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Bangalore: In the week, when both the Indian bourses ended marginally lower in line with the U.S. market, health care sector emerged as the largest gainer ending 7.11 percent higher. The health care index traded in the range of 4,044.46- 4,309.79 points last week (September 22 - September 25, 2009).

Among all the stocks listed under health care index, Dr Reddy's Labs topped the list with a gain of 18 percent followed by Torrent Pharma, Natco Pharma, Piramal Healthcare and Ranbaxy Labs, which surged in the range of 14-17 percent.

As per estimates, blockbuster drugs to the tune of $114 billion will go off patent over the next three years. Last week, shares of Piramal Healthcare and Dr Reddy's Labs were in demand after reports suggested that UK-based GlaxoSmithKline was looking for potential acquisitions in the Indian market and shortlisted Piramal Healthcare and Dr Reddy's Labs for the proposed acquisition. India's Rs.35,000 crore drug market, which is expanding by 14-15 percent a year, is another reason for multinationals to look seriously at the pharmaceuticals companies in the country.

Among the 13 sector-specific indices of the exchange, health care sector was followed by FMCG sector which ended 1.74 percent higher. On the weaker side, metals index was the largest loser ending 3.87 percent lower and was followed by the IT sector which lost 3.13 percent. As of September 29, 2009, total market capitalization of the health care index was of Rs.158,947.11 crore.

Mumbai: Central Bank of India has signed an agreement with Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) to provide cheaper finance to the latter's clients. After the agreement, B N S Ratnakar, General Manager, Central Bank of India said, "This MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Hyundai Motor India will facilitate cheaper finance options for passenger vehicles. Given the vast network of the bank's branches and HMIL dealerships, the MOU will benefit both. The customer will also benefit by availability of financing facility at attractive rate of interests and schemes through bank's branches."

To finance the auto loans, the Central Bank has come out with an attractive rate of interest of Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) - two percent for purchase of vehicles with repayment up to 36 months and at the rate of BPLR- one percent in case of repayments beyond 36 months up to 84 months. This MoU is applicable for all vehicles of the Hyundai and is applicable all across India. This tie-up is a part of bank's commitment of increased flow of credit to auto sector, which has recently slowed down, following global slowdown.

Speaking on the occasion, Arvind Saxena, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, HMIL, said, "We are extremely pleased to partner with Central Bank of India, as it will add to the financing options for our products and give our customers more choice and competitive financing options." Currently, the bank has 3,541 branches and 218 extension counters pan-India, and this association may help both the partners to reach out to wider market base by making auto loans convenient and cheaper for prospective consumers.

Kolkata, Sep 29: The BSE
Sensex is poised to touch the 19000-mark in 2010 fuelled by global equities' rising growth premium, diminished policy risks and inexpensive valuations of Indian stocks
, a research report said.

Prabhudas Lilladher (PL), a leading equity research and brokerage firm for FIIs, said in its 'India Equity Strategy' report that Indian equities were on a long-term bull phase.Besides Sensex, PL research report said the NSE Nifty would touch 5600 next year.

The report said one of the most important factors behind the bullish outlook was the huge proportion of Indian youth which had placed the country in a favourable demographic position vis-a-vis other countries.This would result in a strong earnings growth outlook, the report said.

Bangalore: IDBI Bank has signed MoU (Memorandum of understanding) with Chevrolet Sales India (CSIPL) to finance their vehicles. This tie up may help the bank to strengthen its place in retail loan space. CSIPL would be benefited by the banks financing expertise and reach.

As per the agreement, Chevrolet with its dealer network will collaborate with the bank for 'retail/wholesale activation' in order to facilitate vehicle business. The tie up may also bring attractive rates for prospective customers.

The tenure of the loan facility will be up to seven years, with maximum funding on 'on road price' and quicker processing. IDBI bank would offer this facility to customers for cars and multi utility vehicles. In August this year, IDBI lowered auto loan and deposit rates.

Bangalore: By looking at its market performance, IIFL has recommended a buy rating on Lupin with a target price of Rs. 1402. According to Bino Pathiparampil, Stock Analyst at IIFL, Lupin has outperformed the Sensex by 26 percent over last one year.

Lupin is an India-based pharmaceutical company, which develops and markets a range of generic formulations and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) around the world. The Further development on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issue at its Mandideep facility will be a key event in the near term - management is increasingly confident of an early resolution and IIFL believes that the risk/reward matrix is still in favor of the stock. An analysis of FDA's recent warning letter to Apotex, which later got escalated to an import alert, supports IIFL's view that the Mandideep issue is unlikely to escalate further.

