Samir Arora stocks tumble
Mumbai: Stocks favoured by Samir Arora, former head of emerging Asian markets at Alliance Capital, fell slightly on Monday. However, the reaction of these stocks was not as sharp as feared by a section of the market.

Stocks, considered Arora's top picks include United Phosphorus, Mastek, Digital GlobalSoft, Trent, E-Serve International, Balaji Telefilms, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Pantaloon Retail and Hinduja TMT.

The Digital GlobalSoft scrip lost 2.57 per cent and dropped to Rs 465.45, but came up from the day’s low of Rs 439.80. Mastek tumbled 1.62 per cent at Rs 206.
United Phosphorous rose 2 per cent to Rs 241.55, and media major Zee Telefilm gained 0.09 per cent at Rs 115.30.

A dealer with a local brokerage said the stocks tumbled following Sebi’s indication that “Samir Arora had a close rapport with these firms for extracting crucial, unpublished, price-sensitive information.”

Overall, the market closed higher from Friday's close. BSE Sensex gained 9.65 points and NSE's S&P CNX Nifty gained around 10 points.
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Alliance Capital suffering setbacks
Mumbai: There seems to increasing redemption pressure on Alliance Capital Mutual Fund (ACMF) as more and more fund distributors are advising their clients to exit the fund.

However, investors seemed to be comfortable with Alliance’s fixed-income scheme.

Piyush Surana, chief operating officer, Alliance Capital Management, denied any major redemption pressure. He said, “We had redemptions of about Rs 25 crore in fixed income non-cash funds today and about Rs 10 crore in equity funds,” he said.

The distributors estimate the total amount of redemptions at between Rs 200-250 crore. This comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) debarred its fund manager Samir Arora from the securities market with immediate effect.
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Mutual funds upbeat
Mumbai: Domestic mutual funds are gaining due to the bullish mood prevailing in the equity markets. Almost all the equity-focussed funds have reported a sharp rise in assets under management (AUM).

The industry website www.mutualfundsindia.com shows data of 17 private sector mutual funds and all have increased their assets.

The highest growth rate in AUM, in percentage terms, was reported by Tata Mutual Fund which clocked a 27.7 per cent growth to 2,275 crore between June 1 and July 31, 2003.

Deutsche Mutual Fund’s AUM grew 24.9 per cent to Rs 1,515 crore and HSBC Mutual Fund registered a 17.7 per cent rise in assets to Rs 1,930 crore.

Debt funds are also doing well. Standard Chartered Mutual Fund medium term debt plan’s success is a case in point.
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Deutsche arm launches equities business in India
Mumbai: Deutsche Equities India Pvt Ltd, part of the Deutsche Bank Group, has begun its equity trading business in India and is a member of the NSE. It is also registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India as a stockbroker.

Deutsche Equities India will be based in Mumbai and will provide equities sales, execution and research services to clients, with a focus on select local institutional accounts, international fund managers and investors.

Mr Ed Peter, head of global emerging markets equities, said, "India is a vital component in completing the development of our network in Asia. There is significant international interest in the equities market in India and we hold a positive view on the growth potential of the market and the overall development of the financial services sector."
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AMFI cautions against high profile fund managers
Kolkata: The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has come out strongly against high-profile fund managers on whom investors rely excessively.
The association says investors should look at factors other than merely the fund managers' credentials and the clout they carry in the market.

Mr A.P. Kurian, Chairman of AMFI said investors, especially ordinary ones, should think twice before they become blind followers of particular very high profile fund managers.

He was referring to the statement, noted in the SEBI order passed on Saturday, that Mr Samir Arora's conduct erodes investors' confidence and is detrimental to their interests. The regulator also specifically mentioned that investors lost due to a decline in net asset values - a result of Mr Arora's "pivotal role in thwarting the plan to sell the stake of ACM (Alliance Capital Management), which by and large contributed to the fall of approximately Rs 1,300 crore in the AUM (assets under management) of Alliance Capital Mutual Fund".
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Titan shines as gold price goes up
Jewellery maker Titan Industries’ stock suddenly shot into limelight on Monday on buying by institutional investors.
The reason for the buying was due to the rise in the price of gold in the last one month and the
possibility of gains from the company's gold inventory.
The stock closed sharply higher at Rs 80.45, up 17.10 on the BSE with volume of 7.19 lakh shares and on the NSE it closed at Rs 81.50, up 19.15 per cent.
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MRPL sees buying interest
The Mangalore Refinery stock is suddenly attracting many buyers. Dealers say the interest in the counter is due to the fact that MRPL has been valued lower than Bongaigaon Refinery despite having a higher refinery capacity. Another factor, they say is the soft launch of petrol pumps by the company in Bangalore. The talk is that after the soft launch, it would be aggressive in setting up petrol pumps with the support of its new parent ONGC.

