Market Analysis: Weekly roundup till Mar 27

Benchmark indices closed on positive gains in the last week. Sensex gained 0.4 per cent and closed at 17644 during the week, while Nifty ended the week at 5282 gaining of 0.4 per cent over its previous weekends close.

Buzz up!
The gains on the markets buoyed by continued liquidity flow and optimistic on earnings.

During the week BSE Mid-cap index and Small-cap index lost -0.0 per cent and -0.8 per cent respectively. BSE Health Care and Bankex indices were the top gainers for the week, up by 2.6 per cent and 2.0 per cent respectively. BSE Realty and PSU were the loser in BSE indices, down by 4.0 per cent and 2.0 per cent during the week.


Going Forward

Markets could look to the global cues for future direction. The fourth quarter results and the forecast of southwest monsoon could be the major triggers. We believe, markets gain further on the back of buying support from foreign institutional investors. Good rains this year may boost the farm output and rural incomes.

Corporate

Bharti ties up 8.3 bn dollars for Zain acquisition
As per the company sources, the entire financing requirement of 8.3 billion dollars for the proposed acquisition of Zain's African unit has been successfully tied up. The financing was oversubscribed, with major international banks committing to underwrite the total amount.

For 7.5 billion dollars of financing, Mandated Lead Arranger and Lead Advisor is Standard Chartered Bank, Mandated Lead Arranger and Joint Lead Advisor is Barclays, Mandated Lead Arranger and Lead Onshore Advisor is SBI Group and other Mandated Lead Arrangers and Co-Advisors are ANZ, BNP, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Apart from that, the SBI Group has committed to Bharti for the dollar financing up to 1 billion dollars equivalent Indian rupees.

Sanofi-aventis buys out UB stake in Aventis Pharma
Sanofi-aventis proposes to acquire 2,366,380 equity shares representing 10.27 per cent of the share capital of Aventis Pharma Ltd from UB Group companies.

The shares were purchased at Rs1,750 a share and the UB Group would mop up Rs.14 crore from the transaction. The transaction takes Sanofi-aventis equity in Aventis Pharma to 60%. As for UB, it required the funds to deal with its debt from the aviation business.

Videocon to pump in Rs 14k cr in mobile service biz
The 4 billion dollar Videocon Group is set to invest Rs 14,000 crore in its mobile service division over the next three years. The company is targeting new users to begin with, but is also betting on migration, once number portability comes in place.

Videocon is marketing its service with a 'sub 1 paise effective tariff' to attract the customers. It is targeting 100 million users in three years and hope to break even in two years. Videocon will launch its service across 100 cities. The company has tied up a network of 70,000 base stations across the country. In Tamil Nadu, the same stands at 3,000.

Videocon Mobile Services is envisaging an investment of around Rs 1,500 crore in the state with presence across 50,000 retail outlets by the year-end.

Economy

Food Inflation falls to lowest in four months
Annual food inflation fell to its lowest in four months at 16.22 per cent for the week ended Mar 13, as the pace of price rise for potatoes slowed and other vegetables such as onions became cheaper.

The 0.08 percentage points fall in food prices from the previous week, however, is unlikely to prevent the overall inflation from vaulting to double digits in Mar 2010 from 9.89 per cent in Feb 2010 as high food and fuel prices have started spilling over to non-food items.

During the week, petrol prices rose 16.82 per cent while diesel turned costlier by 14.99 per cent year-on-year, as the government restored customs on crude and raised excise duty on petrol and diesel.