Infosys declared an interim divident of Rs.30 per share

The Bangalore-based major IT company Infosys announced better-than-expected revenue and profit growth of 28.6% for the July-September quarter and cheered investors with a generous dividend and bonus.

Infosys Revenue grew by 4.5%.

• Revenue during the quarter grew by 4.5 percent quarter-on-quarter (up 2.9 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 13,342 crore.

• Dollar revenue climbed 3.1 percent sequentially (up 6.5 percent on yearly basis) to USD 2,201 million in the quarter gone by (in constant currency revenue growth was 3.9 percent Q-o-Q and 6.3 percent Y-o-Y) driven by volume growth. Infosys has maintained its full year (FY15) dollar revenue guidance at 7-9 percent.

• Revenue from North America territory grew 3.1 percent sequentially and 3.2 percent in constant currency and Europe revenue growth stood at 4.2 percent (Q-o-Q) and 6.5 percent in constant currency. Rest of world growth was 2.8 percent Q-o-Q and 4.2 percent in constant currency. However, India revenue declined by 5.1 percent on quarter-on-quarter basis and 4 percent in constant currency.
   
• Volumes increased 3 percent Q-o-Q (2.9 percent in Q1) as offshore volumes increased 3.8 percent Q-o-Q (3.2 percent in Q1) while onsite volumes were up 1.1 percent in September quarter as against 2.2 percent in June quarter. Realisations increased 0.6 percent in constant-currency terms as onsite realisations were up 2.6 percent on sequential basis.

Infosys's profit.

• Consolidated net profit rose to Rs 3,096 crore (28.6%) in the July-September quarter, 2014-15, from Rs 2,407 crore in the year-ago period.
• "On several fronts, our efforts to bring in operational efficiencies yielded encouraging results during the quarter", said  UB Pravin Rao chief operating officer infosys. 

Infosys ( Dividend and bonus issue).

• Infosys declared an interim dividend of Rs 30 a share (equivalent to interim dividend of USD 0.49 per ADS at the exchange rate of Rs 61), compared to Rs 20 a share in the previous year. The record date for payment of dividend is October 17, 2014.

• In order to increase the liquidity of shares and to expand the retail shareholder base, Infosys announced a bonus issue of one equity share for every equity share held. 

• The same bonus issue is also applicable to ADR shareholders, who will get one American Depositary Share (ADS) for every ADS held as on a record date to be determined.

KK Jalan, chief of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation

KK Jalan, chief of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) says it has "no option" but to change its rules and put money into riskier investments by buying stocks for the first time to seek higher returns. To get better returns, the fund with about $125 billion in assets needs to diversify investments, the bulk of which are in government debt.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), world's ninth largest by assets, may change rules and buy stocks for the first time.

• It invests about 5 per cent of its assets in AAA-rated corporate debt and a quarter in paper issued by state-run companies.
• EPFO, funded by payroll contributions, holds 69 per cent of its assets in its provident fund. Another 29 per cent is invested in its $33 billion pension fund and the rest in a life insurance fund.
• The fund now invests nearly 70 per cent of its annual accruals of about Rs 70000 crore ($11.5 billion) in central and state government bonds, through the State Bank of India , ICICI Securities, HSBC and Reliance Capital as its portfolio managers.

Sensex above closes above 27000

The Sensex rose 151.84 points to 27019.39, It touched all-time high of 27,082.85 and a low of 26,886.22 in trade.
Nifty climbed 55.35 points to 8083.05 after hitting intraday high of 27082.85 and 8101.95, respectively. The broader markets beat benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining nearly a percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed above the 27000-mark for the first time while the 50-share NSE Nifty hit 8100 level intraday though it failed to hold the same level. The achievement of historical high was completely led by heavyweights like HDFC twins, ITC, Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel, though selling in ICICI Bank and Tata Motors capped the somewhat upside.

Huge buying interest was seen in cement stocks on the back of higher growth in cement sector (at 16.5 percent in July versus 13.6 percent in June) among eight infrastructure sectors. Grasim Industries, ACC and Ambuja Cements rallied 3-4 percent.

Telecom stocks too were on buyers’ radar on reports that the Narendra Modi government has been planning a new super regulator for the communications sector. New regulator will be called as Communications Commission, which may replace Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), said sources. Bharti Airtel was up 4.24 percent and Idea Cellular gained 3.4 percent
The current-account deficit - which mainly indicates that imports are in excess of exports - was 1.7% of gross domestic product at $7.8 billion in the fiscal first quarter.

