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Sensex surges 187 points in opening trade!The BSE benchmark Sensex rose over 187 pts in opening trade, extending its rising streak for the second session on Friday.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm SKorean economy grows 2.3% in Q2!Surging exports and consumer spending fuelled growth of 2.3 percent for South Korea`s economy in the three months to June, its fastest rate in more than five years, data showed Friday.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm CLB prevents Harsh Lodha from chairing Birla Corp AGM!The Company Law Board (CLB), in an interim order, has prevented Harsh Lodha from chairing the upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) of Birla Corporation Ltd scheduled for July 27.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Microsoft sales drop sharply, sees no quick recovery!Microsoft Corp posted the first-ever drop in annual sales of Windows and its quarterly revenue fell a steeper-than-expected 17 percent as its business continued to be hurt by the weak global PC and server markets.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Defeated Porsche axes CEO to make way for VW merger!Porsche conceded defeat in a months-long power struggle with Volkswagen Thursday by axing its embattled CEO, paving the way for VW to merge with the maker of the 911 sportscar.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm India mid market thrive, despite tough times: Survey!Over 50% of Indian mid market business decision makers expects their IT budget to increase in 2009 versus last year, according to a global study released by IBM.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Dow tops 9,000 as home sales rise for 3rd month!Investors celebrated news of another jump in home sales by propelling the Dow Jones industrials to their first close above 9,000 since January.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Samsung reports `outstanding` Q2 results!Samsung Electronics Co, the world`s leading computer memory chipmaker, said Friday it had achieved "outstanding" second-quarter results due to a recovery in prices and demand.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Sony to invest over $1 billion in Sharp LCD unit: Report!Sony Corp will likely invest more than 100 billion yen (USD 1.1 billion) in a planned liquid crystal display TV panel venture with Sharp Corp, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Oil prices rise over better housing data!The oil prices ended above USD 67 a barrel Thursday after data showed existing home sales jumped for the third straight month in June.Source: Zee News : Business | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:39 pm Have raised $37.5mn from QIP: REI AgroSundip Jhunjhunwaala, VC and MD, REI Agro, confirmed raising USD 37.5 million from the offering and added that there were a dozen investors form South East Asia and Europe. The objective, Jhunjhunwaala said, of this QIP is to retire their debt and added that the first tranche of fund raising has led to about 9.5% dilution.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:18 pm WHO issues notice to Matrix Labs, may suspend productsThere is some disturbing news for Matrix Laboratories. The World Health Organisation, or WHO, has apparently considered suspension of its products at one of its manufacturing facility. They have also issued a Notice of Concern to Matrix Laboratories. The notice was issued following inspections at Vizianagaram manufacturing site.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:02 pm Mah Satyam back among top5 IT cos; expert says still cheapMahindra Satyam, formerly Satyam Computer Services, continues to shine in the stock market. The stock, which has rallied more than 30% in the last seven days, on July 23 crossed Rs 100 and is now back among the topfive Indian IT companies list in terms of market capitalisation.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2009 | 11:09 am Nifty ends above 4550; Tata Motors, Suzlon lead - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 10:12 am Controversial credit swaps to be introduced in India?India will move a step closer to the possible introduction of credit default swaps (CDS), a debt derivative that has become controversial in the background of the global financial crisis.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2009 | 10:00 am Gold prices fall on weak global cuesNew Delhi: Gold prices on Friday fell by Rs50 to close at Rs15,140 per ten gram in the bullion market here on emergence of selling by stockists influenced by weakening global trend. However, silver continued to rise on increased offtake from industrial units. Marketmen said fresh selling by stockists influenced by weakening trend in the US market last evening mainly led to fall in gold prices. Reduced offtake by retailers at existing higher levels and some funds seen shifting to rising equity market for quick gains also reduced metal demand, they said. Standard gold and ornaments which remained in demand last two trading sessions, fell by Rs50 each to Rs15,140 and Rs14,990 per ten gram respectively. However, sovereign, held steady at Rs12,475 per piece of eight gram. On the other hand, silver ready remained in demand from industrial units and recorded further gain of Rs150 to Rs22,550 per kg but weekly-based delivery lost Rs100 at Rs22,380 per kg. Silver coins also declined by Rs100 to Rs29,400 for buying and Rs24,500 for selling of 100 pieces. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:57 am 16 of America's 50 states forking out unemployment benefitsThe impact of the global financial meltdown on the USA can be gleaned from the fact that sixteen of the country's fifty states are currently doling out unemployment benefits.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:49 am Omar govt thanks HC for helping control unrest after Shopian incident - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:41 am H1N1 flu spreading, behaviour unchanged: WHOGeneva: H1N1 flu has now spread to some 160 countries, killing about 800 people, but its behaviour so far has not changed, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday. “For the moment we haven’t seen any changes in the behaviour of the virus. What we are seeing still is a geographic expansion across countries,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing. Hartl said the first vaccine doses for the disease, commonly known as swine flu, should be ready in the northern hemisphere’s early autumn. The WHO so far has promises of 150 million doses from two manufacturers for developing countries and is negotiating with other producers for further doses, which will be earmarked for the least developed countries, he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:38 am Govt imposes 3-year lock-in for telcosNew Delhi: The founders and large shareholders of Indian telecom companies can not sell their equity during the first three years of their licence, the government said, after a raft of stake sales by some new telecom licensees to foreign firms last year. “There shall be a lock-in-period for sale of equity of a person whose share capital is 10% or more,” the government said in a statement. Companies can, however, sell new shares by way of private placement or public issues during the period, it said. Foreign telecoms firms such as Telenor and Etisalat last year bought stakes in India’s nascent licensees at many times the price the firms had paid to acquire the permit. This had prompted the telecoms regulator to recommend a three-year lock in for founder’s equity and any sale within that period needed government approval. