The stock of Reliance Industries will see some buying interest this week as the firm's year-long buyback window is coming to an end on January 19. The company, which had set a target of 12 crore shares for a maximum amount of Rs 10,440 crore, bought back only 4.62 crore shares (just about 40 per cent) till January 8. Though the company set a maximum price of Rs 870 a share for the buyback, the stock hardly touched that. It ruled above that level except for a brief while during the entire buyback period. The company could mop up only shares worth Rs 3,359.76 crore. The buyback strategy could get aggressive in the coming days.
Will open offer keep GSK Consumer in pink of health?
The stock of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare will remain in focus this week, as its UK promoter plans to raise its stake to 75 per cent. The open offer, which is for the acquisition of 1.34 crore shares (or 31.84 per cent) of the voting share capital of the company, will start from January 17 and close on January 30. The price for the open offer has been fixed at Rs 3,900 a share. With the current market price of Rs 3,862.75 being almost close to the offer price, it would be interesting to watch how investors, particularly, institutions respond to the offer who have a sizeable chunk of 31.9 per cent stake in the company.
Airline stocks such as SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Kingfisher are likely to come under pressure as the price war is back in the Indian skies, much to the delight of air travellers. SpiceJet on Friday slashed fares by more than 50 per cent on travel from February to April. The airline said that it was offering “10 lakh seats for an all-inclusive fare of Rs 2,013,” for any domestic flight between February 1 and April 30. This prompted IndiGo Airlines to discreetly lower its fares. While IndiGo did not comment on the issue, the airline Web site was offering a return fare on the Delhi-Mumbai route at about Rs 4,500. February to April is traditionally a lean season for travel.