Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
NEWZ as on 22.06.2010
Today news 22-06-2010
1. INDIAN shares joined a global party in risky assets after China pledged to let its currency appreciate, which could boost international trade, but some viewed it as a gimmick to avoid exchange rate reform dis-cussions at the G20 meeting.Equity benchmarks across the globe, commodities and crude oil surged anticipating stronger demand from China , which may now have the double benefit of a stronger yuan and rising incomes after labour disputes.
2. JSW Steel, one of India ’s biggest steelmakers, has demanded a stake in the controversial Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) or a definite deal to supply iron ore as talks with Karnataka’s Reddy brothers for taking over their steel company reach a crucial stage.Top officials close to the negotiations told ET that the demand was made recently. JSW is looking to secure iron ore supplies for its new and existing steel projects in Karnataka and does not want to do a deal without assured supplies.
3. Bharti Airtel has appointed Ogilvy Africa BV as its marketing services partner for its African operations, the company said on Monday. The country’s largest telecom operator acquired African operator Zain Group’s mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa early this month.
4. KIA Motors, South Korea ’s second largest carmaker, is set to drive into the fast-growing Indian car market and build a manufacturing facility here, a person with direct knowledge of the development said.
5. SPECIALITY Restaurants, which owns popular fine dining restaurant chains Mainland China and Oh!Calcutta, is looking to sell 30% stake through a public issue to raise about Rs 200 crore, a person with direct knowledge of the development said.
6. TOYOTA Kirloskar Motor (TKM), in which Japan ’s Toyota Motor holds an 89% stake, is tweaking its marketing strategy to make deep inroads into heartland India .Toyota Kirloskar, which till date has focused primarily in metros and urban areas, plans to sell 40% of its cars in rural markets.In calendar year (CY) 2010, the company has set a sales target of 70,000 vehicles compared with 55,000 in CY09.
7. INDIAN Institutes of Management (IIMs) are in talks to get foreign accreditation to adhere to global benchmark, which is likely to help them in seeking tie-ups with foreign counterparts.All premier domestic institutes—IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow and ISB Hyderabad—are in various stages of getting an accreditation. IIM Ahmedabad was the first to get such recognition when it got approval from the European agency EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System)in 2008. IIM Bangalore got a similar accreditation from EQUIS last week.
8. Tata Steel won the environmental ministry approval to expand capacity at its Jamshedpur unit as it seeks to benefit from increased demand from carmakers. The company won a clearance to increase steel making capacity 43% to 9.7 million metric tonnes, according to a letter from the environment ministry posted on Tata Steel’s website.
9. Travel company Cox & Kings ( India ) plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore of equity and debt to fund expansion plans. “We have sought our board’s approval to raise Rs 1,000 crore equity and Rs 1,000 crore debt to fund our future expansion, which also includes merger and acquisition plans,“ Cox & Kings (India) CFO Anil Khandelwal said.
10. The GMR Group is willing to buy stakes held by minority partners in all the three airports it operates if there is any such offer, the group’s chief financial officer A Subba Rao said on Monday.
11. International rating agency Moody’s Investors Service on Monday said the risk profile of Reliance Industries has increased following its entry into telecom by acquiring Infotel Broadband Services, but has retained the stable outlook of the company.
12. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company has just settled a Rs 177-crore claim on account of a fire at Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) Jaipur storage facility last October.
13. BHARTI AIRTEL, the new owner of Zain’s Africa operations, will invest $100 million in Uganda over two years on technology upgrades and network expansion, a senior company official said.The investment will enable the company to double subscribers over the next two years from the current two million active users, Zain Uganda managing director Yesse Oenga said on Monday.
14. ESSAR group’s acquisition of AGC Networks from enterprise communications technology major Avaya has created a storm among back-office firms that are its customers in India . Essar group’s business process outsourcing (BPO) arm Aegis, which will now own 59% or higher in AGC, competes with other back-office firms in India for contracts.
15. Hindustan Global Solutions (HGSL) acquired UK-based customer support services firm Careline. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction. “Careline is a strategic fit as it opens up a new geography and provides access to new clients,” said Partha Sarkar, CEO of HGSL.
16. Acer plans to focus on the Gateway brand in the Indian market to compete in the premium segment dominated by HP and Sony Vaio. While Acer India, till late, was selling the Gateway range through Tata Group’s electronics retail chain Croma, it now plans to sell the product through its own pan-India distribution network and multibrand retail chains.
17. THE department of disinvestment has sought a review of the recent norms that make it mandatory for all listed firms to have at least 25% public float, arguing it could affect the divestment programme and impact the valuation of public sector firms.
18. Noting that some financial institutions were allegedly flouting its norms, the Reserve Bank on Monday directed banks to carry out the settlement of non-performing assets (NPAs) in a transparent manner. “Of late, certain serious concerns have been expressed in different quarters and by Debt Recovery Tribunals over the manner compromise settlements have been effected by banks,” RBI said in a notification.
19. India on Monday favoured tighter financial regulations, as opposed to an European Union proposal to tax banks to pay for future crisis, to support the fragile global economic recovery. “The important thing is that the global economy should fully recover... We support all efforts at raising the benchmark of financial regulations,” finance secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters here on the agenda of G-20 meeting beginning June 26.
20. Trade, investment, and an easier visa regime are expected to be the key focus as Indian and US policymakers and corporate leaders meet here on Tuesday to discuss how to enhance business ties. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee leads the high-powered team of policymakers including commerce minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the India-US CEOs Forum.
21. Banks raised nearly Rs 5,000 crore through the CD route on Monday which is almost double of the money raised through the same route on Friday.Major issuers included PNB, which raised over Rs 1,100 crore for less than three months at 6.30%, Central Bank of India raised around Rs 1,525 crore for three months at 6.30%, Corporation Bank raised about Rs 800 crore for three months at 6.25%. Among others, State Bank of Hyderabad raised Rs 310 crore, Canara Bank raised 425 crore, Uco Bank and Vijaya Bank raised Rs 400 crore each for one year.
22. CAPITAL market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will form a panel to examine conflict of interests in mutual funds (MFs) between different investor classes such as retail and wealthy, said a person familiar with the plan.
23. SBG Projects Investments, a part of Saudi Arabia-based Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), made an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake in Maytas Infra at a price of Rs 195.72 per share. SBG Projects has made an open offer to acquire 1,54,23,236 shares, representing 20% stake in the infrastructure company, at Rs 195.72 per share, Maytas Infra, initially promoted by the kin of disgraced Ramalinga Raju of Satyam, said in a public announcement.
24. Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Broadcast Network (RBS) today surged 5% in early trade on BSE after the company announced to form an equal joint venture with US media conglomerate CBS to own and operate TV channels. Shares of Reliance Broadcast Network (earlier known as Reliance Media World) climbed 4.9% to hit the upper circuit at Rs 79.85 a piece on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
25. IN THE past two months, Prakash Industries’ (PIL) stock price has declined gradually from its peak in tandem with its metal peers. Notwithstanding this drop, the company promises a strong growth ahead given the expansion plans and opportunities in domestic steel and power industry.A Rs 1,945-crore company, PIL belongs to the Surya Roshni Group. It is integrated steel and power producer and manufacturers sponge iron, heavy and medium structural wire rod, ferroalloys and power generation. It has been aggressively ramping up capacity to take advantage of growing demand for steel and power in India .
26. Silver prices rose further to touch a new record high on Monday on sustained demand from industrial users triggered by firm global cues. Silver ready (.999 fineness) firmed up by Rs 105 per kg to end at Rs 30,340 from weekend’s closing level of Rs 30,235.
1. INDIAN shares joined a global party in risky assets after China pledged to let its currency appreciate, which could boost international trade, but some viewed it as a gimmick to avoid exchange rate reform dis-cussions at the G20 meeting.Equity benchmarks across the globe, commodities and crude oil surged anticipating stronger demand from China , which may now have the double benefit of a stronger yuan and rising incomes after labour disputes.
2. JSW Steel, one of India ’s biggest steelmakers, has demanded a stake in the controversial Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) or a definite deal to supply iron ore as talks with Karnataka’s Reddy brothers for taking over their steel company reach a crucial stage.Top officials close to the negotiations told ET that the demand was made recently. JSW is looking to secure iron ore supplies for its new and existing steel projects in Karnataka and does not want to do a deal without assured supplies.
3. Bharti Airtel has appointed Ogilvy Africa BV as its marketing services partner for its African operations, the company said on Monday. The country’s largest telecom operator acquired African operator Zain Group’s mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa early this month.
4. KIA Motors, South Korea ’s second largest carmaker, is set to drive into the fast-growing Indian car market and build a manufacturing facility here, a person with direct knowledge of the development said.
5. SPECIALITY Restaurants, which owns popular fine dining restaurant chains Mainland China and Oh!Calcutta, is looking to sell 30% stake through a public issue to raise about Rs 200 crore, a person with direct knowledge of the development said.
6. TOYOTA Kirloskar Motor (TKM), in which Japan ’s Toyota Motor holds an 89% stake, is tweaking its marketing strategy to make deep inroads into heartland India .Toyota Kirloskar, which till date has focused primarily in metros and urban areas, plans to sell 40% of its cars in rural markets.In calendar year (CY) 2010, the company has set a sales target of 70,000 vehicles compared with 55,000 in CY09.
7. INDIAN Institutes of Management (IIMs) are in talks to get foreign accreditation to adhere to global benchmark, which is likely to help them in seeking tie-ups with foreign counterparts.All premier domestic institutes—IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow and ISB Hyderabad—are in various stages of getting an accreditation. IIM Ahmedabad was the first to get such recognition when it got approval from the European agency EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System)in 2008. IIM Bangalore got a similar accreditation from EQUIS last week.
8. Tata Steel won the environmental ministry approval to expand capacity at its Jamshedpur unit as it seeks to benefit from increased demand from carmakers. The company won a clearance to increase steel making capacity 43% to 9.7 million metric tonnes, according to a letter from the environment ministry posted on Tata Steel’s website.
9. Travel company Cox & Kings ( India ) plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore of equity and debt to fund expansion plans. “We have sought our board’s approval to raise Rs 1,000 crore equity and Rs 1,000 crore debt to fund our future expansion, which also includes merger and acquisition plans,“ Cox & Kings (India) CFO Anil Khandelwal said.
10. The GMR Group is willing to buy stakes held by minority partners in all the three airports it operates if there is any such offer, the group’s chief financial officer A Subba Rao said on Monday.
11. International rating agency Moody’s Investors Service on Monday said the risk profile of Reliance Industries has increased following its entry into telecom by acquiring Infotel Broadband Services, but has retained the stable outlook of the company.
12. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company has just settled a Rs 177-crore claim on account of a fire at Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) Jaipur storage facility last October.
13. BHARTI AIRTEL, the new owner of Zain’s Africa operations, will invest $100 million in Uganda over two years on technology upgrades and network expansion, a senior company official said.The investment will enable the company to double subscribers over the next two years from the current two million active users, Zain Uganda managing director Yesse Oenga said on Monday.
14. ESSAR group’s acquisition of AGC Networks from enterprise communications technology major Avaya has created a storm among back-office firms that are its customers in India . Essar group’s business process outsourcing (BPO) arm Aegis, which will now own 59% or higher in AGC, competes with other back-office firms in India for contracts.
15. Hindustan Global Solutions (HGSL) acquired UK-based customer support services firm Careline. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction. “Careline is a strategic fit as it opens up a new geography and provides access to new clients,” said Partha Sarkar, CEO of HGSL.
16. Acer plans to focus on the Gateway brand in the Indian market to compete in the premium segment dominated by HP and Sony Vaio. While Acer India, till late, was selling the Gateway range through Tata Group’s electronics retail chain Croma, it now plans to sell the product through its own pan-India distribution network and multibrand retail chains.
17. THE department of disinvestment has sought a review of the recent norms that make it mandatory for all listed firms to have at least 25% public float, arguing it could affect the divestment programme and impact the valuation of public sector firms.
18. Noting that some financial institutions were allegedly flouting its norms, the Reserve Bank on Monday directed banks to carry out the settlement of non-performing assets (NPAs) in a transparent manner. “Of late, certain serious concerns have been expressed in different quarters and by Debt Recovery Tribunals over the manner compromise settlements have been effected by banks,” RBI said in a notification.
19. India on Monday favoured tighter financial regulations, as opposed to an European Union proposal to tax banks to pay for future crisis, to support the fragile global economic recovery. “The important thing is that the global economy should fully recover... We support all efforts at raising the benchmark of financial regulations,” finance secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters here on the agenda of G-20 meeting beginning June 26.
20. Trade, investment, and an easier visa regime are expected to be the key focus as Indian and US policymakers and corporate leaders meet here on Tuesday to discuss how to enhance business ties. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee leads the high-powered team of policymakers including commerce minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the India-US CEOs Forum.
21. Banks raised nearly Rs 5,000 crore through the CD route on Monday which is almost double of the money raised through the same route on Friday.Major issuers included PNB, which raised over Rs 1,100 crore for less than three months at 6.30%, Central Bank of India raised around Rs 1,525 crore for three months at 6.30%, Corporation Bank raised about Rs 800 crore for three months at 6.25%. Among others, State Bank of Hyderabad raised Rs 310 crore, Canara Bank raised 425 crore, Uco Bank and Vijaya Bank raised Rs 400 crore each for one year.
22. CAPITAL market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will form a panel to examine conflict of interests in mutual funds (MFs) between different investor classes such as retail and wealthy, said a person familiar with the plan.
23. SBG Projects Investments, a part of Saudi Arabia-based Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), made an open offer to acquire an additional 20% stake in Maytas Infra at a price of Rs 195.72 per share. SBG Projects has made an open offer to acquire 1,54,23,236 shares, representing 20% stake in the infrastructure company, at Rs 195.72 per share, Maytas Infra, initially promoted by the kin of disgraced Ramalinga Raju of Satyam, said in a public announcement.
24. Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Broadcast Network (RBS) today surged 5% in early trade on BSE after the company announced to form an equal joint venture with US media conglomerate CBS to own and operate TV channels. Shares of Reliance Broadcast Network (earlier known as Reliance Media World) climbed 4.9% to hit the upper circuit at Rs 79.85 a piece on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
25. IN THE past two months, Prakash Industries’ (PIL) stock price has declined gradually from its peak in tandem with its metal peers. Notwithstanding this drop, the company promises a strong growth ahead given the expansion plans and opportunities in domestic steel and power industry.A Rs 1,945-crore company, PIL belongs to the Surya Roshni Group. It is integrated steel and power producer and manufacturers sponge iron, heavy and medium structural wire rod, ferroalloys and power generation. It has been aggressively ramping up capacity to take advantage of growing demand for steel and power in India .