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:35 am Gold prices likey to ease by Sept-end, may rise afterMumbai: The gold prices are expected to ease by end-September as the rupee is likely to strengthen and domestic demand may be subdued, a Reuters poll showed. However, the yellow metal may harden in the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 on rising inflationary concerns worldwide, but is not expected to test its record of Rs16,040 struck in late February. “We expect good inflows in India and hence gradual rupee appreciation, which may weigh on gold,” said a dealer with a state-run bank in Mumbai. The rupee is up nearly 8% from its record low of 52.2 hit in early March, due to huge foreign capital inflows into the stock markets. The most-traded August contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange was 0.12% down at Rs14,904 per 10 grams at 2:28 pm. Expectations of further gains in global equity markets and inflows into local stocks is keeping sentiment on the Indian rupee buoyant, currency traders say. The exchange rate is critical for gold prices as much of the metal in India is imported and paid for in dollars. But domestic demand, driven mostly by rural India may be dented after an exceptionally dry patch since the start of the rainy season may affect farm income to the 60-70% living in the rural areas. “Lack of demand for the yellow metal may weigh on prices. Rural demand may get affected due to below normal monsoons,” said Pinakin Vyas, chief manager treasury with IndusInd Bank, who sees gold touching 13,800-14,200 in the third quarter. India’s gold sales is already reeling under pressure due to high prices and economic slowdown. Total imports stood at 63.4 tonnes from January to June, down 54.4% in the year-ago period, data from the Bombay Bullion Association showed. This is expected to changed over the next two quarters. “Basic support would coming in from inflation creeping up back again into the system,” said Kishore Narne, head of commodities research, Anand Rathi Commodities, adding “money that went out of gold due to risk aversion would return.” Anand Rathi expects gold to be at Rs17,750 by December-end. Gold is considered as a safe hedge against inflation. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:31 am Vodafone reassures with uneventful Q1, shares riseLONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone firm by revenues, reported a slight decline in quarterly organic sales in line with muted expectations and reiterated its full-year outlook, lifting its shares on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:23 am Shares rise 0.8% on corporate earnings optimismMumbai: Indian shares rose 0.8% in noon trade on Friday, as optimism about corporate earnings outlook drew investors after a spate of results beat market expectations. Outsourcer Infosys Technologies and top power-equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals were among the major gainers. Maruti Suzuki raced to an all-time high, a day after the leading carmaker reported an expected 25% jump in quarterly profit on higher sales and lower raw material costs. Other automakers Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors also rallied. “The latest quarterly results have shown that most companies are exceeding analyst estimates, and this means the domestic economy is doing well,” said Gopal Agrawal, head of equity at Mirae Asset Global Investment Management. “So if there is a global revival, India will be much better off than others.” Traders said short-term investors were looking to take profits after the market jumped 13.7% in almost two weeks. By 02:50 pm, the 30-share BSE index, Sensex, was up 0.83%, or 125.84 points, at 15,356.88, after falling 62 points at one stage. Diversified cigarette maker ITC Ltd and top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp were among the major losers. Governments around the world have pumped trillions of dollars into corporate rescues and economic stimulus measures that are appearing to be successful, boosting investor confidence in global equity markets. The BSE index has outperformed most other major benchmarks across the globe, soaring almost 90% from a 2009 low in early March on the back of the worldwide stocks rally. This has stoked concerns about rich valuations, but the slew of strong corporate results have bolstered hopes for further earnings upgrades. The 50-share NSE index, Nifty, was up 0.89% at 4,564.20. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:21 am ICICI Bank accused for violating RBI guidelines: PranabNew Delhi: ICICI Bank was twice issued letter of warning or advisory note in last two years for violating Reserve Bank of India guidelines, Lok Sabha was informed Friday. In 2007-08, ICICI Bank was accused for violating RBI guidelines/directives relating to opening of deposit accounts, which led to a fictitious accounts being opened by fraudsters at the bank’s Patna branch. The bank was issued ‘Advisory Note’ in December 2007 and a letter of warning in April 2008 for its irregular dealings in securities in Hong Kong, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a written reply. Besides ICICI Bank, some other banks including Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank, HSBC Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab Ltd were issued letters of displeasure by the RBI for violating FEMA guidelines or with regard to opening of deposit accounts, the minister said. In another written reply, he said RBI performs various functions which, inter-alia, include monetary management of the country, management of foreign exchange and domestic debt of the government, regulation and supervision of banks, financial institutions and non-banking finance companies. These functions are derived from the provisions of various statutes such as the RBI Act, 1934, The Indian Coinage Act, 1906, The Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and others. Mukherjee said the objective of assigning these responsibilities to RBI is to have a coordinated approach towards orderly growth of banking and other financial services, strengthening financial system of the country, promoting synchronised development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in the country. He, however, said that “as and when any such issue of conflict of interest come to the fore, appropriate remedial measure is taken to remove the conflict, depending upon the state of preparedness of the system.” Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:15 am POLL - India gold seen easing by Sept-end, may rise afterMUMBAI (Reuters) - India gold prices are expected to ease by End-September as the rupee is likely to strengthen and domestic demand may be subdued, a Reuters poll showed.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:12 am Monsoon weak in sugarcane, corn areas - govt - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:11 am UK economy shrinks much more than expected in Q2London: Britain’s economy shrank more than twice as fast as expected in the second quarter to register its biggest annual decline since comparable records began in 1955, official data showed on Friday. The Office for National Statistics said GDP fell by 0.8% on the quarter, taking the annual decline to 5.6%. Analysts had forecast a quarterly decline of just 0.3% after a hefty 2.4% drop in the first quarter. The figures suggest that recovery could take longer than expected and may boost expectations that the Bank of England could yet add more stimulus to the economy, having already cut interest rates to a record low and embarked on a £125 billion quantitative easing programme. The economy has now shrunk for five consecutive quarters with a cumulative decline of 5.7%. That is more than double the drop seen in the recession of the early 1990s and not far off the 6.4% contraction experienced in the recession of the early 1980s. A breakdown of the figures showed business services and finances, a sector that has boomed for much of the last decade, accounted for more than a quarter of the GDP decline in the second quarter. Overall, services fell by 0.6% on the quarter and by 3.8% on the year. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:10 am India sees Doha breakthrough by end 2009New Delhi: India expects a breakthrough in the Doha round of trade talks by the end of 2009, even though it is not changing its stance, as the stalled negotiations are expected to gain momentum from September, the country’s trade secretary said on Friday. Last year, trade ministers came close to a deal, but the talks collapsed over a dispute between the United States and emerging economies spearheaded by India over proposals to help farmers in poor nations. “A breakthrough could be expected by this year-end. But modalities are some time away,” Rahul Khullar told the agency in an interview. India and the United States have initiated talks after elections in the two countries. Indian trade minister Anand Sharma and US trade representative Ron Kirk have agreed to work together towards resolving “outstanding issues”. Khullar said New Delhi would host a mini-ministerial meeting on 3-4 September, to be attended by ministers from 35 countries, to discuss ways of taking the trade talks forward. “Come September-end and the whole thing will gather some momentum. But it is plainly unrealistic to assume that the Doha Development Round talks would conclude by end of 2009,” he said. New Delhi had not changed its stance and would continue to demand cuts in tariffs and subsidies from the United States and the European Union, Khullar said. “You can’t expect a sudden change in anyone’s stance.” Shrinking Trade The Doha Development Round was launched in late 2001 to boost global trade and help developing countries increase exports by lowering trade barriers. But the global economic crisis has prompted some countries to adopt protectionist policies aimed at supporting domestic industries and averting massive job losses. World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy on Wednesday said world trade volumes were expected to shrink 10% this year, although Asia was leading a recovery in global trade. India’s exports started declining in annual terms last October, and Khullar said a recovery was still not in sight. “The export scenario is one of serious concern. The base year effect will start wearing off after September, but we cannot predict whether there will be a recovery after that or not.” India announced a series of relief measures for exporters, including tax breaks and subsidies, but it was not enough to prevent money-losing companies from cutting jobs. “We know certainly that labour-intensive industries like gems and jewellery, textiles and leather have suffered,” Khullar said. “Has the situation improved? Yes, there are some signs of revival, maybe because of the stimulus packages or a revival of demand abroad. But the situation has still not returned to normal.” Asked if existing incentives could be extended to next year, Khullar said: “We are watching the situation. Come December, let’s see the situation and then we will make a call.” He said the government was unlikely to change the rules for tax-free exporting units, even though some had halted expansion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 9:07 am ITC: no hostile buy of rival hotel chainsKOLKATA (Reuters) - Diversified firm ITC Ltd is not interested in hostile takeover of hotel chains EIH Ltd and Hotel Leelaventures, ITC chairman said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:47 am Nine central banks join settlement systems groupZURICH (Reuters) - Nine central banks -- including those from China and India -- have joined the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS), the Bank for International Settlements said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:43 am TRAI for redefining floor broadband speed at 2MbpsThe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today indicated that the Government should redefine broadband services making it mandatory for operators to offer at least 2Mbps speed.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:35 am A fifth of Goa's ore exports illegal, says oppositionGoa's Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar has alleged that nearly one-fifth of the state's mineral exports are illegally mined.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:31 am Cheaper grain’s only one part of a Food Security ActThe President’s address to Parliament has clearly laid out the priorities of the government. A crucial component of this is the proposed National Food Security Act. Although the broad contours of the proposed Act are yet to emerge, it appears less likely from media reports that it will be significantly different from what was proposed in the manifesto of the Congress party. What the Congress suggested in its manifesto is that the Act will guarantee 25kg of grain to all BPL households at Rs3 per kg.  