Sarda Energy & Minerals Ltd., formed through the merger of Raipur Alloys & Steel Ltd. And Chhattisgarh Electricity Company Ltd. Is a fully ntergrated steel manufacturer. The company has a captive Iron Ore, Manganese Mines and Coal Sources. The company also has a captive power plant which provides it a clear competitive advantage enabling the company to produce at most competitive costs. The company is a manufacturer of Sponge Iron, Ferro Alloys and Rolled products. We expect to benefit from this edge in 2008-09 and beyond. The company’s has a 250-hectare plant located in Raipur  with a dedicated 8-km water pipeline from the Kharoon river to the plant for uninterrupted water supply.

Self Sufficiency in Critical Inputs:

The company is 100% self sufficient in its energy needs, which is the  most critical input in ferro alloys and steelmaking. The company has a 48MW power plant sufficient to meet ts own power requirements. The company’s operational Iron Ore mine has reserves of nearly 20 million MT.  In addition, the Company has got an in-principle approval from the Government of India for five more mines possessing sufficient reserves to meet its requirement for the next 25 years. The Company secured coal reserves of more than 100 million MT. The first mine with reserves of 67 million MT has been commissioned. As regard Manganese Ore, the company acquired mining rights from private parties in Goa. In addition, reconnaissance permits/ in-principle approvals were  granted  in favour of the Company for three mines in Madhya Pradesh.

Low Cost Producer:

The company is a low cost producer on account of its vertical integration, economies of scale and reduced dependence on the external market for  supply of critical inputs. The Company had foreseen the need to secure raw material resources more than a decade ago and had taken adequate steps in  that direction.  The company today is completely integrated from iron ore to finished steel for end users. The availability of captive resources within a radius of  250  km from its manufacturing facility significantly saves logistic costs.

Conclusion:

Sarda Energy may be better placed than many other steel manufacturers to compete in a difficult environment on account of its raw material linkages. Even though steel prices are on a decline, we believe the drop in the stock price of Sarda Energy from a High of Rs 695 to the current price of Rs 60 is largely overdone. Investors may choose to buy the stock for a 50-100% gain over the next few months. However, a close watch needs to maintained on Steel Cycle and any indications of the prices stabilizing/ inching upwards after the fall witnessed recently may lead to upward rerating of the stock. The short term downside from the current levels looks negligible.

PEQ Consulting Inc PEQ is an Infrastructure management company rendering technology services in the managed services space. In simple terms, it replaces the IT Dept of the businesses. Its Core focus is Automotive Industry and derives 85% of its revenue from that vertical. It is uniquely positioned and a national service provider spread across USA & Canada. It currently supports multiple local, regional and enterprise automotive dealership groups it supports automotive DMS providers, OEMs & s/w application companies in the automotive space.

Portfolio services offered by them includes, Cabling services, Network services, installation and support - Switches, Routers & T1 / T3 Installation Network topology discovery and documentation, WAP Consulting and Installation, Network Troubleshooting Diagnostic testing, Network Engineering, New environments or re-engineering of current configuration, LAN and WAN implementation.

For over 12 years, Zylog has been partnering with a loyal following of clients seeking to leverage Zylog’s proven delivery methodology, as well as 24/7 access to the very best technical resources and development tools available anywhere.

Zylog provides complete Product Lifecycle Management services, ranging from new product development and product advancement to product migration, re engineering, sustenance and support. By leveraging Zylog’s experience in product engineering, the company brings products to market faster, with high quality and reduced costs.

Zylog’s customer base includes large corporate organizations as well as medium size businesses across a broad range of verticals, as well as respected leaders in finance and banking, insurance, telecommunications and life sciences. Zylog ranked #238 for the year 2008 in the VAR Business 500 and won Top Technology Practices’ award for the “Greenware Computing” initiative and also recognized as one of the 10 Fast Growth VARs to watch.

Zylog US headquarters is in Edison, New Jersey, with offices that span the globe (North America, Europe and Asia). Zylog has their state-of-the-art offshore development center in Chennai, India with more than 1200 employees world wide, The company has recorded revenue of USD 150 million for the year 2007- 08 and is listed in major Indian Stock Exchanges.

Bajaj Finserve: Bajaj Holdings buys 30 lakh shares @ Rs 120/sh ( 2.1 %). Fid Funds Mauritius sells 28.5 lakh shares @ Rs 120/sh. Bajaj Holdings stake increases to 32.1% from 30.07. Total Promoter holding goes up to 52.4 % from 50.35.