26. Silver prices rose further to touch a new record high on Monday on sustained demand from industrial users triggered by firm global cues. Silver ready (.999 fineness) firmed up by Rs 105 per kg to end at Rs 30,340 from weekend’s closing level of Rs 30,235.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
NEWS as on 17.06.2010
Today news 17-06-2010
1. UNIT-linked insurance plans (Ulips), equity-oriented mutual fund schemes and a number of other popular savings and investment instruments will lose their tax immunity, and with it, their attractiveness when the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) comes into operation.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) plans to reduce the number of instruments that qualify for tax deductions to only about half a dozen, its chairman SSN Moorty said, as the government overhauls the direct tax regime to try and make it simpler, boost revenues and encourage long-term savings. The Rs 3-lakh tax deduction limit proposed in the draft DTC will also be lowered.
2. THE finance ministry is set to tighten the tax slabs for individual taxpayers, and could retain or marginally lower the existing corporate tax rate in the new Direct Taxes Code.
Revenue compulsions and giveaways on the minimum alternate tax (MAT) have forced the government to revisit the tax rates proposed in the code. These include MAT and securities transaction tax (STT) rates, besides corporate and income-tax rates.
3. Aiming to capture 10% of the Indian car market by 2016, German auto major Volkswagen will be increasing output at its Chakan plant within three months as part of its strategy.
4. Rupa & Co, the country's largest hosiery producer, is planning to launch the brand across countries in South-Asia and Africa . The company would be launched in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka , where it would offer licences to local partners for production and marketing, Rupa & Co chairman P R Agarwala said here on Wednesday.
5. THE country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki will launch CNGfuelled versions of half of its models this year as it looks at alternative fuel technology to build a more eco-friendly fleet for the Indian market.
6. SINGAPORE’S securities regulator has asked India ’s Fortis Healthcare to announce whether it plans to counter Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah’s bid for hospital chain Parkway Holdings by July 30 in shareholders’ interest.
7. Reliance Capital has agreed to buy an 18% stake in business news channel Bloomberg UTV, it said on Wednesday. “The investment will form a part of Reliance Capital’s exposure to the fast growing and high potential media sector,” it said without disclosing the deal size.
8. Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd on Wednesday said one of its subsidiaries has bagged a contract worth Rs 1,394 crore in Singapore . The project involves construction of a hotel, villas, marine life park and water theme park for Resorts World Sentosa, a subsidiary of diversified business conglomerate Genting Group.
9. ESSAR Oil today said that it has procured $115 million (nearly Rs 533 crore) of the proposed $300 million it had planned to raise through the issue of bonds to promoter company Essar Energy Holdings.
10. RELIANCE Industries, India’s biggest company by market value, plans to build at least one power plant in the country marking the oil company’s entry into commercial electricity generation, two company officials said.
11. SHRIRAM Group plans to take its general insurance overseas by setting up operations in countries such as Thailand , Indonesia and Vietnam . Shriram General Insurance is mulling a tie up with private equity or local partners for this purpose.
12. THE life insurance industry is expected to cross the Rs 3 lakh crore total premium income mark in 2010-11. During 2009-10, the life insurance sector’s new business premium increased 25% to Rs 1.09 lakh crore. Renewal premium, on the other hand, rose 12.63% to Rs 1.52 lakh core during the same period. Total premium income, at Rs 2, 61,025 crore, rose 18% during 2009-10, against Rs 2,21,791 crore in the previous year.
13. IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday said it has inked a multi-year outsourcing contract with Telenor Norway . The contract comprises IT application maintenance and development services and will involve modernization of Telenor Norway’s application portfolio across its fixed, mobile, data warehouse and accounting system domains, a release said here.
14. Apple Inc has sold more than 6,00,000 units of its newest iPhone after just a day of preorders, surpassing some analysts’ expectations and sending its shares up nearly 3% on Wednesday. The makers of the iPad and iPod said it and carrier partner AT&T had been forced to turn away “many” potential customers after the surprising volume of online orders triggered order and approval system malfunctions.
15. CIPLA, the Indian drugmaker that built a $1-billion business making generic HIV treatments, aims to sell copies of Roche Holding’s and Amgen’s best-selling biotechnology medicines with a partner in China.
Cipla chairman Yusuf Hamied plans to invest in companies in India and Hong Kong that make socalled monoclonal antibodies. The technology will enable Mumbai-based Cipla to gain access to products modelled on Roche’s Avastin and Herceptin cancer drugs and Amgen’s rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel, Mr Hamied said.
16. INVESTMENT in the Indian telecom sector will peak at $40 billion during the current fiscal as the country presses on to build a network of one billion mobile phones over the next two years, the Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council said on Wednesday.
17. ABOUT a dozen lossmaking state-run firms including Hindustan Photo Films and Scooters India may be delisted from stock exchanges on absence of revival prospects and investor interest to meet the new listing norms.
18. State-run power producer NTPC on Wednesday said it is sending a team to Australia for exploring the possibilities of coal mine acquisition there. “We had talked to the Australian government ... our team is going there in about 15 days ... New South Wales and Queensland these are the states we have zeroed in and they have good port connectivity, as well as black coal,” NTPC chairman and managing director RS Sharma said.
19. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) have signed contracts with Reliance Industries to buy natural gas to replace costlier liquid fuel at their refineries. IOC has signed a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for buying 0.8 million cubic meters per day of gas from RIL’s eastern offshore KG-D6 fields, while HPCL has inked a pact for 0.2 mmcmd, officials at the state-owned firms said.
20. With production outlook improving and prices stabilising, the government has allowed export of 10,000 tonnes of refined sugar to the European Union (EU) despite restrictions. The relaxation has been given by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and the exports will be undertaken by trading firm Indian Sugar Exim Corporation during 2009-10 season ending September.
21. ONGC, SBI and RIL led the league table of the country’s top 100 tax payers for the fiscal first quarter, shelling out Rs 12,662 crore in advance taxes for the period, a nearly 19% jump over year-earlier levels.
22. Indian Bank on Wednesday said it plans to implement the financial inclusion programme in 5,563 villages in 19 states. Under the plan, the bank would press into service mobile van banking, which would have ATMs and credit disbursement facilities.
23. STATE Bank of India will launch its wealth management initiatives during the current financial year. This was indicated by the bank’s chairman OP Bhatt while speaking at the bank’s 55th annual general meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Mr Bhatt said the bank has already launched its financial planning and advisory services which guide customers on meeting their financial goals through a suite of products, including mutual funds, fixed deposits and insurance. “We plan to introduce wealth management services in a phased manner in 2010-11 to help high net individual clients preserve and grow their wealth,” he said.
24. Chennai-based Orient Green Power plans to mobilise Rs 900 crore through an initial public offer next month to part-finance its Rs 4,400-crore capex plan. It now plans to increase its renewable power generation capacity from the present 193 mw to 1,000 mw by 2013.
25. MEDIA and Entertainment Company Balaji Telefilms has so far failed to offer returns to investors over a one-year horizon. However, media reports that suggest Reliance Big Entertainment has evinced interest in buying a significant stake in the company may offer some solace for investors.
26. Pharma firm Parabolic Drugs’ Rs 200-crore IPO got subscribed 76 per cent by the end of the second day on Wednesday, with most of the bids coming in from QIBs. The issue got total bids for 2.02 crore shares against 2.66 crore on offer, thus getting subscribed 76%, according to NSE data.
27. Oil dropped from close to a one-month high in New York as a stronger dollar reduced the appeal of commodities to investors. Oil retreated as the US currency rebounded against the euro, limiting crude’s appeal as an inflation hedge. The euro fell to $1.2305 at 8:48 a.m. in London from $1.2332 on Tuesday.
28. Metals rise on Wednesday as economic reports added to optimism a US recovery will support global growth. Copper advanced for a seventh day, the longest streak since July 2009. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 1.4% to $6,770 a metric tonne.
1. UNIT-linked insurance plans (Ulips), equity-oriented mutual fund schemes and a number of other popular savings and investment instruments will lose their tax immunity, and with it, their attractiveness when the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) comes into operation.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) plans to reduce the number of instruments that qualify for tax deductions to only about half a dozen, its chairman SSN Moorty said, as the government overhauls the direct tax regime to try and make it simpler, boost revenues and encourage long-term savings. The Rs 3-lakh tax deduction limit proposed in the draft DTC will also be lowered.
2. THE finance ministry is set to tighten the tax slabs for individual taxpayers, and could retain or marginally lower the existing corporate tax rate in the new Direct Taxes Code.
Revenue compulsions and giveaways on the minimum alternate tax (MAT) have forced the government to revisit the tax rates proposed in the code. These include MAT and securities transaction tax (STT) rates, besides corporate and income-tax rates.
3. Aiming to capture 10% of the Indian car market by 2016, German auto major Volkswagen will be increasing output at its Chakan plant within three months as part of its strategy.
4. Rupa & Co, the country's largest hosiery producer, is planning to launch the brand across countries in South-Asia and Africa . The company would be launched in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka , where it would offer licences to local partners for production and marketing, Rupa & Co chairman P R Agarwala said here on Wednesday.
5. THE country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki will launch CNGfuelled versions of half of its models this year as it looks at alternative fuel technology to build a more eco-friendly fleet for the Indian market.
6. SINGAPORE’S securities regulator has asked India ’s Fortis Healthcare to announce whether it plans to counter Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah’s bid for hospital chain Parkway Holdings by July 30 in shareholders’ interest.
7. Reliance Capital has agreed to buy an 18% stake in business news channel Bloomberg UTV, it said on Wednesday. “The investment will form a part of Reliance Capital’s exposure to the fast growing and high potential media sector,” it said without disclosing the deal size.
8. Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd on Wednesday said one of its subsidiaries has bagged a contract worth Rs 1,394 crore in Singapore . The project involves construction of a hotel, villas, marine life park and water theme park for Resorts World Sentosa, a subsidiary of diversified business conglomerate Genting Group.
9. ESSAR Oil today said that it has procured $115 million (nearly Rs 533 crore) of the proposed $300 million it had planned to raise through the issue of bonds to promoter company Essar Energy Holdings.
10. RELIANCE Industries, India’s biggest company by market value, plans to build at least one power plant in the country marking the oil company’s entry into commercial electricity generation, two company officials said.
11. SHRIRAM Group plans to take its general insurance overseas by setting up operations in countries such as Thailand , Indonesia and Vietnam . Shriram General Insurance is mulling a tie up with private equity or local partners for this purpose.
12. THE life insurance industry is expected to cross the Rs 3 lakh crore total premium income mark in 2010-11. During 2009-10, the life insurance sector’s new business premium increased 25% to Rs 1.09 lakh crore. Renewal premium, on the other hand, rose 12.63% to Rs 1.52 lakh core during the same period. Total premium income, at Rs 2, 61,025 crore, rose 18% during 2009-10, against Rs 2,21,791 crore in the previous year.
13. IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday said it has inked a multi-year outsourcing contract with Telenor Norway . The contract comprises IT application maintenance and development services and will involve modernization of Telenor Norway’s application portfolio across its fixed, mobile, data warehouse and accounting system domains, a release said here.
14. Apple Inc has sold more than 6,00,000 units of its newest iPhone after just a day of preorders, surpassing some analysts’ expectations and sending its shares up nearly 3% on Wednesday. The makers of the iPad and iPod said it and carrier partner AT&T had been forced to turn away “many” potential customers after the surprising volume of online orders triggered order and approval system malfunctions.
15. CIPLA, the Indian drugmaker that built a $1-billion business making generic HIV treatments, aims to sell copies of Roche Holding’s and Amgen’s best-selling biotechnology medicines with a partner in China.
Cipla chairman Yusuf Hamied plans to invest in companies in India and Hong Kong that make socalled monoclonal antibodies. The technology will enable Mumbai-based Cipla to gain access to products modelled on Roche’s Avastin and Herceptin cancer drugs and Amgen’s rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel, Mr Hamied said.
16. INVESTMENT in the Indian telecom sector will peak at $40 billion during the current fiscal as the country presses on to build a network of one billion mobile phones over the next two years, the Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council said on Wednesday.
17. ABOUT a dozen lossmaking state-run firms including Hindustan Photo Films and Scooters India may be delisted from stock exchanges on absence of revival prospects and investor interest to meet the new listing norms.
18. State-run power producer NTPC on Wednesday said it is sending a team to Australia for exploring the possibilities of coal mine acquisition there. “We had talked to the Australian government ... our team is going there in about 15 days ... New South Wales and Queensland these are the states we have zeroed in and they have good port connectivity, as well as black coal,” NTPC chairman and managing director RS Sharma said.
19. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) have signed contracts with Reliance Industries to buy natural gas to replace costlier liquid fuel at their refineries. IOC has signed a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for buying 0.8 million cubic meters per day of gas from RIL’s eastern offshore KG-D6 fields, while HPCL has inked a pact for 0.2 mmcmd, officials at the state-owned firms said.
20. With production outlook improving and prices stabilising, the government has allowed export of 10,000 tonnes of refined sugar to the European Union (EU) despite restrictions. The relaxation has been given by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and the exports will be undertaken by trading firm Indian Sugar Exim Corporation during 2009-10 season ending September.
21. ONGC, SBI and RIL led the league table of the country’s top 100 tax payers for the fiscal first quarter, shelling out Rs 12,662 crore in advance taxes for the period, a nearly 19% jump over year-earlier levels.
22. Indian Bank on Wednesday said it plans to implement the financial inclusion programme in 5,563 villages in 19 states. Under the plan, the bank would press into service mobile van banking, which would have ATMs and credit disbursement facilities.
23. STATE Bank of India will launch its wealth management initiatives during the current financial year. This was indicated by the bank’s chairman OP Bhatt while speaking at the bank’s 55th annual general meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Mr Bhatt said the bank has already launched its financial planning and advisory services which guide customers on meeting their financial goals through a suite of products, including mutual funds, fixed deposits and insurance. “We plan to introduce wealth management services in a phased manner in 2010-11 to help high net individual clients preserve and grow their wealth,” he said.
24. Chennai-based Orient Green Power plans to mobilise Rs 900 crore through an initial public offer next month to part-finance its Rs 4,400-crore capex plan. It now plans to increase its renewable power generation capacity from the present 193 mw to 1,000 mw by 2013.
25. MEDIA and Entertainment Company Balaji Telefilms has so far failed to offer returns to investors over a one-year horizon. However, media reports that suggest Reliance Big Entertainment has evinced interest in buying a significant stake in the company may offer some solace for investors.
26. Pharma firm Parabolic Drugs’ Rs 200-crore IPO got subscribed 76 per cent by the end of the second day on Wednesday, with most of the bids coming in from QIBs. The issue got total bids for 2.02 crore shares against 2.66 crore on offer, thus getting subscribed 76%, according to NSE data.
27. Oil dropped from close to a one-month high in New York as a stronger dollar reduced the appeal of commodities to investors. Oil retreated as the US currency rebounded against the euro, limiting crude’s appeal as an inflation hedge. The euro fell to $1.2305 at 8:48 a.m. in London from $1.2332 on Tuesday.
28. Metals rise on Wednesday as economic reports added to optimism a US recovery will support global growth. Copper advanced for a seventh day, the longest streak since July 2009. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 1.4% to $6,770 a metric tonne.
