Jaiprakash Associates recovers sharply

At 6:53 pm, Jaiprakash Associates was quoting at Rs 59.15, up Rs 5.75, or 10.77%. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 61 and an intraday low of Rs 57.

It was trading with volumes of 681,405 shares. Yesterday the share closed down 10.33% or Rs 6.15 at Rs 53.40.

Source: Moneycontrol

Key indices make auspicious start, gain over 5 pc

Samvat 2065 gave some sort of breather to the markets as key indices gained by more than 5% on the auspicious day. The strong uptick in Dow J
ones futures and the robust performance of other Asian markets helped spread a positive mood after several days of brutal hammering.

The 30-share Sensex closed the day with a gain of 498.52 points or 5.86% while the broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day with again of 154 points or 6.12% at 2,678.80.

Tuesday's trading was a special trade held to celebrate the start of the calendar year for the Hindu community.

Beaten down sectors such as realty and metal witnessed some buying with their respective indices gaining the most. All the other sectoral indices ended in the green gaining in the range of 4% to 7%. M&M, J P Associates and Hindalco were the top gainers gaining around 12% each.

Considered being a sacred day for the broking industry broker members did trades mainly on their proprietary books. Muhurat trading is historically a trader's day which depict some interest in the small cap stocks and sell in the next trading session enabling the markets to fall in the next trading session.

The Advances and the declines were inclined towards the advances with around 80% rising 18% losing and around 2% stocks remained unchanged.

Hansal Thakkar, lalkar Securities said, "With the investors making a voyage through the painful times in the markets- with the Sensex losing more than 30% in the month of October it self. It is a good beginning for the investors for the New Year. However it would be to early to make a call on the markets bottom and much is depedend on the US elections and how the liquidity situation pans out across the globe."

Source: EconomicTimes

Global finance could lose $2.8 trillion in crisis

The global financial system could lose $2.8 trillion to the credit crisis, the Bank of England said on Tuesday, before an expected interest rate cut in the United States that others are poised to match.

Governments have agreed to inject around $4 trillion into banks and markets to contain the worst financial crisis in 80 years, which has forced stock markets to tumble and banks out of business, hastening a recession in much of the world.

Japan restricted investor bets on falling share prices with immediate effect to try to end a stock market slide, which has particularly hit its banking sector, and tried to talk down a rallying yen that threatens to deepen its economic downturn.

European shares gained 0.9 percent and Japan's Nikkei climbed 6.4 percent after hitting lows not seen in 26 years.

Prime Minister Taro Aso delayed a parliamentary election to take steps to concentrate on protecting Japan, the world's second biggest economy, from global recession.
The Bank of England (BoE) said the work so far in containing the crisis should calm the banking system but was cautious about the impact on the wider economy. It projected losses globally at $2.8 trillion.

"The instability of the global financial system in recent weeks has been the most severe in living memory," said Deputy Governor John Gieve. "And with a global economic downturn under way, the financial system remains under strain."

The BoE is expected to cut interest rates next week, a move the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve are also expected to take to try to encourage more spending in economies increasingly fearful of a long, deep recession.

The consensus among Fed watchers is for a half-point cut in overnight rates to 1 percent, the lowest level since June 2004. It has already cut the benchmark federal funds rate to 1.5 percent from 5.25 percent over the past 13 months.

It will announce its decision on Wednesday. The ECB and Bank of England are expected to cut rates on Thursday next week.

Source: EconomicTimes

US Treasury clears way for $700 bn bailout to begin

The government has cleared the way to ship out $125 billion this week to the country's largest banks, beginning the biggest government bailout in history.

"The money will go out the door for those institutions early this week," predicts Assistant Treasury Secretary David Nason, one of the chief architects of the rescue plan.

Not only is the money ready to be sent to nine major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase, but the government is reaching preliminary agreements with a group of more than a dozen major regional banks, who will share a part of an additional $125 billion the government hopes to pump into the banking system.

Before the end of the year, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson intends to have spent $250 billion of the $700 billion bailout package buying ownership stakes in US banks. The goal is to improve their balance sheets so that they will resume more normal lending practices and prevent the country from sliding into a deep recession.

