Reduce Wipro: IIFL

IIFL has recommended a reduce rating on Wipro in its December 24, 2008 research report. "Wipro has announced acquisition of Citigroup’s captive technology infrastructure

and application services arm, Citi Technology Services (Citos), for a consideration of USD 127 million. As a part of the deal, it has also entered into a Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Citi for a TCV of at least USD 500 million over a period of 6 years."

"Based on CY2008 metrics, Wipro has acquired Citos for a very low 3.3x EV/EBITDA or 3.8x PER. However, given the scant information provided by management regarding Citos, any impact of one-off items during CY08 could not be ascertained. Reduce," says IIFL's research report.

Bajaj Hindusthan can test Rs 85-90: Gujral

Technical Analyst, Ashwani Gujral is of the view that Bajaj Hindusthan can test Rs 85-90.

Gujral told CNBC-TV18, "Sugar seems to be in some sort of an uptrend. Also, from a longer-term point of view, it is making some sort of bottom at those Rs 35-40 kind of levels. Bajaj Hindusthan has consolidated around Rs 60. Once it can move past Rs 70, I think you could see levels of Rs 85-90 back on that stock. Balrampur Chini can get back up to Rs 65. We are expecting Rs 88-92 to come back on Renuka."

He further added, "Fertiliser is still not so clear. These stocks are also trying to make a bottom. Nagarjuna Fertiliser needs to move back above Rs 18.50-19. It has got support around Rs 14-15 kind of level. A lot of midcaps have reached levels where the downside is quite minimal. You just have to buy them and hold them. Whenever the market does improve, you will find that these stocks can easily double from current levels."

"Chambal has support around Rs 33. It has got a resistance around Rs 43, again, flat formation, no more fresh lows. So, there is a lot of basing that is happening in these erstwhile favorites."

Google gives away phones instead of cash

search engine Google is giving its employees Android phones this year instead of the traditional Christmas cash bonus.

The company told employees that the Android-phone gift is a way to save cash and "celebrate" the Android technology.  Staff will also be reminded that times are tight and they were lucky to have jobs.

More than 85% of employees will get a phone instead of cash a person described as "familiar with the matter" told Bloomberg.

Valleywag.com got its hands on an internal memo which said that that the current economic crisis requires us to be more conservative about how it spends its money.

"Some of you will of course be wondering why we decided to change from a cash bonus to the Dream phone… First, we've never developed anything like the Android software before and this represented a unique opportunity to celebrate that achievement, " the memo said.

Apparently staff globally have been asking for the Dream phone. "This is a chance for us to once again dogfood a product and make it even better! We felt that giving the Dream phone would be a great holiday present -- something we could all celebrate."

Google employees who work in Turkey, Kenya, Brazil, Russia and India, where the phone does not work will get $400 cash instead.

Keep a watch on GMR Infrastructure: Mohoni

Technical Analyst, Deepak Mohoni is of the view that one can keep a watch on GMR Infrastructure.

Mohoni told CNBC-TV18, "After the market finishes correcting GMR Infrastructure is not a good idea to buy immediately but it is a good stock to keep a watch. After a huge correction it has made a higher bottom in November and now it will bottom out somewhere or the other with the market, at that point of time it is worth taking up because it has possibly started to make higher bottom. There is no price target because now it is all ifs and buts going on as to how this decline will last in the market, is it going to be a severe decline, if the answer is reasonably positive that it is just a mild decline and lot of stock hold out, then one would get into GMR sooner rather than later."

Hold Tata Motors, says Mohindar

Rahul Mohindar of Viratechindia is of the view that one can hold Tata Motors.

Mohindar told CNBC-TV18, "In Tata Motors I think a trading bottom has been found, Rs 120 to Rs 130 that is an area that is the bottom, which should probably stay for a couple of months. I think it is an interesting spot because we have got very good support when we go back into decades of history. My sense is from here this is not a level where you want to definitely short such a stock, which is already been beaten down 80-90%. So I think definitely it is a hold, its probably a buy on declines, from a short to medium-term if I am above Rs 150, which I am for the last couple of days, Rs 150 would work as a trend decider. So since we are above that one is fairly comfortable, one could head into Rs 220-230 as a target from a 3 to 6 months type of perspective. So I would probably hold a buy on declines with a stoploss much below Rs 150."

Buy Bajaj Hindusthan, target of Rs 85: Karvy

Karvy Stock Broking has maintained its buy rating on Bajaj Hindusthan with a target price of Rs 85 in its December 24, 2008 research report. "For Q4FY08 (standalone), Bajaj Hindustan Ltd (BHL) reported marginal revenue increase of 7.1% YoY (QoQ increase of 1%) to Rs 4.63 billion, 9.9% lower than our estimates of Rs 5.1 billion. We have revised our cane cost from Rs 132 to Rs 140 per quintal for FY09 and assumed cane cost Rs 145 per quintal in FY10."