Monday, June 14, 2010
NEWS as on 15.06.2010
Today news 15-06-2010
1. ACONSORTIUM of PE firm Blackstone and US-based tower company Crown Castle International, Manoj Tirodkar owned GTL, and the world’s largest independent tower company, American Towers, are in talks with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) for acquiring its tower unit through a demerger, said a person with direct knowledge of the development.
2. WHOLESALE inflation soared to double digits in May, beating all forecasts and mounting pressure on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise key rates ahead of next month’s monetary policy review.
3. The move by Reliance Industries (RIL) to acquire Infotel Broadband will help it tap India ’s mobile broadband market but it entails “technological, operational and commercial risks, given the fairly nascent stage of commercial roll-out globally”, global rating agency Moody’s said on Monday. Last week, RIL acquired 95% stake in Infotel for Rs 4,800 crore (around one billion dollar), soon after Infotel bagged a pan-India licence for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA).
4. Anil Ambani group company Reliance MediaWorks on Monday said it has purchased another 0.06% stake in Fame India along with two other group firms, hiking their combined stake in the multiplex chain to 15.34%. Three entities of ADAG—Reliance MediaWorks, Reliance Capital and Reliance Capital Partners—acquired 19,792 shares of Fame India through open market transactions.
5. Strides Arcolab, a Bangalore based pharmaceutical company announced on Monday that it had received the nod from the US Food and Drug Administration for the sumatriptan succinate injection, used to treat patients suffering from migraine attacks.
6. INDIA’S LARGEST IT player in infrastructure management services HCL Technologies has outbid global majors such as IBM, CSC and HP to win a $79-million deal to manage the IT infrastructure of Singapore Exchange.
7. SUN TV Network promoter Kalanithi Maran has offered to buy 20% stake in Spice Jet from the public at Rs 57.76 each. If successful, it will give him majority stake, allowing him to go ahead with plans of rebranding the no frills airline.
This follows a deal where Mr Maran in his individual capacity agreed to acquire 37.7% stake in Delhi-based budget airline from the promoter of the firm besides financial investor Wilbur Ross for around Rs 739 crore. He will have to shell out Rs 479 crore to buy the additional 20% stake.
8. THE country’s drug regulator has banned import of raw material from 10 Chinese drug companies for supplying products without having the mandatory drug manufacturing standards, people familiar with the matter said.
9. MAHINDRA & Mahindra , India ’s largest sport-utility automaker, will begin carrying out due diligence on Ssangyong Motor within two days, as the company aims to expand overseas. A bid will depend on the inspection’s findings into Ssangyong, Mahindra & Mahindra president Pawan Goenka said.
10. JAPANESE IT firm NTT Data Corporation, which was reported to be in negotiations for a controlling stake in Patni Computer Systems, sprang a surprise by announcing it was acquiring the US-based Intelli group, an enterprise software implementation firm with a sizable Indian footprint. The acquisition will be an all-cash deal of $199 million. “This could be the beginning as NTT gets a lot more aggressive in India ,” said an industry expert, requesting anonymity.
11. HARIT Nagpal of Vodafone Group UK is taking over as managing director of direct-to-home (DTH) player Tata Sky, replacing Vikram Kaushik , MD & CEO, who is due to retire in December. Mr Nagpal, an FMCG veteran with over two decades in the industry, was based at the Vodafone Plc headquarters in London as its group marketing director for the past nine years.
12. TATA Tea is stepping up its presence in Pakistan and Bangladesh . It aims to capture at least 10% of the packaged tea market in both countries over the next two years. “We are in the process of enhancing our distribution networks in Pakistan and Bangladesh and will increase points of sales in these countries,” Tata Tea executive director Sangeeta Talwar said.
13. IT SERVICES provider Mahindra Satyam, which is undergoing a restatement of accounts, has sought additional time from the Company Law Board to file the required financial results by September-end this year in India. The company, hit by the Rs 7,000-crore fraud last year, was to submit the financial statements for 2008 and 2009 quarterly reports by June 30 this year.
14. The economy will clock a near-9% growth in the first quarter of 2010-11, finance ministry’s chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu said on Monday. Contrary to popular belief, he said that a partial decontrol of fuel prices would lower inflation and improve the country’s fiscal scenario in the long run. “Fuel prices ought to be decontrolled, in particular petroleum (sector).
15. The oil ministry has approved the sale of 10% government holding in consultancy firm Engineers India (EIL), and a public offering is expected in the second half of July. “The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has granted its approval for the offer, involving disinvestment of 10% paid up equity share capital of the company out of its holding in the company,” EIL said.
16. FARMERS may soon start receiving collateral-free bank loans up to Rs 1 lakh. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it will consider raising the collateral-free lending limit from Rs 50,000, as proposed by the eastern state governments at a meeting with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the RBI and country’s top public sector bankers.
17. THE country’s largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), plans to enter the reverse mortgage space. LIC is in initial discussion with the housing finance regulator, National Housing Bank (NHB), for introducing this scheme to its clients, a senior official in the company said.
18. THE government will carry out regular reviews of five key export sectors to measure the impact of global developments, such as the recent debt crisis in Greece , on their performance. The commodities division of the commerce ministry will track gems & jewellery, textiles, pharmaceuticals, engineering and agriculture products to make timely policy interventions if anything goes wrong for these sectors, which account for more than half of India ’s export earnings.
19. IFFCO plans to scale up production at its Paradip plant by 30% and its top officials are confident of bettering the Rs 150 crore profit figure achieved by the unit last year.
20. FITCH Ratings has raised the outlook on India ’s long-term local currency to stable from negative on expectations that India ’s debt will come down, therefore reducing pressure on India ’s local currency ratings. It has also revised India ’s growth forecast up to 8.5% from 7% on signs of strong growth momentum.
21. PHARMACEUTICAL shares have been in the thick of action over the past couple of months as investors sought refuge in defensive or low beta stocks in a volatile market. Shares of pharmaceutical and fast moving consumer goods are viewed as defensive bets as they are less reactive to sharp swings in the overall market.
22. UCO Bank plans to come out with a FPO in July to raise around Rs 500 crore. “We are planning to raise Rs 500 crore through an FPO in July,” UCO Bank chairman and managing director, SK Goel said on the sidelines of a bankers’ meeting. The money raised through the public offer will help the bank increase its business.
23. GODAWARI Power & Ispat (GPIL) is one of the few small-cap steel companies that have run ahead of the Sensex despite the recent correction in metal stocks. In the past one year, its stock price has appreciated by nearly 60% against a 15% rise in the Sensex during the period.
24. Oil prices rose above $75 a barrel on Monday as rallying stock markets and a stronger euro bolstered investor confidence. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up $1.66 to $75.44 a barrel at around midday in London (around 11:00 GMT) in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
25. Wheat rose for a third day in Chicago on a forecast that excessive rain will reduce planting in Canada , the world’s second-biggest exporter, and on a weaker dollar. Wheat for September delivery gained 1.4% to $4.6325 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 1:15 pm London time.
1. ACONSORTIUM of PE firm Blackstone and US-based tower company Crown Castle International, Manoj Tirodkar owned GTL, and the world’s largest independent tower company, American Towers, are in talks with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCOM) for acquiring its tower unit through a demerger, said a person with direct knowledge of the development.
2. WHOLESALE inflation soared to double digits in May, beating all forecasts and mounting pressure on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to raise key rates ahead of next month’s monetary policy review.
3. The move by Reliance Industries (RIL) to acquire Infotel Broadband will help it tap India ’s mobile broadband market but it entails “technological, operational and commercial risks, given the fairly nascent stage of commercial roll-out globally”, global rating agency Moody’s said on Monday. Last week, RIL acquired 95% stake in Infotel for Rs 4,800 crore (around one billion dollar), soon after Infotel bagged a pan-India licence for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA).
4. Anil Ambani group company Reliance MediaWorks on Monday said it has purchased another 0.06% stake in Fame India along with two other group firms, hiking their combined stake in the multiplex chain to 15.34%. Three entities of ADAG—Reliance MediaWorks, Reliance Capital and Reliance Capital Partners—acquired 19,792 shares of Fame India through open market transactions.
5. Strides Arcolab, a Bangalore based pharmaceutical company announced on Monday that it had received the nod from the US Food and Drug Administration for the sumatriptan succinate injection, used to treat patients suffering from migraine attacks.
6. INDIA’S LARGEST IT player in infrastructure management services HCL Technologies has outbid global majors such as IBM, CSC and HP to win a $79-million deal to manage the IT infrastructure of Singapore Exchange.
7. SUN TV Network promoter Kalanithi Maran has offered to buy 20% stake in Spice Jet from the public at Rs 57.76 each. If successful, it will give him majority stake, allowing him to go ahead with plans of rebranding the no frills airline.
This follows a deal where Mr Maran in his individual capacity agreed to acquire 37.7% stake in Delhi-based budget airline from the promoter of the firm besides financial investor Wilbur Ross for around Rs 739 crore. He will have to shell out Rs 479 crore to buy the additional 20% stake.
8. THE country’s drug regulator has banned import of raw material from 10 Chinese drug companies for supplying products without having the mandatory drug manufacturing standards, people familiar with the matter said.
9. MAHINDRA & Mahindra , India ’s largest sport-utility automaker, will begin carrying out due diligence on Ssangyong Motor within two days, as the company aims to expand overseas. A bid will depend on the inspection’s findings into Ssangyong, Mahindra & Mahindra president Pawan Goenka said.
10. JAPANESE IT firm NTT Data Corporation, which was reported to be in negotiations for a controlling stake in Patni Computer Systems, sprang a surprise by announcing it was acquiring the US-based Intelli group, an enterprise software implementation firm with a sizable Indian footprint. The acquisition will be an all-cash deal of $199 million. “This could be the beginning as NTT gets a lot more aggressive in India ,” said an industry expert, requesting anonymity.
11. HARIT Nagpal of Vodafone Group UK is taking over as managing director of direct-to-home (DTH) player Tata Sky, replacing Vikram Kaushik , MD & CEO, who is due to retire in December. Mr Nagpal, an FMCG veteran with over two decades in the industry, was based at the Vodafone Plc headquarters in London as its group marketing director for the past nine years.
12. TATA Tea is stepping up its presence in Pakistan and Bangladesh . It aims to capture at least 10% of the packaged tea market in both countries over the next two years. “We are in the process of enhancing our distribution networks in Pakistan and Bangladesh and will increase points of sales in these countries,” Tata Tea executive director Sangeeta Talwar said.
13. IT SERVICES provider Mahindra Satyam, which is undergoing a restatement of accounts, has sought additional time from the Company Law Board to file the required financial results by September-end this year in India. The company, hit by the Rs 7,000-crore fraud last year, was to submit the financial statements for 2008 and 2009 quarterly reports by June 30 this year.
14. The economy will clock a near-9% growth in the first quarter of 2010-11, finance ministry’s chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu said on Monday. Contrary to popular belief, he said that a partial decontrol of fuel prices would lower inflation and improve the country’s fiscal scenario in the long run. “Fuel prices ought to be decontrolled, in particular petroleum (sector).
15. The oil ministry has approved the sale of 10% government holding in consultancy firm Engineers India (EIL), and a public offering is expected in the second half of July. “The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has granted its approval for the offer, involving disinvestment of 10% paid up equity share capital of the company out of its holding in the company,” EIL said.
16. FARMERS may soon start receiving collateral-free bank loans up to Rs 1 lakh. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it will consider raising the collateral-free lending limit from Rs 50,000, as proposed by the eastern state governments at a meeting with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the RBI and country’s top public sector bankers.
17. THE country’s largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), plans to enter the reverse mortgage space. LIC is in initial discussion with the housing finance regulator, National Housing Bank (NHB), for introducing this scheme to its clients, a senior official in the company said.
18. THE government will carry out regular reviews of five key export sectors to measure the impact of global developments, such as the recent debt crisis in Greece , on their performance. The commodities division of the commerce ministry will track gems & jewellery, textiles, pharmaceuticals, engineering and agriculture products to make timely policy interventions if anything goes wrong for these sectors, which account for more than half of India ’s export earnings.
19. IFFCO plans to scale up production at its Paradip plant by 30% and its top officials are confident of bettering the Rs 150 crore profit figure achieved by the unit last year.
20. FITCH Ratings has raised the outlook on India ’s long-term local currency to stable from negative on expectations that India ’s debt will come down, therefore reducing pressure on India ’s local currency ratings. It has also revised India ’s growth forecast up to 8.5% from 7% on signs of strong growth momentum.
21. PHARMACEUTICAL shares have been in the thick of action over the past couple of months as investors sought refuge in defensive or low beta stocks in a volatile market. Shares of pharmaceutical and fast moving consumer goods are viewed as defensive bets as they are less reactive to sharp swings in the overall market.
22. UCO Bank plans to come out with a FPO in July to raise around Rs 500 crore. “We are planning to raise Rs 500 crore through an FPO in July,” UCO Bank chairman and managing director, SK Goel said on the sidelines of a bankers’ meeting. The money raised through the public offer will help the bank increase its business.
23. GODAWARI Power & Ispat (GPIL) is one of the few small-cap steel companies that have run ahead of the Sensex despite the recent correction in metal stocks. In the past one year, its stock price has appreciated by nearly 60% against a 15% rise in the Sensex during the period.
24. Oil prices rose above $75 a barrel on Monday as rallying stock markets and a stronger euro bolstered investor confidence. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up $1.66 to $75.44 a barrel at around midday in London (around 11:00 GMT) in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
25. Wheat rose for a third day in Chicago on a forecast that excessive rain will reduce planting in Canada , the world’s second-biggest exporter, and on a weaker dollar. Wheat for September delivery gained 1.4% to $4.6325 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 1:15 pm London time.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Economy Data (Inflation for May)
May Inflation is at 10.16% V/S 9.59% in April
WPI Primary Goods Article index 3.5% (MoM)
WPI Mfg. product 1.2% (MoM)
WPI Mfg. production inflation 6.41% (MoM)
WPI primary Goods Article Inflation 16.6% (MoM)
WPI fuel Inflation 13.05% (MoM)
WPI fuel price index 1.2% (MoM)
WPI Primary Goods Article index 3.5% (MoM)
WPI Mfg. product 1.2% (MoM)
WPI Mfg. production inflation 6.41% (MoM)
WPI primary Goods Article Inflation 16.6% (MoM)
WPI fuel Inflation 13.05% (MoM)
WPI fuel price index 1.2% (MoM)
NEWS as on 14.06.2010
Today news 14-06-2010
1. THE management of Reliance Industries (RIL) has told its board that it has identified power, telecommunications, financial services and pharmaceuticals for investments in the near future. The board, which met early last week, discussed strategies to enter these high-growth sectors, something which has become possible after the cancellation of a non-compete pact between the Ambani brothers which had barred RIL from businesses such as power and telecom.
2. A COMMITTEE comprising senior government officials and financial regulators has proposed mandatory disclosure of loan defaults by listed companies, a move aimed at protecting shareholders’ interest and boosting investor’s confidence.
The proposal was discussed at the May 24 meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee on Financial Markets, said a senior finance ministry official. Market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will examine the practical aspects of the proposal.