On the other hand, FDA clearance could be a major near-term trigger. Apart from this, Pathiparampil feels that the sustained earnings growth quarter after quarter, and problems faced by other players in the pharma space, can significantly accelerate the re-rating process. With the recommended target price of Rs. 1402, if the stock is bought at Thursday's closing price of Rs. 1,120.75, the percentage of gain would be 25.09 percent.

Bangalore: Sun Pharma ended the trading as one of the top gainers with a gain of Rs.92.25 or 7.53 percent (Provisional). The stock of Sun Pharma opened the trading today at positive node and maintained the momentum throughout the day with trading in the range of Rs.1,187.30 - Rs.1,320. In all, 207.12 million shares were traded throughout the day with a current P/E at 18.33. The stock touched 52-week high of Rs.1,600 and low of Rs.953.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Sun Pharma) is an international specialty pharmaceutical company. The company's product portfolio consists of four categories of products: India branded generics, U.S. generics, international branded generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). The products of the company are prescribed in therapy areas like cardiology, psychiatry, neurology, gastroenterology, diabetology and respiratory.

The company's subsidiaries include Sun Pharma Global, Sun Pharma Global-FZE, Sun Pharmaceutical (Bangladesh), Sun Pharmaceutical Peru S.A.C. and Sun Farmaceutica (Brazil). In November 2008, the company, along with its subsidiaries, completed the acquisition of Chattem Chemicals. In the quarter ended June 30, 2009, the company posted a net profit of Rs.164 crore in compare to the corresponding quarter of previous year. Other pharma companies have also traded in the green zone. Unichem Laboratories went up by 6.67 percent, Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals surged 9.19 percent, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals soars 3.58 percent and Lupin moved up 1.28 percent.Out of 29 stock analysts currently following Sun Pharma, consensus recommendation is outperform, while seven recommended to buy, 11 recommended to hold and two asked to sell the stock. With 1,230,000 units of shares, 'HDFC Equity Fund' holds the highest number of shares in Sun Pharma.

New Delhi: Looking at the opportunities available in the retail space, public sector general insurer Oriental Insurance Company has shifted its focus towards retail products. "Our focus this year will be on retail products. We are moving away from company and group insurance segments and shifting our focus to products aimed at individuals," said M Ramadoss, Chairman and Managing Director of Oriental Insurance Company.

Till last year, insurance companies used to get over 60 percent of their total premium income from company portfolios. But after the de-tariffing and competition due to entry of new players, premium income from company-related businesses has slowed down considerably.

Oriental Insurance was planning to launch a series of new products aimed at the retail segment. "At present, we have 160 products overall and we are in the process of launching a few more. We have filed for a modified health insurance product, an overseas medical insurance product and two add-ons for motor insurance," said Ramadoss.

The insurance company has also launched a web portal for selling online policies. The portal offers facility of online purchasing and renewal of six retail insurance products - including private car, two wheelers, householder's insurance, personal insurance and shopkeeper's insurance policies.

Bangalore: Infrastructure funds are emerging as the preferred funds for mutual fund (MF) investors, with 10 such schemes making it to the list of top 50 equity funds in terms of asset growth in August. "Infrastructure story is not just the flavor of the season, it will remain an attractive investment theme for a much longer time," said Sundeep Sikka, CEO of Reliance Mutual Fund to Financial Chronicle.

ICICI Prudential Infrastructure leads the list of funds focused on infrastructure, with an asset under management (AUM) growth of seven percent and a total collection of Rs. 277 crore. Others in the list of toppers include Reliance Natural Resources Retail that has an AUM of six percent and a collection of Rs. 253.13 crore and Sundaram BNP Paribas Energy Opportunities Fund with a total collection of Rs. 145.18 crore at AUM growth of 8.5 percent. Other schemes in the list included Reliance Diversified Power Sector Retail, HDFC Infrastructure, UTI Infrastructure Advantage - Series I, Tata Infrastructure, SBI Infrastructure Fund Series 1, Tata Indo Global Infrastructure and UTI Infrastructure.

The infrastructure funds are followed by the tax-savings funds in the priority list of the investors. Among tax-saving funds, Magnum Taxgain collected the highest amount of Rs. 256 crore with a six percent rise in AUM during the month followed by HDFC Taxsaver collection of Rs. 119 crore and growth of 7.5 percent, Sundaram BNP Paribas Taxsaver with Rs 108 crore and 11 percent growth and Reliance Tax Saver with Rs. 80 crore and four percent AUM growth.

