Metals, realty bouy the markets

Wed, 17 Mar 11:30 am

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Persistent buying activity in the index heavyweights kept the markets buoyant during the previous two hours of trade. While buying is being seen across all sectors, metals, capital goods, realty, healthcare and power are leading the gainers.

The BSE-Sensex and NSE-Nifty are trading in the positive, up by around 172 points and 54 points respectively. The BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap indices are trading higher by around 0.8% each. The Rupee is trading at 46.38 to the Dollar.

According to a leading business daily, Indian telecom major RComm, has crossed the 100 m subscriber mark for its wireless telecom services. It has aggressive plans to add other 100 m customers in the next 1,000 days. To this end it aims to strengthen its presence in the domestic market through inorganic as well as organic route. It is also ready for India based acquisitions and is scouting for optimum targets. However, the company does not have any immediate plans to expand its operations in the foreign markets.

RComm believes that Indian telecom market which is very vast and dynamic brings huge opportunity for telecom provider of its size. Nevertheless it is believed to be open to overseas acquisitions as well. The company believes that as new telecom players enter the lucrative Indian markets, price wars are all set to intensify further. The company reported a lackluster performance during 3QFY10 on account of falling ARPU (average revenues per user) and MOU (average minutes of usage). Its MOU and ARPU fell by 21% and 41% YoY respectively in 3QFY10.

The stock of L&T is finding favor amongst investors currently. According to a leading business daily, L&T has bagged a Rs 10 bn order from ONGC for its Mumbai High North (MHN) re-development project. It may be noted that ONGC is augmenting its production from MHN through latest hydrocarbon lift technique coupled with increased reservoir recovery. L&T has been awarded contract for 4 of ONGC's well platform in MHN.

L&T will be responsible for complete engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of these platforms with total in-house capabilities. The company outbid a number of competitors in the international competitive bidding process. We believe that though such big orders improve the company's order book visibility; how well they contribute to revenues depend on L&T's execution efficiency. The company reported a dismal sales performance during 3QFY10 on account of issues like delays in handing over of project sites, delays in financial closures and funds not being put up by customers during execution.