Global optimism lifts India

Tue, 31 May Closing

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The buying strength witnessed for most part of the day continued well into the closing hours and consequently, benchmark indices in the Indian stock market closed the day strongly in the positive. While BSE-Sensex edged higher by more than 270 points, gains on the NSE-Nifty came in at around 90 points. BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices also performed strongly, edging higher by 1.8% and 1% respectively. Save for pharma heavyweight Cipla, all the stocks constituting the Sensex closed the day in the positive.

Indices across Asia also closed in the positive today whereas Europe too is trading strong currently. The optimism all around could be on account of speculation that the European nations would pledge more funds for Greece to help resolve its debt crisis. The rupee was trading at Rs 45 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Aluminium major Hindalco closed higher by more than 2% on the bourses today. While the overall buoyant sentiment did contribute to the rise, the gains we believe could also be a result of news that the company is likely to start operations at its Greenfield Utkal Alumina project before June 2012. It should be noted that the idea of the project was conceived way back in 1992 but it was unable to take off due to opposition from locals on concerns over displacement and environmental damage to the area. However, the company is now confident of bringing it on stream soon. Once ready, the alumina from the refinery will be used to feed the company's two upcoming smelters, Mahan and Aditya. Thus, by 2016, when all the projects of the company come on stream, the company will be one of the lowest cost producers of the aluminium and will also be largely isolated from LME price volatility.

Indraprastha Gas Ltd. recently announced its results for the 4QFY11 and full year. Higher volumes and better realizations translated into a topline growth of 76% YoY for the quarter. The company registered a 34% YoY growth in the bottomline. The company reported an increase of 62% YoY in topline for FY11. The bottomline was up 21% YoY for the full year. As per the management guidance, the volume growth for FY12 will be same as FY11, at around 25%-30%. However, the margins (in terms of percentage) were under pressure on account of increase in the cost of gas. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 5 per share for FY11. The stock closed higher by 3% today.