BOR: Market Outlook: Indian markets are likely to edge lower following the nervousness across global markets.

Market Outlook: Indian markets are likely to edge lower following the nervousness across global markets. Profit booking may continue which may drag the Nifty below 5330 level.

Global Events to watch for today

• Chain Store Sales
• Jobless Claims

Global indices Update @ 8:

Dow Jones : 10897 (- 72.47)

NASDAQ : 2431 (- 05.65)

Nikkei 225 : 11203 (- 88.93)

Hang seng : 21912 (- 16.08)

SGX CNX Nifty : 5358 (- 23.00)

INR / 1 USD : 44.42

Stocks in action for the day : UTV, Axis Bank, MBL Infra, Jagran Prakashan Limited, Kingfisher, RIL, JSW Steel, Emami.

Essar arm eyes $2.5-b LSE listing: Essar Energy, the Ruias’ holding company for power and oil assets, may launch the biggest-ever overseas initial public offering (IPO) by an Indian company as early as next week to raise $2.5 billion.

UTV arm lines up 15 movies: Just a week into the new financial year and UTV Motion Pictures is ready with 15 movies to be released during 2010-11. Release schedules, a must to optimise collections and to avoid a clash with other big boys who would split the audience, are all in place and distributors will be shown a first glimpse of most of the 15 movies on Thursday night. Collectively, the production house has approximately Rs 300-350 crore riding across big, medium and small budget under its UTV Spotboy banner.

Axis Bank slumps on block sale talk: Shares of Axis Bank ended weak on Wednesday on talk of a leading foreign fund selling a chunk of the stock in a block deal. Grapevine has it that Singapore-based investment firm Orient Global Capital, founded by New Zealand-born entrepreneur Richard Chandler, was the seller in the block deal. The stock closed 0.6% lower at Rs 1,164.20 on Wednesday on volumes of around 21 lakh shares, as against a two-week average of 3.6 lakh shares.

FIs stock up on MBL Infra on strong revenue hopes: Institutional investors have been buying MBL Infrastructures on expectations that the company will book strong revenues in the coming quarter. According to brokers, the company is well-placed to bag several inter-state road projects in the coming months, planned under central government’s infrastructure programme. Moreover, the company has put in bids for new projects worth Rs 3,500 crore and is said to have an order book worth Rs 2,000 crore. Market talk is that a reliable mutual fund and a few other private insurance companies, have been accumulating MBL in sizeable quantities. Shares of MBL Infrastructures ended 4.3% higher at Rs 252 on the BSE.

Blackstone to invest Rs 225 cr in Jagran Media Network: The Blackstone Group announced today that it will be investing Rs 225 crore in Jagran Media Network Private Limited, which will hold majority share of Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL). JPL is India’s leading media and communications group, with the group’s flagship brand, Dainik Jagran, being the most widely read newspaper in the world with a total readership of 54.6 million. Jagran Media Network Private Limited will file for necessary approvals for the investment with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) today.

Kingfisher may raise Rs 3 bn debt soon Initiates steps for Rs 4.4 billion GDR. Kingfisher Airlines, owned by Vijay Mallya`s liquor-to-airlines UB Group, plans to raise Rs 3 billion of debt in the near future. This will increase its current debt book to around Rs 78 billion - a leverage of almost 25 times. The debt will be from a consortium of banks led by India`s largest lender State Bank of India to help the airline in its operational expenditure. The aviation industry is going through a bad patch due to the slowdown, higher operational expenditure and rising aviation turbine fuel prices.

RIL promoters acquire shares worth Rs 1.13 bn Reliance Industries` promoter entities have acquired shares worth Rs 1.13 billion through off-market transactions, the Mukesh Ambani-led company said today. RIL in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange said that four of its promoters - Nityapriya Commercials, Kshitij Commercials, Kardam Commercials and Kankhal Investments and Trading Company - had acquired shares of the company worth Rs 1.13 billion. After the said transaction, Nityapriya Commercials holds 8.46%, Kshitij Commercials has 10.03%, Kardam Commercials 8.04% and Kankhal Investments and Trading Company holds 10.13% stake in RIL.