It was 4.8% of GDP a year earlier, but just 0.2% in the January-March quarter. Strong dollar inflows ensured that India's balance of payment was in surplus in the April-June period.

Sensex & Nifty touched all time high today

Nifty hit a record high of 7918.55, before ending the day at 7897.50, up 23.25 points compared to previous day’s closing value. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices climbing over a percent each.

The S&P BSE Sensex finally closed 29.71 points or 0.11 per cent higher at 26420.67 to a fresh closing high. Following the momentum as much as 4 stocks rose to their fresh 52-week high on the BSE Sensex, which includes names like Cipla, M&M, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors.

“The Independence Day speech of the Prime Minister clearly tells us that the main focus is on creating infrastructure, making manufacturing easier. According to investor's, long term outlook is very positive. On the global front, Asian markets closed higher with the Nikkei rising 0.8 percent and European markets were trading at 0.4-1 percent following strong Wall Street closing last night (on easing tensions in Russia).
Back home, auto, capital goods, power and banks (select) stocks supported benchmark indices while FMCG and HDFC twins lost ground.

Auto stocks were leaders of the day.

BSE Auto Index gaining more than 2 percent. Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra topped the buying list as well as ended at record closing high of Rs 518.75 and Rs 1374.55, up 3 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. 

Two-wheeler makers Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp gained 2.5 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. Capital goods majors BHEL (up 2.8 percent), and Larsen and Toubro (up 1.3 percent) too were on buyers’ radar. Shares of Sesa Sterlite advanced 1.5 percent after Goa government's announcement of resuming operations in the mining industry by the year-end. 

 

Top car maker Mauti Suzuki too saw all-time closing high, up 1.6 percent after Deutsche Bank maintains the stock as its top pick in the Indian auto sector with a target price of Rs 3000 a share.

Decline in gasoline prices in India by 4 percent from the beginning of FY15 is a positive development for entry-level car (Alto/WagonR) demand, said the brokerage. 

Among banking and financials;

State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank rose nearly a percent while HDFC Bank lost a percent. Housing finance company HDFC plunged 2.5 percent. TCS dropped 2 percent followed by ITC, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco Industries, Infosys and Tata Steel with 0.2-0.8 percent. In the midcap space, Manappuram Finance surged 19 percent. Muthoot Finance, Shoppers Stop, Sadbhav Engineering and Jyothy Labs rallied 8-10 percent while Bhushan Steel, Prestige Estate, Engineers India, Pine Animation and ALSTOM India fell 2.5-5 percent. Oil retailers IOC, HPCL, BPCL surged 1.5-4 percent as the diesel under recovery dropped to record lows. 

As losses on retail diesel sales are now down to Rs 0.8 per litre, Goldman Sachs estimates it to fall to Rs 0.3 per litre after the price hike on September assuming oil prices and diesel cracks remain around current levels. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1660 to 1285 shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Generic agrochemicals company Meghmani Organics

Generic agrochemicals company Meghmani Organics reported strong Q1FY15 numbers.It reported revenue and EBITDA growth along with turnaround on net profit front. Net profit grew to Rs 7.8 crore v/s net loss of Rs 3.6 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Its closing price is Rs 17.72 in previous session.

Top line grew 22 per cent to Rs 312.7 crore, Year-on-Year (YoY) and EBITDA went up 20 per cent to Rs 49.9 crore, YoY on account of higher revenue growth, partially offset by rise in material cost.

According to the management, the company is seeing a business turnaround due to capex investment of Rs 130 crore. It is focussing on branded business in agro chemicals space and is looking to expand it in overseas & domestic markets. It has set a target of Rs 600 crore for the agro chemicals segment.

The company is expecting capacity utilisation to go up to 80 per cent from 60-65 per cent currently. It is expecting a topline of Rs 1,550 crore & EBITDA of Rs 250 crore for FY15. It sees PAT to be around Rs 55 crore in the same period.

"Meghmani stock has been trading at lower 1-year forward EV/EBITDA multiple of ~3.9x. With revival in business cycle, we have assigned 5.9x EV/EBITDA multiple (21 per cent discount to global peers) to arrive at FY16E based price target of Rs 34/share," the brokerage said.