While asset growth of a fund shows the level of investor interest in it, industry analysts say this alone cannot be the criterion to gauge the popularity of a scheme in absence of data on the number of retail investors. Also, asset growth figure of a fund scheme often gets distorted because of high redemption in a particular month.

Bangalore: Moser Baer ended the trading as one of the top gainers with a gain of Rs.7.45 (8.15 percent). Moser Baer opened its account today on positive node and touch the high of Rs.100.65 and a low of Rs.92.40. In all, 5,847,359 shares were traded throughout the day, with a current P/E of the stock at 362.22. The stock touched 52-week high of Rs.139.90 and a low of Rs.41.10. The 52 week stock price chart is on the left.

Moser Baer India is an India-based company that is principally engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of optical storage media. The company also has presence in business areas, such as solar energy, entertainment, information technology (IT) peripherals and consumer electronics. In the home entertainment segment, the company has commenced film production in multiple languages.

The company's photovoltaic domain commenced its commercial operations during the financial year ended on March 31, 2008. In the home entertainment segment, the company has commenced film production in multiple languages. In the quarter ended June 30, 2009, the company has posted a net profit of Rs.27.60 million, as compared to net loss of Rs.1,039.80 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. Total income has increased from Rs.4968.80 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 to Rs.5634.00 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2009.The stock analyst, currently following Moser Baer has recommended to sell the stock. With 4,00,435 units of shares, 'Reliance NRI Equity Fund' holds the highest number of shares in Moser Baer.

Hyderabad: AEGON Religare Life Insurance has introduced its unit linked insurance plan (ULIP) 'AEGON Religare Invest Maximiser Plan' that is claimed to be the ULIP with the highest internal rate of return (IRR). According to Rajiv Jamkhedkar, Chief Executive of AEGON Religare, this plan has the lowest charges, which help customers maximize their investments. "The charges are at five percent for the first year and two percent from second to fourth year and no charges from fifth year of the policy," he added.

The company also offers guaranteed special units to the policy holders starting from the end of the 10th policy year, and every third year thereafter, he said adding that the life cover is up to five times the annualized premium. The minimum entry age is 90 days and maximum 50 years, with a minimum annualized premium of Rs. 12,000.

Bangalore: Following the approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Piperacillin and Tazobactam injection, Sharekhan has recommended buy rating on Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, with price target of Rs.184.

These approvals by U.S. FDA cover Orchid's generic equivalents in 2.25g, 3.375g and 4.5g vial as well as 40.5g (pharmacy bulk package) dosage forms and strengths.

In its report, Sharekhan stated, "The launch of Tazo-Pip in the U.S. and the incremental revenues from the Penem segment (expected in Q4FY2010) would act as major triggers for Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals in the near term, whereas the reduction in debt levels and interest cost would drive the stock in medium to long term." In the quarter ended June 30, 2009, the company has reported net loss by 5.9 percent to Rs.29.7 crore compared with Rs.31.6 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net sales increased by eight percent to Rs.305.8 crore against Rs.282.5 crore.

The Pound rallied during early European session extending gains above 1.6530 resistance after having bounced at 1.6470 Asian session low, although the pair was capped at 1.6568 by a weaker then expected retail sales report,to drop to 1.6490; at the moment, the Pound trades at 1.6535.For the rest of the week, Kenneth Broux, technical analyst at Lloyds TSB Financial Markets sees the Pound on the defensive to explore levels around 1.6400: "Weak average earnings, retail sales and public finances stats this week are likely to keep GBP on the defensive with a move in GBP/USD to 1.64 support possibly triggering a retracement towards the late August/early September lows around 1.6115. Weekly IMM positioning data has been quite erratic recently in signalling short-term GBP direction."

The US dollar finished this past week in a shaky state. After 4 successive days of selling pressure, the US dollar once again sees itself coming close to its annual lows. The market has considered renewing the dollar’s bear trend for almost 2 months now. Sooner or later, there will be speculation previous to the world’s reserve currency finds way once again, particularly as the worldwide upturn collects traction and the scales amongst risk and reward tip towards higher returns. In deciding what can be the final vehicle for a renewed trend, it’s important to see what traders are more anxious on: risk appetite or increase possibility. Investor sentiment is disreputably hard to estimate as it is infamously indecisive and frequently sparked by inoffensive factors that rapidly increase through conjecture. However, there is a good chance that, eventually, both paths might lead back to growth.