There are three essential components of this proposal that need to be fleshed out. And these revolve around the issues of what and how much to give, at what prices and to whom. There is less ambiguity on the first issue of what and how much. The present entitlement for the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) is 35kg of foodgrains per poor household. The Congress party manifesto, however, promises only 25kg per month, way below the minimum nutritional norms. Secondly, the present BPL (below poverty line) or AAY entitlements are only for foodgrains (rice and wheat) and do not provide for any other nutritional requirements such as pulses, an essential source of protein. For a nutritionally secure strategy, it is imperative that a minimum 5kg of pulses be added to the basket. Also Read Himanshu’s earlier columns The second key issue is at what price. While the manifesto of the Congress party promises rice or wheat at Rs3 per kg, this is no better than the existing entitlement of the AAY. It is, in fact, higher than existing price of foodgrains available to the BPL population in as many as eight major states of the country—Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. These states account for 35% of the rural population. With Madhya Pradesh promising to follow suit, at least 40% of the rural population already enjoys food at Rs3 per kg or less. However, the third issue is the most crucial, which it is the number of beneficiaries that will be covered by the proposed food security Act. The promise made by the Congress party in its manifesto limits the entitlement to only BPL families. It is here that there is a lack of consensus between the states and the Union government. Going by the present methodology, the government estimates that 65 million households are BPL households and makes the foodgrain allocations to states based on this. This number may go down to less than 60 million if the 2004-05 estimates from the Planning Commission are taken as the basis instead of the 1993-94 poverty figures that form the basis of the current estimates. Against this, the total number of households that have been issued either a BPL or AAY card by state governments is 106.7 million. The state governments are currently doing this by providing additional subsidies from their own budgets. In Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, for instance, it is almost universal, with around 80% of the population covered under the subsidized food scheme. Any attempt to restrict the number of beneficiaries to the present official poverty estimates (which are known to be flawed) will, therefore, lead to a reduction in the number of beneficiaries to almost half the existing number. Further, an Act should at least guarantee as much as is already being given. While the estimate of poverty is one issue of contention, how to identify the beneficiaries for effective targeting is also unresolved. The problems with both these are well known and have been officially acknowledged with two expert committees working on resolving these. The first committee headed by Suresh Tendulkar has been set up to examine the issue of estimation of poverty used by the Planning Commission and the second led by N.C. Saxena has been set up by the ministry of rural development to identify a suitable procedure for identification of BPL households. Both these committees are due to submit their report. Providing subsidized grains is only one aspect of a food security Act. Such an Act should also address other issues such as malnutrition, especially among children and women, and social vulnerabilities due to barriers of age, caste, gender and disability. Existing schemes such as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme or the Anganwadi programme for children under 6, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers should also be brought into the ambit of the Act with strengthened universal entitlements. Such an Act has the potential to ensure that no person in the country sleeps hungry, and this must be realized. Himanshu is assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi. Farm Truths looks at issues in agriculture and runs on alternate Wednesdays. Respond to this column at farmtruths@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:15 am Bharat Forge Q1 net plunges; shares up on revival hopes - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:09 am Action from India, China needed on climate change: USWashington: US has said “meaningful action” from India and China is necessary to make any substantial progress on climate change. “If we are going to make progress on climate change, we need meaningful action not only by the developing world and the US, but by the developing world, including countries like China and India,” assistant secretary of state for public affairs, P J Crowley, said. Climate change would appear prominently when the US and Chinese officials meet next week for their first strategic and economic dialogue under the Obama administration. Some 150 top Chinese officials are landing in the US next week to participate in the two-day dialogue to be inaugurated by President Barack Obama. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:04 am Hindustan Construction net increases 22 percentOperating profits of construction major Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) rose 22 percent to Rs.112 crore for the first quarter this fiscal, as compared to Rs.91 crore posted in the year-ago period.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 8:00 am Multi-crore business in illicit drugs thrivingThe maximum of such illicit products are in the "fast moving drug category" which includes medication for cough, fever, cold and even Viagra.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:56 am China's Beijing Auto says fails in bid for GM's OpelBEIJING (Reuters) - China's Beijing Auto said intellectual property issues were behind its failure to reach an deal with General Motors over its Opel unit.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:55 am Indian monsoon weak in sugarcane, corn areas: govtNew Delhi: India’s monsoon rains remain weak in the states of Bihar, the country’s leading corn producer, and Uttar Pradesh, which normally produces more than half of India’s sugarcane, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said on Friday. The weather office has forecast only scanty rain in these regions in the next three days, and from 26 July it has predicted widespread rains only in northeastern India and the west coast. India’s cotton, corn and oilseeds sowing was almost normal despite deficient monsoon rains this year, but sugarcane planting had dropped by 122,000 hectares from a year ago, Pawar told Parliament. The June-September monsoon rains began with an exceptionally dry phase in the first five weeks, but rainfall has improved in the past two weeks in most parts of the country. Total rainfall in India was 15% above normal in the week to 22 July, but was still 19% below normal for the 1 June-22 July period. