Ways2trade: The Week That Was

Satyam surprises investors with profit
SATYAM Computer Services cheered the markets by announcing revenues of over Rs 2,000 crore and profit of Rs 181 crore for the Oct- Dec quarter. Satyam's revenues could thus touch around Rs 8,000 crore, or $ 1.6 billion, based on an extrapolation of these results. For January 2009, Satyam posted a net profit of Rs 4 crore. In February, net profit stood at Rs 52 crore on revenues of Rs 676 crore. The news saw Satyam shares surge past the open offer price of Rs 58/ share. Analysts said investors are unlikely to tender shares at a discount to the current price and TechM may benefit by receiving a preferential allotment of shares at a discount to the market price. The Indian IT firm on Thursday announced that up to 10,000 employees, or about a fourth of the staff, will join a virtual pool.
SESA GOA ACQUIRES DEMPO'S MINING ASSET
Sesa Goa, India's largest private iron ore exporter, has acquired Goa-based Dempo Group's mining assets for Rs 1,750 crore in an all-cash deal in a move intended to increase its pricing power and strengthen its position in the domestic market. A part of London-listed Vedanta Resources, Sesa Goa on Thursday said it has signed a definitive agreement to buy all outstanding common shares of the unlisted VS Dempo & Co (VSD), which owns 100% of the equity shares of Dempo Mining and a 50% stake in Goa Maritime. The deal includes VSD's net working capital of Rs 145 crore.
FRANCE TELE, TELSTRA & AT&T EYE AIRCEL
France Telecom, Telstra of Australia and US' AT&T are in talks with Malaysia's Maxis Communication to buy a minority stake in Aircel in yet another sign that slowdown and credit crunch are having little impact on telecom deals. The talks between the first two companies and Maxis — which owns 74% in Aircel — revolve around France Tele buying 20-25% in the Indian telecom player, a dominant player in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. The remaining stake in the telco is held by the Chennai-based Reddy family.
    economy
Inflation at 33-year low,
    goes down to 0.13%
INFLATION for the week ended May 30 dropped to 0.13%, lowest since the government started recording such data in 1977-78, fuelling speculation that the figure could enter negative territory next week. The decline in headline inflation was largely due to a high base effect, or higher inflation numbers in corresponding the week last year. Week on week, there was a 0.1% increase in the wholesale price index (WPI), led by a sharp 0.6% increase in the prices of food articles, data released by the commerce ministry on Thursday showed. A rise in the rate of inflation over the last couple of months and a relaxed monetary policy led to fears that inflation could become a concern soon. "We think inflationary pressures are sequentially building up," a recent note by Goldman Sachs said.
HIGHER PLAN EXPENDITURE EXPECTED
The UPA government may not hesitate to further increase the Plan expenditure of certain social sector schemes even as it looks at fiscal consolidation aimed at containing the rising fiscal deficit, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek
Singh Ahluwalia said on Monday , indicating at a further increase in gross budgetary support (GBS) for 2009-10 in the upcoming Budget. "We have started discussing with the finance ministry on what should be the size of Plan expenditure (GBS). The interim budget presented by the UPA government has already increased spending significantly. We are looking at what more can be done for some sectors while keeping a tolerable fiscal deficit limit in mind," Mr Ahluwalia said.
FM ASKS BANKS TO CUT LENDING RATES
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee urged state-run banks on Wednesday to cut lending rates further to ensure inclusive growth and rapid recovery in the economy. Mr Mukherjee, who met chiefs of state-run commercial banks in the Capital, said the sharp rate cuts by RBI are yet to reflect in the borrowing costs of consumers. The central bank has cut its main lending rate by 425 basis points since October to 4.75% and its main borrowing rate by 275 basis points since December to 3.25%.
technology
Acer, Intel launch series of notebooks
LEADING notebook player Acer and leading chip manufacturer, Intel, announced the launch of the 'Aspire Timeline Series' (ATS) of featherweight notebook models in India. The notebook models have over eight hours of battery life and is based on Intel's Ultra-low Voltage (ULV) platform. The power smart adapter enters the adaptive charging mode automatically when the battery is fully charged and stops consuming energy. It is a "disruptive" model that leverages Intel's ULV platform, has LED backlit display with 16.9 aspect ratio, 1366 X768 HD resolution, which has been engineered to ensure 40 percent measurable benefits to the customers, he said. The series is available in three form and the price ranges from Rs 39,999 to Rs 44,999.
MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH FREE ANTI-VIRUS
Microsoft Corp is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free antivirus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc. A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added. Symantec shares fell 0.5 percent on Nasdaq and McAfee fell 1.3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, while Microsoft was up 2.1 percent.
A NETWORKING SITE FOR SR CITIZENS
Facebook and Orkut along with other social networking sites are not sole domain of youngsters alone, senior citizens are also using technology to catch up with lost friends or share views with like-minded communities. To fill the colour in retired life of lonely Indians, a website completely dedicated to the elderly has been launched recently. "Many surfers of our website have been vocal about their need to make friends, have space to voice their thoughts without being judged by younger generation and remain active.
    markets
    Market remains
    bullish this week
THE stock market remained bullish for the fourteenth straight week with the benchmark Sensex gaining about 1% as the foreign investors' appetite for Indian equity showed impressive increase since May. The Smallcap and the Midcap segments suffered a sharp setback after outperforming the key index for the last few weeks, which analysts, saw as a required correction for the good health of market. Sectors such as realty, bank and consumer durables also was adjusted downward after a recent strong rally. Withstanding resistance above the 15-K psychological mark, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer ended the week under review higher at 15,237.94, adding 134.39 points or 0.89% over its last weekend's close. The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty, however, ended week flat at 4,583.40 against its previous weekend's close of 4,586.90. The market driver Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have begun pouring their investments after the post-election political stability with the government's repeated hints about speedy economic reforms in key sectors amid strong signs of a recovery in Indian economy. The capital inflows amounted to more than Rs 5,500 crore so far in June taking the total inflows till date in the calendar year
to nearly Rs 27,000 crore. After showing a negative growth rate in the last four months, the industrial production for April was up 1.4%, a further indication that economy is on a recovery path. The market is expected to remain upbeat ahead of the full budget to be presented early next month amid high expectations of reforms and decisions on PSU disinvestment programme. The trading volume was relatively low during the week with a total turnover on BSE falling to Rs 39,216 crore from Rs 45,288 crore, and Rs 1,17,890 crore on the NSE from Rs 1,30,005 crore. India's largest private sector company and the top heavyweight in the Sensex pack — Reliance Industries — soared 6.55% over the week amid anticipation that the government may provide a seven-year tax holiday to natural gas producers as it is given to crude oil explorers in the Union Budget 2009-10. A sharp surge in metal prices on the London Metal Exchange triggered a rally in metal stocks at home. As a result, the BSE metal index jumped by 4.49%. politics
No plans of merger with
Congress: Sharad Pawar
NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday asserted that there were no plans of a merger with Congress. He stressed that his party's attitude has been one of understanding and cooperation with Congress and "will continue to be so." There had been speculation on the possibility of a merger after NCP leader P A Sangma apologised to Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the bitterness that ensued while making her foreign origin an issue. Explaining why NCP would continue to exist as an independent party, Mr Pawar said that his party advocated "decentralisation of decision making process" and that was the only way to develop leadership at the local level.
BJP RED-FACED AS KULKARNI HOLDS MIRROR
BJP on Monday disassociated itself from LK Advani's political advisor Sudheendra Kulkarni's contention that the party's rout in the justconcluded general election was attributed to the "disarray" at the top, which had "enfeebled" the organisation like never before, and to party prime ministerial candidate LK Advani's failure to assert his leadership at crucial times. As the diagnosis of the factors behind the party's dismal performance has been made not by any political analyst but by Mr Kulkarni, a close aide of Mr Advani who ran the BJP's war-room during the fivephase elections, it sent the party's central leadership into a tizzy. "BJP totally disassociates itself from Mr Kulkarni's analysis of the party's electoral performance. Even Mr Advani does not approve of it," deputy leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj told newspersons.