City Union Bank gains 2% on strong response to share sale

Shares of  City Union Bank rose 2 percent on burly answer to its share sale to hoist up to Rs 350 corer.
City Union Bank on Monday sunset launched a share sale for institutional investors to lift up Rs 250-350 crore, phrase sheet showed.
Floor price for the share sale had been permanent at Rs 75.05 a share, the lender said in a report
The bank's share sale has been oversubscribed by almost 2.5 times, people occupied in the method said.
At 10:33 hrs City Union Bank was quoting at Rs 75.00, up Rs 0.65, or 0.87 percent on the BSE.

Timken Stock Surges Higher After It Confirms Split

Shares of steel products maker Timken Co. (TKR) continued their ascent Friday, climbing as much as 5% in morning trading.
Its stock surged 7% the prior two days amid speculation it might split into two publicly traded companies, and increase its dividend. Timken late Thursday said its board approved a plan to separate its steel business from the unit that makes bearings and power transmissions.
The announcement lifted others in the ailing steel producers group.

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Timken had been under pressure from activist investors, including the Relational Investors fund, who had pressed it to make the move.
Relational has taken positions in several large manufacturers in recent years, including ITT (ITT), Ingersoll-Rand (IR) and Illinois Tool Works (ITW), and advocated changes to make the companies more profitable and lift share price.
Relational was supported in its drive by CalSTRS, the California state teachers' pension fund, which joined in urging Timken management to make changes.
Timken shares were up 3.3% in afternoon trading on the stock market today.
The company had struggled of late, reporting lower year-over-year profit five quarters in a row, and lower sales growth for four quarters.
Still, its stock price rose 63% from a Nov. 16 low to Aug. 5 on prospects of better growth amid a manufacturing resurgence tied to the economy. It's consolidated since, in sync with the market.
Elsewhere in the Metal Processors & Fabricators group, ranked a weak 99 on IBD's list of 197 industries, Valmont Industries (VMI), with annual revenue of about $3.3 billion, edged up.
Smaller but highly rated Handy & Harman (HNH), with sales of $626 million a year, was up 1.4%. Handy & Harman boasts an 89 IBD Composite Rating, meaning its stock has outperformed 89% of all stocks on key metrics such as sales and profit growth.
In the related Steel-Producers group, ranked a dismal 158 on IBD's industries list, Netherlands-based Arcelor-Mittal (MT), the world's largest steel producer with $80 billion yearly revenue, rose 1%. And smaller Valley City, Ohio-based Shiloh Industries (SHLO), with an 83 Composite Rating, was also up about 1%.
Timken plans to spin off the bearings and transmissions business as a $3.4 billion revenue global company, and named Richard Kyle, current chief operating officer of that unit, as CEO. That company will start with 17,000 employees and 35 manufacturing plants.
The new engineered steel company will start with about $1.7 billion annual revenue and be headed by Ward Timken, currently president of the steel business and chairman of Timken's board.
Timken expects to complete the split within 12 months.

BP Wins Legal Round Over $9.6 Bil Spill Deal

BP's (BP) won an appeal to expedite an ongoing legal battle over a $9.6 billion settlement tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf.
On Friday, Circuit Judge E. Grady Jolly set oral arguments in the case to start the week of Nov. 4, a move seen as increasing pressure on Americans who filed a class-action suit contending BP should pay more to businesses and individuals harmed by the spill, the largest ever in U.S. waters.
BP contends plaintiffs exaggerated the financial impact and contests the settlement value. In June, the oil company took out ads in major newspapers claiming that "trial lawyers and some politicians" encouraged businesses to submit claims for inflated or nonexistent losses. The oil giant has been trying to stop settlement payments until an appeal can be heard.

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BP shares were trading up less than 1% on the stock market today following the judge's ruling.
Lawyers for those affected by the spill say BP is having "buyers remorse" after initially agreeing to the settlement.
The company even warned investors in March that costs from the oil spill could be "significantly higher" than it initially expected.
BP and the Justice Department are also at odds over the amount of oil that was spilled into the Gulf before BP capped the well 86 days after the explosion on April 20, 2010.
In a court filing Thursday, BP asked District Judge Carl Barbier to use their estimate of 2.45 million barrels, roughly 103 million gallons, when calculating any Clean Water Act fines. But the Justice Dept. countered Thursday that its experts think that around 4.2 million barrels, or 176 million gallons, spilled into the water.

Auto Dealers In The Fast Lane Amid Favorable Trends

How many of your neighbors are suddenly driving new cars?
Auto sales are rebounding as cautious Americans who held onto their cars through the economic downturn are now trading up to newer vehicles. Sales of new cars rose 17% in August, reaching an annualized rate of 16.09 million — not a record, but the fastest pace since December 2007.
AutoNation (AN), the dealership chain with the largest revenue, reported Thursday its new car sales soared a whopping 32% in August. Its sales of luxury-premium category vehicles swelled 37%.

Ryan Kolb, general manager of Hines Park Lincoln, stands in the showroom in Plymouth, Mich. Auto sales soared in August, with luxury vehicles and... View Enlarged Image

Auto dealerships of all stripes have upshifted financially as more consumers commit to buying new cars and a rising number of willing lenders are helping them do so.
The 10 auto dealership chains tracked in IBD's Retail-Wholesale-Automobile industry group have all seen sales and earnings tick higher in recent quarters. Most have also set new stock highs over the last month.
Analysts expect the financial gains to continue in coming years as the industry puts more distance between itself and the beating it took during the recession of 2008 and 2009.
"There are a number of things pushing growth in the industry right now — pent-up demand from buyers, better access to financing, an onslaught of new products and technologies," said Larry Dixon, senior automotive analyst at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). "The whole industry has benefited."
In terms of stock price, collectively, the auto dealers' industry group is up 34% since the beginning of the year. It ranked No. 29 on Friday among IBD's 197 industries. In addition to AutoNation, CarMax (KMX), Penske Automotive Group (PAG) and Group 1 Automotive (GPI) are the group's largest players.
Aging Cars, Access To Credit
Before the industry's August sales report, most industry researchers forecast that sales of new vehicles will reach about 15.5 million units this year, up from 14.4 million in 2012. Even the most optimistic upwardly revisions are still well below the peak of 16.6 million units sold a decade ago. The trough occurred in 2009, when only 10.4 million vehicles were sold.
One of the key drivers of the recent growth is the nation's aging fleet of cars. The average age of cars on the road is about 11.5 years, according to industry estimates. That's well above the average of nine years established a few years ago.
"Consumers held on to their vehicles during the recession longer than would have otherwise, and now many of them are ready to get back into the market," Dixon said.