Nifty hits 6K; first time ever

Within a few days after the BSE Sensex breached the historic 20000 levels, the other leading bourse in the country has joined the party at Dalal Street. The NSE’s broad-based index ‘Nifty’ on Thursday for the first time ever, hit 6000 levels in Mumbai.

The latest upward swing is partially attributed to the US Fed rate cut of 50 basis points announced on Wednesday. The top five stocks in the Nifty contributed to 50 per cent of the rally from 5,000 to 6,000. Moreover, it just took 24 trading days for the Nifty to move 1000 points up. In comparison it took 8 years to move from 1000 to 2000 levels.

The record rallies in India's stock markets have given credence to the view that a lot of stocks are being overvalued and a correction is just round the corner. Interestingly, the other Asian markets have not responded this positively to the US fed rate cut. 

Mundra’s IPO oversubscribed

The IPO of Mundra Port & SEZ has been over-subscribed by over two times within hours of the issue opening for subscription on Thursday in Mumbai. As per the NSE web site, the issue received bids for 10,52,16,135 shares against issue size of 4,02,50,000 shares on offer. Around 49,635 bids were received at cut-off price. The Rs 10 shares are being offered in the price band Rs 400-440 per shares via 100 per cent book building process. The issue closes on Nov 7.  

Central Bank H1 net at Rs 222 cr

Central Bank of India (CBI), on Wednesday, announced in Mumbai a net profit of Rs 221.95 crore for the H1 ended September 30, 2007 as compared to Rs 214.78 crore for the same period last fiscal, showing a rise of only 3.26 per cent.

Total income increased from Rs 3192.38 crore for H1 ended September 30, 2006 to Rs 3980.58 crore for H1 ended September 30, 2007.

Bank’s Chairperson & MD Ms H A Daruwala conceded that the bank’s net profit for the period was bit below the bank’s expectations. She attributed that to certain short-term advances of Rs 6000 crore made by the bank did not bring in the expected realisation.

Bal Pharma PAT at Rs 2.62 crore

Bal Pharma Limited on Wednesday posted significant growth both in sales as well as profits. Gross turnover for H1 ended 30th September 2007 is at Rs 44.50 crore, higher by 15 per cent over the previous first H1 of 06-07 with figures of Rs 38.62 crore, the company in Bangalore. PBT is at Rs 3.25 crore, compared to Rs 3.07 crore and PAT has also gone up to Rs 2.62 crore against Rs 2.37 crore last year.

Environ buys Shell's solar biz

Environ Energy Global announced in Kolkata on Thursday its acquisition of Shell's solar business in India and Sri Lanka for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition, completed last week in Colombo and Bangalore against a globally competitive bidding, has made the Indian outfit the world’s largest solar photovoltaic company, overtaking Sharp of Japan, BP (British Petroleum) Solar and Kyocera of Japan, MD Jyoti Poddar said. Shell Petroleum having a global turnover in excess of $350 billion, was keen on further core competency and wanted to exit from the solar energy business.

Besides an experienced team of nearly 500 engineers of Shell, Environ Energy will have automatic access to international markets in Indonesia, Philippines, Africa Mr Poddar said adding that the company plans to foray into emerging markets in Germany, Spain, France, the US and UK where there has been increasing stress on solar energy. 

Bank of Baroda Q2 net up 13 pc

Bank of Baroda (BoB) on Wednesday reported in Mumbai a 13.46 per cent in net profit at Rs 327.19 crore for Q2 ended September 2007 as compared to Rs 327.19 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. Attributing robust growth in commissions, fee and interest income, the Bank said in a press release that for the period under review it recorded its total income moving up to Rs 3,333,83 crore from Rs 2, 507.66 crore in the second quarter of 2006-07.