The Sensex today scaled 26,000 levels

The Sensex today scaled 26,000 levels, continuing with its record-breaking binge, ahead of the Union Budget by Arun Jaitley.

IT, realty, power and metal stocks supported the momentum of the 50-share Nifty index which managed to scale fresh record high of 7,792.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 26,100.08, up 138.02 points or 0.53 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 26,123.55 and a low of 25,992.73 in trade today.

The 50-share index nifty closed at 7,787.15, up 35.55 points or 0.46 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 7,792 and a low of 7,755.10 in trade today.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget in the Parliament on July 10. There are high expectations from the Budget as the new government doesn't have any coalition compulsions and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given hopes of a growth-oriented economic policy.

Even as the Budget event is a few days away, the Indian markets are at life-time high in the pre-Budget rally. Investors are bullish on equities and a rally is seen across the board. Let it be cyclicals, defensives or midcaps; valuations of most of them are running high.

• The government will have to pursue the divestment route to generate revenues. The SEBI has made it easy for the finance minister as it made mandatory for all listed PSUs to achieve a minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent within three years. This move will help the government to raise around Rs 60,000 crore through the PSU stake sale against the target of Rs 52,000 crore.
• At rupee at 60 per dollar mark, higher crude oil price puts pressure on the government's finances. Nearly 70 per cent of India's import is oil and continuation of high prices would have strained the government's budgetary plans. Every US$10/barrel rise would have shaved 0.5 per cent off India's GDP.
• The easing of crude oil prices is a positive development for the new government. The Brent crude oil price had shot up to $115 per barrel recently due to the on-going sectarian war in Iraq. This forced the government to hike the prices of diesel, petrol and on-subsidised LPG cylinders.

Tata Motors chairman,Cyrus Mistry.

India's largest automobile company Tata Motors chairman,Cyrus Mistry, has said that the company is at an inflexion point with a strong pipeline of new products with new technologies that Tata Motors has developed to meet the changing market, customer aspiration and regulatory needs, as he expects a turnaround in the later part of FY-15.

Tata motors - Cyrus Mistry

Cyrus Mistry said that Company's marquee brands Jaguar Land Rover will continue to break new records and the company is committed on making investments on both these brands to deliver new products in 5 years and expand manufacturing footprint in Brazil and China
Having seen one of the toughest years in FY-14 for the standalone entity, wherein Tata Motors posted a whopping 36% drop in passenger vehicle sales and 29% drop in commercial vehicle sales in FY-14 registered lowest market share in the recent years. While the company holds on to its leadership position in the CV space, the company has already ceded the number 3 position in the passenger vehicle sales to Mahindra & Mahindra.
Cyrus Mistry agreed, "Tata Motors domestic business,  market share in both commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles business has lost. While the competition in both the segments remained quite aggressive with almost all the players resorting to huge discounting, Tata Motors' approach was cautious and responsible."
As integral part of this approach, the company focused on keeping inventory levels low in order to reduce the burden on its channel partners.
For most part of FY-14, the economy was hamstrung by rising inflation and high interest rates, leading to relatively low consumer interest in buying new vehicles, and, in many cases, postponement of purchase, which impacted the sales, Cyrus Mistry  noted.

Retail investors in BSE Sensex

The BSE Sensex has already rallied 9-10 per cent so far in the month of May and most experts are confident that this is the starting of a long-term bull market and investors should buy right stocks and hold on to them for maximum returns.

Retail investors, who have largely stayed away from the Indian markets and have missed 20 per cent plus rally seen in the BSE Sensex since September when the BJP officially announced Narendra Modi as their Prime Ministerial candidate, may come back to the markets on the hopes of superior returns than other asset classes.

FIIs have poured in close to Rs 14,000 crore so far this month on the hopes that the new BJP government, which took charge earlier this week, will introduce pro-growth reforms to revive economy and boost investments.

INFOSYS' CEO CONTENDER BG SRINIVAS RESIGNS

INFOSYS' CEO CONTENDER BG SRINIVAS RESIGNS

BG Srinivas, President & Member of the Board, resigned from Infosys w.e.f June 10. This is the 10th high-profile exit from the company in the last one year. Srinivas, who was once seen as the top contender for the job of Infosys CEO along with Pravin Rao, had been informed in no uncertain terms that he was no longer in the reckoning. Infosys has been seeing a string of exits since Narayana Murthy returned for a second innings in the company. The post of CEO at Infosys will fall vacant when current boss SD Shibulal retires.

