Humans are unique as they have plans, purposes and goals which require the need for criteria of choice.
Rarely does Infosys earnings announcement get overshadowed. Nandan Nilekani has made his choice and will bid adieu to Infosys, a company he co-founded 28 years ago. He will head the Government’s ambitious unique ID project. Hopefully IT will lead to a revolution for the nation.
Infosys has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs15.27bn for the April-June quarter versus Rs16.13bn in the previous quarter, representing a sequential fall of about 5%. Revenue for Q1 FY10 has come in at Rs54.72bn as against Rs56.35bn in the fourth quarter of last fiscal year, reflectinga drop of 3% Quarter on Quarter. EPS for the quarter is Rs26.63. Operating Profit Margin (OPM) is down at 30.12% compared to 33.55% in the January-March quarter. These are Indian GAAP numbers.
IIP for May will also be out today and is expected to reveal further improvement.
We expect a flat to cautious start given the jitters over earnings, an erratic monsoon, mixed global cues and persistent selling by FIIs. Overall, the outlook remains murky, exacerbated by a disappointing budget. We will see alternate bouts of buying and selling. The next decisive move could take a while and hinges on incremental "good" news. Anything unique in Infosys or IIP will give bulls some solace for the day.
Results Today: REI Ago, Shiv-vani Oil, Spanco and UTV Software.
FIIs were net sellers in the cash segment on Thursday at Rs5.45bn while the local institutions poured in Rs5.78bn. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers at Rs2.09bn. On Tuesday, the foreign funds were net buyers of Rs7.75bn in the cash segment.
US stocks closed with modest gains on Thursday, buoyed by strength in banking, technology and commodity space. An analyst upgrade of Goldman Sachs spurred a rally in financial shares and a rebound in natural-gas prices lifted energy producers, tempering a drop in drugmakers.
But the broad market was still nervous as Alcoa's narrower-than-expected quarterly loss failed to dispel concerns about the health of the corporates amid continuing economic pain.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 4 points or less than 0.1% to 8,183.17. The S&P 500 index rose 3 points, or 0.4%, to 882.68. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 5 points, or 0.3%, to 1,752.55.
US stocks managed gains on Thursday, but the trend has remained nervous since mid-June as investors have turned cautious after a 40% rally off the March 9 lows.
Wall Street is keen to listen what American companies say about their businesses over the next few weeks as they report quarterly earnings and give outlook on future profits and the state of the US economy.
Dow component Alcoa began the corporate reporting period late on Wednesday. The aluminum producer said it lost 26 cents per share versus a profit of 66 cents a year ago as the global recession hurt pricing and demand. But the decline was narrower than the loss of 38 cents per share analysts expected. Alcoa shares were off 2% on Thursday.
S&P 500 companies are expected to see profits decline by 36% from a year ago, according to the latest figures from Thomson Reuters.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 565,000 last week from a revised 617,000 the previous week. That was short of the 603,000 new claims economists expected. But continuing claims, a measure of Americans receiving benefits for a week or more, rose to 6,883,000, a fresh record high.
May wholesale inventories fell 0.8% after falling a revised 1.3% last month. Economists thought inventories would fall 1%. It was the ninth straight month of declining inventories.
The economic slowdown continued to take its toll on consumer spending, with clothing retailers and luxury item merchants especially feeling the impact of the recession. Among the notable decliners, Abercrombie & Fitch said same-store sales fell 32% versus a year ago, topping forecasts for a drop of 26.6%. Same-store sales is a key retail sector indicator that measures sales at stores open a year or more.
Victoria's Secret owner Limited Brands said sales fell 12% versus forecasts for a drop of 7.9%.
Merck and Portola Pharmaceuticals said they will develop and market an oral blood thinner used to prevent stroke in heart patients. Merck will pay Portola $50 million up front and potentially an additional $420 million down the line. Merck, a Dow component, fell 3.7%.
But a variety of other Dow stocks rose, including DuPont, IBM and JPMorgan Chase.
Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.40% from 3.31% late on Wednesday.
Energy prices gained after several down sessions. US light crude oil for August delivery rose 27 cents to settle at $60.41.
In currency trading, the dollar fell against the euro and gained against the Japanese yen.
COMEX gold for August delivery rose $6.90 to settle at $916.20 an ounce.
Friday's reports include the May trade balance from the Commerce Department, June import and export prices from the Labor Department and the initial July consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan.
Next week brings reports from financial firms JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Dow components Intel and GE are on tap as well.