Mumbai: A key index of Indian equities markets Wednesday continued its rally for the second consecutive day and closed around the day's high on the back of strong buying of metal and bank stocks.The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,498.59 points, closed at 16,677.04 points, up 222.59 points or 1.35 percent. The chart showing the 52 week performance of the Sensex is on the left.

The index that traded in the green throughout the day hit an intra-day high of 16,700.56 points and a low of 16,498.59 points.The benchmark index had gained 240 points in Tuesday's trade.The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended in the positive terrain at 4,958.4 points, up 1.36 percent.Broader market indices also made gains, with the BSE midcap index ending 1.45 percent higher and the BSE smallcap index up 1.1 percent.The market breadth was positive, with 1,575 stocks advancing, 1,243 declining and 64 remaining unchanged.Tata Steel, one of the top steel makers in the world, led the rally with 8.21 percent hike in its share price. Other top gainers include Tata Motors, up 6.22 percent; Hindalco, up 4.96 percent; SBI, up 4 percent and Sterlite Industries 3.71 percent.The top losers are Hindustan Unilever, down 0.91 percent; Wipro, down 0.73 percent and Reliance Infrastructure 0.66 percent.According to data with the regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), foreign institutional investors Wednesday bought shares worth $183.2 million.Other important Asian markets were trading mixed.The Nikkei, a key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 53.15 points higher at 10,270.77 points.

At the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the benchmark SSE Composite was ruling 2.04 percent down at 2,336.62 points.The primary index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hang Seng was in the green at 21,402.92 points, up 536.55 points or 2.57 percent.All major European markets were ruling in the positive terrain.In Britain, the FTSE 100 index was ruling 72.37 percent higher at 5,114.5 points, while its French peer, the CAC 40, was up 50.54 percent at 3,802.75 points.Germany's DAX, too, was ruling in the positive at 5,678.93 points, up 49.95 percent.

Mumbai: A key index of Indian equities markets ended a lacklustre trading session 20 points down Monday, compared to its previous close. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened lower at 16,185.26 points, closed at 16,214.19 points, down 50.11 points or 0.5 percent. The chart showing the 52 week performance of Sensex is on the left.
The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended in negative at 4,821.2 points, down 0.17 percent from the last close. However, broader market indices made gains, with the BSE midcap index ending 0.25 percent higher and the BSE smallcap index up 0.56 percent. The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,855 stocks, 1,473 advanced, while 1,309 declined. Tata Steel led the combined value chart on both the BSE and the NSE with a turnover of Rs.798.6 crore. It was followed by HDIL (Rs.674.35 crore), DLF (Rs.627.7 crore), Aban Offshore (Rs.625 crore) and Reliance (Rs.617.11 crore).IFCI topped the combined volume chart with trades of over 46.87 million shares. It was followed by Unitech (42.88 million), NHPC (46.66 million), Ispat (39.15 million) and Suzlon (36.48 million).

Bangalore: Godrej Properties, a part of Godrej Industries will launch its initial public offering (IPO) in the next three months with fresh issue of 10 percent shares. "About 3.5 percent shares will be available for pre-placement and the pre-IPO placement of shares will be completed a 'little before' the public issue," said Adi Godrej, Chairman of Godrej Group.

According to Godrej, the proceeds from the IPO will be utilized for new projects, however he did not mention the amount of money the company intends to raise, as the pricing was not decided. The company has mandated ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra to manage the issue. "There has been a partial recovery in the real estate sector, especially in the affordable housing segment and post-correction residential demand has improved but commercial demand is yet to pick up," said Godrej.Godrej Properties, which has announced projects in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and suburban Mumbai, is owned 80.3 percent by Godrej Industries. "There was 'tremendous demand' in affordable housing segment and Godrej Properties will have its projects in this segment," Godrej added.