3. Handset maker Spice Mobile on Sunday said it has earmarked Rs 120 crore for marketing and promotion this fiscal as it focuses on building its brand in the metros and tier I cities in India .
4. RELIANCE Venture Asset Management, the private equity arm of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, plans to invest between $25 and $30 million (approximately Rs 117-140 crore) in the next six months, after making an equal investment in the past three months, Harshal J Shah, chief executive, Reliance Ventures told ET.
5. TAX authorities can now raise an additional Rs 600 crore or more after a Bombay High Court order that held that third party administrators (TPA)—companies that liaise between insurers and hospitals to facilitate cashless treatment for policyholders—are required to deduct taxes while making payment to hospitals.
6. Jupiter Lifeline, which runs the Jupiter Hospital at Thane, will invest over Rs 200 crore in two-three years for setting up three ‘boutique’ hospitals in Pune, Surat and Indore .
7. ALMOST nine months after Infosys Technologies established its subsidiary in the US for targeting over a $100-billion government outsourcing market, Eric Paternoster—the current head of insurance and healthcare business at the company, has taken charge as the chief executive of Infosys Public Services. Paternoster will report to Ashok Vemuri, who heads Infosys’ US business, and also work with the company’s independent director Jeffrey Sean Lehman. Infosys Public Services board is constituted of SD Shibulal, Mohandas Pai, Vemuri, Lehman and Paternoster himself.
8. FIFTEEN companies, including British Telecom, have been shortlisted by the government to select a telecom vendor which will certify equipments imported by various mobile companies into the country, especially from China . Official sources said the Department of Telecom has been asked to pick up the international security audit firm which will certify the imported equipments.
9. To woo the pulses farmers to sell their produce to the procurement agencies, the government has announced a Rs 5-a kg incentive to the growers, on top of the higher support price that it had announced last week. The incentive of Rs 500 per quintal would be given to the farmers growing tur, urad and moong dals, sold during the two-month harvest period.
10. Breaking away from the practice of meeting PSU bank chiefs in Delhi , finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will hold deliberations with them here on Monday on the prevailing tight liquidity condition, financial inclusion and farm credit.
11. Come next year, Delhi’s tax payers will no longer have to travel long distances and wait endlessly in serpentine queues to file their income tax returns. The Income Tax (I-T) department is moving its centralised front offices — for tax filing, receipt of refunds and other services — to the air conditioned environs of the new Civic Centre building of MCD near Connaught Place , which is very close to the Metro station.
12. THE finance ministry has directed public sector banks to disclose their exposure in airline companies after it was alleged that IDBI bank overlooked prudential lending norms while sanctioning Rs 900 crore to Kingfisher group.
13. CHINA and Equador have come out in support of India in its fight against the European Union at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for ‘wrongful’ seizure of its generic or off-patent drugs in transit to third countries. Both have requested to be allowed to be participants in the consultations between India and the EU that is expected to begin soon as they too stand to be affected by the outcome.
14. Dhanalaxmi Bank plans to raise Rs 350 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) by the third week of July, a top bank official said. “We plan to raise Rs 350 crore through a QIP by the third week of the next month. We will be diluting around 23% of our equity,” Dhanalaxmi Bank managing director & CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi said here on Sunday.
15. Hit hard by the mass exodus of investors, amounting to an average of over one lakh a month, mutual fund houses are knocking on the doors of Sebi, which in turn is mulling over possible remedial actions, including an expanded distribution model for these investment products.
16. THE government may have to dilute the recently announced rule requiring companies to maintain a minimum public shareholding of 25%. That is because the new rule contradicts some of the existing regulatory guidelines like lock-in on promoters’ equity and restriction on fund-raising routes.
17. VOLATILITY ruled the stock market all of last week. Though the week saw a weak start, markets recovered later as robust industrial production numbers came in. Positive sentiment in international markets on the back of strong exports by China improved sentiment among domestic equity investors.
18. The current prices are hovering around Rs 900 to Rs 950 per quintal. The area under maize in Punjab has declined from 1.65 lakh hectare in 2000-01 to 1.32 lakh hectare in 2009-10 but the increase in yield from 27.93 quintal to 34.16 quintal per hectare during the period has been able to arrest the decline in production in the state from 4.61 lakh tonnes in 2000-01 to 4.51 lakh tonnes in 2009-10.
1. THE management of Reliance Industries (RIL) has told its board that it has identified power, telecommunications, financial services and pharmaceuticals for investments in the near future. The board, which met early last week, discussed strategies to enter these high-growth sectors, something which has become possible after the cancellation of a non-compete pact between the Ambani brothers which had barred RIL from businesses such as power and telecom.
2. A COMMITTEE comprising senior government officials and financial regulators has proposed mandatory disclosure of loan defaults by listed companies, a move aimed at protecting shareholders’ interest and boosting investor’s confidence.
The proposal was discussed at the May 24 meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee on Financial Markets, said a senior finance ministry official. Market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will examine the practical aspects of the proposal.
3. Handset maker Spice Mobile on Sunday said it has earmarked Rs 120 crore for marketing and promotion this fiscal as it focuses on building its brand in the metros and tier I cities in India .
4. RELIANCE Venture Asset Management, the private equity arm of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, plans to invest between $25 and $30 million (approximately Rs 117-140 crore) in the next six months, after making an equal investment in the past three months, Harshal J Shah, chief executive, Reliance Ventures told ET.
5. TAX authorities can now raise an additional Rs 600 crore or more after a Bombay High Court order that held that third party administrators (TPA)—companies that liaise between insurers and hospitals to facilitate cashless treatment for policyholders—are required to deduct taxes while making payment to hospitals.
6. Jupiter Lifeline, which runs the Jupiter Hospital at Thane, will invest over Rs 200 crore in two-three years for setting up three ‘boutique’ hospitals in Pune, Surat and Indore .
7. ALMOST nine months after Infosys Technologies established its subsidiary in the US for targeting over a $100-billion government outsourcing market, Eric Paternoster—the current head of insurance and healthcare business at the company, has taken charge as the chief executive of Infosys Public Services. Paternoster will report to Ashok Vemuri, who heads Infosys’ US business, and also work with the company’s independent director Jeffrey Sean Lehman. Infosys Public Services board is constituted of SD Shibulal, Mohandas Pai, Vemuri, Lehman and Paternoster himself.
8. FIFTEEN companies, including British Telecom, have been shortlisted by the government to select a telecom vendor which will certify equipments imported by various mobile companies into the country, especially from China . Official sources said the Department of Telecom has been asked to pick up the international security audit firm which will certify the imported equipments.
9. To woo the pulses farmers to sell their produce to the procurement agencies, the government has announced a Rs 5-a kg incentive to the growers, on top of the higher support price that it had announced last week. The incentive of Rs 500 per quintal would be given to the farmers growing tur, urad and moong dals, sold during the two-month harvest period.
10. Breaking away from the practice of meeting PSU bank chiefs in Delhi , finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will hold deliberations with them here on Monday on the prevailing tight liquidity condition, financial inclusion and farm credit.
11. Come next year, Delhi’s tax payers will no longer have to travel long distances and wait endlessly in serpentine queues to file their income tax returns. The Income Tax (I-T) department is moving its centralised front offices — for tax filing, receipt of refunds and other services — to the air conditioned environs of the new Civic Centre building of MCD near Connaught Place , which is very close to the Metro station.
12. THE finance ministry has directed public sector banks to disclose their exposure in airline companies after it was alleged that IDBI bank overlooked prudential lending norms while sanctioning Rs 900 crore to Kingfisher group.
13. CHINA and Equador have come out in support of India in its fight against the European Union at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for ‘wrongful’ seizure of its generic or off-patent drugs in transit to third countries. Both have requested to be allowed to be participants in the consultations between India and the EU that is expected to begin soon as they too stand to be affected by the outcome.
14. Dhanalaxmi Bank plans to raise Rs 350 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) by the third week of July, a top bank official said. “We plan to raise Rs 350 crore through a QIP by the third week of the next month. We will be diluting around 23% of our equity,” Dhanalaxmi Bank managing director & CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi said here on Sunday.
15. Hit hard by the mass exodus of investors, amounting to an average of over one lakh a month, mutual fund houses are knocking on the doors of Sebi, which in turn is mulling over possible remedial actions, including an expanded distribution model for these investment products.
16. THE government may have to dilute the recently announced rule requiring companies to maintain a minimum public shareholding of 25%. That is because the new rule contradicts some of the existing regulatory guidelines like lock-in on promoters’ equity and restriction on fund-raising routes.
17. VOLATILITY ruled the stock market all of last week. Though the week saw a weak start, markets recovered later as robust industrial production numbers came in. Positive sentiment in international markets on the back of strong exports by China improved sentiment among domestic equity investors.
18. The current prices are hovering around Rs 900 to Rs 950 per quintal. The area under maize in Punjab has declined from 1.65 lakh hectare in 2000-01 to 1.32 lakh hectare in 2009-10 but the increase in yield from 27.93 quintal to 34.16 quintal per hectare during the period has been able to arrest the decline in production in the state from 4.61 lakh tonnes in 2000-01 to 4.51 lakh tonnes in 2009-10.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
NEWS on 11.06.2010
Today news 11-06-2010
1. THE Centre has mooted a proposal to set up a company that will be owned by all telecom operators and will be responsible for managing, maintaining and building communication networks for them. All international equipment suppliers—Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel Lucent, among others—will execute contracts for all service providers through this company, if this proposal becomes reality, a department of telecom (DoT) official told ET.
2. VIDEOCON Telecommunications has started talks with Korea ’s Sun Kyung (SK) Telecom to sell a 26% stake, the latest attempt by it to bring in a foreign partner for its fledgling mobile phone services.
The founding Dhoot family wants Rs 3,600 crore from the sale, valuing Videocon Telecommunications at a little over Rs 13,000 crore ($3 billion), an executive with direct knowledge of the development told ET. But analysts are of the view that this may be asking for too much.
3. Leading European bonus card services provider Payback has acquired an 86% stake in India ’s largest loyalty card provider, i-Mint, in an all-cash deal, a top company official said. Payback is the card business arm of Germany-based Loyalty Partner, which provides loyalty management solutions through its Payback bonus scheme.
4. Animation production firm DQ Entertainment (DQE) on Thursday said it has signed an agreement with media firm Turner International India for broadcasting the first and the second sequel of animated feature 'Balkand'. The series would be aired on kids channels Cartoon Network and POGO, which are part of the Turner network, DQE said in a statement.
5. BACK office firm Intelenet Global Services has outbid bigger rivals such as Genpact and Wipro BPO to win the tender for providing outsourced call centre services for the prestigious Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project, according to several people familiar with the decision.
6. RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) is considering buying a stake in shale gas assets owned by Pioneer Natural Resources, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Pioneer, based in Irving , Texas , said last month that it expected to announce a JV for its Eagle Ford shale gas assets in the second quarter.
7. BACK-OFFICE services provider First source Solutions is in discussions with Barclaycard, part of Barclays Global and Retail Banking division, to take over its customer service centre in Teesside , UK . If the discussions are successful First source will take over the assets of the centre, including people and buildings, and deliver customer care for the UK bank’s credit card and payments business.
8. MAURITIUS-BASED fund Horse-Shoe Capital has filed a $100-million law suit in New York against American Tower over the sale of its Indian telecommunications tower assets. In May 2009, Horse-Shoe Capital sold 1,700 towers in India to American Towers in a deal valued at around $150 million. As part of the deal American Tower placed 16% of the payable amount in an escrow account because it wanted to know if tax was payable. The towers were operated by a company called Xcel Telecom.
9. CLOSE on the heels of Vodafone-Essar contesting a tax case in the Bombay High Court, tax sleuths have snared another multinational company for tax evasion. This time, French pharma firm Sanofi Aventis, that acquired India ’s Shantha Biotech last year, has been asked to pay Rs 650 crore as capital gains tax to the Indian government.
10. HINDUSTAN Construction Company (HCC) has sold 74% stake in a commercial building to IL&FS Milestone Fund for Rs 575 crore, putting the valuation of the property in Mumbai’s eastern suburb at Rs 775 crore.
11. ORCHID Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, a leading generic drug manufacturer, on Thursday said it will buy US-based marketing company Karalex Pharma for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is likely to generate sales of Rs 100 crore this fiscal, Orchid’s managing director K Raghavendra Rao told a press conference. Chennai-based Orchid, which posted sales of Rs 1,315 crore in 2008-09, is likely to earn Rs 200 crore in the next three years.
Post the announcement, the Orchid stock rose nearly 5% to close at Rs 151 in a strong Mumbai market.
12. Nokia has registered nearly 15% decline in revenue at Rs 14,100 crore in 2009-10 over Rs 16,567 crore in the previous fiscal, mainly due to low prices and fierce competition from smaller players.
13. The government has cleared 17 FDI proposals worth Rs 569.41 crore, the bulk of which will go to Hindustan Media Ventures and Turmeric Vision. While the proposal of Hindustan Media entails foreign investment of Rs 350 crore, another from Turmeric Vision entails FDI of Rs 122.10 crore. Finance ministry said the decisions are based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) taken at a meeting on May 31, 2010.
14. THE government on Thursday raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1000 per quintal in what may push up its food subsidy bill, pegged at Rs 5 5,578.18 crore in the current fiscal.
15. THE government may take a call next week on the proposed stake sale in Hindustan Copper after the union cabinet deferred a decision Thursday on disinvestment in the two state-run miners, HCL and Coal India .
16. FOOD price inflation rose for the second week running due to a rise in the prices of essential commodities such as fruit, pulses and milk, defying the government’s efforts to tame runaway food prices.
An index tracking wholesale food prices climbed to 16.74% for the week ended May 29 compared with 16.55% in the previous week. The unabated increase in the prices of essential items is expected to force the Reserve Bank of India to tighten the liquidity in the system in the first quarter review of monetary policy on July 27.
17. India’s largest insurer LIC and four leading banks, including the IDBI Bank, may invest around Rs 160 crore in Videocon Industries to fuel its expansion programme. The Rs 161-crore investment would be done by way of preferential allotment and will enable Videocon Industries to meet its working capital requirements and ongoing capital expenditure, Videocon Industries said in a notice issued to its shareholders, prior to its Extraordinary General Meeting later this month.
18. THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said banks should obtain senior management approval to continue business relationship with an existing customer who has subsequently become a politically exposed person and that banks should conduct customer due diligence (CDD) on politically exposed people (PEP).
19. RAJENDRA Thacker, who has filed a public interest litigation against Sebi’s ban on sale of unit-linked insurance plans (Ulip) by insurance companies, urged the Bombay High Court on Thursday that the PIL should not be transferred to the apex court.
20. The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved rules that will halt trading in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index stocks during periods of volatility, a response to the May 6 plunge that wiped out $862 billion in 20 minutes
21. Oil prices hovered above $74 a barrel on Thursday after falling US crude inventories suggested demand is improving. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 37 cents to $74.75 a barrel at late morning European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
1. THE Centre has mooted a proposal to set up a company that will be owned by all telecom operators and will be responsible for managing, maintaining and building communication networks for them. All international equipment suppliers—Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel Lucent, among others—will execute contracts for all service providers through this company, if this proposal becomes reality, a department of telecom (DoT) official told ET.