European shares rose for the first time in six sessions on Thursday. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index advanced 0.7% to 199.41, taking back a portion of its 5.5% slide over the last five sessions. Germany's DAX index rose 1.3% to 4,630.07 and the French CAC-40 index gained 0.5% to 3,025.94.
Indian markets ended the day on a flat note amid high volatility on Thursday. Markets continued its struggle for direction as the index languished below the 4,100 levels for the second straight day. Traders and investors preferred to stay light ahead of Q1 results by Infosys and the Industrial Production numbers to be announced on Friday.
Inflation once again was a non event despite the index falling for fourth consecutive week. Inflation fell mainly owing to a high base effect, but the contraction in the key price gauge is expected to halt following last week's fuel price hike.
The annual, point-to-point inflation stood at (-)1.55% in the week ended June 27, 2009 compared to (-)1.30% in the previous week, the Commerce & Industry Ministry said. Inflation rate was at 12.03% during the week ended June 28, 2008.
Finally, the Sensex was down 11 points at 13,757 after touching a high of 13,879 and a low of 13,644. The index had opened at 13,796 against the previous close of 13,769.
The NSE Nifty ended flat to shut shop at 4,081.
Asian markets ended in mixed; the Nikkei index in Japan slipped 1.3% at 9,291, Australia's S&P/ASX ended flat at 3,763. Hang Seng index gained 0.4% at 17,790.
Elsewhere in the Europe, stocks were trading in green. The FTSE index was up 0.7% at 4,167. The DAX index was up 1.2% at 4,631. CAC 40 index was up 1% at 3,036.
Coming back to India, among the BSE Sectoral indices BSE Metal index was the top gainer gaining 1.5%, followed by the BSE Pharma index up 1%, BSE FMCG index up 1% and BSE Oil & Gas index up 1%.
On the other hand, the BSE Consumer Durables index was the top loser, down 1.5% and BSE Capital Goods index ended lower by 1%. Meanwhile, the broader indices were mixed, the BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.6% and the BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.2%.
In the Sensex, the major gainers were Reliance Infra, Sun Pharma, TCS, Sterlite, ITC, Tata Power and HDFC Bank.
On the other hand, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, DLF, M&M, Infosys, L&T and Hindalco were among the top losers.
Outside the frontline indices, the top gainers included KSK Energy, Educomp, APIL, Ashok Leyland, REI Agro and Unites Spirits.
Among the big losers in the broader market were Sintex Industries, Pantaloon, Essar Oil, Moser Baer, RCF and Fortis Healthcare.
Educomp Solutions has announced that the Duly authorized Committee of Board of Directors passed necessary resolutions approving issue of 16,20,000 equity shares of Rs10 each at a price of Rs3,745 per equity share including a premium of Rs3,735 per equity share, aggregating to an Issue size of Rs6.06bn.
The Committee has passed necessary resolutions fixing the Bid Closing Date for the said Issue as being July 09, 2009 and approving the Placement Document in respect of the Issue.
Shares of Educomp rallied by over 13% to Rs3902 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs3,984 and a low of Rs3,474 and recorded volumes of over 0.8mn shares on BSE.
A Punj Lloyd joint venture has reportedly bagged an order worth US$300mn from Saudi Aramco. The stock ended at Rs186 on the BSE gaining 1.3%.
DLF sold its stake in its 50-50 joint venture with Ackruti City to a U.S.-based real estate fund for Rs2bn, stated reports.
The venture is developing 9mn square feet of office space at a northern Mumbai suburb. The sale is part of DLF' plan to raise Rs55bn through asset sale and reduce its Rs140bn debt by March 2010.
Shares of DLF ended lower by 2% to Rs278. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs288 and a low of Rs271 and recorded volumes of over 6.3mn shares on BSE.
Shares of Moser Baer extended loses losing over 4% to end at Rs70. The company posted a net loss of Rs1,508.8mn for the year ended March 31, 2009 compared to a net loss of Rs789.1mn in the previous fiscal year. Total income increased to Rs23.25bn for the year ended March 31, 2009 from Rs20.02bn in the year ended March 31, 2008.
Shares of Taj GVK rallied by over 9% to Rs92 on the back of huge volumes. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs96.9 and a low of Rs87 and recorded volumes of over 0.88m shares on BSE.
The stock has rallied by over 30% in the last three trading sessions. It had hit 52-week high of Rs115.8 on June 2, 2009 and 52-week low of Rs34.50 on December 4, 2008.