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:55 am Maruti at all-time high, up 11-fold in six years - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:50 am Merck Q2 net profit falls 48%By Frankfurt: German drug and chemical maker Merck KGaA said Friday its second quarter net profit fell 48% as higher research costs and one-time effects from the acquisition of Serono weighed on the bottom line. The Darmstadt-based company reported a net profit of €108 million ($153 million) in the April-June period compared with €207 million a year earlier. Sales for the quarter were nearly unchanged at €1.9 billion. The company changed guidance slightly on some of its business units, but reiterated its previous overall guidance of 2009 group revenues remaining steady or rising up to 5%. The group’s return on sales is expected at between 15% and 20% for the year. “It is clear to see that the world remains in the midst of the economic crisis,” Karl Ludwig Kley, the company’s chief executive said. “Merck is also feeling its effects but to a lesser extent than many companies. ... We are able to continue investing in the development of innovative products that will secure our future.” The company said its research and development costs jumped by about a quarter to €341 million in the April-June period, which was attributable to clinical trials on medicines. Also, it said it booked a charge of €146 million related to the acquisition of Serono, a Swiss biotechnology company Merck bought in 2006. In terms of divisions, Merck said Serono revenues increased 6% in the quarter to €1.3 billion, with the multiple sclerosis treatment Rebif; cancer treatment Erbitux; and infertility medicine Gonal-F accounting for half the division’s sales. The performance chemicals division reported a near 8% decline in sales to €297 million, as the global recession pinched demand. “The pigments business remains under pressure due to the weakness in the global automotive industry,” the company said in its report. Merck also makes liquid crystals, which are used in television and computer screens. The liquid crystal division saw sales fall to €189 million, down 21% from the year ago quarter. However, Merck said total revenues for the liquid crystal division have climbed steadily since the beginning of the year, suggesting that the bottom of the slowdown was reached in December 2008. Shares of Merck closed down slightly at €73.43 on Thursday. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:46 am Transport strike cripples life in West BengalNormal life came to a standstill in West Bengal Friday as commercial vehicle operators went on strike to protest the state government's decision to implement a high court order banning all commercial vehicles that are over 15 years old.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:32 am Bharat Forge Q1 net plunges; shares up on revival hopesMumbai: Bharat Forge Ltd on Friday reported a sharp drop in first-quarter profit from a year ago, but shares jumped on hopes higher sales and margins from the March-quarter is a signal the firm has turned the corner. The world’s second largest forgings maker reported a standalone net profit of Rs9.6 million from Rs265.6 million a year ago, as sales almost halved to Rs3.5 billion from Rs6.37 billion. But sales rose over 20% from January-March, while operating margins widened to 22% from 18.9%, spurring optimism among analysts and traders. “Though year-on-year their numbers may continue to fall for the next two-three quarters, their performance is improving,” said Vaishali Jajoo, analyst at Angel Broking. “They have grown both on domestic and export front sequentially, that is boosting sentiments as some core business is reviving,” Jajoo said. Exports grew 19.7% sequentially to reach Rs1.42 billion. It dropped 52% on year. “Sequentially although production was up only 21%, revenues were higher, exports were higher and EBITDA has improved both in terms of margins and absolutes,” Amit Kalyani, executive director, told the agency over the telephone. “Basically it’s a combination of cost compression, focus on new products and non-automotives starting to pay off,” he added. The firm is also betting heavily on its non automotive segment which contributed 32% of total sales this quarter. “If you look at the kind of products we are talking about, high end products going into energy sector etc, then realization per tonne is higher than the automotive side,” Kalyani said. He said the firm is expecting this division’s contribution to rise to more than 40% to revenues by FY12. The non-automotive business segment makes components for aerospace, construction, mining, marine diesel and power. “The company itself has said the outlook is changing for the positive. They have seen some volume pick-up, domestic and globally sequentially,” an analyst at a local brokerage told the agency. “Right now they are at the bottom of the cycle, but we are seeing slight recovery. In these firms even if we see some signs of a recovery it is taken as a big positive,” the analyst said, explaining the positive share movement. Bharat Forge shares which rose as much as 9.7% following the results, were trading up 6.65% at Rs169.90 in the Mumbai market. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:32 am Samsung Elec sounds caution despite big profitSEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest maker of memory chips and LCD screens, joined other top tech names to rein in growing optimism over the sector's recovery, even after delivering best quarterly profit in 2-½ years.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:26 am SBI net seen up; ICICI may see slower growthMUMBAI (Reuters) - State Bank of India, the country's top lender, is likely to say on Thursday quarterly profit rose 22.5 percent on robust bond trading income, but rival ICICI Bank will see slower growth as it cuts back on loans.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:21 am HC issues notice to Gammon India in Delhi Metro mishap caseNew Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday issued notice to Gammon India, a contractor in Delhi Metro Rail project, on a petition filed by the family members of victims of the 12 July mishap, seeking compensation. Justice Rewa Khetrapal directed the company to file its response by 20 August when the matter will be taken up for further hearing. The court passed the order on a joint petition filed by family members of four persons who lost their lives in the mishap. Six persons, including an engineer, were killed and over a dozen others injured when an under-construction over-bridge of the Delhi Metro collapsed on 12 July in south Delhi. The petitioners pleaded before the court that the family of the deceased should get a compensation of Rs50 lakh each while injured persons should be given Rs25 lakh each. