 crore. The expansion will increase the network’s bed capacity by 1,400 beds to 9,700. The hospitals will be set up in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Indore and Jabalpur.  With the upper limit of Rs 75 lakh per bed, the new 1,400 beds would need an investment of Rs 1,050 crore. The tertiary care hospital at Pune and super speciality hospital in Chennai would commence operations in 2012, while the hospital projects at Hyderabad and Indore are in an advanced stage of planning.

As many as 20 companies have shown interest in setting up the 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power project (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Orissa. The companies include JSW Energy,NTPC, Nalco, Tata Power, Welspun Energy, AES India, Torrent Power, L&T, Adani Power and GVK Energy Ventures. Lanco Hydro Power Ventures, GMR Energy, Senator Energy, Jaiprakash Power Ventures, Gujarat Paguthan Energy Corporation, CESC, Jindal Power, Sterlite Energy, Vadinar Power Company and Aditya Birla Power Venture havealso shown interest in the project.

Opening Bell: Markets to make a sluggish start, may lose the last day’s gain in early trade

The Indian markets managed a close of green in previous session despite some weak economic news, while PMI came at 20 months low, the PMEAC lowered the economic growth projection to 8.2% from 8.5%. It was mainly the news from US that the Democrats and the Republicans agreed to a compromise deal late Sunday evening to raise the US debt ceiling, that helped the global markets to move higher. India’s exports rose by 46.45 per cent to $29.21 billion during June 2011. But today the start is likely to be soft, as the global cues are not looking firm and the economic developments that were overlooked in yesterday’s trade will come on forefront today. Meanwhile, India Inc has urged Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to speed up regulatory and procedural measures, especially relating to environmental clearances and land acquisition, to give a push to investment. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council has lowered the economic growth projection and has said that inflation would remain high for another few months and forecast that foreign institutional flows would more than halve.

Also, there will be some important result announcements to keep the markets buzzing. DLF, MMTC, Oracle Financials, Piramal Health, Power Grid Corporation, United Brew Holding etc. will be among the majors to announce their first quarter numbers today.

The US markets cheered the possibility of getting the debt deal through, but amid some skepticism, closed lower on Monday before Congress was expected to vote the debt deal. The Asian markets have made a soft start and most of the indices are trading lower by and some are even down by over a percent.

Back home, Indian stock markets got off to a sober start on the first day of August as the frontline indices managed to cling on to important psychological levels amid the volatility. However, the close looked unimpressive in the face of the rally seen in markets across the globe after US lawmakers reached a last-minute agreement to reduce the budget deficit and potentially avoid a nightmarish debt default. The confirmation by US President Barack Obama that an agreement had been reached with senior Republicans and Democrats to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit, fortified investors’ conviction on hopes that the deal will help in avoiding the worst scenario where the US government ceases to function and the economy goes into a double-dip recession. However, a slew of not so encouraging domestic leads slowed down the pace at which the benchmarks traded in the early moments of the day. The ministry of commerce released India’s foreign trade data for the month of June which showed that India’s exports grew by an impressive 46.45% to $ 29.21 billion in June, 2011, despite uncertainty in the US and European markets. Though imports too grew by 42.4% to $ 36.8 billion in June, the trade deficit of $7.6 billion was almost half the level of $ 14.9 billion seen in May, lessening concerns over the country’s balance of payments situation. Meanwhile, investors’ optimism took a hit after the PM’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) panel downgraded the country’s GDP growth projection from the estimated 8.5% to 8.2%. Reports that the PM’s panel expects India’s headline inflation to ease to 6.5% by March 2012 but it sees RBI continuing its monetary tightening to tame inflation, also dragged key gauges closer to the previous session’s closing levels. Earlier on Dalal Street, the benchmark got off to a gap up opening as the indices sailed past the psychological 5,550 and 18,400 levels in the early moments of trade. But the indices gradually kept losing steam as the weak developments from the local front weighed down sentiments. The bourses which intraday lows in mid-noon trades saw some short covering thereafter which ensured that the benchmarks settle with well over half a percent gains, halting the four session downward journey. The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, climbed by over half a percent to settle above the crucial 5,500 support level while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index Sensex hit a century and ended above the psychological 18,300 mark. Broader markets failed to show any kind of fervor and slipped below the neutral line, underperforming their larger peers by quite a margin. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 117.13 points or 0.64% to settle at 18,314.33, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 34.80 points or 0.63% to close at 5,516.80.

The US markets made a soft closing on Monday, though the markets moved higher in early trade as the White House and the Congressional leaders agreed to raise the debt ceiling framework but weak manufacturing data weighed on the investor’s mood and pulled the markets lower. The debt framework agreed by the White House and Congressional leaders was a compromise that pushed the Democratic demand to raise taxes to 2013 and prioritized the spending cuts in two steps as demanded by the most extreme wing of the Republican Party.  Most investors were disappointed with the size of spending cuts and lack of new government revenues. The debt deal if passed, will certainly slowdown the economy and keep unemployment rate near or above 10% well into 2013.

The market later slumped on the weak manufacturing report. The US manufacturing index dropped in July and showed nearly no growth in the month. Markets were also unnerved by the weak manufacturing data in Europe, China and India.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 10.75 points, or 0.09 percent, to 12,132.49. The Standard and Poor’s 500 lost 5.34 points, or 0.41 percent, to 1,286.94, while the Nasdaq composite closed lower by 11.77 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,744.61.

Crude prices closed lower on Monday after a volatile session, the initial jubilation that came with tentative, White House-backed deal of raising the US borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented debt default faded with a weak reading from the Institute for Supply Management for its US manufacturing index. US manufacturing grew at its slowest pace in two years in July as new orders contracted.

Benchmark crude for September delivery fell 81 cents, or 0.85 percent, to settle at $94.89 a barrel, the lowest close since ending at $93.46 on June 28, after trading in a range of $93.42 to $98.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for September closed 14 cents higher at $116.88 a barrel on the ICE.