Sterlite Industries soars in firm market

The key benchmark indices spurted in early afternoon trade after trading resumed at 12:10 IST after stoppage on account of Sun outage. Sterlite Industries vaulted more than 11% after the company dropped a restructuring plan. Metal stocks rose. The BSE Sensex was up 243.72 points. IT stocks fell. Buying was also seen in mid-cap and small-cap stocks. The market breadth was positive. HDFC Bank and DLF were up more than 3.5% each while ICICI Bank rose more than 3%.
The market sentiment was boosted by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway's announcment of an infusion of $5 billion in Goldman Sachs Group. US stocks futures rose after the news which was announced after the US markets had closed on Tuesday, 23 September 2008. Goldman will sell $5 billion of preferred stock to Berkshire Hathaway, which will also receive warrants to purchase $5 billion of common stock with a strike price of $115 per share. Berkshire has five years to exercise the warrants.
The Dow futures were up 101 points and the Nasdaq futures were up 24.75 points.
Asian markets were trading mixed today, 24 September 2008. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were up by between 0.2% to 0.99%. Key benchmark indices in China and Taiwan were down by between 0.8% to 2.13%.
Meanwhile, a US-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement moved closer to approval by Congress on Tuesday, 23 September 2008, when a key Senate Committee passed the deal with a landslide majority. However, the historic agreement is yet to clear a few hurdles in its final lap. The bill now goes to the floor of the Senate for the final ratification.
At 12:28 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was up 243.72 points or 1.78% to 13,812.50. The Sensex rose 245.35 points at day’s high of 13,815.66, hit in early afternoon trade. The index shed 56.25 points at the day's low of 13,626.56, hit in the onset of trading session.
The S&P CNX Nifty was up 63.20 points or 1.53% to 4,190.10.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.99% at 5,163.93 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.87% at 6,146.26.
The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1295 shares advancing as compared to 757 that declined. 70 shares remained unchanged.
Sterlite Industries (India) surged 11.69% to Rs 504.05 after it dropped a restructuring plan. From a recent high of Rs 622.35 on 8 September 2008, the stock had tumbled 27.7% to Rs 449.95 on 23 September 2008 after parent Vedanta Resources said it will transfer Sterlite's aluminium and energy businesses to Madras Aluminium Company as part of restructuring. The restructuring of the Vedanta group was planned to result in three units focused on commodities produced by the group: copper, zinc and lead; aluminium and energy; and iron ore.
Metal stocks rose. National Aluminum Company (up 4.96% to Rs 416.05), Tata Steel (up 1.78% to Rs 479.35), Hindalco Industries (up 1.57% to Rs 109.80), Hindustan Zinc (up 1.59% to Rs 501), Steel Authority of India (up 0.11% to Rs 142.25) and edged higher.
India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 1.82% to Rs 2,045.60.
Wipro (down 3.47% to Rs 376.90), Satyam Computer Services (down 2.04% to Rs 324.90) and Infosys (down 0.22% to Rs 1,540) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
HDFC Bank (up 3.84% to Rs 1,286), DLF (up 3.65% to Rs 409.05), ICICI Bank (up 3.19% to Rs 618.85), Jaiprakash Associates (up 2.6% to Rs 126.30), edged higher from the Sensex pack.
India’s largest drug maker by sales Ranbaxy Laboratories rose 1.33% to Rs 312.95. Japan's third-largest drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo said on Wednesday, 24 September 2008, its open offer to buy up to 20% stake in generic drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories was oversubscribed. Investors had tendered more than 92.5 million Ranbaxy shares between in the open offer, Daiichi Sankyo said.
In June 2008, Daiichi Sankyo had agreed to buy the 34.8% held by Ranbaxy's founding family, and to make an open offer for a further 20% of Ranbaxy shares, as per Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) takeover regulations.
Provogue India was trading flat at Rs 700 after it fixed 13 October 2008 as the record date for 5 to 1 stock split.
The trading on the bourses will be extended to 16:15 IST starting today due to Sun Outage. On BSE, there will be no trading from 11:25 IST to 12:10 IST as there will be signal problems during this time.