2. VIDEOCON Telecommunications has started talks with Korea ’s Sun Kyung (SK) Telecom to sell a 26% stake, the latest attempt by it to bring in a foreign partner for its fledgling mobile phone services.
The founding Dhoot family wants Rs 3,600 crore from the sale, valuing Videocon Telecommunications at a little over Rs 13,000 crore ($3 billion), an executive with direct knowledge of the development told ET. But analysts are of the view that this may be asking for too much.
3. Leading European bonus card services provider Payback has acquired an 86% stake in India ’s largest loyalty card provider, i-Mint, in an all-cash deal, a top company official said. Payback is the card business arm of Germany-based Loyalty Partner, which provides loyalty management solutions through its Payback bonus scheme.
4. Animation production firm DQ Entertainment (DQE) on Thursday said it has signed an agreement with media firm Turner International India for broadcasting the first and the second sequel of animated feature 'Balkand'. The series would be aired on kids channels Cartoon Network and POGO, which are part of the Turner network, DQE said in a statement.
5. BACK office firm Intelenet Global Services has outbid bigger rivals such as Genpact and Wipro BPO to win the tender for providing outsourced call centre services for the prestigious Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project, according to several people familiar with the decision.
6. RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) is considering buying a stake in shale gas assets owned by Pioneer Natural Resources, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Pioneer, based in Irving , Texas , said last month that it expected to announce a JV for its Eagle Ford shale gas assets in the second quarter.
7. BACK-OFFICE services provider First source Solutions is in discussions with Barclaycard, part of Barclays Global and Retail Banking division, to take over its customer service centre in Teesside , UK . If the discussions are successful First source will take over the assets of the centre, including people and buildings, and deliver customer care for the UK bank’s credit card and payments business.
8. MAURITIUS-BASED fund Horse-Shoe Capital has filed a $100-million law suit in New York against American Tower over the sale of its Indian telecommunications tower assets. In May 2009, Horse-Shoe Capital sold 1,700 towers in India to American Towers in a deal valued at around $150 million. As part of the deal American Tower placed 16% of the payable amount in an escrow account because it wanted to know if tax was payable. The towers were operated by a company called Xcel Telecom.
9. CLOSE on the heels of Vodafone-Essar contesting a tax case in the Bombay High Court, tax sleuths have snared another multinational company for tax evasion. This time, French pharma firm Sanofi Aventis, that acquired India ’s Shantha Biotech last year, has been asked to pay Rs 650 crore as capital gains tax to the Indian government.
10. HINDUSTAN Construction Company (HCC) has sold 74% stake in a commercial building to IL&FS Milestone Fund for Rs 575 crore, putting the valuation of the property in Mumbai’s eastern suburb at Rs 775 crore.
11. ORCHID Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, a leading generic drug manufacturer, on Thursday said it will buy US-based marketing company Karalex Pharma for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is likely to generate sales of Rs 100 crore this fiscal, Orchid’s managing director K Raghavendra Rao told a press conference. Chennai-based Orchid, which posted sales of Rs 1,315 crore in 2008-09, is likely to earn Rs 200 crore in the next three years.
Post the announcement, the Orchid stock rose nearly 5% to close at Rs 151 in a strong Mumbai market.
12. Nokia has registered nearly 15% decline in revenue at Rs 14,100 crore in 2009-10 over Rs 16,567 crore in the previous fiscal, mainly due to low prices and fierce competition from smaller players.
13. The government has cleared 17 FDI proposals worth Rs 569.41 crore, the bulk of which will go to Hindustan Media Ventures and Turmeric Vision. While the proposal of Hindustan Media entails foreign investment of Rs 350 crore, another from Turmeric Vision entails FDI of Rs 122.10 crore. Finance ministry said the decisions are based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) taken at a meeting on May 31, 2010.
14. THE government on Thursday raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1000 per quintal in what may push up its food subsidy bill, pegged at Rs 5 5,578.18 crore in the current fiscal.
15. THE government may take a call next week on the proposed stake sale in Hindustan Copper after the union cabinet deferred a decision Thursday on disinvestment in the two state-run miners, HCL and Coal India .
16. FOOD price inflation rose for the second week running due to a rise in the prices of essential commodities such as fruit, pulses and milk, defying the government’s efforts to tame runaway food prices.
An index tracking wholesale food prices climbed to 16.74% for the week ended May 29 compared with 16.55% in the previous week. The unabated increase in the prices of essential items is expected to force the Reserve Bank of India to tighten the liquidity in the system in the first quarter review of monetary policy on July 27.
17. India’s largest insurer LIC and four leading banks, including the IDBI Bank, may invest around Rs 160 crore in Videocon Industries to fuel its expansion programme. The Rs 161-crore investment would be done by way of preferential allotment and will enable Videocon Industries to meet its working capital requirements and ongoing capital expenditure, Videocon Industries said in a notice issued to its shareholders, prior to its Extraordinary General Meeting later this month.
18. THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said banks should obtain senior management approval to continue business relationship with an existing customer who has subsequently become a politically exposed person and that banks should conduct customer due diligence (CDD) on politically exposed people (PEP).
19. RAJENDRA Thacker, who has filed a public interest litigation against Sebi’s ban on sale of unit-linked insurance plans (Ulip) by insurance companies, urged the Bombay High Court on Thursday that the PIL should not be transferred to the apex court.
20. The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved rules that will halt trading in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index stocks during periods of volatility, a response to the May 6 plunge that wiped out $862 billion in 20 minutes
21. Oil prices hovered above $74 a barrel on Thursday after falling US crude inventories suggested demand is improving. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 37 cents to $74.75 a barrel at late morning European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
IIP Data for the month of April 2010
IIP Data came on Friday, June 11, 2010 at 11:30 a.m.
April Month IIP 176.6% V/S 13.5% (MoM)
April Manufacturing sector Growth 19.4% V/S 0.4% (YoY)
April Consumer Durable Growth 37% V/S 17.6% (YoY)
April Mining sector Growth 11.4% V/S 3.4% (YoY)
April Month IIP 176.6% V/S 13.5% (MoM)
April Manufacturing sector Growth 19.4% V/S 0.4% (YoY)
April Consumer Durable Growth 37% V/S 17.6% (YoY)
April Mining sector Growth 11.4% V/S 3.4% (YoY)
NEWS on 10.06.2010
Today news 10-06-2010
1. THE board of Reliance Industries (RIL) is believed to have approved plans to enter the Indian telecommunications sector when the opportunity arises, two persons familiar with the development told ET.
India ’s largest private sector company is expected to go for only the lucrative corporate bandwidth market, or the business of selling telecom and internet services to companies rather than individuals.
2. India’s largest natural healthcare company and maker of Vatika and ‘Real’ juice brand Dabur India (DIL) on Wednesday said in a release that the Bombay High Court has approved the merger of Fem Care Pharma with the company.
3. Canon India , the imaging products company, has completed a trial, using a systems integrator, for the central government’s ambitious Unique ID (UID) project, Aadhaar, in the data base collection part of the project.
4. Formica, the global laminate brand, is back in India . The laminate maker exited the country a year ago following the expiry of its decades old brand licence agreement with the Nusli Wadia group’s diversified conglomerate, the Bombay Burmah Trading Company Ltd (BBTCL).
5. BHARTI Airtel has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Brand Union, a consultancy owned by communications giant WPP, as it prepares for a image makeover in keeping with its newly-acquired status of a global company after the acquisition of Zain Telecom's African operations.
6. THE Indian tax authorities had advised British telecom major Vodafone to pay tax on its $11-billion acquisition of Hutchison Essar before it sealed the transaction, according to a recent income tax order. In a letter on March 23, 2007, the Income Tax (I-T) department had asked Vodafone to pay withholding tax, nearly one-and-a-half month before the telco made the payment to Hong Kong-based Hutchison International for buying two-third stake in Hutchison Essar.
7. ANDREW YULE & Co is making a foray into the designer speciality tea segment to spruce up its margins in the current fiscal. These teas, which can fetch Rs 7,000 - Rs 15,000 per kg in the international market will be sold at high-street departmental stores like Harrods.
8. THE Fortis Healthcare board on Wednesday gave the company the go-ahead to raise Rs 2,750 crore through fresh issue of securities, including shares, and also increased the company’s borrowing limit to Rs 6,000 crore.
9. ELECTRICITY Transmission Company Power-Grid Corporation may sell 20% to public that could raise Rs 8,000 crore, which may be equally split between the government and the company, said two people familiar with the plans.
10. STATE-OWNED lender State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to raise Rs 20,000 crore through a rights issue by the end of the fiscal year.
“It is still at the conversation stage (with the government)... If at all it comes up, may be it would be coming up towards the end of this fiscal year,” SBI chairman OP Bhatt said on the sidelines of an industry event.
11. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) will lease 50 acres in the SEZ near Nagpur airport to Air India (AI) to establish an aircraft maintenance base that will be set up by Boeing Company with an investment of around $100 million, an official said.
12. ISHTITMAR Capital World, the investment arm of Dubai World, has decided to convert bonds of no-frills carrier Spice Jet into equity shares to sell them in the open market, said a person close to the matter.
13. EYEING business from domestic and international shipping lines that ply through the busy sea route between Dubai and Colombo , Pipavav Shipyard (PSL) is all set to construct a new dry dock in Gujarat , which is expected to be the world’s biggest dock to undertake repair and maintenance of vessels operating in the region.
14. BHARTI Airtel will form separate tower companies in each of the African nations where it is present, marking the commencement of efforts to collaborate with other mobile phone firms to share costs and save money.
The 15 independent entities will be replicas of the Indus Towers arm owned by Bharti, along with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular in India , and African mobile companies will be invited to be part of the planned new ventures, Manoj Kohli, chief executive officer of Bharti’s international unit told ET.
15. Reliance Power’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Coal Resources, will make an upfront payment of Rs 500 crore ($106 million) for acquiring the mines. The balance payment will be paid in a staggered fashion depending on the mines meeting certain production targets. If all production linked targets are met, the total value of the deal will be $1.6 billion.
16. Back-office service provider Hinduja Global Solutions is looking to acquire companies in the US , UK and Latin America in the customer relationship management (CRM) space, a top official said. The firm, which has about $100 million in cash, is eyeing targets with an annual revenue of $25-$100 million, Partha Sarkar, CEO,Hinduja Global said on Wednesday.
17. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has got tentative approval from US regulators to launch the generic version of AstraZeneca’s Accolate, used to treat asthma, a company spokesman said. The company is currently working on manufacturing plants for zafirlukast, the generic name of Accolate, and will decided the time of its launch after getting the final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration, the spokesman said.
18. THE cost of pan-India broadband airwaves, which crossed Rs 12,000 crore after 14 days of bidding, has baffled analysts and stunned telecom companies participating in the auctions, many of whom concede that the price has become ‘highly irrational.’
19. FINANCE minister Pranab Mukherjee asked income-tax officials to look beyond the Rs 4,30,000-crore tax collection target for the current financial year, with the economy expected to expand 8.5% during the period.
20. The Cabinet on Thursday is likely to discuss the Planning Commission's mid-term appraisal of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12), in which it scaled down the growth projection for the period from 9% to 8.1%. Sources said that if the mid-term appraisal gets the Cabinet nod, the same would be placed before the National Development Council.
21. Road, transport and highway minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday said he is in talks with Singapore ’s investment firm Temasek Holdings for setting up a fund, which could have a corpus of $2 billion, for building roads and ports in India .
22. The government on Wednesday said that it would list 35 public sector companies on stock markets over the next five years. The move would generate about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in revenues for the Centre, minister of state for heavy industry and public sector enterprises Arun Yadav said.
23. THE government wills kick-start the bidding process for the 4,000 mw Orissa power projects this week, undeterred by the setback suffered by the Chhattisgarh ultra mega power project that faces uncertainty over allocation of captive coal blocks.
24. SBI on Wednesday hinted that base rate that will replace existing prime lending rate (PLR) will be between 7.5% and 8.5%.
25. BANKS continued to be net borrowers on Wednesday, raising Rs 66,170 crore from RBI at 5.25%. This is the third consecutive day when banks have borrowed over Rs 60,000 crore from the central bank by pledging government securities.
26. Pharma Company Parabolic Drugs (PDL) said on Wednesday it plans to raise up to Rs 200 crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that opens for subscription on June 14. The Chandigarh-based contract manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and API intermediates will use the proceeds for setting up new facilities, besides capacity expansion of existing ones and repayment of debt, a top company official said.
1. THE board of Reliance Industries (RIL) is believed to have approved plans to enter the Indian telecommunications sector when the opportunity arises, two persons familiar with the development told ET.
India ’s largest private sector company is expected to go for only the lucrative corporate bandwidth market, or the business of selling telecom and internet services to companies rather than individuals.
2. India’s largest natural healthcare company and maker of Vatika and ‘Real’ juice brand Dabur India (DIL) on Wednesday said in a release that the Bombay High Court has approved the merger of Fem Care Pharma with the company.
3. Canon India , the imaging products company, has completed a trial, using a systems integrator, for the central government’s ambitious Unique ID (UID) project, Aadhaar, in the data base collection part of the project.
4. Formica, the global laminate brand, is back in India . The laminate maker exited the country a year ago following the expiry of its decades old brand licence agreement with the Nusli Wadia group’s diversified conglomerate, the Bombay Burmah Trading Company Ltd (BBTCL).
5. BHARTI Airtel has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Brand Union, a consultancy owned by communications giant WPP, as it prepares for a image makeover in keeping with its newly-acquired status of a global company after the acquisition of Zain Telecom's African operations.
6. THE Indian tax authorities had advised British telecom major Vodafone to pay tax on its $11-billion acquisition of Hutchison Essar before it sealed the transaction, according to a recent income tax order. In a letter on March 23, 2007, the Income Tax (I-T) department had asked Vodafone to pay withholding tax, nearly one-and-a-half month before the telco made the payment to Hong Kong-based Hutchison International for buying two-third stake in Hutchison Essar.
7. ANDREW YULE & Co is making a foray into the designer speciality tea segment to spruce up its margins in the current fiscal. These teas, which can fetch Rs 7,000 - Rs 15,000 per kg in the international market will be sold at high-street departmental stores like Harrods.
8. THE Fortis Healthcare board on Wednesday gave the company the go-ahead to raise Rs 2,750 crore through fresh issue of securities, including shares, and also increased the company’s borrowing limit to Rs 6,000 crore.
9. ELECTRICITY Transmission Company Power-Grid Corporation may sell 20% to public that could raise Rs 8,000 crore, which may be equally split between the government and the company, said two people familiar with the plans.
10. STATE-OWNED lender State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to raise Rs 20,000 crore through a rights issue by the end of the fiscal year.
“It is still at the conversation stage (with the government)... If at all it comes up, may be it would be coming up towards the end of this fiscal year,” SBI chairman OP Bhatt said on the sidelines of an industry event.
11. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) will lease 50 acres in the SEZ near Nagpur airport to Air India (AI) to establish an aircraft maintenance base that will be set up by Boeing Company with an investment of around $100 million, an official said.
12. ISHTITMAR Capital World, the investment arm of Dubai World, has decided to convert bonds of no-frills carrier Spice Jet into equity shares to sell them in the open market, said a person close to the matter.
13. EYEING business from domestic and international shipping lines that ply through the busy sea route between Dubai and Colombo , Pipavav Shipyard (PSL) is all set to construct a new dry dock in Gujarat , which is expected to be the world’s biggest dock to undertake repair and maintenance of vessels operating in the region.
14. BHARTI Airtel will form separate tower companies in each of the African nations where it is present, marking the commencement of efforts to collaborate with other mobile phone firms to share costs and save money.
The 15 independent entities will be replicas of the Indus Towers arm owned by Bharti, along with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular in India , and African mobile companies will be invited to be part of the planned new ventures, Manoj Kohli, chief executive officer of Bharti’s international unit told ET.
15. Reliance Power’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Coal Resources, will make an upfront payment of Rs 500 crore ($106 million) for acquiring the mines. The balance payment will be paid in a staggered fashion depending on the mines meeting certain production targets. If all production linked targets are met, the total value of the deal will be $1.6 billion.
16. Back-office service provider Hinduja Global Solutions is looking to acquire companies in the US , UK and Latin America in the customer relationship management (CRM) space, a top official said. The firm, which has about $100 million in cash, is eyeing targets with an annual revenue of $25-$100 million, Partha Sarkar, CEO,Hinduja Global said on Wednesday.
17. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has got tentative approval from US regulators to launch the generic version of AstraZeneca’s Accolate, used to treat asthma, a company spokesman said. The company is currently working on manufacturing plants for zafirlukast, the generic name of Accolate, and will decided the time of its launch after getting the final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration, the spokesman said.
18. THE cost of pan-India broadband airwaves, which crossed Rs 12,000 crore after 14 days of bidding, has baffled analysts and stunned telecom companies participating in the auctions, many of whom concede that the price has become ‘highly irrational.’
19. FINANCE minister Pranab Mukherjee asked income-tax officials to look beyond the Rs 4,30,000-crore tax collection target for the current financial year, with the economy expected to expand 8.5% during the period.
20. The Cabinet on Thursday is likely to discuss the Planning Commission's mid-term appraisal of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12), in which it scaled down the growth projection for the period from 9% to 8.1%. Sources said that if the mid-term appraisal gets the Cabinet nod, the same would be placed before the National Development Council.
21. Road, transport and highway minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday said he is in talks with Singapore ’s investment firm Temasek Holdings for setting up a fund, which could have a corpus of $2 billion, for building roads and ports in India .
22. The government on Wednesday said that it would list 35 public sector companies on stock markets over the next five years. The move would generate about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in revenues for the Centre, minister of state for heavy industry and public sector enterprises Arun Yadav said.
23. THE government wills kick-start the bidding process for the 4,000 mw Orissa power projects this week, undeterred by the setback suffered by the Chhattisgarh ultra mega power project that faces uncertainty over allocation of captive coal blocks.
24. SBI on Wednesday hinted that base rate that will replace existing prime lending rate (PLR) will be between 7.5% and 8.5%.
25. BANKS continued to be net borrowers on Wednesday, raising Rs 66,170 crore from RBI at 5.25%. This is the third consecutive day when banks have borrowed over Rs 60,000 crore from the central bank by pledging government securities.
26. Pharma Company Parabolic Drugs (PDL) said on Wednesday it plans to raise up to Rs 200 crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that opens for subscription on June 14. The Chandigarh-based contract manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and API intermediates will use the proceeds for setting up new facilities, besides capacity expansion of existing ones and repayment of debt, a top company official said.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
NEWZ on 09.06.2010
Today news 09-06-2010
1. BHARTI Airtel said it will move swiftly and aggressively to expand its newly-acquired overseas domain on a day it announced the closure of its $9-billion purchase of the African operations of Kuwait ’s Zain Telecom.
India ’s largest cellphone company is aiming for a more than two-fold increase within three years in the number of users in Africa while it pursues the low-cost outsourced business model of operations that has served it so well at home.
2. Reliance Brands has launched its third label in the country — Italian luxury sportswear brand Paul & Shark, reports Amit Sharma. The company is in a 50:50 JV with its Italian partner and will be spending nearly $30 million over five years. “This is a long-term association.
3. HINDUSTAN Unilever has intensified its long-running battle with Eureka Forbes for domination in the fast-growing water purifier market by pitting a new product against its rival’s in the premium category.
4. REAL estate firm Lodha Developers will invest Rs 2,000 crore to develop the world’s tallest residential tower in Mumbai to cash in on the continued surge in home prices in India ’s commercial capital. “We will fund the project through internal accruals and pre-launch sales,” MD Abhishek Lodha told a press conference. “We are also looking at some private equity investments for the project.”
5. The income-tax department told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that it will not seek recovery of around $2 billion in tax, which it claims is payable by Vodafone, the UK-based telecom company, till the case is again heard in July. The court admitted Vodafone’s appeal that challenged an order of the I-T department, levying tax on the telecom company’s $11-billion acquisition of Hutchison Essar three years ago.
6. ANIL Ambani withdrew a Rs 10,000-crore defamation suit filed in the Bombay High Court against elder brother Mukesh Ambani and
The New York Times
(NYT) as the once-estranged brothers seek to return to a more harmonious relationship.
7. HINDALCO Industries plans to borrow about Rs 14,000 crore in the next couple of years to build two new plants that will treble its aluminium making capacity as increased production of cars and aircraft, fuel demand for the white metal.
8. THE country’s largest iron ore mining company National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is forming a 51:49 joint venture with Monnet Ispat & Energy to acquire and develop coal blocks in India . NMDC will have a majority stake in the JV Company, which will bid for coal mines with reserves of 200 to 300 million tonne.
9. THE government’s ambitious UID project will get a big boost, with country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India agreeing to share its database of more than 20 crore policyholders with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
10. THE government’s revenue from sale of 3G and broadband wireless airwaves (BWA) crossed Rs 1 lakh crore on Monday. The 13th day of the broadband spectrum auction also witnessed the bids for Tamil Nadu and Punjab circles exceeding the final 3G bid price. The government had estimated to garner Rs 35,000 crore from both 3G and BWA auctions combined.
11. THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to initiate spectrum audit to make sure that telcos are using it in the most economic manner possible, because it is a scarce resource. The audit will be undertaken after about three-four months, said Trai chairman JS Sarma.
12. GLENMARK Pharmaceutical has scored in its patent tussle with Sanofi Aventis and Abbott after the New Jersey district court upheld the challenge by the Indian company for a hyper-tension drug.
13. Tejas Networks, a leader in next-generation optical networking products, on Tuesday announced that it has acquired Ethos Networks, a technology company from Israel specializing in carrier Ethernet and network management products. This deal is the first acquisition of an Israeli hi-tech company by an Indian company, Tejas said.
14. US-based Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and Infosys Technologies on Tuesday announced to partner on potential research and educational opportunities. Georgia Tech said it was exploring the possibility of establishing a small, high quality post-graduate research institution in Hyderabad .
15. The government has allowed real estate major DLF to revive its plan for a special economic zone (SEZ) in Kolkata. The company had wriggled out of its commitment to set up four SEZs last year due to shrinkage in demand for commercial space because of the global economic downturn.
16. The income tax department will look for ways to meet the direct tax collection target of Rs 4.30 lakh crore at its two-day annual meet beginning on Wednesday. “The collection target becomes stiff in view of the relief and concessions announced in the Budget 2010 involving a direct tax outgo of about Rs 26,000 crore,” an official statement said on Tuesday. The budget estimate 2010-11 has pegged the direct tax haul at Rs 4,30,000 crore, a growth of 16.2% over the budget estimates for 2009-10.
17. The government’s wheat procurement, which is in its last stages, has dropped nearly 7% to 22.46 million tonnes (mt), so far, since it began on April 1, despite record production, as per official data. Wheat procurement stood at 24.08 mt in the corresponding period of the previous year.
18. STATE governments stuck to their demands of higher threshold for central Goods and Services Tax and keeping local body taxes and electricity duty out of it, threatening the total implementation of what is touted as the biggest tax reform since independence.
19. THE government may allow export of 10,000 tonne of sugar to the European Union (EU) as the sugar situation in the country has become comfortable with increased supplies and stable prices, an official said. In February this year, the Centre was forced to revoke its decision to allow export of sugar under the EU’s preferential zero duty quota following protests from the opposition as prices of sugar were still ruling high.
20. THE food ministry is readying a revised proposal on customs duty hike on white sugar imports to put up before the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food. This is despite apprehensions that the total stocks of sugar with the Centre at the start of the festival season, beginning September, could be lower than 2 million tonnes. The EGoM meeting is slated for June 10.
21. FINANCE minister Pranab Mukherjee has said unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) need further reforms on the back of the changes already announced by the insurance regulator. The finance minister also hinted at a resolution to the dispute between Sebi and Irda over Ulip regulation.
22. A GROWING number of companies have been opting for a buyback of shares to support the price in the current phase of market volatility. While the trend is mostly evident among small- and medium-sized companies, the market also expects large-sized companies to join the buyback bandwagon, after FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) announced a similar move last week
23. AN insurance major is believed to have trimmed exposure to TVS Motor, of late. The buzz is that the sale is part of its usual profit-booking process. The stock, which closed at Rs 104.35, down 0.3% on Thursday, has risen over 70% since the end of February 2010 to date, a period when share value has eroded in most cases.
24. MORE and more stock brokers in Mumbai are shifting their back-office operations outside Maharashtra to save on stamp duty that’s imposed by the state — the highest in India — when a client signs up with a broker.
While most large brokers have shifted back offices to states with lower stamp duty like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Union Territory Daman, the smaller ones are now following suit to reduce costs.
25. STATE-OWNED ‘India Post’ has earned just about Rs 2 crore by selling mutual funds last fiscal. The national distributor with some 800 postal outlets selling mutual funds has logged its worst numbers in four years. The department has stopped selling mutual fund schemes of four out of five fund houses with which the department has exclusive distribution tie-ups.
26. Oil prices slid back to near $71 a barrel on Tuesday as European investors looked beyond encouraging comments from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and worried about the impact of the debt crisis on demand. Benchmark crude for July delivery was down 45 cents at $70.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange late morning European time.
1. BHARTI Airtel said it will move swiftly and aggressively to expand its newly-acquired overseas domain on a day it announced the closure of its $9-billion purchase of the African operations of Kuwait ’s Zain Telecom.
India ’s largest cellphone company is aiming for a more than two-fold increase within three years in the number of users in Africa while it pursues the low-cost outsourced business model of operations that has served it so well at home.
2. Reliance Brands has launched its third label in the country — Italian luxury sportswear brand Paul & Shark, reports Amit Sharma. The company is in a 50:50 JV with its Italian partner and will be spending nearly $30 million over five years. “This is a long-term association.
3. HINDUSTAN Unilever has intensified its long-running battle with Eureka Forbes for domination in the fast-growing water purifier market by pitting a new product against its rival’s in the premium category.
4. REAL estate firm Lodha Developers will invest Rs 2,000 crore to develop the world’s tallest residential tower in Mumbai to cash in on the continued surge in home prices in India ’s commercial capital. “We will fund the project through internal accruals and pre-launch sales,” MD Abhishek Lodha told a press conference. “We are also looking at some private equity investments for the project.”
5. The income-tax department told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that it will not seek recovery of around $2 billion in tax, which it claims is payable by Vodafone, the UK-based telecom company, till the case is again heard in July. The court admitted Vodafone’s appeal that challenged an order of the I-T department, levying tax on the telecom company’s $11-billion acquisition of Hutchison Essar three years ago.
6. ANIL Ambani withdrew a Rs 10,000-crore defamation suit filed in the Bombay High Court against elder brother Mukesh Ambani and
The New York Times
(NYT) as the once-estranged brothers seek to return to a more harmonious relationship.
7. HINDALCO Industries plans to borrow about Rs 14,000 crore in the next couple of years to build two new plants that will treble its aluminium making capacity as increased production of cars and aircraft, fuel demand for the white metal.
8. THE country’s largest iron ore mining company National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is forming a 51:49 joint venture with Monnet Ispat & Energy to acquire and develop coal blocks in India . NMDC will have a majority stake in the JV Company, which will bid for coal mines with reserves of 200 to 300 million tonne.
9. THE government’s ambitious UID project will get a big boost, with country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India agreeing to share its database of more than 20 crore policyholders with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
10. THE government’s revenue from sale of 3G and broadband wireless airwaves (BWA) crossed Rs 1 lakh crore on Monday. The 13th day of the broadband spectrum auction also witnessed the bids for Tamil Nadu and Punjab circles exceeding the final 3G bid price. The government had estimated to garner Rs 35,000 crore from both 3G and BWA auctions combined.
11. THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to initiate spectrum audit to make sure that telcos are using it in the most economic manner possible, because it is a scarce resource. The audit will be undertaken after about three-four months, said Trai chairman JS Sarma.
12. GLENMARK Pharmaceutical has scored in its patent tussle with Sanofi Aventis and Abbott after the New Jersey district court upheld the challenge by the Indian company for a hyper-tension drug.
13. Tejas Networks, a leader in next-generation optical networking products, on Tuesday announced that it has acquired Ethos Networks, a technology company from Israel specializing in carrier Ethernet and network management products. This deal is the first acquisition of an Israeli hi-tech company by an Indian company, Tejas said.
14. US-based Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and Infosys Technologies on Tuesday announced to partner on potential research and educational opportunities. Georgia Tech said it was exploring the possibility of establishing a small, high quality post-graduate research institution in Hyderabad .
15. The government has allowed real estate major DLF to revive its plan for a special economic zone (SEZ) in Kolkata. The company had wriggled out of its commitment to set up four SEZs last year due to shrinkage in demand for commercial space because of the global economic downturn.
16. The income tax department will look for ways to meet the direct tax collection target of Rs 4.30 lakh crore at its two-day annual meet beginning on Wednesday. “The collection target becomes stiff in view of the relief and concessions announced in the Budget 2010 involving a direct tax outgo of about Rs 26,000 crore,” an official statement said on Tuesday. The budget estimate 2010-11 has pegged the direct tax haul at Rs 4,30,000 crore, a growth of 16.2% over the budget estimates for 2009-10.
17. The government’s wheat procurement, which is in its last stages, has dropped nearly 7% to 22.46 million tonnes (mt), so far, since it began on April 1, despite record production, as per official data. Wheat procurement stood at 24.08 mt in the corresponding period of the previous year.
18. STATE governments stuck to their demands of higher threshold for central Goods and Services Tax and keeping local body taxes and electricity duty out of it, threatening the total implementation of what is touted as the biggest tax reform since independence.
19. THE government may allow export of 10,000 tonne of sugar to the European Union (EU) as the sugar situation in the country has become comfortable with increased supplies and stable prices, an official said. In February this year, the Centre was forced to revoke its decision to allow export of sugar under the EU’s preferential zero duty quota following protests from the opposition as prices of sugar were still ruling high.
