PSU stocks lead the gains

Mon, 31 May 11:30 am

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

   Closing   

Indian markets continue to trade strong on the back buying interest seen in heavy weights during the last two hours of trade. Stocks from PSU and oil & gas sectors are trading strong while profit booking is seen in stocks from the IT and realty space.

BSE-Sensex is trading up by 69 points while NSE-Nifty is trading 14 points above the dotted line. BSE-Midcap index is trading higher by 0.5% while the BSE-Smallcap index is trading 0.7% above Friday’s closing. The rupee is trading at 46.40 to the US dollar.

As per a news daily, M&M has submitted a letter of intent to buy South Korean SUV maker Ssangyong. Ssangyang which has a 2% market share in Korean car market has seen its sales fall recently and is strapped for cash. As per M&M, the company will submit a bid only after due diligence and studying the economic viability of the Ssangyong. The first step would be to examine why the sales of the company have fallen and whether they can be corrected. As per information, seven other automobile companies have submitted the letter of intent including Ruia group and Renault. According to experts this deal may be upto US$ 50 m. As per M&M, Ssangyong would be a good fit for the company given its higher range of SUVs and technology. It may be noted that M&M has been on an acquisition streak recently, buying Renault’s share in Logan and a stake in the electric car company Reva. In case this acquisition goes through it would give M&M a foothold in the lucrative South Korean car market.

As per a leading financial daily, HUL has for a second year frozen the base salaries of its executive directors and senior management. Instead the senior managers will now have the opportunity to invest their cash bonus in shares of the company. Under this new scheme, the senior managers will be able to invest up to 60% of their annual cash bonus in HUL’s shares and will receive a corresponding number of shares from the company. However, the shares will be vested only after 3 years after gauging the long term performance of the employees.

This incentive scheme is seen to incentivize management for the profitable performance of the company. While this incentive scheme is for Unilever worldwide, for HUL this means that the company is quite clearly putting pressure on its management to perform and indirectly help boost the stock price.