Reliance Group Update

Reliance Industries declined 0.1% at 2,421.75 rupees and Reliance Communications declined 1.6% to 633.7 rupees. Reliance Infratel, the tower subsidiary of Reliance Communications will build 56,596 telecom towers by financial year 2010, increasing the total number of towers to 100,000.

Reliance Natural Resources clocked the highest volume of 3.79 crore shares on BSE.

Deals

Larsen & Toubro Limited has received orders worth 1,107 crore rupees from SAIL for the turnkey construction of coal & coke handling plant in West Bengal. ECC, Engineering & Construction Company will execute this project with a deadline of 26 months.

Larsen & Toubro stock fell 2.8% to 3,527.3 rupees.

Suzlon Energy rose 0.9% to 310.10 rupees. Suzlon Energy, through its wholly owned subsidiary company, SE Drive Technik, Germany is in joint venture with REpower Systems AG, Germany has established a new company Renewable Energy Technology Centre. Both the firms hold 50% stake each in the new company.

International Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 189.91 or 1.44% to 13,017.24, in Australia ASX 200 index increased 61.30 or 1.10% to close 5,658.00. Markets in Hong Kong were closed today and will reopen on Tuesday. Tokyo markets will reopen on Tuesday.

Thailand SET index closed higher 13.27 or 1.67% to 806.44. Sensex index in India decreased 62.00 or 0.35% to 17,464.89. Market of South Korea and Indonesia were closed today and will reopen on Tuesday.


5:00AM New York, 7:00PM Tokyo – The computer malfunction on the TSE leads to cancellation of all Topix futures trades done in the morning session. Japan’s private sector machinery orders drop a seasonally adjusted 3.2% in December. Isuzu Motors and Japan Airlines profit exceeds expectations.

Trading Halts

The Tokyo Stock Exchange suffered another computer related malfunction this time in the trading of Topix index March futures on the new trading system modules launched on Jan 15th of this year. The problem occurred near the end of the close of the morning session prompting officials to cancel all the trades on the futures in the morning. Other futures contracts were not affected by the computer system problems.

The problem was discovered in the early afternoon when the system failed to calculate and appropriate proper values to the futures contracts and match and process order flow received in the morning. The cause of the malfunction is still not known according to local media reports.

Market Sentiment

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 stocks fell 1.44% or 189.91 to 13,017.24, and the broader Topix Index shed 1.4% or 17.94 to 1,287.14.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange shares 11.6 billion shares worth 1.4 trillion yen changed hands and in the second section 314 million shares valued at 2.6 billion yen were traded.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended trading of the March 2008 TOPIX futures after computer systems glitch during the morning session.

Of the Nikkei 225 stocks 56 rose, 163 declined, and 6 were unchanged. Isuzu Motors led advancers with a rise of 7.28% after sales in Russia and South Africa helped boost net income by 12%.