20. THE food ministry is readying a revised proposal on customs duty hike on white sugar imports to put up before the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food. This is despite apprehensions that the total stocks of sugar with the Centre at the start of the festival season, beginning September, could be lower than 2 million tonnes. The EGoM meeting is slated for June 10.
21. FINANCE minister Pranab Mukherjee has said unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) need further reforms on the back of the changes already announced by the insurance regulator. The finance minister also hinted at a resolution to the dispute between Sebi and Irda over Ulip regulation.
22. A GROWING number of companies have been opting for a buyback of shares to support the price in the current phase of market volatility. While the trend is mostly evident among small- and medium-sized companies, the market also expects large-sized companies to join the buyback bandwagon, after FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) announced a similar move last week
23. AN insurance major is believed to have trimmed exposure to TVS Motor, of late. The buzz is that the sale is part of its usual profit-booking process. The stock, which closed at Rs 104.35, down 0.3% on Thursday, has risen over 70% since the end of February 2010 to date, a period when share value has eroded in most cases.
24. MORE and more stock brokers in Mumbai are shifting their back-office operations outside Maharashtra to save on stamp duty that’s imposed by the state — the highest in India — when a client signs up with a broker.
While most large brokers have shifted back offices to states with lower stamp duty like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Union Territory Daman, the smaller ones are now following suit to reduce costs.
25. STATE-OWNED ‘India Post’ has earned just about Rs 2 crore by selling mutual funds last fiscal. The national distributor with some 800 postal outlets selling mutual funds has logged its worst numbers in four years. The department has stopped selling mutual fund schemes of four out of five fund houses with which the department has exclusive distribution tie-ups.
26. Oil prices slid back to near $71 a barrel on Tuesday as European investors looked beyond encouraging comments from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and worried about the impact of the debt crisis on demand. Benchmark crude for July delivery was down 45 cents at $70.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange late morning European time.
Monday, June 7, 2010
NEWS 08.06.2010
1. WITH the accelerating pace of the global economic recovery bringing a renewed surge in demand for air travel, an industry body predicted on Monday that the world’s airlines would report profits of $2.5 billion this year, a dramatic improvement from the steep losses of the past two years.
2. INDIA’S third-biggest software exporter Wipro will wait for more details from Sebi before exercising any options for increasing the public shareholding in the company to 25% as mandated by the regulator, a senior company official told ET.
In a note issued on June 4, India ’s ministry of finance(MoF) mandated that companies listed in India must increase their public shareholding to 25%.
3. Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) on Monday informed the Bombay High Court that it could not strike a deal to buy power from Tata Power Company (TPC) April last year as the Tata company pulled out of negotiations.
4. Reliance MediaWorks along with two other ADAG firms — Reliance Capital and Reliance Capital Partners — has acquired a further 0.25% stake in Fame India, hiking their combined holding in the multiplex chain to 15.28%. The three acquired 85,962 shares, or 0.25% stake, through open market transactions on June 4, Fame India said in a filing to BSE on Monday. ADAG firms purchased the shares at an average price of Rs 82.5.
5. Marathon Next Gen Realty has clocked a 251% vault in its net profit to Rs 146.7 crore in FY10 against Rs 41.8 crore in the previous fiscal. Its total income rose to Rs 250 crore in FY10 against Rs 131 crore the previous year.
6. FOUR public sector banks, including Central Bank of India and Indian Bank, may have to sell shares to the public yet again this fiscal year to step up their public holding to 25%. The government has told all listed companies to have a minimum 25% public shareholding. Companies with less than the stipulated holding, will have to step up at least 5% a year.
7. TATA STEEL, India ’s largest producer, is in talks with buyers to replace annual with quarterly price contracts, following similar moves by raw material suppliers. Agreements have yet to be reached as customers will struggle to price their products if steel prices are adjusted every quarter, managing director HM Nerurkar said at the World Economic Forum in Ho Chi Minh city .
8. HYUNDAI’S labour woes at its factories near Chennai worsened on Monday when striking workers threw production out of gear, for the third time in a year, and disrupted the company’s local and overseas marketing plans.
All shifts were cancelled after Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) decided to suspend four of its workers, stalling production completely on Monday. The strike, according to HMIL senior vice-president, finance and corporate affairs, R Sethuraman, has the potential to cause losses of Rs 66 crore a day.
9. PHARMA and engineering sectors will lead the industry in terms of future salary hikes while yesterday’s darling, software, will continue to drag until the US sends a clear message on outsourcing, according to a recent survey.
10. THE row over the failed bid for an IPL franchise by Pune-based City Corporation has attracted the attention of the income-tax department. The tax collectors will issue a notice to the company and its managing director, Anirudh Deshpande, this week, said a senior official, who did not wish to be named.
11. TELECOM major Vodafone has moved the Bombay High Court, challenging the Indian Income-Tax department’s claim that it has jurisdiction to levy tax on Vodafone’s $11-billion acquisition of Indian company Hutchison Essar three years ago.
12. WITH just over a fortnight left for Mahindra Satyam’s audited results to be announced, the company’s top brass is charting investments to build capabilities in competencies and foray in to newer geographies.
13. TECHNOLOGY bellwether Infosys Technologies — which bills 70-80% of its European revenue in local currencies — gave a thought on whether it should move its billings to dollars, but decided against the move for now, the company’s chief operating officer SD Shibulal said.
14. THE government’s revenue from the sale of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) is set to cross Rs 1 lakh crore with a pan-India bid for BWA touching Rs 10,652 crore on the 12th day of the auction. At this bid amount, the government will earn Rs 31,956 crore from the sale of BWA spectrum alone.
15. THE government will invest $376 million (Rs 1,770 crore) to develop
environment-friendly urban transport in the country. The project will be funded by a $150-million Central and state assistance and grants from multilateral bodies, an official in the ministry of urban development said.
16. The country’s largest power producer, NTPC, will make changes in its bidding process for sourcing equipment that will cut down overall project cycle and prevent delays in completion of projects.
17. INDIA and China have decided to rake up the issue of tough intellectual property regimes being planned by certain countries that go much beyond the global agreement, Trips, at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The move is aimed at scuttling a draconian anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) being negotiated by countries such as the US, Japan, the EU, Australia and South Korea which could hamper India’s trade in a number of areas including pharmaceuticals and IT products.
18. THE government on Monday set up a Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) for creating an effective tax administration and financial governance system, through reliable secure and efficient IT projects. The move lays the ground for major structural reforms in the taxation structure — goods and services tax and direct taxes code.
19. THE Reserve Bank of India is considering a proposal put forward by profit-oriented microfinance institutions (MFIs) to allow them to be business correspondents of banks for financial inclusion.
20. IDBI Bank on Monday said its deputy MD Bharat Pal Singh, will look after the day-to-day affairs of the bank after its CMD Yogesh Agarwal, demitted office. Singh will coordinate the day-to-day affairs of the bank consequent upon Yogesh Agarwal demitting office as CMD on June 5.
21. THE euro’s 21% tumble from last year’s high has left the currency above the average level since its creation in 1999 and stronger than its predecessor, the deutsche mark.
22. PORTFOLIO management services (PMS) are increasingly turning out to be the carrots that mutual funds are dangling to distributors to push equity schemes to clients. Asset management companies (AMCs) are surreptitiously lowering the minimum requirement to invest in PMS products, which are meant for the more affluent clients, to accommodate more investors and ‘compensate’ distributors for selling equity schemes.
23. Two recently-listed commodity groups look set to be the only additions to Britain ’s FTSE 100 share index when the compiler announces the latest quarterly indexes reshuffle after the market close on Wednesday.
24. Gold prices fell from last Saturday’s all time high at the bullion market here amid bearish global cues. Silver also slipped on heavy offloading by stockists and lower industrial enquiries. Standard gold (99.5 purity) fell by Rs 150 per ten grams to Rs 18,645 from last weekend’s closing of Rs 18,795. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also tanked by Rs 155 per ten grams to Rs 18,730 against previous closing of Rs 18,885.
25. Oil slipped below $71 a barrel on Monday as Wall Street turned negative and a stronger dollar weighed.
26. Copper, nickel and lead slumped on concern that the global economic recovery may be at risk, imperilling metals demand, as Europe battles a sovereign-debt crisis and the US added fewer jobs than expected.
2. INDIA’S third-biggest software exporter Wipro will wait for more details from Sebi before exercising any options for increasing the public shareholding in the company to 25% as mandated by the regulator, a senior company official told ET.
In a note issued on June 4, India ’s ministry of finance(MoF) mandated that companies listed in India must increase their public shareholding to 25%.
3. Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) on Monday informed the Bombay High Court that it could not strike a deal to buy power from Tata Power Company (TPC) April last year as the Tata company pulled out of negotiations.
4. Reliance MediaWorks along with two other ADAG firms — Reliance Capital and Reliance Capital Partners — has acquired a further 0.25% stake in Fame India, hiking their combined holding in the multiplex chain to 15.28%. The three acquired 85,962 shares, or 0.25% stake, through open market transactions on June 4, Fame India said in a filing to BSE on Monday. ADAG firms purchased the shares at an average price of Rs 82.5.
5. Marathon Next Gen Realty has clocked a 251% vault in its net profit to Rs 146.7 crore in FY10 against Rs 41.8 crore in the previous fiscal. Its total income rose to Rs 250 crore in FY10 against Rs 131 crore the previous year.
6. FOUR public sector banks, including Central Bank of India and Indian Bank, may have to sell shares to the public yet again this fiscal year to step up their public holding to 25%. The government has told all listed companies to have a minimum 25% public shareholding. Companies with less than the stipulated holding, will have to step up at least 5% a year.
7. TATA STEEL, India ’s largest producer, is in talks with buyers to replace annual with quarterly price contracts, following similar moves by raw material suppliers. Agreements have yet to be reached as customers will struggle to price their products if steel prices are adjusted every quarter, managing director HM Nerurkar said at the World Economic Forum in Ho Chi Minh city .
8. HYUNDAI’S labour woes at its factories near Chennai worsened on Monday when striking workers threw production out of gear, for the third time in a year, and disrupted the company’s local and overseas marketing plans.
All shifts were cancelled after Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) decided to suspend four of its workers, stalling production completely on Monday. The strike, according to HMIL senior vice-president, finance and corporate affairs, R Sethuraman, has the potential to cause losses of Rs 66 crore a day.
9. PHARMA and engineering sectors will lead the industry in terms of future salary hikes while yesterday’s darling, software, will continue to drag until the US sends a clear message on outsourcing, according to a recent survey.
10. THE row over the failed bid for an IPL franchise by Pune-based City Corporation has attracted the attention of the income-tax department. The tax collectors will issue a notice to the company and its managing director, Anirudh Deshpande, this week, said a senior official, who did not wish to be named.
11. TELECOM major Vodafone has moved the Bombay High Court, challenging the Indian Income-Tax department’s claim that it has jurisdiction to levy tax on Vodafone’s $11-billion acquisition of Indian company Hutchison Essar three years ago.
12. WITH just over a fortnight left for Mahindra Satyam’s audited results to be announced, the company’s top brass is charting investments to build capabilities in competencies and foray in to newer geographies.
13. TECHNOLOGY bellwether Infosys Technologies — which bills 70-80% of its European revenue in local currencies — gave a thought on whether it should move its billings to dollars, but decided against the move for now, the company’s chief operating officer SD Shibulal said.
14. THE government’s revenue from the sale of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) is set to cross Rs 1 lakh crore with a pan-India bid for BWA touching Rs 10,652 crore on the 12th day of the auction. At this bid amount, the government will earn Rs 31,956 crore from the sale of BWA spectrum alone.
15. THE government will invest $376 million (Rs 1,770 crore) to develop
environment-friendly urban transport in the country. The project will be funded by a $150-million Central and state assistance and grants from multilateral bodies, an official in the ministry of urban development said.
16. The country’s largest power producer, NTPC, will make changes in its bidding process for sourcing equipment that will cut down overall project cycle and prevent delays in completion of projects.
17. INDIA and China have decided to rake up the issue of tough intellectual property regimes being planned by certain countries that go much beyond the global agreement, Trips, at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The move is aimed at scuttling a draconian anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) being negotiated by countries such as the US, Japan, the EU, Australia and South Korea which could hamper India’s trade in a number of areas including pharmaceuticals and IT products.
18. THE government on Monday set up a Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) for creating an effective tax administration and financial governance system, through reliable secure and efficient IT projects. The move lays the ground for major structural reforms in the taxation structure — goods and services tax and direct taxes code.
19. THE Reserve Bank of India is considering a proposal put forward by profit-oriented microfinance institutions (MFIs) to allow them to be business correspondents of banks for financial inclusion.
20. IDBI Bank on Monday said its deputy MD Bharat Pal Singh, will look after the day-to-day affairs of the bank after its CMD Yogesh Agarwal, demitted office. Singh will coordinate the day-to-day affairs of the bank consequent upon Yogesh Agarwal demitting office as CMD on June 5.
21. THE euro’s 21% tumble from last year’s high has left the currency above the average level since its creation in 1999 and stronger than its predecessor, the deutsche mark.
22. PORTFOLIO management services (PMS) are increasingly turning out to be the carrots that mutual funds are dangling to distributors to push equity schemes to clients. Asset management companies (AMCs) are surreptitiously lowering the minimum requirement to invest in PMS products, which are meant for the more affluent clients, to accommodate more investors and ‘compensate’ distributors for selling equity schemes.
23. Two recently-listed commodity groups look set to be the only additions to Britain ’s FTSE 100 share index when the compiler announces the latest quarterly indexes reshuffle after the market close on Wednesday.
24. Gold prices fell from last Saturday’s all time high at the bullion market here amid bearish global cues. Silver also slipped on heavy offloading by stockists and lower industrial enquiries. Standard gold (99.5 purity) fell by Rs 150 per ten grams to Rs 18,645 from last weekend’s closing of Rs 18,795. Pure gold (99.9 purity) also tanked by Rs 155 per ten grams to Rs 18,730 against previous closing of Rs 18,885.
25. Oil slipped below $71 a barrel on Monday as Wall Street turned negative and a stronger dollar weighed.
26. Copper, nickel and lead slumped on concern that the global economic recovery may be at risk, imperilling metals demand, as Europe battles a sovereign-debt crisis and the US added fewer jobs than expected.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
NEWS as on 20-05-2010
1. THE Greek debt crisis roiling markets worldwide may at most “influence” India , but will have limited “adverse impact” on the country, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee says, as he signaled the government’s determination to walk the path of fiscal prudence it was forced to abandon during the 2008 global financial meltdown.
2. WHEN Scott Price, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Asia, visited India last month, he talked about helping the country become food basket of the world and sourcing $1-billion worth of goods from here. Perhaps he drew inspiration from the growing presence of Indian specialty food brands in the shelves of global retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, Ralphs and Safeway.
3. VIDEOCON has formed a separate business unit to market and sell Electrolux and Philips brands in India under a new team that includes two senior managers roped in from Samsung as chief operating officers.
