Heard on the Street: Funds playing ‘long’ lap up Bharti AirtelFunds playing ‘long’ lap up Bharti Airtel Select long-term and contrarian funds are believed to be accumulating shares of telecom firm Bharti Airtel. Every fund manager has a sizeable exposure to the stock, given its dominant position in the telecom space. Less than three months ago, the consensus view was that the stock was likely to go through an extended period of downtrend because of the tariff war among cellular service providers.
But now, fund managers seem to have veered to the view that a downturn in the industry will spell more trouble for Airtel’s competitors and help Airtel emerge stronger once the trend reverses. On Friday, the stock closed at Rs 312, up about 4% from its previous close. While fundamental analysts are positive on the stock, as the company submitted an application for third-generation mobile services in all 22 services areas across India, technical analysts said that the stock is yet to cross its major resistance level between Rs 320-325. A clear trend would emerge only after the stock crosses that zone, technical analysts say.
Stock futures of ITC, HUL see build-up in open interest Stock futures of ITC and Hindustan Unilever have seen a build-up in open interest, of late. According to brokers, some high net worth investors and proprietary desks have created a pair strategy involving the two stocks. As part of the strategy, they have gone short on ITC and long on Hindustan Unilever, which means ITC is expected to underperform Hindustan Unilever because they feel ITC’s rise in limited from here.
Buyers of ITC contracts are optimistic about the stock’s prospects, as they feel the company will be least impacted by the product price wars among consumer goods companies. A trader said, if ITC manages to cross Rs 262-264 on good volumes, then there is a possibility of more upsides. On Friday, the stock closed at Rs 260.75, down 0.2%.
Amtek Auto on slow track as an FII part-sells stake Shares of Amtek Auto fell on Friday, as a foreign investor sold part of its holdings acquired through conversion of FCCBs, in the open market. The stock fell 2.5% to Rs 173, as one of the shareholders, NDMR BV, offloaded 85 lakh shares for Rs 146 crore in a bulk deal transacted on BSE.
The Netherlands-based investor had picked up a 14.7% stake in the auto ancillary company through conversion of FCCBs in February. Amtek Auto shares have been on a decline on selling from large investors, including a few FCCB holders who opted for partial exit after conversion. Apart from NDMR, Olympia Builders sold nearly 21 lakh shares on Friday. Parts of the shares were bought by Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and Birla Sun Life Insurance.
(Contributed by Apurv Gupta, Nishanth Vasudevan & Vijay Gurav)
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Cipla to replace Sun Pharma in Sensex from May 3NEW DELHI: Drug major Cipla will replace its peer Sun Pharmaceuticals on the Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex from May
3.
The Index Committee of the BSE, at a meeting held on March 19, decided to revise the composition of indices, the BSE said in a statement. Apart from the Sensex, the BSE has also announced changes in other indices like BSE-100, BSE-200 and BSE-500.
"Revisions in BSE-100, BSE-200 and BSE-500 index would be effective from March 29," the exchange said, adding the revision in the Sensex "shall be effective from May 3."
In the BSE-100 Index, pharma firm Lupin will replace its peer Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals. Further, the state-run power major NHPC, Shriram Transport Finance Company and UltraTech Cement are also being inducted into the BSE 100 Index, while public sector telecom operator MTNL will be excluded.
In the BSE-200 Index, 16 companies including Aurobindo Pharma, Cadila Healthcare and Oil India are replacing the NDTV, Television Eighteen India and NIIT.
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Airtel ties up $8.3-bn debt for Zain dealNEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Sunday announced tying up of $8.3 billion debt for the proposed acquisition of the Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's
African unit.
"The financing was over-subscribed with major international banks committing to underwrite the total amount," the company said in a statement here.
For $7.5 billion for financing, the lead - arrangers are Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays, SBI Group, ANZ, BNP, Bank of America-Merril Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBF, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
In addition to the dollar financing, the SBI Group has committed up to $1 billion in rupee loan to Bharti, the company said.
Bharti is in exclusive talks with Zain till March 25 to acquire the African operations of the Kuwait-based company.
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Bharti board oks $9 bn offer for Zain Africa: ReportSrc: ET, Business-Standard, DP blog and etc
