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Hindustan Dorr Oliver (HDO) is one of the few small-cap engineering companies that managed to weather the current slowdown by focussing on diversification of services and offering specialised technologies through overseas tie-ups. The company’s recent order-win from Uranium Corporation of India for a greenfield ore mining and processing facility demonstrates its ability to quickly capitalise on new business opportunities. At Rs 31.8, this listed subsidiary of IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects holds strong earnings potential from a medium-term perspective. Investors can consider investing in this stock, which trades at a modest 2.8 times its expected per share earnings for FY10. HDO’s expertise lies in providing turnkey solutions and Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) services in liquid solid separation applications in industries such as mineral processing, fertiliser and chemical and environmental management. The diversified operation has aided in steady order flows even

Tata Steel Ltd announced on Friday that its consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008 declined to Rs 732.21 crore from Rs 1,311.76 crore reported during the same quarter in 2007  but its shares rose as the market had expected a loss. However, the group’s total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 has increased to Rs 33,222.59 crore from Rs 32,074.34 in the same period in 2007.

DLF,has raised Rs 720 crore from selling bonds to insurance companies as part of its plan to raise Rs 5,000 crore from such sales. DLF on February 24 raised the funds through issue of non-convertible debentures maturing in five years which offered as much as 14 per cent interest, sources in the company said. The bonds were sold to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India and a few others. DLF officials were not available for comments. DLF in March disclosed plans to raise Rs 5000 crore from selling bonds to investors. It received a ‘AA stable’ rating for the issue from Crisil. However, the rating company in January downgraded the real estate developer’s pass through certificates to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’ because of “slowdown in the company’s real estate sales”. The developer, while announcing its quarterly results, admitted that it had put a quarter of its projects on hold. The rating company believed that the sales would continue to adversely affect DLF’s operating cash flows. The realtor h

With a healthy Rs 68,000 crore order-book, the construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today said it expects to maintain 30 per cent growth rate in sales in the next fiscal despite slowdown in the economy. "There will be sale growth of 30 per cent during 2008-09. We are confident that we will be able to maintain that for the next fiscal. That is our hope," L&T whole-time Director and President (Machinery and Industrial Products) J P Nayak told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference. As on January-end, L&T is sitting on a hefty order-book for projects to be executed over the next two years. However, he said a lot will depend on the orders coming in the next few months. He also noted that overall the company has not been affected by the slowdown. "About 75 per cent of our business is project-based which has not seen a slowdown as of now. Our order backlog is for over two years so in our case there is no slowdown as such as you can see in the first

L&T 's Buildings & Factories Operating Co, a part of the construction division, has bagged orders worth Rs 1,162 crore in the fourth quarter of 2008-09, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company has received a Rs 605-crore order from Andhra Pradesh Rajiv Swagruthu Corp for construction of township flats in Hyderabad. The project is to be completed in two years. L&T has also received major orders aggregating to Rs 557 crore for the construction of cement plants and other strategic factory buildings. The cement plant construction orders have been received from major players like KCP and Lafarge India Pvt Ltd. The project is scheduled to be completed in 15 months.

Hindustan Dorr Oliver Ltd has informed BSE that the company has bagged a prestigious order for uranium ore processing plant from Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) worth Rs 441 crores for their greenfiled ore mining and processing facility o f capacity 3000 MTPD coming up at Tumalapalle in Andhra Pradesh. The process plant shall adopt innovative alkali pressure leaching process technology which will be used in India for the first time and M/s. Bateman of South Africa are the company's technology partners for this project. The company plans to finish the project within a period of 22 months.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, L&T said it has secured a Rs 800-crore order from Al Ain Distribution Co for the construction of seven electrical substations and overhead transmission line in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE. Under the contract terms, L&T will design and build electrical substations under the specifications of the international consultant PB Power, in two years. Further, the engineering firm has also bagged a Rs 330- crore order from Abu Dhabi Distribution Company for augmentation and expansion of a 33-kV power transmission network in the gulf country. Back home, L&T secured another power project worth Rs 308-crore from West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company for a rural electrification project in the state. The company would develop the rural electrification works in Jalpaiguri and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal, it said.

he Sensex opened 99 points lower at 8,944, and exhibited weakness for most part of the trading day. Heavy selling in select banking and technology stocks dragged the index to a low of 8,763. The index recovered partially towards the close on account of some short-covering ahead of the extended weekend holidays. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 199 points at 8,843. In the process, the index ended the week with a significant loss of over 6% (581 points). Today, the BSE Bankex plunged 3.5% to 4,299. The IT and Metal indices shed 2.7% each at 2,039 and 4,692, respectively. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,499 stocks traded, 1,637 declined, 775 advanced and the rest were unchanged. ICICI Bank slumped 7% to Rs 336. Reliance Communications tumbled 4.5% to Rs 155. Reliance Infrastructure, TCS and Sterlite plunged around 3.3% each to Rs 491, Rs 474 and Rs 248, respectively. Reliance and Mahindra & Mahindra also shed over 3% each to Rs 1,254 and Rs 281, respectively.

