Busiest week for IPO market in 15 years; a choice of 11 IPOs

Source :ET:NEW DELHI::20 SEP, 2010, 04.42PM IST,PTI 




 This week is slated to be the busiest in the last 15-years for the primary market, with eight companies seeking to raise around Rs 3,000 crore through public offers, in addition to three already underway. 


The initial public offers of eight small and medium scale companies, including Cantabil Retail and Ramky Infrastructure, are opening this week. The combined value of these IPOs is Rs 2,853 crore. 


Besides, three issue which opened last week are underway to raise Rs 612 crore. 


So, in all, people have the choice to invest in as many as 11 companies in a single week, highest since 2007.


"This will be the busiest week in the Indian primary market history after 1995. Even during the red-hot bull market of 2007, no single week featured 11 IPOs," SMC Global Securities Equity Head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said. 


He added that the last high was in February 2007, when 10 IPOs had hit the capital market in one week. 


Analysts believe that there is enough appetite in the market to absorb these issues. 


"There is enough appetite among investors, and large number of IPOs are providing more choices to them. They can choose issue from a variety of options," Enam Securities MD Yogesh Kapur said. 


The companies, which are hitting the primary market this week include, Orient Green Power (Rs 900 crore), VA Tech Wabag (Rs 500 crore), Electrosteel (Rs 285 crore), Tecpro Systems (Rs 268 crore), Ashoka Buildcon (Rs 225 crore) and Gallant Ispat (Rs 40.50 crore). 


While Ramky Infrastructure and Cantabil Retail will hit the capital market with issue sizes of Rs 530 crore and Rs 105 crore respectively. 


Besides, tutorial service provider Career Point, entertainment and media firm Eros International and Microsec Financial Services, which opened last week, will be available for subscription this week. 


Recently, public issues of a number of entities including SKS Microfinance, Prakash Steelage Ltd and Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd got good response from investors and were oversubscribed. Listing of these firms was also impressive. 


The follow-on public offer of the state-run Engineers India Ltd also received big investor response. 


Corporate India raised over Rs 47,867 crore through 44 public offers during 2009-2010, a period when the stock market benchmark Sensex gave a handsome return of over 80 per cent. 


Apart from some big IPOs such as that of JSW Energy and Adani Power, the fiscal also saw divestment of the government's stake in NMDC and NTPC through the follow-on offers.

11 IPOs to raise nearly R3,500 cr this week

Source :HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times:Mumbai, September 21, 2010First Published: 00:45 IST(21/9/2010)


If the secondary market is on fire, the primary market is trying to play a catch up, seeking to capitalise on the rally driven by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). As many as 11 companies have lined their initial public offerings to raise a total of Rs 3,495 crore in the week that began on Monday.This is however not a green light for investors to line up for these IPOs, as the markets are entering dangerous territory and valuations overall are getting stretched with every day’s rise in markets, experts say.


“The investors will have to be very selective as lot of these are small companies. They should wait for the government divestment that may come up next month,” said a market expert who did not wish to be named.


The size of individual IPOs vary from a high of Orient Green Power’s Rs 900 crore to Gallant Ispat’s low of Rs 40.5 crore.


How much of the FII inflow gets into these IPOs is to be seen. Fund flow from FIIs has concentrated in the secondary market so far in September. Of the net investment of Rs 14,158.6 crore by FIIs this month, only 1.4 per cent or Rs 197.9 crore has gone to the primary market.


Some say this sort of line up for raising money from the primary market is one of a kind.
“This will be the busiest week in the Indian primary market history after 1995. Even during the red-hot bull market of 2007, no single week featured 11 IPOs,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity strategist at SMC Global.

RBI wants low-cost banking for masses

Source :HT Correspondent, Hindustan TimesSeptember 21, 2010First Published: 01:14 IST(21/9/2010)


Banks should reduce the cost of services by becoming more efficient in order to extend services to people in un-banked areas, said Subir Gokarn, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India at a seminar organised by Confederation of Indian Industry on opportunities and challenges for financial services inIndia and Europe.


“Banks should bring down the cost of services so that people in un-banked areas can also avail their services,” said Gokarn.


 He said financial inclusion should not be just about adding numbers but providing banking services to the masses and the Unique Identification Number (UID) project can be leveraged for taking banking services to rural and semi urban areas.


Gokarn said greater transparency and stability in the financial sector is needed to avoid any recurrence of the financial crisis.


