BOR: Market Outlook: Indian stocks are likely to open on a higher note spurred by investor sentiment across global markets.

Market Outlook: Indian stocks are likely to open on a higher note spurred by investor sentiment across global markets. Expectations from the upcoming domestic earnings season will also help elevate the market mood. Nifty has supports at 5190-5240 and resistances are at 5350-5400.

Global Events to watch for today

• Goldman Store Sales
• Consumer Confidence
• State Street Investor Confidence Index
• Farm Prices

Global indices Update @ 8:

Dow Jones : 10895 (+45.50)

NASDAQ : 2404 (+09.23)

Nikkei 225 : 11038 (+51.61)

Hang seng : 21273 (+36.40)

SGX CNX Nifty : 5323 (+01.00)

INR / 1 USD : 45.08

Stocks in action for the day : Pipavav Shipyard, ACC, Bharti, SpiceJet

TPG set to pick 20% in Shriram Cap: Leading private equity investor Texas Pacific Group (TPG) is close to buying a 20% equity stake in Shriram Capital — the holding company of Chennai-based Shriram Group — for Rs 1,000 crore. The proposed deal will take TPG’s investments in the group to around Rs 2,000 crore.

SREI Infra: Mint Exclusive: SREI Infra to sell 9% stake in Quippo-WTTI -SREI stake to fall to 16% from current 25%

Unitech promoters convert 5 crore warrants ahead of schedule-Unitech issued 5 crore warrants at conversion price of Rs 48.75/share -Promoters stake goes up to 45% from 43.84%

Jindal Stainless Steel QIP: from sources Launches USD 50-55 million QIP at a floor price of QIP at Rs 105.13/share -QIP to lead to dilution of 13% post issue -JM Financial sole banker to issue

Pipavav Shipyard: Sale to boost cash flows, reduce debt: Punj Lloyd, one of the co-promoters of Pipavav Shipyard (PSL), has sold its entire 19.4% stake in PSL for Rs 656.46 crore at an average price of nearly Rs 50.7 per share to two other co-promoters. The existing PSL co-promoter, SKIL Infrastructure, held an 18.27% stake in the company at the end of December 2009 quarter, along with the other co-promoter SKIL Shipyard Holding, whose stake was negligible. Post this transaction, the two entities — SKIL Infrastructure and SKIL Shipyard Holding — will control 37.7% stake in PSL.

Your mobile bill may shoot up by 2% on R&D cess: India’s 560 million cellphone users will pay an extra 2% of their mobile bills as R&D cess to boost the country’s manufacturing of telecom equipment, in case the government accepts a communications ministry proposal. If implemented, this will add another levy to mobile users who currently pay 12% service tax and a 2% education cess on their bills.

Indoco Remedies inks drug supply pact with Aspen Indoco Remedies has entered into a long-term drug supply pact with Aspen Pharmacare, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in Africa and one of the top 20 generics manufacturers in the world. The deal encompasses a number of ophthalmic products and will extend to 30 countries in emerging markets. Indoco will offer these products for registration and supply the same from its global standard manufacturing facilities in India.

ACC to make cement from non-biodegradable waste ACC, a leading cement manufacturing company, has decided to process non-degradable waste materials like disposed water bottles, polythene and other waste materials to make cement at its plant at Bargarh in western Orissa. The company will enter into agreements with the major urban local bodies (ULBs) of the state very soon to take up processing of non-degradable waste materials. In fact, many of these civic bodies including Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) have started the process of supplying the non biodegradable wastes to ACC`s cement plant.

Bharti to sign Zain deal today Bharti Airtel will sign on the dotted line to acquire Zain Telecom`s African assets in a USD 10.7 billion deal on Tuesday in Amsterdam, barely one-and-a-half months after it began discussions for the deal. The acquisition of Zain assets will give the Indian mobile market leader a footprint in 15 African countries. ET had reported in its edition on March 26 that the Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti has formed two special purpose vehicles in the Netherlands and Singapore to execute the USD10.7-billion deal. Bharti and Zain said in separate statements last week that due diligence for the assets had been completed and the companies were working towards finalizing definitive agreements.