4. GRASIM Industries, the Aditya Birla Group flagship, has recorded a 15% rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, at Rs 654 crore on improvement in cement and viscose stable fibre (VSF) businesses.
AGROUP of ministers (GoM) next week will decide on the possible out-of-court settlement of the five-year old dispute between state-owned utility NTPC and Reliance Industries (RIL) over gas supply and price.
5. The need for a settlement arises after the government on Wednesday doubled the administered natural gas price from all explorers to $4.2-million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu), said a person familiar with the matter.
DESPITE reporting a higher loss of Rs 467.6 crore in the past fiscal on the back of a major drop in revenues, Jet Airways on Thursday sounded bullish on the coming quarters as the market is looking healthy on rising traffic. The country’s largest airline by market share, posted a net loss of Rs 467.6 crore for the fiscal ending March 2010 against Rs 402.3 crore in the previous fiscal, while income too dropped to Rs 10,622.9 crore from Rs 11,786.8 crore.
6. Reliance Media Works said it, along with two other group firms, has acquired an additional 1.89 lakh shares of Fame India , taking the group’s total stake in the multiplex chain to 14.34%. Three entities of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group — Reliance Media Works, Reliance Capital and Reliance Capital Partners —have acquired 1.89 lakh equity shares, or 0.54% stake, of Fame at an average price of Rs 78.33.
National Aviation Company of India (Nacil), the owner of state-carrier Air India , is seeking to raise as much as $1.15 billion to refinance loans that funded the purchase of 21 Airbus SAS planes.
7. Tata Capital said it has appointed Mukund Govind Rajan as a managing partner of the Tata Capital Private Equity team. Mr Rajan is currently the managing director of Tata Teleservices ( Maharashtra ), a telecom unit of the group.
8. Wockhardt has clocked a net loss of Rs 565.2 crore during Q4 FY10 compared to a net loss of Rs 10.2 crore during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. For the 15-month period starting from January 2009 to March 2010, the company has recorded a net loss of Rs 1,000.8 crore compared to Rs 138.9 crore net loss it had clocked in the 12-month period from January 2008 to December 2009, according to the company.
9. Industrial and automotive battery major Amara Raja Batteries has announced a top line growth of 12% for FY10 at Rs 1,465 crore (excluding other income), compared with Rs 1,313 crore in FY09.
10. INDIAN biotech companies are increasingly looking to make major investments in Malaysia , lured by the south-east Asian country’s tax sops, easy market access and better infrastructure.
11. INDAL Steel and Power will acquire Oman steel maker Shadeed Iron and Steel for $464 million as a reviving local economy and strong growth prospects give a confidence boost to India Inc in the global M&A arena.
12. The acquisition, which was announced by Jindal on Thursday, will give the Indian major access to a plant under construction to meet rising demand in the Gulf and other nearby West Asian economies.
13. FORMER Raymond chief operating officer Deepak Khetrapal is set to join UAE based retailer of consumer electronics and technology products Jumbo Electronics as its chief executive. He will replace Peter McElwaine, who has moved on after a two-year stint with the company. Dubai-headquartered Jumbo Group is promoted by Chhabria family.
14. UK oil explorer Cairn Energy said it planned to ramp up production at its oil fields in India after laying a pipeline which will enable it to sell more oil to refiners. The company said ahead of its annual general meeting on Thursday its Indian unit Cairn India had increased oil production from its Mangala field in Rajasthan state to 60,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from an average 17,532 in the first quarter.
15. THE extended Munjal family is consolidating its shareholding in the world’s biggest two wheeler maker, Hero Honda, by reducing the number of holding entities and transferring their ownership under a single umbrella.
16. The move could set the stage for a more comprehensive family settlement for shares worth over $ 2 billion.
17. NMDC, Asia’s third-largest iron ore miner, plans to seek price increases of “at least” 90% and quarterly contracts from steelmakers in Japan and South Korea , following biggest global exporter Vale. NMDC, which exported about 15% of output last year, expects to sell iron ore fines overseas at $116 a metric ton this quarter, finance director Swaminathan Thiagarajan said on Thursday, raising his March 30 forecast of $100.
18. Petrol dealers in Delhi on Thursday decided to close down pumps every Monday from May 24 to protest hike in VAT on diesel even as chief minister Sheila Dikshit promised to look into their demand for parity with neighboring states like Haryana.
Gold prices dropped on Tuesday due to profit booking by stockiest and traders at higher levels, triggered by a sharp slide in global markets. Silver too plunged on heavy stockiest selling coupled with reduced demand from industrial users.
FOOD inflation went up by a notch to 16.49% for the week ended May 8 and analysts expect prices to remain stuck around this level until the advent of a normal monsoon. Annual food inflation in the previous reporting week was 16.44%. Analysts said food inflation would come down drastically only in the later half of the fiscal when the impact of a normal monsoon becomes visible on crops.
STATE-OWNED blue chip companies Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), SAIL, NTPC and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) have been declared ‘maharatnas’, a status that gives them enormous financial powers and greater operational autonomy.
19. THE Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) will examine books of banks and financial institutions involved in the UPA government’s mega loan waiver scheme announced two years ago. The move aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme that provided relief to nearly four crore farmers of the country.
Shares of ICICI Bank on Thursday plunged 1.17% on concerns of an overvalued takeover of Bank of Rajasthan, whose shares soared to a year high. Shares of ICICI Bank fell to Rs 815, down 1.17%, on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), which has been on a rise since the last five trading sessions, today surged by another 10% to Rs 131.30.
20. Battery-operated electric vehicles manufacturer Kabirdass Motor has got approval from market regulator Sebi to raise Rs 67 crore through a public issue for its expansion plans.
21. TUMBLING commodity prices due to sovereign credit crisis is a manna for policymakers, but rising investor risk-aversion can shatter dreams of high economic growth and lower deficits.
22. DOLLAR carry-trades could decline further as analysts see the greenback strengthening on heavy demand from nervous investors seeking the safety of US Treasury.
23. Indian shares, like their counterparts in many other emerging markets, owe their spectacular rise over the last one year, partly to dollar carry-trades. In a carry-trade, an investor borrows money in the currency with low interest rates (dollar in this case) and deploys it in assets (usually emerging market equities) offering better returns.
24. Stock Holding Corporation of India has reported a 41% rise in its operating income to Rs 220 crore for FY10. The corresponding figure for FY09 was Rs 156 crore.
DESPITE a 21% year-on-year rise in per gram gold prices on Akshay Tritiya, the quantity of gold sold this year is expected to be higher than that of last year’s, indicative sources from industry body World Gold Council (WGC) told ET. Across the country, 45 tonne gold were sold last year on the festive occasion.
2. WHEN Scott Price, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Asia, visited India last month, he talked about helping the country become food basket of the world and sourcing $1-billion worth of goods from here. Perhaps he drew inspiration from the growing presence of Indian specialty food brands in the shelves of global retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, Ralphs and Safeway.
3. VIDEOCON has formed a separate business unit to market and sell Electrolux and Philips brands in India under a new team that includes two senior managers roped in from Samsung as chief operating officers.
4. GRASIM Industries, the Aditya Birla Group flagship, has recorded a 15% rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, at Rs 654 crore on improvement in cement and viscose stable fibre (VSF) businesses.
AGROUP of ministers (GoM) next week will decide on the possible out-of-court settlement of the five-year old dispute between state-owned utility NTPC and Reliance Industries (RIL) over gas supply and price.
5. The need for a settlement arises after the government on Wednesday doubled the administered natural gas price from all explorers to $4.2-million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu), said a person familiar with the matter.
DESPITE reporting a higher loss of Rs 467.6 crore in the past fiscal on the back of a major drop in revenues, Jet Airways on Thursday sounded bullish on the coming quarters as the market is looking healthy on rising traffic. The country’s largest airline by market share, posted a net loss of Rs 467.6 crore for the fiscal ending March 2010 against Rs 402.3 crore in the previous fiscal, while income too dropped to Rs 10,622.9 crore from Rs 11,786.8 crore.
6. Reliance Media Works said it, along with two other group firms, has acquired an additional 1.89 lakh shares of Fame India , taking the group’s total stake in the multiplex chain to 14.34%. Three entities of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group — Reliance Media Works, Reliance Capital and Reliance Capital Partners —have acquired 1.89 lakh equity shares, or 0.54% stake, of Fame at an average price of Rs 78.33.
National Aviation Company of India (Nacil), the owner of state-carrier Air India , is seeking to raise as much as $1.15 billion to refinance loans that funded the purchase of 21 Airbus SAS planes.
7. Tata Capital said it has appointed Mukund Govind Rajan as a managing partner of the Tata Capital Private Equity team. Mr Rajan is currently the managing director of Tata Teleservices ( Maharashtra ), a telecom unit of the group.
8. Wockhardt has clocked a net loss of Rs 565.2 crore during Q4 FY10 compared to a net loss of Rs 10.2 crore during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. For the 15-month period starting from January 2009 to March 2010, the company has recorded a net loss of Rs 1,000.8 crore compared to Rs 138.9 crore net loss it had clocked in the 12-month period from January 2008 to December 2009, according to the company.
9. Industrial and automotive battery major Amara Raja Batteries has announced a top line growth of 12% for FY10 at Rs 1,465 crore (excluding other income), compared with Rs 1,313 crore in FY09.
10. INDIAN biotech companies are increasingly looking to make major investments in Malaysia , lured by the south-east Asian country’s tax sops, easy market access and better infrastructure.
11. INDAL Steel and Power will acquire Oman steel maker Shadeed Iron and Steel for $464 million as a reviving local economy and strong growth prospects give a confidence boost to India Inc in the global M&A arena.
12. The acquisition, which was announced by Jindal on Thursday, will give the Indian major access to a plant under construction to meet rising demand in the Gulf and other nearby West Asian economies.
13. FORMER Raymond chief operating officer Deepak Khetrapal is set to join UAE based retailer of consumer electronics and technology products Jumbo Electronics as its chief executive. He will replace Peter McElwaine, who has moved on after a two-year stint with the company. Dubai-headquartered Jumbo Group is promoted by Chhabria family.
14. UK oil explorer Cairn Energy said it planned to ramp up production at its oil fields in India after laying a pipeline which will enable it to sell more oil to refiners. The company said ahead of its annual general meeting on Thursday its Indian unit Cairn India had increased oil production from its Mangala field in Rajasthan state to 60,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from an average 17,532 in the first quarter.
15. THE extended Munjal family is consolidating its shareholding in the world’s biggest two wheeler maker, Hero Honda, by reducing the number of holding entities and transferring their ownership under a single umbrella.
16. The move could set the stage for a more comprehensive family settlement for shares worth over $ 2 billion.
17. NMDC, Asia’s third-largest iron ore miner, plans to seek price increases of “at least” 90% and quarterly contracts from steelmakers in Japan and South Korea , following biggest global exporter Vale. NMDC, which exported about 15% of output last year, expects to sell iron ore fines overseas at $116 a metric ton this quarter, finance director Swaminathan Thiagarajan said on Thursday, raising his March 30 forecast of $100.
18. Petrol dealers in Delhi on Thursday decided to close down pumps every Monday from May 24 to protest hike in VAT on diesel even as chief minister Sheila Dikshit promised to look into their demand for parity with neighboring states like Haryana.
Gold prices dropped on Tuesday due to profit booking by stockiest and traders at higher levels, triggered by a sharp slide in global markets. Silver too plunged on heavy stockiest selling coupled with reduced demand from industrial users.
FOOD inflation went up by a notch to 16.49% for the week ended May 8 and analysts expect prices to remain stuck around this level until the advent of a normal monsoon. Annual food inflation in the previous reporting week was 16.44%. Analysts said food inflation would come down drastically only in the later half of the fiscal when the impact of a normal monsoon becomes visible on crops.
STATE-OWNED blue chip companies Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), SAIL, NTPC and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) have been declared ‘maharatnas’, a status that gives them enormous financial powers and greater operational autonomy.
19. THE Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) will examine books of banks and financial institutions involved in the UPA government’s mega loan waiver scheme announced two years ago. The move aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme that provided relief to nearly four crore farmers of the country.
Shares of ICICI Bank on Thursday plunged 1.17% on concerns of an overvalued takeover of Bank of Rajasthan, whose shares soared to a year high. Shares of ICICI Bank fell to Rs 815, down 1.17%, on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), which has been on a rise since the last five trading sessions, today surged by another 10% to Rs 131.30.
20. Battery-operated electric vehicles manufacturer Kabirdass Motor has got approval from market regulator Sebi to raise Rs 67 crore through a public issue for its expansion plans.
21. TUMBLING commodity prices due to sovereign credit crisis is a manna for policymakers, but rising investor risk-aversion can shatter dreams of high economic growth and lower deficits.
22. DOLLAR carry-trades could decline further as analysts see the greenback strengthening on heavy demand from nervous investors seeking the safety of US Treasury.
23. Indian shares, like their counterparts in many other emerging markets, owe their spectacular rise over the last one year, partly to dollar carry-trades. In a carry-trade, an investor borrows money in the currency with low interest rates (dollar in this case) and deploys it in assets (usually emerging market equities) offering better returns.
24. Stock Holding Corporation of India has reported a 41% rise in its operating income to Rs 220 crore for FY10. The corresponding figure for FY09 was Rs 156 crore.
DESPITE a 21% year-on-year rise in per gram gold prices on Akshay Tritiya, the quantity of gold sold this year is expected to be higher than that of last year’s, indicative sources from industry body World Gold Council (WGC) told ET. Across the country, 45 tonne gold were sold last year on the festive occasion.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Five ways CFOs can make cost cuts stick
Successes in cost cutting erode with time. Here’s how to make them last.
Optimism is on the rise that a solid economic recovery is taking hold around the world, but the cost cutting so prevalent during the recent recession looks to remain a strategic priority for some time. Indeed, the number of executives reporting steps to reduce operating costs in the next 12 months increased significantly between February and April, even as confidence in the economy grew. Yet any successes companies have at cutting costs during the downturn will erode with time. Many executives expect some proportion of the costs cut during the recent recession to return within 12 to 18 months —and prior research found that only 10 percent of cost reduction programs show sustained results three years later.
On either schedule, any programs initiated in the early months of the downturn are already beginning to fail—just as savings would be most useful to finance growth. Sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs prove to be particularly intransigent. While manufacturing efficiencies have enabled an average S&P 500 company to reduce the cost of goods sold (COGS) by about 250 basis points over the past decade, SG&A costs have remained at about the same levelTuesday, February 2, 2010
Key Drivers to any Country's Economy
- To any Economy there are too may key drivers which can be listed out as follows:
Propensity of an Individual to Consume & Save
Liquidity preferences of the individual, how much money he should to have to spend on transactions, speculations and precautions.
Wealth expectation of an Individual
Working age of the Population of Country
Infrastructural Development of economy
Inflation or Wholesale price Index
Liberal or openness to trade among the world countries
Flow of FIIs & FDIs ion the economy
Political Stability of Government & peaceful relation with the other countriesCountry’s Education system & health care system
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