Strong earthquake hits northeast Japan, tsunami warning issued

Tokyo: A strong earthquake centred off the coast of northeastern Japan shook buildings as far as Tokyo and led to a tsunami warning for coastal areas of the northeast, public broadcaster NHK said on Friday.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, the US Geological Survey said. That was revised from an earlier estimate of 7.4.

A warning for a one metre tsunami was issued for the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

That quake triggered fuel-rod meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing radiation leakage, contamination of food and water and mass evacuations in the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

The government declared in December that the disaster was under control, but much of the area is still free of population.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, reported no irregularities at its nuclear plants after the latest quake.

9 stocks that you can buy now: Expert tips

Moneycontrol Bureau

Sentiments, across the global markets, have changed.  There is a lot of optimism in the market now. The Indian market witnessed a strong rally on Tuesday. That rally is extended today.

Moneycontrol brings to you some of the recommendations given by experts that will help you cash in on the many opportunities available.

Stock picks for today:

Sudarshan Sukhani, s2analytics.com is bullish on Kotak Mahindra Bank  . "It is now on the verge of a significant breakout on the upside. It is giving excellent signs of a strong uptrend. So, it is a buy. It is not an intraday buy necessarily," he elaborates.

HDIL  has been Sukhani’s favourite. "A lot of the stocks are giving continuation patterns in an uptrend. That means HDIL rallied, it went into a sideways range and a sideways trade could go anyway. But, now, there are clear signs that the pattern, which it is developing, gives us another rally in the offering. So, we want to back HDIL today," he adds.

Sukhani has a 'buy' rating on Titan . "It rallied from Rs 210 to Rs 295. It is almost 45 percent in three months. We caught it when it moved up above Rs 230. Trends will always be discovered, once they start never at the beginning and since then Titan has been moving up. It has come in the buy list again and again as it has come today. It is making these new highs for this uptrend," he asserts.

Sukhani is also betting on Bajaj Auto  . "It is a green chart. It rallied, made a small flag like formation. A flag comes midway in an uptrend and then it resumes its rally. It resumed it on Tuesday. I think there significant upside is left," he adds.

Also read: Nifty may see 6000 in December, says Sudarshan Sukhani

Multibagger ideas:

SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com has picked up CESC  and Liberty Shoes  as his multibaggers.

CESC, Tulsian says, is a good opportunity to buy it. "I am not giving a short-term view of five-six months. But if you keep a view of about one-year, they can look to a price of Rs 360," he adds.

According to Tulsian, Liberty Shoes looks quite good. "I feel that stock can move to Rs 140 in next one year or so," he asserts.

Brokerage read:

Stock: Jet Airways 

Brokerage: Citi

Rating: Buy

Target: Rs 545

Rationale: The deal with Etihad will be skewed towards a fresh issue, which could result in fund infusion and reduce interest costs.

Stock: JP Power

Brokerage: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Rating: Buy

Target: Rs 55

Rationale: JP Power is close to bagging the stage two forest clearance for a mine linked to its most profitable power projects. The stock could re-rate if it becomes free cash flow positive and the leverage situation improves.

Stock: Bharti Airtel 

Brokerage: Nomura

Rating: Reduce

Target: Rs 290

Rationale: While there is a real potential for higher margins post the recent spectrum auction failure, the stock doesn't look cheap after the recent run.

Stock: GSK Consumer

Brokerage: Citi

Rating: Buy

Target: Rs 3,475

Rationale: Investors should tender in the offer and hold the remaining shares not accepted, as the stock may command a delisting premium from here-on.

Sensex tops 19,000; Eicher, Videocon lead midcaps

Equity benchmarks built on their early gains, with the BSE Sensex now up close to 200 points at 19039. The December series of Nifty futures were quoting at a 40-point premium to the spot Nifty rate of 5780, indicating that traders were betting on the market to extend its rise next month.

Brokers said the upbeat mood could partly be due to reasons of sentiment rather than fundamentals.

"December is very kind to equities. Going back 32 years to 1980, December has produced a 4.6% median return with an 80% probabilitythe best for any month in the calendar," said a report by Morgan Stanley .

"Over the past 20 years, 1994, 2000, 2001 and 2011 are the only for occasions when December generated negative returns," the report said.

Realty, auto and FMCG shares are the big gainers in the first hour of trade. HDIL, Videocon and Eicher Motors were among the top gainers in the midcap space, up 4-5%.

Apollo Hospital was the biggest loser, down over 9% to Rs 792 on heavy volumes. Market talk is that CLSA has sold its 6.15% stake in the company at a discount to the market price.

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.