Investment stocks

* CAIRN INDIA:  Will start commercial sale of gas from its Rajasthan block
to fertiliser firms in Gujarat from this month. (ET)

* GAIL INDIA: Is likely to see its costs rocket in case output from Krishna
Godavari basin's D-6 block falls further. (DNA)

* GODREJ CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Its Indonesian arm has completed the
sale of its non-core foods business (NW18)

* HERO MOTOCORP: Plans to spend 11 bln rupees as capital expenditure
in 2013-14 (Apr-Mar) to build on its position as the market leader in the
two-wheeler space. (ET)

* HINDUSTAN UNILEVER: Has told some analysts that it has cut prices of
soaps, barring its Hamam brand, by 12-20% in Jan-Mar. (NW18)

* HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORP: Will raise at least 2.5 bln
rupees through 15-month bonds, carrying a coupon rate of 9.09%.
(NW18)

* INDIAN OIL CORP: Sri Lankan government has taken back a part of the
strategic oil storage depot from the company's subsidiary in the island
nation; the company said the move is "purely commercial". (NW18)

* STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA: The floor price for the offer for sale in the
company has been fixed at 63 rupees per share. (NW18)

* WIPRO: Has received approval from the Karnataka High Court for its
proposed demerger of consumer durables business from core
information technology operations. (NW18)

Here are stocks that are in news today

IOC cuts petrol prices by Rs 2/litre over the weekend-Keeps diesel prices unchanged (against the expected 50 paise cut)

IOC says:
-Losing Rs 8.64/litre on subsidised diesel sales
-FY13 revenue loss on subsidised fuel sale seen at Rs 86,500 crore
-Companies seen losing Rs 1.63 lakh crore on subsidised fuel sale FY13

Finance Ministry eyes Rs 20,000 crore from 10 percent stake sale in Coal India : CNBC-TV18 Exclusive: Sources
-Finance Ministry proposes Coal India share sale via offer for sale (OFS) route
-Finance Ministry floats note for Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA); seeks comments by April 1
-Finance Ministry proposal for CCEA approved by finance minister
Alert: Post sale, govt to retain 80 percent in Coal India
-Empowered group of ministers (EGoM) to decide if sale to be done in tranches
-EGoM to fix floor price, number of tranches & shares
-EGoM to decide on retaining oversubscription
-Up to 10 percent of OFS size proposed for employees
-Employees to be eligible for shares up to Rs 2 lakh

NALCO OFS: (Only 5 percent sold)
Subscribed 1.2 times; 
-Gets bids for 15.7 crore shares
-Bids at indicative price of Rs 40.05/Share
-Govt sources say disappointed with response to NALCO offer for sale

Govt cuts gold base import price to USD 516 per 10 gram versus USD 521 per 10 gram
-Govt cuts silver base import price to USD 930 per kg versus USD 944 per kg

Money-laundering allegations: ICICI Bank suspends 18 employees pending enquiry
 
Sources say HDFC Bank suspends 20 employees in money-laundering case: NW18
HDFC Bank says:
-Appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu for forensic enquiry 
-Appointed Amarchand &  Mangaldas, Suresh A Shroff & Company to examine breaches, if any 
-To carry out special audit of branches in question 
-Re-reviewing internal & external audits 
-Deloitte to enquire into allegations made by Cobrapost 
-Amarchand, Shroff, Bank’s team to verify allegations 
-Bank to detail out internal checks & safeguards 
-Bank to detail out robustness of compliance 
-Work to prevent, trap, enable pre-fact/post-fact discovery 
-Pre-fact/post-fact discovery with respect to violation of KYC norms 
-Bank examining efficacy of induction 
-Examining ongoing training provided for ingraining ethics

Axis Bank sets up panel to investigate money-laundering allegations
Axis Bank says
-Internal enquiry underway to look into allegations 
-Findings of internal enquiry expected shortly 
-Asked 16 concerned employees to report to administrative offices 
-Senior level committee to monitor investigation daily

ISMA revises India 2012-13 sugar output to 24.6 mt versus 24.3 mt
-ISMA October 1-March 15 sugar output at 21.05 mt versus 21.25 mt (YoY)

Other stocks and sectors that are in news today:
- L&T to raise Rs 2500 crore by selling 20 percent stake in Infra arm valuing the company at Rs 12,500 crore: ET 
-Govt to consider sugar decontrol today: BS
- JSPL eyes majority stake in NMDC ’s Rs 15,000 crore steel plant: ET 
-Private infra firms may be allowed to issue tax-free bonds: BS 
- Shri Dinesh Mills buy back at maximum Rs 91/share 
-Repco Home IPO (closed on Friday): Overall subscribed 1.65 times, QIB 3.4 times, Retail 0.5 times, NII 0.35 times 
-AAI chairman says filing civil suit in Mumbai court against Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) over bounced cheques: CNBC-TV18 Exclusive
- GVK to offload minority stake in Australia Coal Mining project: PTI
- Thomas Cook India gets SEBI nod to issue 3.4 crore shares (13.89%) via IPP
-Power tariff hiked in Bihar by average 6.9 percent per unit w.e.f April 1: PTI
- TVS Motor says marketing president H S Goindi resigns

Market strategy

Nifty::::
cmp : 5940

S1:5826    S2:5743
R1:5971    R2:6033

Bank nifty:
cmp:: 12089

S1:11666  S2: 11356
R1: 12210 S2:12444

STOCKS:

buy Irb
cmp:124
trgt:126-128
sl: 122.50

sell: hero motors
cmp:1670
trgt:1640
sl:1685

Five things to be remembered before budget

Today's inflation numbers will be the key to RBI's monetary policy action  on March 19 and the market's course today. WPI is expected to fall marginally to 6.5% vs 6.6% in January 2013. Here are the five things you must know before inflation numbers are out:

1. Indian equity market has underperformed its peers, selling out after January CPI inflation came in above 10 percent.

2. Food inflation remained sticky. This component was the chief contributor to high CPI inflation. RBI's dilemma has been compounded due to the widening gap between CPI and WPI

3. Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao, while addressing students in London on Wednesday, said inflation is still high and stubborn and an above 6-percent inflation would justify monetary tightening. He remained concerned with a decelerating growth.

4. RBI estimates put threshold inflation in 4-6 percent range

5. Former RBI governor and chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, C Rangarajan had recently said India faces stagflation, a state of high inflation and poor growth rate.