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:13 am IRDA to finalise M&A, IPO rules in couple of monthsNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's insurance regulator will finalise rules on mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings by insurance companies in a couple of months, its chairman J. Hari Narayan said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 7:03 am No plans to change rules on stake sale fund use - minNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government will take up stake sale in state-run firms on a "case-by-case" basis and has no plans to change the guidelines for using the disinvestment proceeds, minister of state for finance S.S. Palanimanickam said in a reply to Parliament on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:59 am Samsung Electronics sounds caution despite big profitSeoul: Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest maker of memory chips and LCD screens, joined other top tech names to rein in growing optimism over the sector’s recovery, even after delivering best quarterly profit in 2-1/2 years. Increasing competition from rivals such as Sony and LG Electronics and a potential rebound in the Korean currency may put pressure on Samsung’s bottomline in the second half. Thanks to a turnaround in its memory chip business and robust sales of TVs and mobile phones, along with a weak won, shares in the South Korea powerhouse have returned as an investor darling, rallying 50% so far this year, beating the broader market’s 33% gain. “Operating profit may be affected by a possible appreciation of the Korean won and intensifying market competition,” said Robert Yi, Samsung’s head of investor relations. LG Electronics, which competes with Samsung in handsets and TVs, said on Wednesday its profit margin in mobile phones could ease in the third quarter due to marketing costs and price pressure. On Thursday, top software maker Microsoft posted the first-ever drop in annual sales of Windows and offered little hope for a turnaround until next year, while top handset maker Nokia last week cut its profitability and market share forecasts due to tough competition at the top end of the market. Samsung said it would be prepared for a possible slowdown in the LCD business, where it battles home rival LG Display, in late 2009 and early 2010, as price competition between TV set makers might heat up. “LCD prices are unlikely to recover much due to signs of a supply glut,” said Chang In-whan, chief executive and fund manager at KTB Asset management. Technology Gap Still, some investors remain confident in Samsung’s ability to withstand any challenge thanks to its sheer size and engineering advances. In chips, Samsung looks poised to make the most of a nascent recovery in the global memory chip sector following a 2-year-old industry slump, as it enjoys a technological edge over rivals such as Elpida Memory. Higher chip prices also helped Hynix Semiconductor, the No. 2 maker of memory chips, post a sharply narrowed net loss on Friday. Hynix is expected to swing to an operating profit in the current quarter. “Samsung Electronics will benefit the most from the current chip sector recovery as it is the market leader in the most advanced mass produced DDR3 chips,” said Kim Sung-in, chief technology analyst at Kiwoom Securities. “One of our worries is that its handset unit may not do as well as the markets’ hyped-up expectations. Memory chips and flat panels will be the biggest supporter of Samsung Electronics’ second half earnings,” Kim said. April-June net profit rose 5% to 2.25 trillion won ($1.81 billion) from a year ago, beating an average forecast for 1.68 trillion won in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts. Samsung’s consolidated operating profit came in at 2.52 trillion won, within its earlier guidance of 2.2-2.6 trillion. Samsung’s shares barely moved, ending up 0.74% compared with a 0.41% rise in the wider market, as the results were in line with guidance provided on 6 July. Hynix shares also closed 0.3% lower. “Samsung shares are underperforming as strong earnings were widely expected following the company’s earnings guidance,” said Song Kyung-keun, a market analyst at Dongbu Securities. “Shares have gained a lot, and there is some profit taking going on now.” Samsung’s semiconductor business posted a consolidated operating profit margin of 4%, a strong turnaround from its 13% loss margin in the previous quarter. The industry leader swung to a profit in its LCD business. But in mobile phones, where Samsung ranks behind only Nokia, the telecom division’s profit margin edged down to 10% in the second quarter from 11% in the first. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:53 am Vodafone reports in-line sales, reiterates outlookLondon: Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone firm by revenues, reported a slight decline in organic sales, in line with muted market expectations, as strength in India and Africa compensated for European weakness. Organic service revenue fell 2.1% in the quarter to end-June but reported group revenue rose 9.3% to £10.743 billion ($17.74 billion), thanks to positive currency effects and a higher stake in South Africa’s Vodacom. The group, the first of Europe’s major telecoms carriers to report this quarter, reiterated its reduced full-year guidance on Friday for flat or slightly lower profits. It has not given precise guidance for full-year revenue. “Nothing wildly exciting in the results, which is kind of good,” said one London-based analyst who asked not to be named. US carrier AT&T pleased investors on Thursday with a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit and flat sales. Spain and Britain continued to show sales declines as the economies in those countries remained weak, and other pockets of weakness appeared in Germany and in Romania, where currency effects hurt the results. Italian revenue grew by 3%. Cuts in mobile termination charges, which operators charge to connect incoming calls to their networks, reduced roaming as tourists and business people cut down on travel, and lower spend by prepay customers all hurt Vodafone’s revenue. Vodafone added 8 million customers in the quarter, taking its proportionate customer base to 315 million. Verizon Wireless, its US joint venture with Verizon Communications, had 1.1 million net customer additions. Vodafone’s data revenue grew 19% organically to £888 million. Free cashflow rose 21%to £1.896 billion, while the company’s net debt at 30 June stood at £31.2 billion. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:39 am BSE Sensex rises 0.2 pct; Maruti continues rallyMUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose 0.2 percent on Friday, as optimism about corporate earnings outlook drew investors after a spate of results beat market expectations.