Indian shares are poised for a gap-up opening on Friday after the government took the unpopular decision of raising the diesel price by a steep Rs.5 per liter and limiting supply of subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders to 6 per household in a year.
Additionally, notwithstanding resistance by allies, the government is expected to consider the proposals of FDI in aviation and disinvestment in as many as five public sector undertakings at a meeting of cabinet committee on economic affairs later today.
Global cues remain extremely positive, with stocks rallying across Asia this morning after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would buy mortgage-backed securities to boost the lagging economy.
Indian shares ended largely unchanged on Thursday, as lackluster global cues ahead of the FOMC decision and the rupee's weakness despite continued foreign fund inflows offset fresh hopes for fiscal reforms. Extending gains for a seventh day in a row, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session up 21 points or 0.12 percent at 18,021, while the broader 50-share Nifty index rose by 4 points or 0.08 percent to 5,435.
Provisional data released by BSE shows that foreign institutional investors continued to remain net buyers in Indian equities and bought shares worth Rs.361.48 crore yesterday, while domestic financial institutions offloaded shares to the extent of Rs.156.05 crore.
Corporate News
Pidilite Industries said it has allotted 78,026 equity shares to an investor pursuant to conversion of zero-coupon foreign currency convertible bonds issued in December 2007.
Pharma major Lupin's subsidiary, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc., has received final approval from the U.S. health regulator for its Escitalopram tablets.
Ranbaxy Laboratories said it has received approval from Malaysian authorities to set up its second Greenfield manufacturing facility in the country at an investment of $40 million.
Strides Arcolab has announced that it has received the U.S. FDA approval for its Polish sterile facility.
Aditya Birla Group's flagship company Grasim Industries has entered into an agreement with Japanese firm Omikenshi to jointly develop new international markets for rayon products.
The Supreme Court has directed the Ruias-owned Essar Oil to pay sales tax dues of Rs. 5,189 crore in eight tranches to Gujarat government.
U.S. And European Markets
U.S. stocks rose sharply overnight, as traders reacted positively to the Federal Reserve's highly-anticipated monetary policy announcement. The Fed announced a plan to increase policy accommodation by purchasing additionally agency mortgage-based securities at a pace of $40 billion per month. The Dow and the S&P 500 jumped about 1.6 percent each to reach their best closing levels in well over four years, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.3 percent to a nearly 12-year closing high.
The Fed also announced the continuation of its "Operation Twist" program, saying that the actions taken together will increase the central bank's holdings of longer-term securities by about $85 billion each month through the end of the year.
Expecting near-zero rates until at least mid-2015, the central bank said it would continue its purchases of mortgage-backed securities until the outlook for the labor market improves substantially.
With the focus on the Fed, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing a bigger than expected increase in weekly jobless claims and another report showing increase in overall producer prices, reflecting a surge in energy costs.
Major European markets ended on a mixed note on Thursday as investors waited to see if the Federal Reserve would announce new measures to stimulate the world's largest economy at a monetary policy meeting. France's CAC 40 fell 1.2 percent and the German DAX slid half a percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.7 percent and Switzerland's SMI added 0.4 percent.
Crude
U.S. crude futures ended at a four-month high on Thursday after Bernanke announced a new round of economic stimulus to stimulate growth in the world's largest economy. Crude Oil futures for October delivery jumped $3.70 or 1.3 percent to close at $98.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchnge.
by RTT Staff Writer
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