Info Edge: Equinox Asset Mgmt LIC buys 2.8 lakh shares @ Rs 439.1/sh. On 31st Oct: Equinox Partners Lp bought 1.7 lakh shares @ Rs 437.2. On 27th Oct: Equinox Partners Lp bought 2.1 lakh shares @ Rs 413.8. (Buys 2.4 % stake in last few trading Session).

S Kumars: Copthall Mauritius Investment buys 17.2 lakh shares @ Rs 29.9/sh. BSMA sells 17.2 lakh shares @ Rs 29.9/sh.

Prithvi Info: Credit Suisse Singapore sells 1 lakh shares @ Rs 40.9/sh.

Prajay Engineering: Copthall Mauritius Investment buys 7.6 lakh shares @ Rs 20.8/sh. BSMA Sells 7.6 lakh shares @ Rs 20.8/sh.

Monnet Ispat: Copthall Mauritius Investment buys 14.7 lakh shares @ Rs 157.2/sh. BSMA sells 14.7 lakh shares @ Rs 157.2/sh.

KEC International: Somerset India Fund buys 2.8 lakh shares @ Rs 116/sh. FIL Investment Management Hong Kong sells 2.8 lakh shares @ Rs 116/sh.

Educomp Solutions: Federated Global Investment
buys 2.2 lakh shares @ Rs 2,508/sh.

Great Offshore: Eleventh Land Developers buys 2 lakh shares @ Rs 348/sh.

Lotus Eye Care Hospital: Anand Yogesh Shares & Consultancy buys 8.1 lakh shares @ Rs 14/sh. Harsha Rajeshbhai Jhaveri sells 3.5 lakh shares @ Rs 14.1/sh. Vicky R Jhaveri sells 2.2 lakh shares @ Rs 14/sh.

Pritish Nandy Communication: OHM Stock Broker buys 94,000 shares @ Rs 20/sh. Tejasvi Investments sells 95,000 shares @ Rs 20/sh.

Sah Petroleum: Globe Capital Market buys 5.4 lakh shares @ Rs 33.6/sh.

Vimta Labs: Raichand H Dharamshi buys 2 lakh shares @ Rs 20.3/sh.

Ahmednagar Forgings:
-MSR Marketing buys 2 lakh shares @ Rs 36.1/sh

Bhagwati Banquets: Anand Yogesh Shares & Consultancy sells 1.4 lakh shares @ Rs 26.2/sh.

Aurobindo Pharma: Kotak Mahindra UK buys 2.8 lakh shares @ Rs 130/sh. Morgan Stanley Mauritius sells 3.5 lakh shares @ Rs 129.9/sh.

Futures OI was up Rs 1,611 crore while Options OI was up Rs 1,979 crore. Nifty Futures added 6.5 lakh shares in OI, at 2-points premium. Nifty OI Put-Call ratio stood at 1.05 Vs 1.07. Nifty Puts added 27 lakh while Calls added 30 lakh shares in OI. Nifty 2800 Put added 5.8 lakh shares in OI; Nifty 3000 Put added 4.8 lakh shares in OI; Nifty 2900 Put added 3.7 lakh shares in OI; Nifty 3400 Call added 8 lakh shares in OI; Nifty 3200 Call added 7.5 lakh shares in OI. Stock Futures added 80 lakh shares in OI.

On November 3, net buy by the FIIs in Nifty Futures were Rs 962 crore and net buy in Nifty Options were Rs 248 crore.

On October 31, FIIs net buy in equity were $ 293.3 million while MFs net buy in equity were Rs 42.9 crore. NSE F&O OI was up Rs 3,590 crore at Rs 43,682 crore. MF AUMs are down 20% in month of October.

On global front, US markets end flat ahead of US Presidential Elections today. Total volume traded on NYSE were around 1 billion shares, lowest since August. CBOE VIX was down 10.2% at 53.75.

In Asia, Asian markets witnessed profit booking after 5-day massive rally. In commodity market, Crude falls 5% to $ 64/bbl, Gold ends down $ 5 at $ 727/oz. In currency market, Dollar climbed 0.8% against other world currencies. Yen appreciates 50 bps to 98.8/$. Libor slid 17 bps to 2.86%, 16th day of declines.

South Korean won falls 1% after forex reserve falls most in decade, drops $ 27.4 billion to $ 212.3 billion. Seychelles rupee sank 43% Vs dollar, euro & pound in its 1st day of trading as a free-floating currency.