The Sensex today ended with a gain of 53 points at 9,202. The BSE Metal index surged 3% to 4,945, and the Realty index advanced over 1% to 1,399. The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,528 stocks traded, 1,278 declined and 1,148 advanced today. DLF and Tata Steel surged 5% each to Rs 140 and Rs 179, respectively. Jaiprakash Associates and Sterlite rallied over 4.5% each to Rs 69 and Rs 279, respectively. Maruti rallied 3% to Rs 602. ONGC and Reliance Communications moved up 2.3% each to Rs 665 and Rs 163, respectively. ACC gained nearly 2% at Rs 528. Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, BHEL and Hindustan Unilever were the other major gainers. Mahindra & Mahindra slipped 1.7% to Rs 283, and Ranbaxy declined 1.3% to Rs 206. Hindalco was down over 1% at Rs 44.

Tata Motors  sales declined by 33 per cent to 36,931 units in January 2009 from 54,796 units in the same month last year. The company sold 17,373 commercial vehicles in the domestic market during the month, down by 43 per cent compared to 30,530 vehicles sold in January last year. Its domestic sales of passenger vehicles stood at 18,331 units in January 2009, nine per cent lower than 20,119 units sold in the same month last year, the company said in a statement. The company exported 1,227 vehicles in the month, down 70 per cent compared to 4,147 vehicles in January 2008. In the passenger vehicles segment, sales of Indica range stood at 11,433 units, about eight per cent lower than January 2008. The Sumo and Safari accounted for sales of 2,925 units, 40 per cent lower than the year-ago period. However, the Indigo range sales grew by 37 per cent to 3,973 units.

Ashok Leyland today reported a 73.17 per cent decline in commercial vehicles sales in January 2009 at 2,444 units compared with 9,112 units sold in the same month last year. Domestic sales for the month stood at 2,026 units against 8,477 units in corresponding month last year, down by 76.10 per cent, the company said in a statement. Exports during the month fell by 34.17 per cent to 418 units compared with 635 units in the same period last year. The company reported a decline of around 76.29 per cent in total domestic sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles at 1,977 units compared with 8,341 units in the same month last year. Domestic light commercial vehicle sales fell by 63.97 per cent to 49 units in January compared with 136 units in the corresponding period last year, while exports of LCVs for the month of January 2009 stood at 12 units compared with 19 units in the same period last year.

The Sensex today ended with a significant loss of 358 points at 9,067. The selling was led by realty stocks following poor numbers by DLF. The BSE Realty index plummeted 10.3% to 1,496. The Metal index and the Bankex dropped over 5% each to 4,828 and 4,650, respectively. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,526 stocks traded so far, 1,570 declined, 871 advanced and the rest were unchanged today. DLF and Jaiprakash Associates slumped around 13.5% each to Rs 153 and Rs 66, respectively. Reliance Infrastructure tumbled 10.5% to Rs 521. ICICI Bank and HDFC plunged 7.5% each to Rs 385 and Rs 1,423, respectively. Tata Steel shed 6.6% at Rs 172. Reliance Communications and Hindalco dropped over 6% each to Rs 160 and Rs 46, respectively. SBI slipped nearly 5% to Rs 1,096. Wipro and Tata Motors declined 4.7% each to Rs 220 and Rs 143, respectively. Sterlite and NTPC shed 4.5% each at Rs 264 and Rs 181, respectively. Larsen & Toubro, TCS and HDFC were down almost 4% each at Rs 6

Car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India announced on Monday that its sales has increased by 5.60 per cent at 67,005 units in the domestic market in January this year as compared to the corresponding month last fiscal. The company’s sales during November were 65,216 units. In January this year, the company exported 4,774 units.

DLF Ltd posted a net profit of Rs 178.06 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008 as compared with Rs 605.84 crore during the same quarter in 2007. Total income for the December quarter in 2008 has decreased to Rs 683.39 crore from Rs 1,812.59 crore in the year-ago period. The Group has posted a net profit of Rs 670.79 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 as compared with Rs 2144.98 crore during the same quarter in 2007. The Group’s total income for the quarter has decreased to Rs 1,502.79 crore from Rs 3651.25 cr ore in the year-ago quarter