The market comes off from the day’s low on selective buying across the counters.

The market comes off from the day’s low on selective buying across the counters. Tracking the negative cues from the global markets and the rising inflation figure that stood at 11.98%, the domestic market opened with a huge gap down. The metal stocks are attracting the investors confidence as most buying is seen from this basket. The market breadth is flat as 1114 stocks are trading lower while 1016 stocks are trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 88.42 points at 14,267.33 and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 35.5 points at 4,297.45. The BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap are trading with marginal gains of 10.01 points and 19.38 points at 5,577.38 and 6,932.17 respectively.

Leading the rally form the losers pack of BSE are Rel Com trading down by 12.26% at Rs438.75 followed by Glenmark pharma by 5.56% at Rs610.75, Tata Tea by 4.60% at Rs725, Gammon India by 3.33% at Rs204.95, Tata Power by 3.28% at Rs1122.10, Maruti Suzuki by 3.11% at Rs557.

The Metal index is trading higher by 126.25 points at 13,038.86. Pushing it are JSW Steel trading up by 5.12% at Rs772 along with NMDC by 4.07% at Rs343, Jindal Saw by 3.53% at Rs529.45, Welspun Guj by 3.50% at Rs341.30, Ispat inds by 3.07% at Rs26.85, Tata Steel by 1.99% at Rs668 and Nalco by 1.40% at Rs430.50.

From the Banking Space, Union bank is trading lower by 2.80% at Rs128.25 in line with SBI by 2.04% at Rs1385.85, Bank of Baroda by 1.53% at Rs251.60, Allahabad bank by 1.09% at Rs59.10 and Axis bank by 1.05% at Rs647.

Tata Steel is trading higher by 2.08% at Rs668.7 as the company reported a growth of 21.78% in standalone net profit to Rs1488.40 crore for the first quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs1222.11 crore reported during the same period a year ago. The total income grew to Rs6177.25 crore as against Rs4305.33 crore previous year.

HCL Technologies is trading up by 1.85% at Rs204.05 as the company announced a acquisition of UK based BPO firm Liberata Financial Services (LFS) for $2 million. As per the agreement, HCL will acquire four LFS delivery centres in UK and will invest $24 million in the business over the next three years. This is second acquisition for HCL tech this yaer. Earlier in February its had acquired US based Capital Stream Inc. for about $40 mn in cash.

Suzlon Energy is trading firmly at Rs227.3 up by 1.88% due to strong quarterly numbers. The company has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs39.4 crore as against Rs20 crore. During te same period, the total income rose to Rs2760.46 crore from Rs1944.63 crore previous year.

The markets have gained some grounds from the day’s low and are trading flat.

The markets have gained some grounds from the day’s low and are trading flat. The selling pressure continued in the selective scrips mainly led by the FMCG, Auto, Realty and Pharma stocks. However, the Metal, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and Power stocks are trading higher. The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small cap are trading marginally higher.

The overall market breadth is positive as 1218 stocks are advancing while 1135 stocks are declining and the 83 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.

The BSE Mid cap is higher by 24.59 points at 5,591.96 and the BSE small Cap is up by 22.17 points to trade at 6,934.96.

At 12.30 pm, BSE Sensex was at 14,366.17 up by 10.42 points and the NSE Nifty was at 4,329.20 down by 3.75 points.

BSE Metal index surged by 195.71 points at 13,108.32 as Tata Steel (1.93%), SAIL (0.75%), Nalco (0.44%) and Hindalco Industries (0.11%) are trading in green.

BSE Oil & Gas index was trading 53.82 points higher at 9,783.30 as Essar Oil (2.32%), BPCL (0.92%), Gail India (0.90%) and ABN Offshore (0.51%) are trading in positive.

BSE Capital goods index advanced by 143.14 points to 11,826.94. The main gainers are BHEL (1.39%), ABB (1.32%), Siemens (1.21%) and L&T (1.02%).

BSE Power index increased by 15.66 points to 2,589.93. Gainers are NTPC (0.67%), Suzlon Energy (0.38%) while the losers are Tata Power (2.60%), Reliance Infra (2.09%) and Reliance Power (1.85%).

BSE Bankex index is trading higher by 2.80 points at 6,519.21. Gainers are Orienetal Bank (2.08%), Kotak Bank (1.39%), Indus Ind Bank (1.24%) and PNB (0.83%).

