Tata Motors + Mahindra & Mahindra Downgraded to SELL

Its time to say Goodbye to Automobile Stocks. Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have been downgraded to a SELL by Merill Lynch.

Tata Motors will be impacted by strong headwinds of restricted financing in commercial vehicles and the low priced Nano car. The major reasons for the downgrade are – moderation in commercial vehicle sales on tight financing availability, margins decline on adverse sales mix and lower volumes, forex losses on weaker rupee and fallout impact on inter-related subsidiaries. (more…)

Reliance Fresh Order for Sita Shree

We have just been alerted by the management of Sita Shree Food Products that the company has received 400 metric ton orders from one of its valued customer Reliance Retail’s subsidiary Reliance Fresh, prevailing month to deliver Wheat flour and pulses which is increased about 250% from the last order of 160 MT.

Sita Shree is equipped with own manufacturing and marketing unit to increase and grow their sales with their well experienced personnel. The directors of the company has wide & depth knowledge of grains and pulses market to expand and grow the profitability of the company.

True Indian Inflation maybe as high as 15% – sans Oil+Gas subsidies

Have you seen anywhere in the world where Inflation numbers stand revised because of data collection issues ? Welcome to India, anything is just possible here. The Indian Inflation could be as high as 15%, yes you are reading that right. Combined Oil and Gas subsidies contribute to as much as 6.9% to the Inflation.

Adding to its woes is lack of proper financial planning by the government which has landed itself in Fiscal Deficit (more…)

WNS looking to BUY Firstsource

WNS holdings is looking to buy out ICICI Bank’s entire stake and mop up shares held by some other private equity investors in Firstsource Solutions. ICICI Bank is the single largest shareholder in Firstsource Solutions (FSL), holding 24.84% stake (as at end March 2008).

Firstsource is among India’s leading business process outsourcing (BPO) companies providing business process management services to global leaders in banking & financial services, telecom & media and healthcare domains.

Shri Renuka Sugars – No More Sweet

Merill Lynch has downgraded Shri Renuka Sugars on a number of factors – Indian govt steps to reduce buffer stock of about 5mn tonne sugar to reign in inflation coupled with prospect of good monsoon has increased supply side risk. Over 15% additional sugar cane production in Brazil has raised supply pressure and US Congress approval of farm bill on 15th May08 maintaining import tariff barrier on ethanol a deterrent too. (more…)

Auto stocks skid on fears of steep hike in petrol price

On fear of more than 20% hike in Petrol prices [Rs 10 to Rs 16 / litre hike expected], Auto stocks were unloaded on the bourses mercilessly. Bajaj Auto is down 11%, Maruti Suzuki down 4%, Hero Honda down 2%, Tata Motors down 2.5% and TVS Motors down 3%.

Auto firms are already facing a facing a challenging time. On the one hand, sales has slowed down due to higher interest rates and on the other hand a surge in raw material prices has squeezed margins.