A positive opening seen, but would the FIIs make a comeback? ::HDFC Securities

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The Nifty did well on Friday to build on its Thursday bounce and closed with a gain of 66 points at 8225. The markets are likely to begin the week on a further buoyant note, but how far this rebound lasts, we have to wait and watch.

The chief concern is that FIIs continue to press sales. While the domestic FIs are doing their bit to lend support, positive figures from FIIs would enthuse the markets much more. With interest rate cut unlikely to be cut before March, the banks could find making a meaningful move further north a tad difficult after the morning gains.

Domestic IT which was buoyed by Accenture results is unlikely to carry its flag much higher as a downbeat warning earlier than Accenture will return to haunt the IT companies beyond a point. It might as a leash. FPO bound ONGC could still do better and so could other upstream oil plays.

Current Oil prices will stimulate growth and global demand - Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabias oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, on Sunday defended OPEC?s decision to keep output steady despite the biggest market slump in years. He said that current prices would help global economic growth and stimulate petroleum demand.

Ali al-Naimi blamed a price slide to a lack of cooperation by major producers from outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).  His remarks to a conference in Abu Dhabi marked the second time in three days that he has signalled the world?s biggest crude exporter would not alter output levels but rather aims to allow the market to stabilise on its own.

Suhail Bin Mohammed al-Mazroui, oil minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a close Saudi ally, urged all of the world?s producers not to raise their oil output next year, saying this would quickly steady prices.

The forecast is to the world needs less OPEC oil globally in 2015 because of rising supply of U.S. shale oil and other competing sources, with no significant increase in world demand growth. At a meeting in November, OPEC kept its target output of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) unchanged, leaving the market to balance itself without the groups intervention.
 
Mid-Year Economic Review pegs GDP growth at 5.5%

The Mid-Year Economic Review tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday sees the Indian economy recording around 5.5% in the fiscal year 2015. The figure is in line with the Reserve Bank of India?s (RBI) estimates of GDP growth of FY15. The report said the FY15 revenue targets will fall short leading to expenditure cuts. 

However, the government is committed to meeting the fiscal targets of 4.1% of GDP for FY 2015 despite the difficult odds engendered by a combination of these factors. While noting that economy grew at an annual 5.5 % in the first six months of the fiscal year, the report also signals the possibility of stagnant interest rate till the end of March quarter.

Crompton Greaves gets O&M contract from Belgian wind farm operator

Crompton Greaves (CG) has been awarded a contract from the Belgian offshore wind farm operator Northwind to provide operation and maintenance services for the 216 MW wind farm offshore substation on the Lodewijk bank, 40 km off the Belgian coast.

The company will provide complete end-to-end services in order to effectively monitor, maintain and repair the offshore substation and ensure optimal availability and safety for ten years. The remote surveillance and monitoring service operated by Crompton Greaves will include power adjustments and will secure the operation of the Northwind installations on a 24x7 basis. In addition, Crompton greaves will also provide preventive and corrective maintenance through its dedicated offshore specialized service team.

Govt launches pilot project on conversion of street lights to LED

Aiming at turning Delhi into a smart city, the Union Ministry of Power here today launched a pilot project on conversion of street-lighting from conventional system to an energy-efficient and environment-friendly LED type.

With the project, helmed by the Union Ministry of Power, the government also seeks to save about 25 crore units of electricity consumption aggregating to Rs. 700 crore.

The pilot system was launched by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Union Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goel in Naraina Vihar area in north Delhi.

The LED street-lighting system being energy efficient would be extended to the whole of Delhi where there are nearly 5 lakh streetlight points.

Bajaj Auto bags order from Sri Lankan govt for 1.25 lakh bikes

Bajaj Auto today has bagged an order for 1.25 lakh units of Discover-125M motorcycles from Sri Lankan government.

The company through its distributor David Pieris Motor Company in Sri Lanka had secured, after a detailed evaluation process by the Government of Sri Lanka, an order from them for supply of around 50,000 units of Discover-125M motorcycles.
The company has now secured a repeat order from them through the company's distributor in Sri Lanka for the supply of 1.25 lakh units of Discover-125M, which the company expects to execute in next 3-4 months

Sebi bans 260 entities from markets; accused of misusing exchanges

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has banned 260 entities, including two companies, their promoters, brokers and a clutch of investors, from accessing the securities markets. The regulator has accused them of misusing the stock exchanges to generate long-term capital gains of around Rs 485 crore, thus converting unaccounted cash into legitimate money.
 
CBI files fresh case against Electrosteel casting in coal allocation
 
The CBI has registered a case against Electrosteel Castings Ltd, Electrosteel Steels Ltd and unknown public servants in connection with the allocation of the Parbatpur coal block in Bokaro in July 2005.

The case has been registered under IPC sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust, as well as under sections 406 and 420 of IPC and under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

On Sunday, the CBI conducted raids on office premises of the firm at five places in Kolkata, Ranchi and Bokaro.

Holiday shortened week

We are just going to have four trading sessions this week on account of Christmas. The markets will be closed for 25th of December, Thursday, for Christmas. This could impact the volumes globally. While the traders may be in a holiday mood, economic calendar will roll out uninterrupted this week with key points of data due including housing and domestic growth data.