BSE Realty index slipped by 69.11 points to 5,009.96. The major losers are DLF (2.42%), Mahindra Life (0.93%), India Bull Real (0.65%) and Sobha Developers (0.48%).

BSE Auto index decreased by 47.54 points to 3,631.97. The top losers are Maruti Suzuki (3.48%), Hero Honda (2.19%), Bajaj Auto (2.96%) and Tata Motors (1.18%).

BSE IT index inclined by 15.63 points to trade at 3,705.20 as Financial Technologies (1.86%), I-Flex (1.34%), and HCL Technologies (1.07%) trading in positive.

Financial Technologies fixes Book Closure for first interim dividend, final dividend

Financial Technologies India Ltd has informed that the Register of Members & Share Transfer Books of the Company will remain closed from August 25, 2008 to August 28, 2008 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of 20th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company to be held on August 28, 2008 and also for the payment of 1st Interim Dividend (F.Y. 2008-09) & Final Dividend (F.Y. 2007-08).

IEC Softwares - Change of Name of the Company

IEC Softwares Ltd has informed that the Pursuant to the Central Government approval under section 21 of the Companies Act, 1956, name of the Company has been changed from IEC Softwares Ltd to IEC EDUCATION LTD with effect from July 31, 2008.

Insurance market witnesses important BPO deals

Indian outsourcers WNS and HCL Technologies have each acquired separate strategic assets, including the offshore unit of insurance giant Aviva and the financial services division of UK outsourcer Liberata. These deals have highlighted three important trends within the industry: the move away from captives, the increasing focus on the insurance vertical and the maturity of the Indian BPO market.

India-based outsourcer WNS has announced the GBP115 million ($228 million) purchase of Aviva Global Services (AGS), the captive offshore unit of insurance giant Aviva. As part of the acquisition, WNS, which is majority-owned by private equity shop Warburg Pincus, will continue to provide services to Aviva: the two companies inked a 100 month agreement that will provide WNS with approximately $1 billion in service revenue. Soon after this announcement, HCL Technologies, another Indian IT services provider, revealed the acquisition of Liberata Financial Services (LFS), a division of the UK outsourcer that serves the life and pension industry. The deal price was not disclosed, although the fixed assets have reportedly been valued at $2 million.

Indian IT sector set to be 2nd largest

Indian IT industry may be passing through a rough patch because of a slowdown in the US economy and high inflation rates, but this stage will pass. India will continue to drive the global IT market for the next few years. In fact, it will emerge as the second most important IT industry in the world after the US in terms of revenue and employment," says a study. "India will create the second largest IT services labour pool after the US within the next seven to eight years. That''s not all, domestic IT industry''s contribution to our GDP is likely to rise from 0.8% in 2006-07 to 2.65% by 2015-16."

This has been forecasted by a yet to be released white paper ''India''s Role in the Globalization of the IT Industry'' by Evalueserve, a KPO. It says, "by 2015-2016, the number of professionals working in the IT industry will grow ten-fold (from 2001-2002) and the total revenue will grow 22 times. This means, the IT industry is likely to employ 3,750,000 professionals and record $193.1 billion in revenue by 2015-16.

While in the last decade, IT services exports have been growing at 32% annually. Evalueserve estimates this growth rate will taper off and become around 20% in the next seven to eight years. The reason: rising wages, lack of high quality talent, and IT jobs relocating to other low-cost destinations in Eastern Europe and Latin America. The paper thus concludes: First, by 2016 India will have the second highest number of IT professionals in the world after the US. In fact, US will employ between 1.25 to 1.33 times more professionals than India. Second, even in 2016, the US IT industry will generate approximately $810 billion in annual revenue, which would be almost five times the revenue of the Indian IT industry.

Max New York Life rolls out insurance-cum-savings product

Max New York Life Insurance on July 24 rolled out "Max Vijay", an insurance-cum-savings product aimed at the underserved segment of society.

Max Vijay has been designed keeping in mind the lifestyle, income patterns and needs of the rural and semi-urban population. It empowers millions of Indians to benefit from the economic boom in financial services that was hitherto denied to them. The minimum premium payable under the product has been fixed at Rs 1,000 and the policy will not lapse as long as there is sufficient value in the account. The company has tied-up with IBM to provide end-to-end technology backbone for fulfilment. Apart from this, they will facilitate the handheld terminal, which enables data transfer to the back-end through GPRS and hence facilitates on-the-spot policy receipt.