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Fund
buying lifts MTNL
Mumbai: The stock of public sector telecom major,
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), witnessed an increased
buying activity on the bourses on Tuesday. The interest,
apparently, was fuelled by disinvestment talks, which
saw the company's shares being mopped up by primarily
by institutional investors, according to dealers. Prominent
among these, were a foreign fund and a large private sector
mutual fund, which was said to have picked up MTNL's stock
for one of its equity schemes, said dealers. The stock
closed 4.95 per cent higher on the BSE at Rs 107.05 with
trading volumes of 13.31 lakh shares. On NSE, the stock
climbed 5.15 per cent ending at Rs 107.25 with 30.34 lakh
shares traded.
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Institutional
sell-off seen in Sun Pharma
Mumbai: Domestic pharma company Sun Pharma came
under heavy selling pressures. Dealers said that the stock
suffered on account of large foreign financial institution
off-loading major chunks of its pharma portfolio though
the rationale behind the move is not clear yet. Besides,
the company has a relatively low floating stock so any
development at the counter is reflected in sharp price
movements. The company's stock fell 9.02 per cent on the
BSE to close at Rs 319.75 with 19,270 shares traded. On
the NSE, it lost 9.06 per cent, closing at Rs 319.65 with
53,814 shares traded.
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Hindalco
falls on FII selling
Mumbai: The stock of Aditya Birla Group company,
Hindalco Industries, lost ground on the back of institutional
selling. Dealers attributed the fall in the share price
primarily to FII selling. They said that a South-East
Asia-based financial institution sold significant amount
of Hindalco shares on Tuesday. In fact, the FII has been
selling the stock over the past couple of days, apparently,
booking profits at the counter. Unit Trust of India is
also reported to have sold the stock during the last hour
of trading. Hindalco's share price closed 5.40 per cent
lower at Rs 710.35 on the BSE with 74,010 shares traded.
On the NSE, the stock lost 5.16 per cent at Rs 711.05
with 1.10 lakh shares traded.
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Indo
Gulf at new high on open offer notice
Mumbai: Shares of Indo Gulf Fertilizer (IGF) hit
a 52-week high of Rs 70.50 on the bourses, following reports
that the AV Birla Group, via its company, TGS Investment
and Trade, has made an open offer to buy 20 per cent in
IGF at Rs 75 per share.
The stock ended the day at Rs 67.60 up 14.3 per cent on
the BSE with around 3.54 lakh shares traded. On the NSE,
the stock ended the day at Rs 67.45 up 14.2 per cent with
around 7.51 lakh shares traded. Market sources maintain
that this move is seen as the Birla group consolidating
its position to broadbase its interest in the fertiliser
industry.
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Matrix
Lab up on revenue hopes
Mumbai: The stock of the Hyderabad-based Matrix
Laboratories is in the limelight as investors expect good
financial performance post-merger with Vorin Laboratories
and Medicorp Technologies. The stock has moved up by over
31 per cent in the past one month and today closed higher
by five per cent at Rs 487 with 68,870 shares being traded
on the BSE. The company is in the process of developing
three more molecules with non-infringing patentable processes
for regulated markets. Analysts say the company will be
able to launch one product in each of the next three years.
"Currently, the Citalopram revenues constitute almost
50 per cent of the earnings of Matrix. If the company
is able to add a few more molecules to the pipeline in
the next few years, the turnover will be significantly
enhanced," said the analyst. The company has around
45 APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) on its product
list. The segments include anti bacterials, anti histamines,
CNS agents, cardio vasculars, anti virals, anti diabetics,
anti fungals, proton pump inhibitors and pain management
drugs. For the year ended 2002-03, Matrix registered a
sales turnover of Rs 266.88 crore as compared with Rs
93.2 crore in the previous year. Net profit was at Rs
108.93 crore, up from Rs 4.48 crore last year.
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Meet
settlement obligations: CSE tells members
Kolkata: The Calcutta Stock Exchange has advised
members to meet their clearing and settlement obligations,
following a directive from SEBI. The market regulator
had earlier this year advised the exchange to bring about
changes in bye-laws and other rules in order to implement
its decision regarding reduction of exposure limits of
members who fail to meet their obligations to the clearing
house under the revised settlement cycle (T+2). In cases
where the amount of shortage in a settlement for a member
is in excess of the prescribed base minimum capital (BMC),
the trading facility of such member will be withdrawn
and the securities payout due will be withheld. Similar
measures will also be taken in cases where the amount
of shortage exceeds 20 per cent of the BMC and is less
than the BMC on six occasions within a span of three months.