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:35 am Dentsu aims for 10% sales growth in Europe, USTokyo: Japan’s largest advertising firm, Dentsu Inc, aims for annual sales growth of 10% from its existing American and European operations in the next five years and is interested in acquiring companies in Britain, the CEO of the firm’s US operations said. Dentsu, the world’s fifth-biggest advertising firm, earns less than 9% of its revenue outside Japan, and it is prioritising overseas expansion as a recession and declining population crimp the domestic advertising market. Dentsu last year acquired McGarry Bowen, one of the largest independent advertising firms in New York, following its acquisition of Attik in San Francisco in 2007. The company is now looking to boost its digital advertising business in the United States and Europe, while bolstering its UK operations through acquisitions, said Tim Andree, president and chief executive of Dentsu Holdings USA who also oversees Dentsu’s European business. “Investing in creative agencies in the United States is finished and I am happy with where we are, but we have to grow both our digital capability as well as our traditional media capability in Europe and America,” Andree told the agency in an interview. “Primarily in the UK right now, I would suspect that one of our potential strategies will be to acquire companies so that we can get some scale to our operations quickly,” said Andree, who last year became the first non-Japanese executive officer in Dentsu’s 108-year history. Andree said Dentsu is targeting annual sales growth of 10% in its North and South American as well as European operations in the next five years, purely via organic growth. “In the UK, I think we’ll grow significantly faster than that,” said Andree, a 6-foot-11 (211 cm) former professional basketball player who was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and played in Europe and Japan. Andree declined to comment on whether Dentsu is interested in the Razorfish online advertising agency that Microsoft Corp has reportedly put up for sale. Playing Global For years Dentsu has been trying to raise its global presence by forming alliances with other firms, and it holds a 15% stake in France’s Publicis. But the Tokyo-based firm struggled to win global clients amid stiff competition with bigger rivals such as Omnicom Group of the United States and Britain’s WPP Group. In the three years since Andree became the head of US operations, however, Dentsu America’s revenues from Japanese clients have fallen to less than 50% of the company’s total from 85%, meaning the company is becoming more dependent on local clients. Analysts have said that overseas growth is key for Dentsu’s future as the company already dominates the Japanese market with more than a quarter share. Dentsu in May reported a fourth-quarter loss and forecast a weaker recovery than expected this year as client companies tighten their marketing budgets. Masato Araki, an analyst from Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, said Dentsu needs overseas M&A to achieve its business targets including an operating profit of ¥70 billion in the year to March 2014, up 62% from the year ended in March. “I’m very curious to know how they plan to achieve the 10% growth (in US and Europe) without M&A,” said Araki. “The overseas M&A situation is tough because all the major firms are looking to buy prominent agencies. But if Dentsu succeeds in buying Razorfish, for example, then that would be a big plus,” he said. Dentsu is scheduled to announce details of its new medium-term business plan on 29 July. Shares of Dentsu closed up 2.2% at ¥1,914, outperforming a 1.6% rise in the benchmark Nikkei average. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:31 am Ericsson says downturn hitting marketStockholm: Telecom gear maker Ericsson posted higher-than-expected core earnings on Friday but said the impact of the economic downturn on its key mobile networks market had become more notable. The world’s top mobile equipment maker reported operating earnings of 6.9 billion Swedish crowns ($913.6 million) in the second quarter, excluding restructuring charges and its loss-making joint ventures. That exceeded a mean forecast of 6.0 billion in a Reuters poll and 4.7 billion in the year-ago quarter. “It’s a bit of a mix. On the negative side we have the cautious comments on the macro environment — this will get noticed and should be seen as a warning sign for the later part of the year,” West LB analyst Thomas Langer said. Ericsson has so far been left largely unscathed by the economic downturn, sheltered by robust sales in China and strength in its services business, while growing its share of a shrinking market for mobile network gear. Sales at the group rose to 52.1 billion crowns in the second quarter from 48.5 billion a year ago, just lagging the 52.9 billion seen by analysts. However, adjusted for comparable units and currency swings, sales were down 3%, it said. Downturn Weighs More However, many analysts expect worse to come as operators slash capital expenditure to weather deep recessions on both sides of the Atlantic, weighing on equipment sales for manufacturers such as Ericsson and competitor Nokia Siemens Networks. Only this week, Norwegian operator Telenor cut its capital expenditure target as did Belgium’s second-biggest mobile operator, Mobistar, majority-owned by France Telecom, and analysts at Morgan Stanley said more spending cuts were likely to follow. “The effects of the global economic climate on the mobile infrastructure market are now more notable, especially in markets with currencies under pressure and tougher credit environment,” said Ericsson chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg. Svanberg, due to step down at the turn of the year and assume the chairmanship of BP, said the firm’s cost savings target remained at 10 billion Swedish crowns ($1.32 billion), from the second half of 2010. While Ericsson has managed to safeguard earnings in the face of the financial crisis, some of its smaller rivals are hurting. The NSN joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, the world No. 2 mobile networks maker, skidded to a second-quarter operating loss and France’s Alcatel-Lucent, due to issue its April-June report on 30 July, ran a loss in the first three months of the year. Ericsson and China’s Huawei Technologies, which shot to the No. 3 spot in the mobile networks market in the first quarter, have been winning market share this year at the expense of NSN and Alcatel-Lucent. Analysts also saw some upbeat signals in the report. “On the positive side we have the margins, that were better than expected,” Langer of West LB said. “This compensates for slightly weaker sales.” The company reported gross margin of 36.3% in April through June, above the mean forecast of 35.7% seen by analysts but down from the 37% posted a year ago. