Market Analysis: Weekly roundup till Jul 31

Sensex lost 1.4 pc and closed at 17,868 during the week, while Nifty ended the week at 5,361 down by 1.6 pc over its previous weekend"s close. During the week BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were lost 0.3 pc and 1 pc respectively. The BSE Consumer Durables and PSU indices gained 0.5% each during the week, where BSE Capital Goods and Oil & Gas indices were down by 4.8% and 3.5 pc respectively.

During the week, the US stocks down as compared to previous week on the back of economy"s growth is at 2.4 pc in the second quarter which is lower than estimated at 2.5 pc

Going Forward

The key domestic triggers with the first quarter results would be almost over and investors could take cues from overseas markets, mainly the US, which is expected some major economic readings, including the job data. We believe that, US economy is likely to see renewed growth weakness in consumer confidence, high indebtness, and sluggish wage growth points towards weakness in private consumption.

Corporate

NMDC Eyes two mines in Russia for Rs 1,881 crore
NMDC is planning to buy coking coal mines in Russia from Kolmar for $400 million (Rs.1881 crore), which is underground mine, produces 5 lakh tonne coke in a year. The reserves of the two mines stand at 353 million tonne, having both soft and hard coking coal resources. The developing of the mines will be an additional sum which is equal to the cost of acquisition.

Presently, Intergeo holds 51 pc of Kolmar, but it is not clear whether NMDC picks the entire stake of it. The focus area of the NMDC are iron ore, coal, rock phosphate and potash. In Australia, NMDC plans to bid for Atlas Iron"s Ridley iron ore project.

Maruti Suzuki June quarter net profit down 20 pc
Maruti Suzuki June quarter, 2010 net profit has declined by 20 per cent on YOY to Rs 465 crore from Rs 583 crore. On QOQ, it has declined by 29 per cent from Rs 656 crore.

Decline in profits is due to increased local competition, declining exports, high royalty fee and high raw material costs.

The sale has increased 27 pc on YOY, to Rs 8231 crore from Rs 6493 crore. On QOQ it has declined by 2 pc from Rs 8424.5 crore. Car sales grew by 23 pc to 2,42,887 units for the June 2010 quarter, but market share fell down to 47.5 pc to 55 pc in the local market.

Hero Honda Q1 net dips 1.6 pc on high costs, competition

Hero Honda has posted 12pc increase in its June quarter, 2010 sales on YoY basis to Rs.4296 crore from Rs 3822 crore. On QoQ, it has increased by 4pc from Rs 4122 crore. Net profit on YoY basis declined by 2 per cent to Rs 491 crore from Rs 500 crore. On QoQ, it has declined by 18pc from Rs 598 crore.

The EBITDA has declined by 6 per cent on YOY to Rs 660 crore from Rs 703 crore, on QoQ; it has declined by 16pc from Rs 789 crore. High raw material costs, poor volume growth and royalty payments affected the performance of Hero Honda. The management expects to produce an additional 4 lakh units from Haridwar to take the total production to 18 lakh two wheelers this fiscal.

Economy

Core sector grows by 3.4 pc, slowest in ten months
Growth in six key infrastructure sectors, which compromise the core sector, decelerated to a 10 month low of 3.4 per cent in June. This is due to high statistical base effect of last year. This is the third consecutive month in decline in growth for the core sector. The core sector, which has a weight of 26.6 per cent in The IIP stood at 6.3 per cent in the same period.

(An article by DAS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT & ADVISORS Pvt Ltd)