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SEs
allowed to refund up to Rs 3 lakh capital to brokers
Hyderabad: Responding favourably to the requests
of various stock exchanges (SEs) that were currently suffering
from pitiable business volumes, the Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI) has directed the SEs to refund up
to Rs 3 lakh of base minimum capital (BMC) to their member
brokers. While the BMC was prescribed at Rs 2 lakh per
member broker till 1995-end, the requirements of BMC were
revised and enhanced during January 1996to Rs 4 lakh per
member. While some of the exchanges sought exemption from
the regulator to maintain the BMC at Rs 2 lakh only in
view of poor business volumes, many of the bourses complied
with the requirement and made their member brokers furnish
the additional BMC. Of late, SEBI has been receiving a
number of representations from SEs with a request for
refund/withdrawal of the BMC in view of the insignificant
volumes at most of the exchanges. The market regulator,
which re-examined the issue recently, has decided to review
the capital requirements. In a communiqué to the
SEs, the regulator said those SEs having average daily
turnover of less than Rs 1 crore for the past three months
or any three consecutive months from the date of the latest
circular can maintain the BMC at Rs 1 lakh. The SEBI has
advised the exchanges to refund the excess of BMC of Rs
1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh to the member brokers, however, subject
to certain conditions.
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StanChart
MF open to acquisitions
Chennai: Standard Chartered Asset Management Company
believes that now is the time for the AMC to move into
equity funds too. In the last three years of its existence,
the AMC has been a "focussed debt fund house".
The AMC is quite open to growth through acquisitions,
and did indeed bid for both Kothari Pioneer and Zurich
AMC, Standard Chartered AMC's managing director Naval
Bir Kumar, had said. (Kothari Pioneer was taken over by
Templeton and Zurich by HDFC Mutual Fund). He, however,
said that the pricing was an important issue in acquiring
funds. As a thumb rule, Kumar said, that four per cent
of the assets under management for equity funds, and two
funds for debt funds, would be an appropriate valuation
for an AMC.
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Aditya
Birla co makes offer for 20 per cent in Indo Gulf
Mumbai: TGS Investment & Trade Pvt Ltd, a company
owned by the Aditya Birla group, is buying 20 per cent
of Indo Gulf Fertilizers Ltd, also an Aditya Birla Group
company, by making an open offer to the latter's shareholders
at Rs 75 per share.
Hindalco Industries Ltd, Indian Rayon & Industries
Ltd and Grasim Industries Ltd are acting in concert with
TGS. Currently, the group holds a stake of 31.9 per cent.
As on date, Hindalco holds 8.68 per cent, Grasim 12.26
per cent and Indian Rayon 8.68 per cent of Indo Gulf.
TGS holds 1.90 per cent. The offer opens on July 31 and
closes on August 29. After the demerger of the copper
division, Indo Gulf is vested with the fertiliser business
of Indo Gulf Corporation Ltd. Following the approval of
the demerger by the court, the fertiliser business of
Indo Gulf Corporation has been transferred to and vested
in Indo Gulf Fertilizer Ltd on a going concern basis with
effect from appointed date (from close of business March
31, 2002).
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PSB
plans IPO for Rs 100 cr
New Delhi: Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) plans to
hit the capital market with a Rs 100-crore initial public
offer (IPO), the chairman and managing director of the
bank, N.S. Gujral, has said. "The bank has plans
to hit the market with an initial public offer of Rs 100
crore to strengthen its capital base and also to fund
its business plans," Gujral has said in a statement
issued on the occasion of the completion of the 95th year
of operation by the bank . Gujral said that the bank has
registered an operating profit of Rs 264 crore for the
financial year ending March 31, 2003, a rise of 61 per
cent over the previous year's net of Rs 163.70 crore.
The bank's total business has crossed Rs 19,693 crore
with deposits of Rs 13,212 crore and advances of Rs 6,481
crore as on March 31, 2003.
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SEBI
clears way for more retail investors
New Delhi: The Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI) has announced a slew of big-bang measures
to bolster the primary market and further encourage retail
investor participation. The measures, announced by the
SEBI Chairman, G.N. Bajpai, here on Tuesday, include shortening
the maximum time span between the closure of an issue
and its listing from 15 days to six days and reduction
in mandatory allocation for qualified institutional buyers
(QIB) in primary issues from 60 per cent to 50 per cent.
"Lowering QIB allocation will ensure availability
of a relatively higher portion of the issue to retail
investors," Bajpai told newspersons. Further, the
definition of a `retail investor' in the case of book-built
issues has been changed in favour of the amount invested,
instead of the number of shares applied for.
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Rupee
down 3 paise; gilts range-bound
Mumbai: The domestic currency closed at 46.70 per
dollar on Tuesday in a volatile forex market, weaker by
3 paise as compared to Monday's close at 46.67. Dealers
said, there had been a lot of speculative build up in
the market, with banks taking long positions over the
past couple of days, in anticipation of increased month
end demand for dollars. However, when the anticipated
demand for the greenback did not materialise, the banks
went on to liquidate their long dollars.
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