By Angel Broking

The benchmarks spurted to their highest level in a month and a half, as European stocks and US index futures moved off their early lows. Banking and IT stocks rose, while auto stocks fell. The market was volatile. The Sensex recovered from the lower level in morning trade, after hitting a fresh intraday low. The intraday recovery gathered steam, with the Sensex surging to the day's high. The market pared gains after hitting fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. The Sensex surged at the end of trade, as European stocks recovered from early lows. The Sensex and the Nifty closed in the green, with gains of 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices underperformed the benchmark indices and closed with losses of 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively. Among the front-liners, Sun Pharma, Sterlite, Bharti Airtel, Wipro and ICICI Bank were up by 1-3%, while HUL, Hindalco, RCOM, ACC and Tata Power were down by 1-4%. In the mid-cap segment, Core Projects & Technologies, AIA Engineering, Fortis Health, CRISIL and Gammon Infra were up by 4-6%, while Shree Renuka Sugars, National Fertilizers, Indusind Bank, EID Parry, and REI Six Ten were down by 4-6%.

Markets Today

The trend deciding level for the day is 17146/ 5129 levels. NIFTY trades above this level during the first half-an-hour of trade then we may witness a further rally up to 17237 – 17307/ 5157 – 5180 levels. However, if NIFTY trades below 17146 / 5129 levels for the first half-an-hour of trade then it may correct up to 17076 – 16985/ 5106 – 5079 levels.

Bharti Airtel launches Digital Media Business

Bharti Airtel, a leading Telecom operator, which also provides DTH (Direct To Home) or Digital TV services, has now entered the business of providing integrated content delivery solutions to Media and Entertainment Industry, by creating its own digital media exchange. This exchange would offer the Media and Entertainment Industry a secure digital distribution capability across multiple media platforms. This would ensure that content producers can have an integrated content delivery and aggregation platform that repackages content for all Media formats, as there is strong demand for secure distribution across multiple platforms. Bharti Airtel’s Teleport services would do content gathering and distribution work across the globe. The Indian Media and Entertainment Industry currently stands at ~Rs61,100cr as on CY2009 and is expected to have a CAGR of 11% for the next five years. This exhibits a strong opportunity for Bharti Airtel for its new Digital Media Business venture in the coming times, which would also cushions its current challenging status of the Mobility business. We maintain a Buy on the stock.

Sun Pharma launches generic version of Eloxatin

Sun Pharma has launched the generic version of Eloxatin in the US market after the settlement with the Innovator in October 2009. Eloxatin, one of the leading products of Sanofi-Aventis, is used to treat colon cancer and had US $1.4bn sales in CY2008 in the US. The launch of generic version of Eloxatin is positive and likely to provide a boost to its US sales in near term as only three players (Teva, Hospira and Sandoz) are present in the market, and with one or two player likely to enter in the next 1-2 years, we expect the product to contribute an NPV of Rs21 per share. We recommend a Neutral on the stock. The key upside risk to our call would be the completion of the Taro acquisition.

AREVA T&D India wins contract worth Rs400cr

Areva T&D India has been awarded contract worth Rs400cr by state utility Uttar Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation Limited (UPPTCL). The company will build a 765 kV Extra High-Voltage (EHV) substation at the Anpara “D” thermal power plant in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The project is scheduled for completion by end-2011. We maintain our Neutral view on the stock.

Economic and Political News
- MSMEs contribution to GDP to rise to 10%: Fin Secy.
- Food inflation marginally down to 17.8%
- Oil cos. may get freedom to price 5 kg gas cylinder to cut losses
- Govt. rejects relaxing foreign donation rules

Corporate News
- Power Finance Corp. approves Rs2,248cr loan to BRBCL
- Mahindra Satyam wins US $48mn Danish contract
- Fortis buys 23.9% in Singapore firm, Parkway
- IVR Prime raises Rs150cr for infra projects