T20 April 12th-2011

Global Markets

1. S&P 500 registered losses this week as investors remained cautious due to the increased violence in Libya and the escalation of the Japan crisis. SP Chart

2. US Dollar: Weakens on speculation that the Federal Reserve will trail other central banks in raising interest rates. US Dollar Chart

3. Crude prices touch a two and a half year high in response to escalating violence in Libya and political unrest in Nigerian. Crude Oil Chart

4. Gold prices rise on the back of demand driven by hedging against volatile global markets. Gold Chart

Economy

5. The Index for industrial production (IIP) dipped to 3.6% in the month of Feb from 15.1% YOY, mainly due to poor performance from the manufacturing and mining sectors.

6. Government’s attempts to curb inflation is not taking roots as food inflation is at 9.18% YOY as on march 26th, 2011.

7. Rating agency CRISIL expects higher interest rates and inflation to investment driven demand and inflation to hit retail demand. Profitability of players in cement, chemicals, construction, automobiles and textile may be affected due to high input costs.

8. Exporters are rejoicing as the Indian Supreme Court has lifted the iron ore export ban imposed on shipments form the Karnataka. This move will set to ease prices of the commodity.

Indian Markets

9. Nifty experiencing retardation of growth on the back of an unexpected slowdown of country’s industrial production growth and rising commodity costs. Nifty Chart

10. FIIs purchased shares worth a net Rs. 5879.5 cr from April 1st to Date, 2011; Domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 50,259.9 cr for the same period.

Sector

11. Indian Pharma have a great opportunity on hand as they are fighting to gain access to the USD 100 Billion worth of drugs that come off patents over the next two years.

12. Telecom companies are upset as government propose licence renewal every 10 years instead of the previous period of 20 years.

13. Car sales seen slowing in 2011 on the back of an expected hike in interest rates and higher input costs.

14. An SBI led consortium picks up 23.3% of Kingfisher airlines as they converted Rs750 Crores in debt into equity shares.

15. In a blow to shipping companies, the sipping secretary ruled out subsidies for ship building anytime soon.

16. Steel companies are under pressure as the rise in production cost due to high cost of iron ore and coal cannot be passed onto their customers as there is weak demand for steel products. Impact is less on companies like Tata steel and SAIL as they own their own iron ore mines and more on players like JSW steel and Essar Steel who have to buy resources from the open market.

Stocks

17. JSW Steel posts record quarterly crude steel output in Q4 FY11. JSW Chart

18. Tata Chemicals Buys 25% of Olam JV in Gabon for USD 290 Million. Tata Chemicals Chart

19. Tata power has won a prestigious order from the ministry of defence to modernise the air field infrastructure of the Indian Air Force. Tata Power Chart

Quotes

20. “October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February”. ~Mark Twain