Slowdown no dampener, 6 cos refile IPO prospectuses

A piece of Chaplinesque wisdom: ‘A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure’. The com
edian, had he been alive today, would not have hesitated to add merchant bankers to the list of “perennial hopefuls”.

Expecting a market turnaround in coming months, six companies have re-filed IPO prospectuses with the regulator since June.

Companies like Alkali Metals - currently open for subscription - and Persistent Systems, which had earlier deferred their public issue plans after the market crash in January, are now willing to take a chance in a choppy market.

According to Prime Database, Gini & Jony, Globus Spirits, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts, MBL Infrastructure and MCX are other companies that have re-filed draft red herring prospectuses with the regulator.

“There is no doubt, markets are very challenging in these times. We’ve considered a few possibilities; we'll come out with our issue at the appropriate time. If the market is not favourable for the issue, we might just drop the idea on the whole,” said Enam Financial Consultants merchant banking head S Subramaniam.

According to Kotak Mahindra Capital’s investment banking head S Ramesh, it will be difficult to get a unidirectional movement in equities under current circumstances.

“Issues will have to be launched in phases or 'windows' when the market is less volatile. Current market condition is not favourable for launching issues,” Mr Ramesh added.

Source: EconomicTimes

Australian shares close down 5.0 per cent

Australian shares closed down 5.0 per cent on Wednesday amid fears for the global economy and despite a bigger than expected interest rate cu
t by the central bank the previous day.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 230.6 points to 4388.1, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 228.1 points at 4369.8.

Source: EconomicTimes

London stocks fall 1.64 per cent at open

London's FTSE 100 index of top shares fell 1.64 per cent to 4,529.64 points at the start of trading on Wednesday after Britain announced the
part-nationalisation of eight British banks.

Ahead of the opening, Britain's government Wednesday announced a plan to purchase stakes worth up to 50 bn pounds (64 bn euros, 87 bn dollars) in leading local banks amid an escalating global financial crisis.

Source: EconomicTimes

Rupee falls past 48.58/dlr to six-year low

The rupee tumbled by 54 paise to nearly six-year low of 48.47 against the greenback in morning trading on Wednesday on fears of more capital
outflows due to turmoil in equity markets.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic currency started weak at 48.22/24 a dollar from its previous close of 47.93/94 a dollar. It later touched a low of 48.47 before being quoted at 48.42/43 a dollar in late morning deals.

Dealers said oil refiners made fresh dollar buying as the Indian unit continued its slide amid unabated capital outflows and absence of dollar selling.

Foreign Institutional Investors continued to pull out funds despite removal of restrictions on Participatory Notes.

Indian benchmark Sensex plunged by 680 points or nearly 6 per cent in the initial fifteen minutes of trading. Asian indices too were down by about four per cent in early trade.

Source: EconomicTimes

Markets shows signs of pull-back, Sensex above 11K

A brief halt of trade in market due to sun-outage brought some relief for the markets as benchmarks recovered from day’s low after witnessing
frenzy of liquidating positions.

At 12:31 pm, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 11,004.07, down 691.17 points or 5.91 per cent. The index recovered over 263 points from lows of 10740.76.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 3415.55, down 191.05 points or 5.30 per cent after touching an intra-day low of 3329.45.

However, investors continued to off-load second rung stocks. BSE Midcap Index plunged 9.11 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index fell 8.23 per cent.

Among frontline stocks, Sterlite Industries (-15.44%), Satyam Computer (-14.62%), Wipro (-12.33%), Jaiprakash Associates (-12.23%) and ICICI Bank (-12.22%) were under severe pressure.

BSE Metal Index was down 9.54 per cent, BSE Realty Index was down 8.82 per cent and BSE IT Index was 8.59 per cent lower.

There were no gainers in the 30-share index.

Market breadth worsened with 2081 declines against 179 advances on BSE.

Source: EconomicTimes

Frontline banking stocks battered

Frontline banking stocks including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India were battered badly on Wednesday, following the severe downt
rend in early trade.

Despite efforts by Reserve Bank of India to improve liquidity in banking system early this week, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank plunged nearly 10 per cent, while SBI fell 5.5 per cent mid-morning, on heavy selling pressure triggered by worries over worsening financial condition across the globe.

However, HDFC bank and SBI were still trading above their respective 52-week lows, while ICICI Bank has hit a fresh 52-week low.

Selling emerged due to threat of economic recession. Private sector banks were hit badly on expectation that their growth would be hit due to their exposure to unsecured loans, technical analysts said.

At 11:25 am, HDFC Bank was down by11.5 per cent at Rs 998, ICICI Bank weaker by 9.83 per cent at Rs 437.5 and State Bank of India lost 5.79 per cent at Rs 1326.50 on BSE.

Source: EconomicTimes

IT stocks at fresh 52 week lows

IT stocks continued to languish and traded at fresh 52 week lows in the first hour of Wednesday's trade.

Infosys Technologies touched a 52-week low of Rs 1196, while TCS touched a 52-week low of Rs 516.95.

Clearly, with the American economy close to recession, investors are exiting IT stocks ahead of their quarterly results declaration shortly.

Source: EconomicTimes