 Gokarn said the trend of convergence in the financial sector called for a mechanism to share information between regulators.


MV Nair, chairman and managing director of Union Bank of India, pointed to the untapped potential in the Indian banking sector, as a vast section of society does not have access to financial services.

IBM agrees to buy Netezza for $1.7 bn

Source :Bloomberg, Sep 21, 2010, 04.39am IST



International Business Machines Corp, the world`s largest computer-services provider, agreed to buy Netezza for about $1.7 billion to gain analytics technology. Netezza investors will receive $27 a share in cash, IBM said on Monday in a statement. 


That`s a 9.8% more than the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company`s September 17 closing price. 


IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said in May he is planning to spend $20 billion on buyouts in the next five years, investing in markets such as analytics software, which helps companies predict trends.

Sensex regains 20k level, Nifty crosses 6,000

SOURCE :Press Trust Of India:hindustan times:Mumbai, September 21, 2010 09:42 IST(21/9/2010)


The BSE benchmark Sensex shot up by over 135 points to regain the magical 20,000-level in the opening trade today for the first time since January 17, 2008, on spurt in buying of oil and gas, capital goods and banking sector stocks. 


The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange surged by 135.42 points to 20,041.52 in the opening trade, for the first time since January 17, 2008. All the sectoral indices were trading with gains up to 1.30 per cent.




Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange also crossed the crucial 6,000 points to trade 36.40 points higher at 6,016.85 points.


Both indices have regained these levels after almost 32 months. Analysts said sustained inflows of overseas funds, bolstered by fast expanding economy, helped indices to touch the 32-month high.

Bhave, Gopinath inaugurated United Stock Exchange

Source :PTI,TOI:MUMBAI: Sep 20, 2010, 06.13pm IST


 United Stock Exchange of India (USE), the newest stock exchange for currency derivatives, has commence its operations from Monday. 


The exchange  inaugurated by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman C B Bhave and Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Shyamala Gopinath at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday, an official said here. 


USE has commence its operations in all four currency pairs currently allowed by SEBI, namely the dollar-rupee, euro-rupee, yen-rupee and pound-rupee. 


The exchange is offering  better platform to corporates and SMEs for managing forex risk.


The exchange was formed through a unique public-private partnership, with equity participation by both PSUs and private sector banks. 


Among the 21 public sector banks which have a stake in the USE are Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, IDBI Bank and State Bank of India, among others. 


In addition, five private sector banks -- namely Axis Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and J&K Bank -- also have equity participation in the new exchange. 


Apart from banks, Jaypee Capital, MMTC and Indian Potash also have a stake in the United Stock Exchange. 


Bombay Stock Exchange is a strategic partner of the USE, as it holds a 15 per cent stake and all of its members are connected to the new USE platform.

India third most powerful nation: US report

SOURCE : TOI :WASHINGTON:IANS, Sep 21, 2010, 12.01pm IST






India is listed as the third most powerful country in the world after the US and China and the fourth most powerful bloc after the US, China and the European Union in a new official US report.

The new global power line-up for 2010 also predicted that New Delhi's clout in the world will further rise by 2025, according to "Global Governance 2025" jointly issued by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of the US and the European Union's Institute for Security Studies (EUISS).

Using the insights of a host of experts from Brazil, Russia, India and China, among others, and fictionalised scenarios, the report illustrates what could happen over the next 25 years in terms of global governance.

In 2010, the US tops the list of powerful countries/regions, accounting for nearly 22 percent of the global power.

The US is followed by China with European Union at 16 percent and India at eight percent. India is followed by Japan, Russia and Brazil with less than five percent each.

According to this international futures model, by 2025 the power of the US, EU, Japan and Russia will decline while that of China, India and Brazil will increase, even though there will be no change in this listing.

By 2025, the US will still be the most powerful country of the world, but it will have a little over 18 percent of the global power.

The US will be closely followed by China with 16 percent, European Union with 14 percent and India with 10 per cent.

"The growing number of issues on the international agenda, and their complexity, is outpacing the ability of international organisations and national governments to cope," the report warns.

This critical turning point includes issues of climate change, ethnic and regional conflicts, new technology, and the managing of natural resources.

The report also highlights the challenges proponents of effective global governance face.

On one hand, rapid globalization, economic and otherwise, has led to an intertwining of domestic politics and international issues and fuelled the need for more cooperation and more effective leadership.

But on the other hand, an increasingly multipolar world, often dominated by non-state actors, has put a snag in progress toward effectual global governance, it said.