The results of quarter ended December 07 are less impressive than the corresponding quarter last fiscal. However, it is premature to conclude about the overall performance of companies.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, which is raising Rs 11,700 crore through the public offer of Reliance Power, has seen a value erosion of Rs 48,000 crore in the last seven days.
Aviation stocks - Jet Airways, Deccan Aviation, SpiceJet and Jagson Airlines - closed at their 52-week highs on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday in falling market. All the four stocks gained between 5 per cent and 20 per cent on Tuesday.
The BSE Small-Cap Index (up 34 per cent) and the BSE Mid-Cap Index (up 28 per cent) have outperformed the Sensex (up 16 per cent) in the last two-and-a-half months, while the NSE Junior Nifty (up 25.4 per cent) and the NSE Mid-Cap Index (up 30.2 per cent) have beaten the S&P CNX Nifty (up 20.4 per cent) during the same period.
Forty six new FIIs opened their offices in India during November, which is the highest ever single month registration by foreign investors. The previous highest monthly registrations took place in September 2005, when twenty nine FIIs enrolled with Sebi. The total number of FIIs registered with the regulator has increased to 1,170 from 1,124 at the beginning of the month.
The software sector has once again underlined its importance to the country by accounting for more than half of the total jobs created by Indian industry in the last financial year.
MMTC, the most valuable public sector undertaking (PSU), raced past oil exploration giant Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the market capitalisation (m-cap) ranking to occupy the number-two slot on Friday. MMTC, with an m-cap of Rs 2,71,103 crore (Rs 2711.03 billion), pushed ONGC (m-cap Rs 2,64,953 crore) down by a slot to the third position in the market cap chart on BSE.
In the first 10 months of CY07, Indian firms received orders worth Rs 128,147 crore.
Till 15 days ago, only two PSUs - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) - ranked amongst the five most valuable companies. But with two more PSUs, Mineral and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), seeing sustained rise in the last three months, the number has risen to four.
Larsen and Toubro (L&T), ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) were the top-three stocks that accounted for over 60 per cent of the 991-point gain in the Sensex between October 15 (Sensex at 19,057) and October 29 (Sensex at 19,978). Larsen and Toubro, which was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, was also the largest contributor, adding 336.09 points to the Sensex's total gains.
The BSE Sensex has recovered 60 per cent of the last week's loss in just two trading days. The benchmark index recovered by 935 points (+56 points yesterday) and (+879 points on Tuesday) after losing 1,492 points last week between October 16 and 19.Investors, who lost Rs 4.13 trillion (Rs 4.13 lakh crore) in just three trading days last week, have recovered 70 per cent of their loss or Rs 2.90 trillion (Rs 2.90 lakh crore) in the first two trading days of the current week.
Powered by surging markets, seven companies, Reliance Communications (R-Com) and stock market debutant DLF among them, have joined the Rs 1 trillion (Rs 1,00,000 crore) club in terms of market capitalisation. New entrants are hard-core engineering and mining companies like National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Bhel - both in the public sector - and L & T. Bharti Airtel, SBI and ICICI Bank are other entrants.
Of the 43 new issues listed on the BSE between April and September 2007, 33 are currently trading at a premium over the offer prices. Of the 33, nine have appreciated by over 100 per cent each, while 15 gained between 25 and 100 per cent.
Of the 508 crorepatis, 17 are from newly-listed companies while 26 joined their companies last year.
India ranks second in capital market inflows and fourth in merger and acquisition deals in Asia Pacific (including Japan), as deals worth $65.033 billion were reported in the first eight months of calendar 2007.
India Inc's first quarter scorecard has been mixed so far. While net profit growth has shot up, the 154 companies that have declared their results have faltered on the turnover growth rate.
Corporate India's payout surged 22 per cent in 2006-07, with more than 50 per cent of the companies raising their dividends
Post-listing, real estate major DLF will find a place among the top-10 companies in terms of market capitalisation.
Rising interest rates and higher inputs costs seem to have taken the sparkle out of corporate results in Q4 2007.
Market-men expect these offers will compete head to head for investors' fund of over Rs 24,000 crore next month.