Indian rupee recovers from initial losses vs US dollar, up 6 paise

The rupee recovered from initial losses against the American currency and was quoted higher by 6 paise to 62.00 on fresh selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of strong foreign capital inflows into equity market.

The rupee resumed lower at 62.08 per dollar as against the last closing level of 62.06 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange and dropped further to 62.20 on initial strong dollar demand from banks.

However, it recovered from initial losses and was quoted higher at 62.00 on selling of dollars by banks and exporters.

It hovered in a range of 62.00 and 62.20 per dollar during the morning trade.

In London, the euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar since September 2003 yesterday after the Swiss National Bank scrapped its exchange rate floor of 1.20 francs to the euro.

Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark Sensex moved down by 31.77 points or 0.11 per cent to 28,043.78 at 1000hrs.

Sensex holds 28000 amid pressure; Sun TV, SpiceJet in focus

10:30am Piramal Enterprises in News

Piramal Enterprises (PEL) gained 2 percent today as the Piramal Group company has been considering the acquisition of UK-based company.

"Piramal Enterprises is in final stages of discussion with the University of Kentucky for the potential acquisition of Coldstream Laboratories for a total consideration of USD 30.65 million," said the company in its filing to the exchange.

Of the total amount, USD 5.65 million would be towards the Coldstream facility on the Research Park Campus of the University, while the rest would be towards purchase of the company’s shares, it added.

This potential transaction is subject to corporate approvals and is expected to be completed by the end of this week. However, the transaction is not subject to any regulatory approvals. No related party of PEL has any interest in Coldstream, said the Piramal Group company.

10:00am Market Check

Equity benchmarks entered into consolidation mode after the yesterday's rally priced in all events like surprise rate cut by RBI, fall in trade deficit etc. The frontline indices were marginally in red on profit booking.

The Sensex fell 42.23 points to 28033.32 and the Nifty declined 12.15 points to 8482. However, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks marginally with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.2-0.5 percent.

About 1073 shares have advanced, 786 shares declined, and 276 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

“With sharply lower commodity prices, favourable macro indicators like inflation, CAD & fiscal deficit and now rate cuts, we believe conditions are ripe for economic recovery to take shape,” says Rakesh Arora, Macquarie.

According to him, the government sustaining its policy momentum and delivering on reforms would be key. “Markets will closely watch the upcoming Budget session in late February.  In our view, any market weakness should be seen as an opportunity to buy,” says Arora.

TCS fell nearly 2 percent on reporting lackluster results. Dollar revenue growth was flat and constant currency growth at 2.5 percent was lower than that of Infosys. CLSA lowered FY16/17 earnings per share by 2/3 percent due to deeper cross-currencies and lower than expected revenue acceleration and cut target price to Rs 3100/share.

Bharti Airtel dropped nearly 3 percent. Media report suggested that Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Vodafone may collectively bid Rs 74,000 crore as per HSBC report.

Shares of ICICI Bank, SBI, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp and GAIL fell 0.6-1.3 percent while HDFC Bank, HUL, Cipla, Coal India and Sesa Sterlite bucked the trend, up 1.5-2 percent.

Shares of SpiceJet jumped 10 percent as investors queued up for buying shares of the low-cost carrier after Ajay Singh decided to take complete control of the company which has been struggling with financial problems. Sun TV Network gained 9 percent as brokerages believe the SpiceJet deal removed a major overhang on the stock.

ISIS sympathizer allegedly plotted terror assault against US Capitol

An alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after authorities learned that he was plotting a shooting and bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, considered members of Congress as "enemies," and planned to travel to Washington to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said he had two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and planned to build and detonate pipe bombs at and near the U.S. Capitol.

A Justice Department official, however, told Fox News that Cornell was "aspirational and not operational," adding that the public was never in danger.

The investigation relied heavily on the use of a source, who the criminal complaint said began cooperating with authorities last fall to gain favorable treatment for his prosecution on an unrelated case.

The complaint adds that Cornell said he thought he was fulfilling the directives of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL.

"I believe that we should just wage jihad under our own orders and plan attacks and everything," Cornell told the source, according to the papers. "I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State and plan operations ourselves."

Cornell was charged with the attempted killing of a U.S. government officer and possession of a firearm in furtherance of attempted crime of violence.

Along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cincinnati Police Department, Colerain Police Department, Green Township Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police were involved in the investigation.

Serial killer' rickshaw-puller arrested in Faridabad

A rickshaw-puller was arrested from Faridabad in Haryana on charge of robbing and killing his passengers in the National Capital Region (NCR), police said on Friday.

According to police, the serial killer rickshaw-puller, identified as Rinku, was involved in at least 8 cases of robbery and murder, five of which took place in Faridabad and the rest in Delhi.

The police said Rinku used to rob passengers and would kill them on being resisted. They were interrogating the accused and more details about him were awaited.

Zomato in talks to raise $100 mln after U.S. acquisition

REUTERS - Restaurant search services provider Zomato acquired U.S.-based rival Urbanspoon for about $50 million in one of the biggest overseas deals by an Indian startup and a company executive said it was in talks to raise about $100 million in fresh funding.

India's rapidly growing Internet- and mobile-based companies have attracted billions of dollars in funding in the last couple of years from foreign investors including Japan's SoftBank Corp and Temasek Holdings Pvt Ltd.

Some of the technology startups have used the private equity investments to acquire local peers to boost presence in a market that has the world's third-largest Internet user base, but overseas acquisitions are rare.

The acquisition of Urbanspoon, which marks Zomato's entry into the United States, Canada and Australia, will result in its presence in 22 countries, covering more than one million restaurants, Zomato said.

Seattle-based Urbanspoon, which was previously owned by media mogul Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, competes with Yelp Inc, a popular website that lets users review and rate restaurants and other services.

"It's an all cash deal. We pretty much had to spend all our last round of funding on this and it's  sort of a big deal for us," Zomato Chief Executive Deepinder Goyal told Reuters in a phone interview.

Zomato, backed by private equity investors including Sequoia Capital and India's Info Edge India Ltd, is talking to existing as well as new investors to raise around $100 million in the next 30 days, he said. It raised $60 million in November led by Info Edge and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital.

The startup is likely to be valued at about $1 billion after completing the fresh round of investment, Goyal said. Founded in 2008, Zomato is currently valued at around $660 million.