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Indian stock market daily morning report (March 18, 2013, Monday)

Contributed by Keynote Capitals

Views on markets today

Key benchmark indices edged lower as weakness in European stocks hit investor sentiment adversely. The barometer index, BSE Sensex, lost 142.88 points or 0.73%, off close to 245 points from the days high and up about 45 points from the days low. Nifty50 dropped by 36.35 points or 0.62% to close at 5872.60.

BSE today said will include United Breweries scrip in S&P BSE 100 and S&P BSE Car bonex indices with effect from March 19. The BSE will also include L&T Finance Holding in S&P BSE 200 and Credit Analysis and Research Ltd in S&P BSE 500 index effective from March 19, an exchange release said.

A promoter entity of Wipro Ltd offloaded over 7Cr shares of the IT company to two other promoters in transactions worth Rs 3269.57 crore.

The shares of the banks fell briefly on Thursday following the allegations on the top 3 private sector banks for money laundering schemes. HDFC Bank, has appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd the accounting and audit firm, to carry out an independent forensic enquiry into the allegations made by Cobrapost representatives, stating that the bank employees are encouraging customers to evade income tax payments. The sting operation by Cobrapost.com, an online news provider, claimed that staff at ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were helping customers do deals that violate income-tax, enforcement and banking laws.

Among the 13 sectoral indices, nine sectors closed in negative while four sectors closed in positive. Top Gainers: BSE Consumer Durables up by 2.49%, BSE IT by 0.25% and BSE Teck by 0.02% .Top Losers: BSE Realty down by 2.81%, BSE Bankex by 1.67% and BSE Oil &Gas by 1.18%.

Market breadth was negative at ~0.64x as investors sold large cap stocks. On provisional basis, FII bought equity of Rs10.18bn and domestic institutions sold equity of Rs5.84bn in cash segment.


Economic and Corporate Developments

India's services exports in January, 2013 stood at $13.89 billion, up 7.9% from a month ago, according to the Reserve Bank Bank of India.The services exports in December, 2012 stood at $12.88 billion.Imports of services also moved up to $7.52 billion in January from $6.76 billion in the previous month, as per the RBI data.

Petrol price is cut by Rs 2 per litre with effect from midnight of 16th March across four metros, following a decline in international crude oil prices, however there is no change in diesel price.


Buzzing Stocks

The Finance Ministry is eying Rs 20,000 crore from a 10% divestment of Coal India . This means that from one stake sale alone, the government may just meet half of the Rs 40,000 crore divestment target it has set out for itself for FY14.

The government on Saturday has ordered Bharti Airtel, the country's largest mobile phone company, to stop providing third-generation (3G) services in Kolkata, Maharashtra, Gujarat and four other regions by Monday, as it cracks the whip on companies offering these services in areas where they do not have permits.

Commercial vehicles maker Ashok Leyland on Friday sold 50 lakh shares of private lender IndusInd in a transaction worth over Rs 216 crore.

The Rs 270-crore initial public offer of Repco Home Finance was oversubscribed on the last day of the issue today.

The company received bids for 2.17 crore shares against an offer of 1.33 crore shares, translating into 1.62 times subscription till 1600 hrs on friday, as per data available on NSE