HONG KONG, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on Thursday as investors continued to switch into riskier assets amid growing confidence the global economy is recovering, keeping the dollar on the defensive.
After hitting its weakest value in almost a year on Wednesday against a basket of currencies .DXY, the greenback was holding just above that level on Thursday, reflecting the shift out of less risky assets.
Oil prices CLc1 garned some support to rise above $72 a barrel from the weak dollar and firm equity markets but also from OPEC's agreement to maintain output levels. [ID:nL9714113]
Major European stock futures STXEc1 and U.S. equity futures SPc1 were up 0.5 percent, implying firmer opens.
European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen reinforced market sentiment that the world economy is improving, saying the euro zone economy had bottomed out. [ID:nLA587352]
South Korea signalled it could be one of the first countries in the world to raise interest rates if house prices jump much more. That knocked front-end Korean treasury bonds the most in three months.
"The final decision on when and how much to adjust its policy depends on each country's situation," Korean central bank governor Lee Seong-tae said, adding that G20 finance ministers' pledge last weekend to maintain growth-supporting policies was aimed mainly at soothing markets. [ID:nSEO269632]
South Korean shares were swept higher though by broader themes, rising 2.3 percent as Asian equities benefited from rising risk appetite.
Feeding into the recovery idea, shipping and shipbuilding companies Hanjin Shipping (000700.KS) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (009540.KS) surged 8.8 percent and 4.6 percent respectively after a rise in the Baltic Dry Index .BADI, a key freight indicator.
Japan's Nikkei index .N225 gained 2 percent even though machinery orders' data pointed to weak capital spending in the world's No. 2 economy.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 1.5 percent by mid-afternoon.

SAO PAULO - Brazil's central bank said on Wednesday it bought $2.625 billion worth of U.S. dollars on the spot foreign exchange in August, with another $323 million in purchases in the first four days of September.
Dollar purchases, which are used by the central bank to ease fluctuations in Brazil's currency, the real BRBY, and remove excess foreign currency from financial markets, totaled nearly $11.11 billion since early May.
Dollar inflows to the country totaled $2.957 billion last month, compared with inflows of $1.27 billion in July, the bank said. The country had outflows of $1.108 billion this month to Sept. 4. (Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Bangalore: 'AIG World Gold Fund' topped the list of mutual fund schemes in the week ended September 03, 2009. The value of AIG scheme went up by 10.97 percent with the net asset value (NAV) of Rs.11.16. Ruchir Parekh is the Fund Manager of this open ended scheme, which had a market size of Rs.266.8 crore as on Aug 31, 2009.
The primary investment objective of the scheme is to provide long term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in units of 'AIG PB Equity Fund Gold'. The scheme may, at the discretion of the investment manager, also invest in the units of other similar overseas mutual fund schemes. The scheme may also invest a certain portion of its corpus in debt and money market securities or units of debt schemes of mutual funds, in order to meet liquidity requirements from time to time. According to mutualfundsindia.com, other funds which followed AIG World Gold Fund in top list for the last week are Birla Sun Life Commodity Equities Fund, which gained by 10.96 percent, DSP BlackRock World Gold Fund by 9.5 percent, Quantum Gold Exchange Traded Fund by 3.82 percent and Kotak Gold ETF by 3.8 percent.According to the data released by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), in the last one year, the mutual fund (MF) industry has shown a 42 percent growth in average assets under management (AUM).

Mumbai: Key indices of the Indian equities markets, buoyed by renewed buying interest and stable markets elsewhere in Asia, closed at their highest levels in 15 months Monday. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 15,425.86 points, closed at 16,016.32 points, up 327.20 points or 2.09 percent higher than Friday's close. The chart showing the 52 week performance of Sensex is on the left.
Asian stock markets rose on Monday, tracking Friday's gains of the U.S. markets. The Wall Street closed higher on Friday after the pace of job losses eased in the world's largest economy. The pledge by the Group of 20 finance ministers to maintain stimulus measures to prop up the global economy also buoyed investor sentiments.Friday's U.S. government's report showed that companies cut 216,000 jobs last month, which was less dismal than expected and encouraged investor hopes of a turnaround in the labor market. The figure seemed to eclipse the news that U.S. unemployment, despite fewer job losses, hit 9.7 percent - its highest since 1983.The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), too, hit a 15-month high to end at 4,782.90 points, up 2.19 percent. Broader market indices also fared well, with the BSE midcap index ending 2.31 percent higher and the BSE smallcap index up 2.83 percent.Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index gained 5.49 percent, BSE Metal Index jumped 3.95 percent and BSE Bankex moved 3.10 percent higher.Biggest Sensex gainers comprised Tata Motors (11.32 percent), Reliance Communications (6.62 percent), ICICI Bank (6.01 percent) and Jaiprakash Associates (5.99 percent). On the other hand ITC (down 0.92 percent) and Mahindra and Mahindra (down 0.53 percent) were the major losers.Market breadth, the number of advancing stocks to declining stocks, was positive for the day. Of the 2883 stocks traded on BSE, 2,240 stocks advanced whereas 589 stocks declined. 54 stocks ended unchanged.