Sensex gains strength as President Obama wins re-election

Indian equity benchmarks gained strength following a win of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States of America, but the US markets seem disappointed with these results as the Dow Jones futures lost 55 points.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 57.30 points at 18,874.68 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 17 points to 5,741.15. Even the Indian rupee was up by 31 paise to 54.12 against the US dollar.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank topped the buying list, rising 1.35 percent each while housing finance company HDFC went up 0.75 percent.

Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors extended gains to 1 percent ahead of second quarter numbers.

Technology majors saw buying interest following US elections outcome. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were up 0.4-0.8 percent.

Among metals stocks, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries and Jindal Steel climbed 1 percent each.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and private sector lender HDFC Bank slipped 0.2 percent, limiting the upside of market. FMCG major Hindustan Unilever fell 0.7 percent.

Private power producer Tata Power remained under pressure, losing over 1 percent following weak second quarter numbers.

In the second line shares, DB Realty, Apollo Hospital, Berger Paints, 
Anant Raj Industries and J&K Bank rallied 3-6 percent while Chennai Petroleum, Tata Communications, Allcargo, Blue Circle and Era Infra Eng lost 1-3 percent.

Advancing shares outnumbered declining by a ratio of 1331 to 647 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Sensex gains 100 pts post Cabinet reshuffle; RIL, ITC lead

Indian shares opened higher on Monday with the BSE Sensex gaining 100 points following the reshuffle of cabinet ministers yesterday. In the biggest reshuffle of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Cabinet, Manmohan Singh inducted 17 new faces and a total of 22 ministers giving several new and young faces a chance to prove their mettle as his government tries to remove the taint of scams and non-performance from its progress report.

Veerappa Moily received petroleum ministry while Ministry of State (MoS) (Independent) for Power has given to Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 114.41 points to 18,740 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 32 points to 5,696.25. But the rupee fell by 26 paise to 53.82 against the US dollar.Shares of Reliance Industries, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs, Hindalco, ITC, Tata Steel and Tata Power gained 1-1.5 percent.

Tata Motors, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bharti, ICICI Bank, TCS, State Bank of India, ONGC and M&M were up. Hindustan Unilever shed another 0.3 percent following disappointing volume growth in Q2FY13.

Infosys, Sterlite Industries, Sun Pharma and PNB were under pressure. BHEL erased early gains immediately ahead of quarterly earnings today. The BSE Midcap Index rose 0.4 percent and Smallcap went up 0.6 percent. About two shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.

All UB group stocks caught in bear grip following a statement to Reuters by the promoter Vijay Mallya saying he would not sell priced assets to save Kingfisher Airlines. United Spirits tanked 5 percent and United Breweries Holdings lost 8 percent. United Breweries was down 4 percent. Kingfisher gained 5 percent Mallya is confident of licence suspension being revoked. "We will submit a robust revival plan to Directorate General of Civil Aviation," he said.

India Infoline was up 5 percent after strong numbers. Consolidated net profit jumped significantly to Rs 66 crore in the quarter ended September 2012 from Rs 22 crore in a year ago  period. CESC bounced back with 2 percent gains after Friday's sharp fall. Firstsource Solutions gained 2.5 percent after good results. HCC, Yes Bank, IRB Infrastructure, GMR Infra, GVK Power, Sintex Industries, Chambal Fertiliser and LIC Housing Finance were up 1-2 percent.

BHEL Q2: Analysts expect margins to remain under pressure

State-run power equipment manufacturer BHEL  is set to announce its results for the quarter ended September 2012 today. Analysts on an average expect subdued revenues by the company due to sluggish order inflows.

Even margins are expected to remain under pressure due to increased pricing pressure and negative operating leverage, say analysts.

Profit after tax is likely to go up by 2.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,446 crore in the three months ended September 2012 and net sales are seen going up by 11.2 percent to Rs 11,448 crore from Rs 10,299 crore during the same period.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is expected to go up by 12.7 percent YoY to Rs 1,930 crore in the second quarter.

Analysts feel the operating profit margin will rise by 20 basis points to 16.9 percent versus 16.6 percent YoY.

German company close to buy Orient Refractories; stk up 6%

German company RH1 is close to buying Orient Refractories  for Rs 550 crore, reports The Economic Times.

At 09:22 hrs Orient Refractories was quoting at Rs 38.60, up Rs 2.30, or 6.34%. It has touched a 52-week high of Rs 41.50. 
 
It was trading with volumes of 8,650 shares. In the previous trading session, the share closed down 1.36% or Rs 0.50 at Rs 36.30.

The latest book value of the company is Rs 6.25 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company was 6.18. The dividend yield of the company was 2.59%.

Kejriwal set for another revelation today; target-Gadkari?

The man who took on Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, activist Arvind Kejriwal, is set to take centrestage again on Wednesday. Kejriwal had threatened to release proof of corruption by BJP President Nitin Gadkari. It now remains to be seen whether Gadkari will be his next target or it will be the NCP.

Kejriwal had also alleged that the Congress and the BJP were hand in glove with each other. "Why has the BJP not taken up the Salman Khurshid issue? Because both are hand in glove, they know we are going to expose Mr Gadkari now," Kejriwal had said.

Aiding Kejriwal in that promised expose, would be accompanied by Mumbai-based activist Anjali Damania, who first set the cat among the pigeons in September 2012, when she claimed that Gadkari and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were hand in glove with each other. "When I approached Mr Gadkari to raise the irrigation scam issue, he told me he could not help me because he and Pawar grant favours to each other," Damaniya had claimed.

CNN-IBN had earlier reported how the irrigation scam could potentially embarrass the BJP President. Documents accessed by CNN-IBN showed how close Gadkari aide and now party MP Ajay Sancheti had circumvented rules to get contracts from the Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation.

While corporation rules stated that no single firm can hold more than three contracts simultaneously, the Sancheti group bagged contracts FIRs in the name of Shaktikumar M Sancheti Ltd, then in the name of SMS infrastructure which was the same company with a new name, and also in joint ventures.
In the lower Penganga irrigation project that was controversially revived by Ajit Pawar just days ahead of the 2009 Assembly polls, Ajay Sancheti cornered more than one-third of the contracts. Gadkari wrote to the then water resources minister Pawan Kumar Bansal pushing for release of funds for the irrigation project, declared seriously flawed by the central water commission.

But Nitin Gadkari had remained defiant. In an interview to CNN-IBN, he even said that he will leave politics if anything against him was proved. On Wednesday, Arvind Kejriwal, who has so far gone public with charges against Vadra and Khurshid, is threatening to provide proof of alleged corruption that could embarrass the BJP chief.