Kalanithi`s Rs 7 bn offer not too hot for SpiceJet owners Kalanithi Maran, media baron and promoter of Sun TV, and the promoters of SpiceJet are sparring over the price being offered for a majority stake in the budget carrier, with Maran`s proposal of Rs 7 billion for a 51% stake finding few takers among the airline`s shareholders. Maran, whose interests have now spread from media to aviation, has completed due diligence and is believed to have made an offer of Rs 7 billion, or Rs 55 per share. This is not acceptable to the SpiceJet shareholders, as the offer is at a discount to the ruling market price of the stock.

Silicon Valley loses best-workplace luster Talk about bad timing: Within weeks of being named the best place to work last year, NetApp Inc announced plans to cut about 6% of its workforce. It was February 2009, during the worst days of the recession. Customers had slashed their spending budgets, leaving the company with no choice but to eliminate jobs, NetApp said at the time. NetApp`s woes may have signaled the end of Silicon Valley`s dominance of the best-workplace rankings. When the list came out this year, the Sunnyvale, California-based company dropped to No. 7. And for the first time since 2006, all three of the top companies were outside the region.

HUL sets sights on doubling business Hindustan Unilever (HUL) will look beyond its current bruising battles for market share and focus on doubling the business, the chairman of its parent said on Monday. Unilever Plc chief executive officer Paul Polman also had some barbed comments to make about ``an American competitor`` that has ``lowered product quality`` to grab consumers. HUL is currently in the middle of a protracted battle with arch global rival Procter and Gamble Co. (P&G) that has ended up in the courts. The two consumer companies have cut prices in a bid to win customers, a move that analysts believe will inevitably squeeze their profit margins.

Shinde nixes NTPC plan for interim deal Power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has signaled a split in the power ministry`s efforts to secure interim gas supplies for NTPC from Reliance Industries (RIL) at USD 2.34 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) pending a judgment in the ongoing legal dispute between the two companies in the Bombay high court over a gas supply contract. If the minister`s view prevails, then state-owned NTPC, which is controlled by the power ministry, will have to further delay its plans to expand power generation capacity by 2,600MW at its plants at Kawas and Gandhar.

Bharati`s new bid to gain control of Great Offshore Mumbai-based offshore oilfield services firm Great Offshore is seeking approval from shareholders to appoint two nominees of Bharati Shipyard as executive directors to allow Bharati to control Great Offshore`s day-to-day management. Bharati, India`s second largest shipbuilder outside state control has a 48.89% stake in Great Offshore, which is not sufficient to grant Bharati management control over the firm. That`s because it made its open offer to acquire shares saying it was doing so as a strategic investor and not as an entity wishing to take control of the firm. Stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said Bharati would have to make a second open offer for a 51% stake under the takeover law to gain management control.

Sundaram Fin- Mint Exclusive: -Sundaram Finance to exit General Insurance JV with RSA Ins group PLC RSA to acquire 74% stake from Sundaram Finance -RSA to merge insurance company with Reliance General Insurance -RSA to hold 26% in new insurance JV; Reliance Cap to hold 74%

Indoco Licences out some Opthalmic products to Aspen -Indoco, Aspen in pact for Opthalmic products in EMs -Indoco to get milestone payments, sales proceeds from Aspen deal

SIAM meets to discuss Euro III, IV Emission norms implementation: exclusive -Euro III norms delayed by 6 months -Euro III norms to be implemented from October 1 -Euro IV norms to be implemented from April 1 -Auto Industry says have not been informed as cabinet approval still to come

Daiichi Sankyo plans to delist Ranbaxy in next 4 months, management denies any such plans

Sanofi moves US court against Wockhardt for challenging the patent for Allegra, one of the largest selling anti-allergic drug – BS