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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (4624)	6/16/1999 1:17:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

Uncle Sam Helps to Lift the Market Sentiment-Jun 16,1999. (Courtesy:Capital Market) Stock prices on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) recovered sharply after a dull first half. The mood on the market remained quite lacklustre in the beginning with the narrow movements in the BSE 30-Share Sensitive Index (Sensex) for the better part of the day. However, the fresh buying came in around 1.45 p.m. following the reports of Clinton Administration approving the lifting of the economic sanctions. At the same time, following the White House's statement to the Pakistan to respect the Line of Control, there was some euphoria among the players. The Sensex opened steady at 3922.71 and declined later marginally moving in a range of 3950-80 for some time before retreating sharply towards the mid session and touched the day's low of 3876.56. However, around 1.45 pm as the news of Clinton Administration's formal approval to lift the economic sanctions came lifted the Sensex above 4000-mark to touch a high of 4031. Finally, the Sensex settled at 4021.40, gaining 119.67 points over its previous closing and 3901.73 points over its day's low. The BSE 100-Share National Index (Natex) also gained 39.46 points over its previous closing of 1689.28 to settle at 1728.74. Pivotals were steady. Following the hike in the product prices once again, Reliance Industries counter was steady and touched a high of Rs 184 before settling at Rs 183. State Bank counter also recovered from lower levels and hit the upper limit of the circuit breaker at Rs 252.90 on institutional interest. Operators were reported to be covering the short positions on the bourses. Hind Lever was firm throughout the day and touched a high of Rs 2315 and settled there. Software stocks were the major losers even today but some of them recovered later in the day on renewed buying interest. With the apprehensions about the slowdown in the growth rates of the software companies and end of Y2K business, the sentiment for the software counters has been turning bearish. 'Shares like Satyam Computer which have significant exposure in the Y2K business may lose further. However, the stocks with limited Y2K exposure would bounce back once the first quarter results start flowing in,' opined Vishal Shah, dealer, Indsec Share & Stock Broking. However, some fresh activity came in later in the day, pulling up the software counters. Satyam Computer improved from a low of Rs 1125.05 to close at Rs 1185 and Pentafour Software improved from a low of Rs 932.30 to 956.50. Selling pressure, however, continued on the second rung software counters. Among others, Mahindra & Mahindra (Rs 272.25) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (Rs 597) hit the upper limits of the circuit breaker on the BSE. Ashok Leyland was also firm counter continues to remain firm on institutional buying. Essar Steel was firm on improving steel industry scenario and Essar Oil was looking up following the BPCL's interest in Essar Oil's equity. Aluminium stocks were steady following firming aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Hindalco improved to Rs 633.50 and Nalco to Rs 39.10. Other metal stocks like Tata Steel (Rs 132.50) and Sterlite Industries (Rs 213.50) were also firm. Cement shares also recovered from lower levels as fresh buying came in. ACC closed at Rs 182.75, Larsen & Toubro at Rs 307.85, Gujarat Ambuja Cements at Rs 330.75 and Madras Cements at Rs 4707.20. Recovery was seen on select pharmaceutical counters like Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Novartis and Ranbaxy laboratories. With the White House's advice to Pakistan to respect the Line of Control, the things are looking up. As things are expected to change for better on the political front, players do not expect market to come off very significantly from the current levels. The optimism is building up. If Pakistan takes the US advice seriously, Sensex is expected to see a gain of couple of hundred points from these levels.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (4624)	6/16/1999 1:50:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Tata Group Considers ISP Business tata.com By A. Nair (InternetNews India Correspondent ) [June 11, 1999--MUMBAI] The Tata group is evaluating the possibility of getting into the Internet Service Provider (ISP) business on an all-India basis. Asked about the ISP, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTL) director S. Ramakrishnan said the process of evaluation was on and when it comes through, "TTL will assist that effort in Andhra Pradesh". He added that TTL's investment of $2 billion over a 15-year period in the state of Andhra Pradesh was the single largest investment it had made in recent times in any area. While he said the group would be making other investments in Andhra Pradesh, he said he could not name any specific area at the moment. Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu said he had taken up the issue of dismantling the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (http://www.vsnl.net.in) monopoly over international gateways in his capacity of co-chairperson of the National IT Task Force. "Unless we compete, it will be difficult to benchmark ourselves and deliver quality and customer services," the chief minister said. Mr Naidu said his government had been actively promoting the setting up of a digital broadband network in the state apart from taking the lead in the Inter-University Net. Market observers state that TTL will be closely monitoring the recommendations pooled in by the Ratan Tata Task Force on Communication as will the Tata Consultancy Services which has joined hands with Microsoft. The Task Force, under the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry, had recommended that the government should evolve an integrated communication policy to address all communication services, including cellular, basic, Internet and cable television. It had also suggested free and unrestricted access and investment in his sector. Claiming that the demand for basic services in India is expected to be 31 million lines by year 2001 and 64 million lines by 2006, the task force has said that demand from Internet subscribers is expected to increase from 0.15 million at present to over 8 million by 2002. The paper has added that the communication industry has evolved as a set of vertical markets such as telephone, radio, television broadcast, data communications, etc. But these distinctions are disappearing due to the rapid adoption of digital technology which allows the same network infrastructure to carry voice, data, multimedia, or Internet traffic as data streams. The task force paper notes that different regimes have been framed over time for each of these sectors with little or no cognizance of their overlapping nature. For example, progressive policy announcements made recently for Internet services have adversely affected the privatization process initiated for telecommunications. The group has suggested a regulatory framework that focuses on addressing the technology convergence issue, while extending the forward-looking liberalization initiated with the ISP policy. They has pointed out that the convergence of technology permits all services (telephony, Internet, cable TV, etc) to be carried on a common infrastructure. Therefore, the government regulation banning ISPs from carrying voice traffic is technologically unsound. Already, Voice Over Internet is a reality, the paper states, and, in future, the Net will be able to carry high quality voice traffic. Moreover, audio and multimedia, which have embedded voice content, are an integral part of Net traffic. So it will be impossible to prevent ISPs from carrying voice traffic, it has noted. With the ISPs able to access business users with 64 kbps lines, and residential customers through cable TV networks, both the department of telecommunications and private basic service operators will have to face competition from ISPs in core segments, the paper suggests.