The stock of MRPL closed at Rs 29.85, up 10.15 per cent with volume of 26.17 lakh shares on BSE and on NSE it closed at Rs 30, up 10.91 per cent with volume of 88.79 lakh shares.
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MFL gains on sell-off hopes
The stock of Madras Fertiliser Ltd (MFL) from which the government is expected to divest its 58.5 percent stake soon gained on the stock markets. The stock closed at Rs 28.05, up 10 per cent with volume of 1.94 lakh shares on the BSE and on the NSE it closed at Rs 28.30, up 10.12 per cent with volume of 9.78 lakh shares.
Dealers said the expression of interest has already been invited and the disinvestment could happen soon. Talk is that the bidding for the Government stake would be aggressive at a price much higher than the current ruling market price.
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Sustained buying perks up power sector stocks
Stocks of frontline and second-rung power equipment and power utility stocks such as BHEL, Tata Power, Reliance Energy/BSES to Alstom Power, CESC, Ahmedabad Electricity, Surat Electricity gained on the bourses on Monday due to sustained buying.

While dealers said that the feel-good factor surrounding the sector is aiding momentum in power stocks, sources said that of late fund interest in these stocks has been significant.

Analysts maintain that the de-licensing of power generation projects would definitely help in improving investment flow in generation.

Distribution licensees would now be free to undertake generation and generation companies would be free to take up distribution, so inefficiencies of one will not impact the other. And with the improved conditions of state electricity boards (SEBs) one will see private players being attracted to this sector," an analyst said.
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Sensex ends on positive note
Despite a lower closing at 42 points lower than the last week's closing, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended the first day of the week in positive territory up 9.65 points (0.25 per cent) on Monday.

The index opened at 3842.14 points and closed at 3893.41 points reaching an intra-day high of 3915.9 points and a low of 3842.14 points witnessing an intra-day swing of 73.76 points.

Following the SEBI order barring Mr Samir Arora, chief investment officer of Alliance Capital Mutual Fund, on allegations of insider trading, the markets opened slightly jittery.

Of the 2141 stocks traded in the BSE, 1241 stocks advanced, 822 stocks declined, while 78 remained unchanged.

RelianceIndustries and Infosys Technologies lost ground while Hindustan Lever, State Bank of India and ITC ended higher.

The broad-based 50-stock NSE CNX Nifty also rose by 0.83 per cent to 1232.85 points.

Reliance Industries’ stock fell by 0.6 per cent to Rs 361.50, while Infosys Technologies dropped 2.3 per cent to Rs 3,476.05. Hindustan Lever gained 1.9 per cent to Rs 171.35, State Bank of India rose by 2.5 per cent to Rs 432.80.

The stock price of Steel Authority of India Ltd surged 18.5 per cent to Rs 31.65 accompanied by trading volumes of about two-crore shares. Tata Iron & Steel stock also rose 1.8 per cent on trading volumes of 37.4 lakh shares. Essar Steel was up 8.9 per cent to Rs 22.05 on accompanying volumes of 71.8 lakh shares.

Other steel stocks that gained ground include Jindal Vijaynagar (10.2 per cent) and Jindal Iron & Steel (1.8 per cent).

Shipping stocks also witnessed heightened activity on Monday. The stock price of Essar Shipping appreciated 9.1 per cent to Rs 14.98 accompanied by volumes of 32.9 lakh shares. GE Shipping also rose 12.5 per cent to Rs 68.95 on trading volumes of 17.8 lakh shares. Shipping Corporation of India also ended up 6.9 per cent to Rs 87.55 accompanying volumes of 18.5 lakh shares.

Other PSUs ending the day in positive territory included ONGC (four per cent), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (three per cent) and National Aluminium (2.1 per cent). Hindustan Petroleum ended the day on a negative note.

Jewellery and watch-maker Titan Industries witnessed a sharp rise in its stock price on Monday. The stock was up 17.1 per cent to Rs 80.45 on trading volumes of 7.2 lakh shares.

The other major stocks, which witnessed huge trading volumes, were Arvind Remedies, IFCI, Mangalore Refineries, Maruti Udyog and Himachal Futuristic.

Information Technology stocks fell on Monday. Mastek, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Aftek Infosys and KPIT Infosys lost ground. Samir Arora favourite Digital GlobalSoft, also fell by 2.6 per cent to Rs 465.45.
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Dow closes 26 points higher
New York: Oracle and Adobe Systems received brokerage upgrades due to which Wall rebounded on Monday, with tech shares leading the gains up from heavy losses last week.

Buying interest was light in anticipation of a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates on Tuesday and economic reports due out later this week on retail sales and the producer price index.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 26.26, or 0.3 per cent, at 9,217.35, following a weekly gain of 0.4 per cent.

The broader market also finished higher. The Nasdaq composite index gained 17.48, or 1.1 per cent, to 1,661.51, having declined 4.2 per cent last week. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.00, or 0.3 per cent, to 980.59, following a weekly loss of 0.3 per cent.

Oracle gained 39 cents to $11.68 after Merrill Lynch upgraded the software company's stock rating to "buy" from "neutral”, citing good valuation.

Adobe Systems climbed $1.48 to $33.26 after US Bancorp Piper Jaffray raised the graphics software maker's stock rating to "strong buy" from "outperform”.

Trading was uneven in the recent past as investors wanted more evidence that the economic recovery was firmly back on track.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average finished 1.7 per cent higher on Monday. In Europe, France's CAC-40 rose 0.7 per cent, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.7 per cent and Germany's DAX index increased 0.2 per cent.
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