Reliance special trading session today
Mumbai: On the last day of trading prior to its de-merger, the Reliance Industries (RIL) counter saw some hectic trading, which sent the stock up by more than 6 per cent. The RIL stock closed at Rs928.15 on the BSE on Tuesday, up Rs55.05 (6.31 per cent) from Monday's close of Rs873.

The counter saw huge volumes of 1.57 crore shares, compared to the two-week average volumes of over 38 lakh shares. On the NSE, the Reliance stock shot up by Rs55.55 (6.36 per cent) to end at Rs928.50, from Monday's closing price of Rs872.95.

Over 4.51 crore shares changed hands on the bourse and 40 per cent of the turnover of the two bourses was contributed by RIL alone on Tuesday. Analysts said the RIL counter attracted interest from large investors who want to get a piece of the all four entities, ahead of the de-merger coming into effect.

RIL has 9.04 per cent weightage in Nifty and 11.14 per cent in Sensex. RIL has fixed January 25 as the record date for determining the shareholders entitled for allotment of shares pursuant to the de-merger. This was the first time that a special trading session has been held exclusively in the shares of one company.
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Govt to offload 5 pc equity in PFC
New Delhi: The Government is divesting five per cent of its equity in Power Finance Corporation to the public. PFC will also issue fresh shares equivalent to 10 per cent of its equity base to the public simultaneously.

The PFC initial public offer that has been cleared by the government will be on the lines of the NTPC disinvestment process. The details on either the timing or the pricing of the public issue is not yet clear. The PFC public offer is part of the Government's plan to disinvest small stake in profit-making non-navratna companies. The Centre currently holds 100 per cent stake in the non-banking finance company (NBFC), which exclusively funds power sector projects. In 2004, the Government had sold around 5.5 per cent of its equity in NTPC through its initial public offer (IPO).

Last month, the Union Cabinet decided to allow PFC to float a public issue to sell 10 per cent of the company's authorised capital base of Rs1,030 crore. PFC posted a net profit of Rs470 crore over a total income of Rs1,563 crore during the first half of this fiscal. In 2004-05, the Corporation had reported a net profit of Rs984 crore over a total income of Rs3,047 crore.
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ICICI Pru Life get triple AAA rating by Fitch
Mumbai: Fitch Ratings has assigned ICICI Prudential Life Insurance a National Insurer Financial Strength ("IFS") rating of `AAA (ind)' with stable outlook. The rating reflects the ongoing operational and capital support received from the company's strongly rated shareholders, the currently very strong capitalisation, the important market position built by the company in the last five years and the company's strong focus on introduction of best business practices.
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Morgan Stanley bags award for Reliance, ICICI Bank deals
Mumbai: JM Morgan Stanley has received two awards from Finance Asia magazine. The US$4.8bn Reliance Industries restructuring won the best India deal for 2005 and ICICI Bank's US$1.75bn concurrent American Depository Receipt and domestic share sale deal, received the magazine's best follow-on deal.

Among the other top investment banking awards for Asia Pacific ex-Japan, ex-Australia, Finance Asia and The Asset, (Asian financial publications) also recognised JM Morgan Stanley as 2005's `Best Equity House' and `Best Financial Institutions House.

Morgan Stanley has delivered an impressively diverse array of business this year - from mid-cap Chinese IPOs to world record beating listings; it has advised on transformational bank M&As as well as critical deals for India Inc," a JM Morgan Stanley press release quoted Finance Asia as saying.
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Chola MF offers contra fund
Mumbai: Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Co promoted Chola Mutual Fund, has launched its open-ended `Chola Contra Fund', which will invest in stocks of companies that have been overlooked by the market. The company will adopt `contrarian investment strategy', which refers to buying into fundamentally sound companies that have under-performed in the recent past, said Sashi Krishnan, chief executive, Chola Mutual Fund.

He said the fund would build a diversified portfolio of such stocks with medium to long-term potential.

The initial offer for subscription opened today and closes on February 14.
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Dabur ex-bonus shares listing from tomorrow
New Delhi: Dabur India has said it would start trading ex-bonus shares from January 19 as against the fixed record date of January 20. The stock exchange has decided to trade the ex-bonus shares a day earlier with a view to protect the investors who would have
purchased shares on January 19 but would not have got these shares in their demat accounts before January 21 considering the T+2 transaction cycle, a company statement said.

All investors purchasing Dabur India shares till January 18 would get their bonus shares in their demat accounts by this month-end, the release added.
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HDFC Securities sees Sensex growing 15 per cent in 2006
Mumbai: HDFC Securities has said that the BSE Sensex would deliver a 15 per cent return in 2006 to touch 11,000 points.

Sunil Shah, managing director, HDFC Securities, presenting the `Outlook for 2006', said the company was bullish on the 12-month outlook, betting on various factors, including the robust growth of the economy, stable interest rates and earnings growth of the companies. He said the firm expects India's GDP growth to be at eight per cent in fiscal year 2007, mainly led by industry and service sectors. Manufacturing and service sectors should grow between 8-10 per cent. Growth is creating consumption led
domestic demand.

According to the firm the BSE Sensex is trading at a reasonable one-year forward price to earnings multiple of 15 and earnings growth is expected to be 15-17 per cent in 2007 financial year. He said the Indian companies are expected to grow at a higher pace, compared to other countries in the region. Another attractive feature of the Indian stock markets, according to him, is its size. At $0.6 trillion, the Indian market has achieved a size that is attractive to the foreign investors.
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