"We have revised our sugar realization estimates from Rs 16.9 per kg to Rs 19.5 per kg in FY09 and assumed Rs 20.5 per kg in FY10. We have changed FCCB (Rs 5.3 billion) accounting from equity to debt considering significant deference between CMP and conversion price of Rs 465 per share. We have changed our valuation from EV/ Ton of Rs 0.31 to 0.8xBV (book value) due to high leverage (2.8X) and low earnings over next two years makes. We maintain BUY with target price of Rs 85 (previous Rs 140)," says Karvy's research report.

Buy IDFC, says N Pillai

Neppolian Pillai of Modern Shares & Stock Brokers is of the view that one can buy IDFC between Rs 56-46.

Pillai told CNBC-TV18, "IDFC within the non-banking financial company (NBFC) sector is a one stock we would try to back up with a buy. It has fallen from Rs 72. That is a one of the few stock, which has gone into a weekly buy. So these kinds of collapses like 13% yesterday at about Rs 58 are going to be buy opportunities. The range to buy will be anywhere between Rs 56-46. Though the range is broader, Rs 45 has been the all time low for this stock. So you take this Rs 10 band to buy into. I think eventually this stock is going to go towards Rs 72-77 again. So that should give an Rs 20 upside from here. So the next Rs 10 band on the downside will be a very clear buy on it."

He further added, "Unitech had a resistance between Rs 49-59, this time the top has been Rs 49 and it’s falling off from there. I think Rs 38-32 will be a trading band where one can probably again build a buy position there."

Disclosure: It is safe to assume that analyst and his clients may have an investment
interest in the above stock/sector.

Infosys BPO inaugurates second center in China

BANGALORE, INDIA: Infosys BPO Ltd, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, today inaugurated its second delivery center in Hangzhou, China.

Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO and MD, Infosys BPO and Allen Lam, VP and Centre Head, Bangkok, China and Philippines inaugurated the new center.

"China is the center of choice for our customers in the APAC region as well as Infosys BPO's second global delivery hub," Amitabh Chaudhry said.

He added that it has seen rapid growth in the last two years and would continue to sustain its high growth over the next three years to become one of the most profitable international centres for Infosys BPO.

Infosys BPO's expansion plan in China is a step-up investment to leverage two years of success in transforming the China center into an alternative global hub for its customers.

"The second centre will extend our global brand into China with focused marketing and branding strategies and continue our vision to contribute significantly to Infosys BPO's revenue and profit," said Allen.

The new centre would seat up to 1,000 people, the release added.

And finally India goes 3G

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, today launched the country's first third generation (3G) mobile services in New Delhi that will provide high speed transfer of voice, data and video.

He also inaugurated India Telecom 2008, India's leading international conference and exhibition for the entire telecom system.

The two-day event is jointly organized by Department of Telecommunications and FICCI. The Prime Minister released a report prepared by Capgemini, the knowledge partner for this year's Telecom summit on the Indian telecom market.

The Minister for Communications and IT, A. Raja made a video call to Dr. Singh using a 3G enabled handset signaling the debut of the high quality service in India.

The video streaming applications like 'live TV' was also demonstrated at the inauguration. The public sector MTNL is rolling out the 3G service in the capital making use of the necessary Spectrum allocated to it by DOT. The services will be available early next year in Mumbai and Chennai.

MTNL has used Motorola's next-generation 3G network infrastructure to implement the service. Speaking on the occasion, A Raja announced that within one year, all mobile phone subscribers in the country can switch from one operator to another operator providing better services while retaining their numbers.

He informed that the DOT has accepted the Mobile Number Portability recommendations, which were pending since 2006.

MNP is likely to be implemented in the Metros and category "A" circles by middle of 2009 and in the entire country by the end of 2009. Raja said that after migrating to revenue sharing regime, the telecom sector has contributed about Rs 50,000 crore through license fee, entry fee and spectrum charges till the end of last financial year.

During this financial year alone, it is expected that about Rs 16,000 crore will be collected from the license fee and spectrum charges, he added.

On the issue of new licenses, the Minister explained that the policy of "NO Cap" on number of service providers in a service area has been adopted as per the recommendations of TRAI.

On further reduction of tariff, he said, TRAI has been requested to re-look into the existing Mobile Termination Charges, as the cost per line has substantially reduced due to technological advancement and increase in traffic.

Minister of State for Communications and IT, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and FICCI president Rajeev Chandrasekhar also attended the function.

Is Nortel on the verge of bankruptcy?

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Networking equipment giant Nortel Networks Corp, which faced heavy loss in the third quarter, is seeking legal advice to explore the possibility of filing for bankruptcy protection should its planned restructuring fail, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Nortel, which was Canada's largest company till recently, has hired a legal counsel to explore bankruptcy protection, it said.

Nortel, however, still hopes that its restructuring plan will suffice to keep the company out of court, the newspaper said.

The company had reported a huge loss of $3.41 billion in the third quarter and its revenue fell to $2.32 billion.

However, a spokesman for Nortel said there was no imminent bankruptcy filing, WSJ said.

Meanwhile, National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson said Companies' Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection is premature at this point.

"With no short-term debt obligations and the possibility that Nortel can successfully restructure, we would not expect CCAA as a near-term consideration by the company," he said in a research note.

Nortel needs to take more time to sell one or more of its division before considering CCAA protection, he opined.