Market-breadth going strong

The market came off the lower level in range-bound, mid-morning trade. Select side-counters surged. The market had declined in early trade due to the Congress party's poor showing as per early trends in counting of votes, which began in Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand today. Results of Punjab and Uttarakhand assembly elections are seen as a barometer of voters' concerns about inflation and economic reforms. However, the results will in anyway not jeopardise the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.

Cement, steel shares, car makers, construction, real estate firms and second line IT shares edged higher. Even Reliance Industries (RIL) recovered from the lower level.
The market-breadth was strong. Against 1,527 shares rising on BSE, 689 declined. Just 53 shares were unchanged. Gainers outpaced losers by a ratio of 2.2:1.

At 11:28 IST the Sensex was down 7 points, at 13,642. From 13,538.67, a drop of 110.85 points for the day, the Sensex had surged to 13,689 by 11:20 IST. At 13,689, the Sensex had risen 39.48 points for the day.The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 1523 crore.

Thomas Cook India in a tizzy as board okays stock-split
Thomas Cook India jumped 10% to Rs 514.95, after its board approved a 10-for-1 stock-split proposal.With this, the number of shares of Thomas Cook India will increase to 34.58 crore. However, the paid-up capital of the company stands unchanged at Rs 16.07 crore.A total of 2,529 shares were traded in the counter on BSE with pending buy orders for 2,127 shares at the maximum limit.

Commenting on Thomas Cook India's decision to split shares, Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, said "The decision to sub-divide shares would further increase the floating stock available in the market. We are confident that with this split, the liquidity of the stock will increase and benefit shareholders."

The Thomas Cook India stock has an average yearly volume of 2,792 shares, when taken on a daily basis on BSE. Thus the scrip is relatively low traded.

The Thomas Cook India stock has slowly and steadily declined in the past few months. From Rs 578.10 on 4 December 2006, it declined to Rs 468.15 by 26 February 2007, an erosion of 23.48% during this period.

In December 2006, Thomas Cook India acquired TCI in an all-cash-deal for Rs 182.45 crore. The TCI acquisition was aimed at boosting the inbound travel services segment of Thomas Cook India's offerings. TCI has 11 offices abroad.

TCI would become a wholly-owned unit of Thomas Cook, but function as a separate entity.

Thomas Cook said the acquisition will result in a platform of almost 200 branches and outlets, making the combination the largest travel organisation in India in terms of distribution capability.

Thomas Cook also announced in December 2006, the acquisition of 76% in visa services firm TT Enterprises for Rs 16.91 crore. The acquisition of TT Enterprises marked Thomas Cook India’s first major expansion into the visa services business. At present, Thomas Cook offers visa services only as an add-on to its ticketing and holiday customers.

Thomas Cook India operates in the foreign exchange, leisure travel, corporate travel management and travel insurance segments.

In the travel business, Thomas Cook India intends to focus on inbound and outbound travel, corporate travel and the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) segments. The company, recently, launched 100% Holidays, a premium holiday's brand.

For Q4 October 2006, Thomas Cook India reported 61.20% fall in net profit to Rs 3.09 crore compared to Rs 7.96 crore in Q4 October 2005. Net sales for the October 2006 quarter rose 35.40% to Rs 38.04 crore (Rs 28.10 crore).