Maruti debuts at premium of 35 pc
Nearly twenty years after its first car was launched in the Indian market Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) listed its shares on the stock exchanges today and in quickly rode up to trade at a premium of nearly 35 per cent to its issue price of Rs 125.

Dealers said nearly one million shares changed hands in the first 15 minutes of the trading and by the close of the day, 5.12 crore shares, nearly 65 per cent of the entire public float was traded on the bourses with a market capitalisation of about Rs 5,000 crore.

Analysts say institutional investors bought the Maruti share in huge quantities. A dealer with a domestic retail brokerage said small investors were enthusiastic sellers of the share. Dealers said they expected the stock to climb to Rs 190-200 level in the short-term.
The stock touched a high of Rs 170.25 and a low of Rs 156.10 on the BSE but closed at Rs 164.05 on the BSE and Rs 164.30 on the NSE.

Mr Uday Kotak, chairman of the lead book runner to the issue, Kotak Investment Banking, said the "Retail response to the issue was unprecedented while the depth and quality of the institutional book was equally unmatched and rarely seen in India. He said he expects the Maruti issue to trigger more IPOs."
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Key stocks downtrade in dull Sensex
Apart from Maruti Udyog, which was the highlight of the day's trading other stocks were dull in the day's trading.
Key Sensex stocks such as State Bank of India, ITC and HPCL opened weak and traded in a range, which ensured that the index finished lower by 8.89 points at 3,620.79 points. The Nifty shed 4.85 points to finish at 1,141.05 points.

Technology major Infosys Technologies continued to stay firm one day before the declaration of its quarterly results. The stock moved by Rs 14.45 to close at Rs 3,255.70 on volumes of about three lakh shares.

Dr. Reddy's Labs gained about Rs 8 to end the day at Rs 1,145.6. This comes close on the heels of the company announcing that it had received tentative approval from the USFDA to market a version of an anti-depressant drug of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Larsen and Toubro continued the gains it made on previous day's trading trade as the stock put on Rs 7.75 to end at Rs 270.20.
Cipla, which was gaining over the past few sessions, got caught in a correction and slipped by Rs 23.05 to settle at Rs 805.30.

Software company MphasiS BFL, got off to a good start on the basis of its 40 percent jump in earnings report. This however, did not seem to excite the markets and the stock slipped by Rs 2.75 to settle at Rs 344.7, after having scaled an intra-day peak of Rs 370.

Lupin Labs rose on news that its promoters had decided to sell an additional 12.55 per cent of the equity to Newbridge Capital at a price of Rs 252 per share. The stock climbed by Rs 9.40 to settle at 307.55, after having scaled an intra-day high of Rs 330. Close to nine lakh shares were traded on the counter. A few days ago, Lupin's promoters had sold 12.5 per cent of the equity to the venture capital arm of Citigroup.

There was some excitement around courier company Blue Dart Express on news that Deutsche Post AG, owner of DHL Worldwide, was planning to make an open offer to shareholders of Blue Dart.

The stock surged by over Rs 15 during early trades, before closing at Rs 88.4 with a gain of Rs 4.95 on volumes of about 0.72 lakh shares.
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Sify, Rediff see buying interest on Nasdaq
Chennai: Sify and Rediff are witnessing tremendous buying interest on the Nasdaq along with Chinese Internet stocks. In the past fortnight stock prices of Sify and Rediff increased by over $2 to $7.47 and $7.63 per American Depositary Share (ADS) respectively.

Sify saw an over 160 per cent increase in the stock price in the last one year.

At market closing on Tuesday Sify's market capital was $244 million, while Rediff's was $195 million, according to data from the Nasdaq Web site. Further, volume in Sify scrip on Tuesday was 5.60 lakh compared to 1.43 lakh about 15 days ago. Similarly, volume in Rediff increased to 17.17 lakh compared to 1.61 lakh a fortnight ago.

Chinese Internet stocks also saw a similar increase in stock prices. The stock of Sohu.com Inc, a Beijing portal company, was trading at $38 on Tuesday, compared to $1.20 in August last year. Similarly, the stock of Shanghai-based portal Sina.com was trading at $24, over 250 per cent increase over the same period last year.
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Earnings reports result in mixed closing of US stocks
New York: Investors on Wall Street cashed in profits from the market's recent rally while they await second-quarter earnings reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 66.88, or 0.7 per cent, at 9,156.21, following a two-day gain of 152 points.
The broader market finished mixed. The Nasdaq composite index inched up 1.06, or 0.1 per cent, to 1,747.52, having advanced 83 points so far this week to reach its highest level in nearly 15 months.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 5.62, or 0.6 per cent, to 1,002.22, following a two-day gain of 22 points.

A government report showing an unexpected drop in wholesale inventories also pressured stocks. The Commerce Department reported that inventories fell 0.3 per cent in May to a seasonally adjusted level of $289.34 billion. Economists had predicted a 0.1 per cent rise.

While stocks have rallied in recent months, investors are now eagerly looking to second-quarter earnings for more solid proof that the economy is rebounding.

The Russell 2000 index, which tracks smaller company stocks, rose 3.01, or 0.6 per cent, to 476.98.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished 0.9 per cent higher Wednesday. In Europe, France's CAC-40 fell 1.2 per cent, Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.5 per cent and Germany's DAX index declined 0.7 per cent.
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UCO to price public issue at Rs 12
Mumbai: UCO Bank plans to price its Rs 200 crore initial public offer (IPO) at Rs 12 a share. The issue will hit the market towards the last week of August.

SBI Caps, Enam Financial Services, DSP Merrill Lynch, J M Morgan Stanley, and Kotak Securities & Financial services are merchant bankers to the issue.

V P Shetty, chairman and managing director of UCO Bank, said the bank expected the green signal from Sebi by the middle of August after which the issue will hit the primary market towards the end of August.

The bank has reserved around 10 per cent of the offer for its employees who will be entitled to loans at competitive rates.
After successful completion of the offer, the government holding in the bank will come down to a little less than 74 per cent.

The bank's huge client base of 1.9 lakh is also expected to subscribe to UCO shares in a big way. The three years weighted average earning per share on a Rs 10 share at present stands at Rs 2.45, while its EPS for the last years stands at Rs 3.
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