Emami targets 25% sales growth for Zandu FMCG major Emami is looking at 25% growth for its Rs 2 billion Zandu brand, led by new marketing campaigns and launch of new products. Zandu is now under Emami`s fold following the latter`s acquisition of Zandu Pharmaceutical and the subsequent business restructuring between the two companies in 2009.

IL&FS takes big stake in industrial park IL&FS Investments, a private equity fund, has taken a 82% stake in Tiruchirappalli (Tiruchy)-based GK Industrial Park for around Rs 700 million. The investment is part of the ty portion for GK Industrial park for the upcoming industrial park on the outskirts of Tiruchy on 600 acres of land. K G Muralidharan, director, GK Industrial Park said, the company has invested around Rs 750 million to acquire land and plans to invest Rs 1.5 billion to create infrastructure in the upcoming park, which is presently under construction.

SKF starts production at its Haridwar unit SKF India, an Indian business arm of Swedish giant AB SKF, formally inaugurated its third factory at the industrial estate of Haridwar to supply bearings to Hero Honda and other auto manufacturers in Uttarakhand. And tomorrow, the company, which has so far invested Rs 4.21 billion in India, would start production at its new unit in Ahmedabad in Gujarat also. Its two units are already operational in Bangalore and Pune.``SKF`s strategic move to increase production capacity through the Haridwar plant signifies our commitment to serve our customers effectively and will also allow us to further increase our share in the developing vehicle aftermarket service segment,`` said AB SKF president and CEO Tom Johnstone.

Prithvi Info Solutions bags order in Haryana Prithvi Information Solutions has bagged orders for developing the Haryana State Data Centre, an e-governance infrastructure space. The Haryana SDC would provide single window for accessing the services provided by the state government, proving to be a key infrastructure to house the data from various state departments under one roof. The SDC programme is part of the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) of the Centre to create platform to support the various e-Governance initiatives to be rolled out by the center and state governments. This plan details the command centre, data center infrastructure, network infrastructure to create the e-governance ecosystem in the country.

United Spirits eyes overseas buys United Spirits, the world`s second largest spirits maker by volume, is looking to expand into south-east Asia, Africa and the Middle East, a top official said, hunting growth after a failed tie-up with rival Diageo. The company, which sold a record 100 million 12-bottle cases worth 300 billion rupees (USD 6.7 billion) in 2009/10, is looking at acquisitions or franchise opportunities to enter these areas, President and Managing Director Vijay Rekhi told Reuters in an interview. Describing it as a second pillar of growth for the company after its domestic sales, Rekhi said that the company was now examining the feasibility of expanding its footprint outside India. ``Now we would like to get out of the country,`` he said.

JSW Steel earmarks capex of Rs 70 bn for current fiscal Steel major, JSW Steel, said it has earmarked a capex of Rs 70 billion for the current financial year and plans to increase capacity of its Bellary plant in Karnataka from 7-million tones to 10-million tones by end-this fiscal. ``We have earmarked Rs 70 billion as our capex for thecurrent financial year,`` JSW Steel`s Joint Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer, Seshagiri Rao, told reporters at a function organised by Dun and Bradstreet, here. ``We will also be increasing capacity of our Bellary plant from 7-million tones to 10-million tones by end-this fiscal,`` he said.

IndusInd`s ride likely to continue on D-Street IndusInd Bank recently raised Rs 4.2 billion through tier-II bonds. This is done to boost its capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which stood at 13.8% at the end of December `09 quarter. The bank`s CAR is more than minimum 9% stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). But since it is growing at a high rate, it would require additional capital to maintain its CAR. The bank grew its loan book by 33% year-on-year in the December `09 quarter, when growth in aggregate credit in the banking industry stood at only 13%. On the similar lines, the bank more than doubled its profit in the first nine months of thecurrent fiscal. Given such a high rate of growth, it has raised capital through tier-II bonds. It must be noted that the bank raised capital through the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route in August last year.