All Eyes on TCS Now

After Infosys, all eyes would be on the quarterly numbers to be announced on Wednesday.
It was a weak start to the session as the benchmark Sensex fell over 200 points in the opening trades itself. However, as IT bellwether Infosys announced its quarterly numbers which were fairly decent, meeting the market expectation lifted the key indices to positive territory and from there on was in the northward direction.

Other IT majors like TCS, Satyam and Wipro joined the ride up north. And as buying gathered momentum, it turned out to be a strong session for stocks across the board. Finally, the BSE benchmark Sensex ended 401 points higher to close at 16,208 and the Nifty index ended 118 points higher to 4,895.

Overall about 1,790 stocks advanced; 871 stocks declined while 48 stocks remained unchanged. Among the 50-Nifty 9 stocks ended in red and 41 stocks ended in green.

Shares of Infosys surged by over 6% after the company announced that it posted a net profit after tax, exceptional items and minority interest of Rs12,490 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 as compared to Rs11,440mn for the quarter ended March 31, 2007. Total Income increased from Rs38,910mn for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 to Rs46,810mn for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Gail gained by 1% to Rs447 after the company said that it is in with China Gas for Coalbed Methane exploration. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs452 and a low of Rs442 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,000 shares on BSE.

Subex was up by 2% to Rs205 as the leading global provider of Operations Support Systems (OSS) for communications service providers, continues to record new contract wins for its Revenue Maximization and Fulfilment Assurance solutions in the Latin America region. During the past six months the company had closed seven new customer deals within one of the fastest-growing BSS/OSS markets in the world.

The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs208 and a low of Rs203 and recorded volumes of over 10,000 shares on BSE.

Aban Offshore advanced by 2% to Rs3368 after the company said that it signed contract with Exxon Neftegas Ltd for the deployment of the Jack-up rig Murmanskaya Offshore Russia for a 2 well programme. The estimated revenues from the Contract (with an estimated duration of approx 160 days) is approx US$34mn. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs3449 and a low of Rs3226 and recorded volumes of over 40,000 shares on BSE.

LITL advanced by over 4% to Rs410 after reports stated that the company won mandate for two super critical power projects for development of 3,300MW in Uttar Pradesh. Reports also stated that the company plans to set up an end-to-end solar complex in Chennai and targets 10,000 mw wind farms in two years. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs415 and a low of Rs390 and recorded volumes of over 5,00,000 shares on BSE.

Zee News surged by over 8% to Rs57 after the company announced its Q4 net profit at Rs153mn vs Rs13mn and Q4 revenue rose by 60% to Rs1.1bn. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs58 and a low of Rs51 and recorded volumes of over 15,00,000 shares on BSE.

Bhagyanagar India rallied by over 16% to Rs45 as the company said that the board of directors would consider buy-back of equity shares on April 22, 2008. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs46 and a low of Rs39 and recorded volumes of over 3,00,000 shares on BSE.

Surana Telecom was frozen at 20% upper circuit to Ra32.75 after the board of directors of the company announced that they would consider buy-back of equity shares on April 22. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs32.75 and a low of Rs27 and recorded volumes of over 86,000 shares on BSE.

Ranbaxy surged by over 8% to Rs481 after the company along with Astrazeneca signed manufacturing, distribution pacts. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs499 and a low of Rs440 and recorded volumes of over 21,00,000 shares on BSE.

Steel Strips Wheels was down by a percent to Rs171. The company said that they secured export order from Kromag. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs174 and a low of Rs163 and recorded volumes of over 4,000 shares on BSE.

Satyam Computer surged by over 4% to Rs452 as reports stated that the company announced it will set up a new campus at the Geelong Technology Precint, Victoria in Australia. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs455 and a low of Rs428 and recorded volumes of over 10,00,000 shares on NSE.

There were also reports stating that Satyam Computer is scouting for a sub-US$50mn overseas acquisition in the knowledge process outsourcing space.