Tuesday, 13th May, 2008 Closing...

Tuesday, 13th May, 2008
Closing
All fall down...

The broader markets had a smooth first half but then the rug was pulled from beneath their feet as the indices tumbled sharply. Banking heavyweights aided the indices, while software majors faced the brunt of the selling activity. As regards global markets, while the Asian indices closed in the green, the European indices are witnessing a positive trend currently.

The BSE Sensex closed at 16,753 (down 108 points) while the NSE Nifty closed at 4,958 (down 55 points). The rupee was trading at 42.01 to the dollar.

The markets opened firm today and had a smooth sailing till noon. However, the afternoon session witnessed a steep decline, which wiped out the earlier gains and pushed the indices below yesterday's closing levels. While the BSE midcap index ended marginally higher, the BSE smallcap index ended marginally lower. The overall market breadth was negative with losers outnumbering gainers by a ratio of 2:1 on the broader BSE. Hindalco (up 3%) and Jaiprakash Associates (up 2%) led the pack of gainers, while TCS and ONGC (down 3%) led the pack of losers.

As per a leading business daily, Arvind Mills plans to invest around Rs 4 bn towards expanding its retail presence in India. The company intends to enhance its own brands as well as its global licenced brands by increasing its presence across customer segments. It also wants to carry out a debt reduction exercise by using the cash flows of its fabric business, capital infusion of Rs 1.9 bn from promoters and unlocking of value in its non-strategic assets. The company owns three pockets of land in Ahmedabad, all of which are currently being evaluated by consultants. Arvind Mills closed lower by 2%, while Raymond ended 1% lower.

As per a leading business daily, the Indian railways may soon offer around 4,800 hectares of land to companies from the retail as well as logistics sectors to set up retail outlets, agri-retail infrastructure and warehouses. RIL, ITC, the Tatas and GE Logistics are said to be interested in the development. Around 3,000 sites have been identified by the railways across India for the purpose. The companies would in turn have to provide minimum traffic guarantee to the railways. The land is likely to be given on a 10-year lease to the companies. The retailers would also get preferential freight rates compared with other customers, which is likely to help the price that farmers get for their produce. A refrigerated rail link between non-metro agriculture hubs to transport perishable agri commodities is also being considered. The Indian Railways has a total of 4.23 lakh hectares of surplus land. Of which, 43,000 hectares are vacant. RIL ended lower by 2%, while ITC ended higher by 1%.