Another $100 billion is earmarked to be spent buying troubled assets from banks such as bad mortgage loans as another way to spur banks to resume lending.

However, a long line of other industries are hoping the government will decide to help them as well. Insurance companies, automakers, hedge funds and foreign-owned banks are all making appeals to be included in the rescue package, contending that they need assistance as well.

Treasury and White House officials signaled on Monday that their cases are being reviewed. That review is coming in the closing days of a heated election campaign when the country will be electing a new president and a new Congress for next year.

The beleaguered auto industry is making its appeals to both presidential candidates and lawmakers running for re-election and their are indications those pleas are being heard.

Presidential press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Monday that officials at the "highest levels" of the Treasury, Energy and Commerce departments have listened to automakers make their cases. She said the administration is "working as quickly as we possibly can" to finalize the rules needed for automakers to start tapping a $25 billion loan fund that Congress approved last month.

The fund is designed to help automakers develop new energy-efficient technology but is seen as a way to help keep the companies afloat during hard times. The expectation is that an initial $5 billion could be freed up soon.

Perino said Treasury was also trying to determine whether the financing arms of the automakers might be eligible for federal help under the bank stock-purchasing program of the rescue package.

Source: EconomicTimes

Buy Shree Cements: HDFC Securities

HDFC Securities has maintained its buy rating on Shree Cements in its October 27, 2008 research report. "Cement demand growth in India has fallen sharply to 7% against 12% in H12009 and we expect the demand growth to be in the range of 8% for the next two years which may bring down the effective capacity utilization rate for the industry below 80% against our earlier estimates of 87% during FY09."

"At the current market price of Rs 378, the stock trades at a P/E of 3x FY09E and 3.5x FY10E. On EV/Tonne basis, it trades at USD 46 FY09E and USD 39 FY10E. On EV/EBITDA basis, it trades at 2.6x FY09E and 2.6x FY10E. SCM is reaping the benefits of timely capacity addition during FY08 as it increased its capacity by 2 mt during this year, which we expect to result in an earnings CAGR of 12.9% over the period FY08-FY10E. It is also one of the lowest cost cement producers across the Industry, a position we feel it will retain in the coming years. We maintain our BUY rating on the stock," says HDFC Securities' research report.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions

Source: Moneycontrol

Buy Wockhardt, target of Rs 230: Angel

Angel Broking has maintained its buy rating on Wockhardt with a target of Rs 230 in its October 24, 2008 research report. "For 3QCY2008, Wockhardt posted Sales of Rs 923 crore, registering a yoy growth of 25.1%. For 9MCY2008, the company posted Net Profit of Rs 218.9 crore, a decline of 21%."

"At the CMP, the stock is trading at 4.1x CY2008E and 3.4x CY2009E EPS, which is at a significant discount to its peers. Substantial part of the discount is on account of the high competitive pressures in the Generic space and the company’s dependence on its M&A strategy to scale up its Generic business. A part of the discount is also due to the accounting polices followed by the company (deferment of R&D expenditure). We maintain a Buy on the stock, with a revised Target Price of Rs 230 (Rs 250)," says Angel Broking's research report.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Source: Moneycontrol

Buy Oriental Bank, target of Rs 224: Karvy

Karvy Stock Broking has maintained its buy rating on Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) with a target of Rs 224 in its October 27, 2008 research report. "In 2QFY09, Oriental Bank of Commerce reported NII growth of 31% (Y/Y) to Rs 5.2 billion compared to our estimates of Rs 4.2 billion; much higher than our estimates mainly due higher yield on advances and contained cost of deposits. We estimate that in FY2008-10, the bank's total business and bottomline would grow at 21% and 4.1 % CAGR respectively."

"We believe that the bank would report RoAA of 0.75-0.8% and RoAE of 13.2% in FY2009-10. Due to improvement in NII and fee income we increase our earning estimates for FY2009 and FY10 by 47% and 10% respectively and increase our target price by 24% to Rs 224. We reaffirm our BUY rating with a target price of Rs 224 at 0.86x adjusted book value FY2010," says Karvy Stock Broking's research report.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Source: Moneycontrol