Sensex Soars 257 Points As Inflation Eases To 5-Month Low At 6.16%

Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 LEAD STORIES HEADLINE INFLATION EASES TO 5-MONTH LOW AT 6.16%  Aided by lower vegetable prices, food articles inflation fell by 6.4% (MoM), non-food articles & minerals grp declined by 0.4% & 3.1% respectively. read more INFLATION NOS CHEERS MKTS, SENSEX SURGES 257 PTS  Fall in inflation by 136 bps in December raised hopes that RBI may not touch policy rates on Jan 28. Nifty rallied 79.05 pts to 6320.90. read more TOP STORIES • Fiscal deficit to be contained at 4.8% of GDP: FM   • World Bank pegs India growth at 6.2% in FY'15   • Auction to proceed as planned: Telecom secy   • Modern India files class action suit in NSEL case   • Unitech puts 2 hotels on block, eyes Rs 600 cr   • Post CIL dividend, govt defers Rs 15,000 cr bond issue   • TCS Q3 PAT seen up 10.2% to Rs 5,179 cr: Poll   • Korean investors avoid India due to red tapism   • AAP's decision on FDI wrong: Capt Gopinath   • AAP has 'worst, stinking, Jurassic people': Khurshid   • Economic agendas of Cong, BJP similar: Naina Lal   • SAT asks RIL, SEBI to clarify on new consent norms   • Rajeev Kher appointed Commerce Secretary   • SC panel plans auction of 4 mt of iron ore in Goa   • Fairness creams,lipsticks contain toxic heavy metals   • Sony Six bags exclusive rights for FIFA till 2018   • World's ultra rich hold 1/5th of their wealth in realty   • Axel Springer, others interested in Forbes   • Time Warner to sell its NY headquarters for $1.3 bn   • Google, Apple colluded in driving down workers pay   more stories TOP VIDEOS Economy Will Get Back To High Growth Path In 3 Years: P Chidambaram, Finance Minister   BUSINESS OF GOVERNANCE: Implementation Of GST, Focus On Manufacturing Are Important Reforms Which The New Government Must Take Up: Sunil Kant Munjal, Joint MD, Hero MotoCorp   CNBC-TV18 EXCLUSIVE: There Were Many Challenges In Building T2. But We Enjoy Doing Something Which Not Many Can Do: AM Naik, Group Executive Chairman, L&T   AT A GLANCE BSE 21289.49 +256.61 NSE 6320.9 +79.05 TURNOVER Rs. 199,289 cr BSE CASH Rs. 1,693 cr NSE CASH Rs. 11,271 cr NSE F&O Rs. 155,709 cr BULLION GOLD 28915 -181 SILVER 44492 -449 CRUDE NYMEX 93.05 +0.46 BRENT 106.14 -0.25 FOREX $ / Re 61.54 +0.02 £ / Re 100.55 -0.51 € / Re 83.688 -0.41 EVENTS 16 January Q3 Results: TCS, Bajaj Auto, HCL Tech Bombay HC To Hear NSEL Settlement Case 17 January Q3 Results: HDFC Bank, ITC, RIL, Wipro Congress To Convene AICC Meet In Delhi SEBI Vs Sahara Case 23 January 2G Spectrum Auction To Start 27-29 January CII Partnership Summit 2014, Taj West End, Bangalore

"The national election due by May will mainly be a contest between AAP and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. The ruling Congress is not even in the picture." Arvind Kejriwal CM, Delhi "They (AAP) are Jurassic. They smell of anarchy. They just demean everything that has been time-tested. They ridicule anything. They question and demean anything... AAP is a real threat to our system. They are anarchist. They want to destroy the system. They are anarchist either by choice or by ignorance." Salman Khurshid External Affairs Minister "The easing of inflation at a time when industrial growth continues to be in the red should induce RBI to review its monetary policy stance and cut its policy rates to rejuvenate growth, which has been hit by high interest costs, flagging investments and subdued demand." Chandrajit Banerjee Director General, CII

Tech Mahindra, ISRO, LS Elections dominate news today

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