Existing home sales data is slated for Monday with economists expecting strength in October to have continued through to November with sales at an annualized pace of 5.17 million.

Personal income, due on Tuesday, is anticipated to have improved upon the 0.2% gain in October to 0.5% in November.  The Fed has shown concern as wage growth lagged the overall tightening of labor market.

A final third-quarter GDP figure will be released on Tuesday morning, alongside durable goods orders which are expected to spike 3.1% in November from 0.3% a month earlier. New home sales for November will also be released with market consensus at an increase of 460,000 from 458,000 in October.
Christmas Eve will be a shortened market session and U.S. markets would close at 1 pm on Wednesday.

SBI plans to unlock value by selling subsidiary shares

State Bank of India (SBI) will decide on unlocking the value of its holdings in its subsidiaries, including its insurance and credit card units, after discussing the proposals with its joint venture partners.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson, SBI, said in an interview that the bank plans to unlock value by selling shares in the joint venture units to the public. The bank will also look to raise equity capital, now that the government has allowed its stake in state-owned banks to drop to 52%.

Bhattacharya said that no major improvement has been seen in stress levels in the banking system, with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still struggling because of the weak economy.

ONGC FPO in January

Buoyed by the success of the SAIL divestment, the Centre is looking to wrap up a similar stake sale in ONGC by next month. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the disinvestment in September.

The Centre intends divesting 5 % , or over 42.77 crore shares, in ONGC. Around 20% of those will be reserved for retail investors. Based on the last closing price of ?349.30, the Centre can mop up about ?14,900 crore from the sale. Currently, it holds 68.94 % in ONGC.

Although SEBI norms prescribe only a minimum 10 per cent for retail investors, for ONGC the Government proposes to reserve 20 per cent for them and also give a 5 per cent price discount. This concession is to be extended for the Coal India and the NHPC divestments, too.
The Government is working on a subsidy-sharing formula and that should be finalised in the next two weeks. The FPO could follow soon after that.
 
Countdown begins for the MOIL divestment

The Department of Disinvestment has initiated the process for a sell-off in MOIL Ltd. It has issued a Request for Proposal for appointing merchant bankers and selling brokers for disinvestment of 10 % equity in the company. The Centre intends disinvesting 10% of its 71.57% holding in the company. At the last closing price of its shares, it can get up to ?5,000 crore.
  
Oil Pulls Indices Higher on Quadruple Witching Day

Key U.S. Indices moved higher on Friday as Crude Oil rebounded from its five year low.
Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 27 points or 0.15% to close at 17,805. The S&P 500 added 10 points or 0.47% to 2071. Energy and materials sectors lead the gains on Friday.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 17 points or 0.35% to 4,765.

Energy shares celebrated the rise of crude. The West Texas Intermediate crude gained 4.5% to $56.52 a barrel. Friday completed a hat-trick of gains for the key indices. Stocks rose for three straight sessions in the wake of the Federal Reserve?s reassurance that the rate increases would be methodical, while the central bank said it would be ?patient? on the timing of the initial hike.
The U.S. stock market ended a turbulent week punctuated with collapse of the ruble, gyrations in the oil prices and the Federal Reserve?s policy meeting, with the biggest weekly gain since October.

The S&P 500 gained 3.4% over the past week as Energy sector stocks jumped nearly 10% over the week, while materials gained 5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3% for  the week. Chevron   and Exxon Mobil advanced the most over the past week, gaining 10% and 8.1% respectively.

The tech-heavy index gained 2.4% over the past week. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF climbed 3.2% with oil majors and oil services companies pulling the sector higher. Chevron added 3.5% and Schlumberger gained 3.9%.

Friday was quadruple witching day. This comes once in every quarter and the volumes were understandably higher. Quadruple Witching day is on the third Friday of the last month of each quarter. On this day The Index Futures,, Index Options, Stock Futures and Stock Options expire together.

Veterinary drug developer Aratana Therapeutics rocketed 25.7% higher after announcing that its canine osteoarthritis pain drug had performed better in drug trials than a placebo.
CarMax added 11.2% as third-quarter profit beat forecasts and revenue jumped 16%. Nike, though it beat quarterly earnings forecasts, caused concern when it reported the slowest growth rate of future orders in four quarters. Shares were 2.3% lower.

Red Hat spiked more than 10% as third-quarter revenue jumped 15% and the company provided positive guidance for its fourth quarter. Friday's higher-than-normal trading volumes is unlikely to carry over to the final two holiday-shortened weeks of the year, though. The next two Fridays follow a public holiday so market activity is expected to be even quieter than usual.

Oil futures rallied Friday, shaking off sharp losses earlier in the day and rebounding from their lowest settlement in more than five years. WTI futures for delivery in January settled 4.4% higher at $56.62 a barrel. Brent crude for February delivery rose 3.6% to $61.38 a barrel. But the commodity still recorded its fourth straight weekly loss.

The dollar continued to gain, rising to ?119 against the Japanese yen. The dollar traded lower against the ruble for the third straight day, trading at 58.87, compared with 61.07 Thursday, as Russia attempted to stabilize the volatile currency.

Meanwhile, gold prices edged up on Friday, though lost 2.2% over the week.