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:28 am Sensex surges 187 points in opening tradeThe Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose over 187 points in opening trade, extending its rising streak for the second session today.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:22 am Govt imposes 3-year lock-in for telcos - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 6:07 am Madras Cements Q1 net up 21% - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:45 am South Korean companies bullish on ultra-thin LED TVsSuwon, South Korea, : South Korean electronics companies are betting super-thin LED televisions will usurp the slightly fatter competition. Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest seller of LCD TVs, is confident that still slimmer ones backlit by energy-efficient light-emitting diodes — hence the name LED — are on track to become the industry standard. “We believe the future of the LED TV market will be constantly growing and eventually it will be replacing the current LCD and PDP category,” Yoo Mi, senior manager in Samsung’s digital media and communications business, said in a recent interview. LCD stands for liquid crystal display while PDP refers to plasma display panel, currently the two dominant technologies in flat televisions. Sam Kim, vice president in the TV product planning department at LG Display Co., said in a separate interview in Seoul that LED TVs are technically LCD TVs backlit by LEDs. LED TVs emit a sharper picture and consume less energy, but are pricier than current LCD TVs. Samsung’s Yoo said that on average Samsung’s are about $600 to $800 more expensive. LG Display’s Kim said that LED TVs remain expensive because they need a “substantial number of chips inside. All companies, including LG Display, are trying to minimize the number of chips.” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung launched an array of LED TVs in various sizes in March and sold 500,000 during the first 100 days, according to company figures. The company sold nearly 21 million LCD TVs last year. Market research company DisplaySearch predicts global demand for LCD TVs with LED backlights this year will exceed 3.6 million, but steadily increase to about 64 million in 2012. LG Electronics Inc. said last month when it launched two new LED LCD televisions that it aims to become the world’s second-biggest seller of LCD TVs. It also predicted that the proportion of LCD TVs using LED technology will grow from 2.6% this year to 20% next year and expand to 40% by 2011. LG Electronics, which owns a 37.9% stake in LG Display, said Wednesday that unit sales of flat panel TVs, especially those with liquid crystal displays, rose 45% in the second quarter to a record 4.28 million from the same period last year. Samsung said Friday that net profit rose 5.2% from the same period last year to 2.25 trillion won ($1.81 billion) amid higher sales, including for flat screen TVs. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:33 am United Breweries net profit up 54 percentLiquor major United Breweries's net profit increased 54.09 percent to Rs.355.5 crore for the quarter ended June 30 from Rs.225.9 crore in the same period a year ago.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:31 am Ombudsman to ensure implementation of welfare schemes: MinisterAn ombudsman will be appointed to ensure that welfare schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are implemented properly, Minister of State for Rural Development Agantha Sangma said here.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:31 am Toyota to end California JV with GMTokyo: Toyota Motor Corp. is moving toward liquidating its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, the Japanese automaker said Friday. Toyota has decided to begin discussions with the “Old GM” toward dissolving the joint venture, said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco. “Since GM pulled out, we’ve had to look at all kinds of things we could do,” Nolasco said. “Toyota right now is in a really difficult situation. We’re pressed to make hard decisions.” He said it will take time for Toyota to “work out how to wind down” the Fremont, California-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. A GM spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment. The plant’s fate was thrown into question last month when GM announced it was withdrawing from the 50-50 joint venture. GM emerged from bankruptcy protection shortly after the announcement and the company’s stake in NUMMI is now part of Motors Liquidation Co. — also known as Old GM — where it will be liquidated under court supervision. The NUMMI plant, established in 1984, employs 4,600 workers and makes the Pontiac Vibe station wagon for GM, and the Corolla compact car and Tacoma pickup truck for Toyota. Toyota has been reexamining its US strategy after plummeting US auto sales helped drag it to its worst-ever overall loss for the fiscal year ended in March. On Monday Yoshi Inaba, president of Toyota Motor North America and chairman of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said the Japanese automaker was carefully evaluating its options for NUMMI and hoped to make a decision “as quickly as possible.” He said Toyota was studying whether it could be economically viable in the future and considering factors such as the company’s idle factory space, labor and image. California represents Toyota’s largest market within the US California lawmakers have held discussions with the company about ways of keeping the plant open. The United Auto Workers union represents employees at the joint facility and their labor contract expires next month. The joint venture was developed to have American workers learn Toyota’s production methods, which were much leaner and more efficient. The UAW has not been able to organize workers at a Toyota plant in the US. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:20 am Titan may report marginal rise in Q1 netMumbai: Watch and jewellery retailer Titan Industries Ltd will report a marginal growth in first-quarter profit on slow sales amid an economic slowdown, analysts said. Profit may rise 2.42% to Rs330 million while revenues may increase 11.41% to Rs9.02 billion, a Reuters poll of brokerages showed. “We expect low double-digit sales growth in the watch business,” brokerage Motilal Oswal said in a report, adding jewellery sales would grow between 10% and 20%. Titan Industries has five watch brands, two jewellery retail chains -- Tanishq and Goldplus -- and an eyewear chain Titan Eye+. The company sells watches under its premium brand Titan and economy brand Sonata. The modest sales growth will be driven by a strong increase in gold prices and stable growth in watches, brokerage Macquarie said in a report. “We expect watch sales to be flat during the quarter and jewellery SBU (strategic business units) sales to grow just 8% y-o-y primarily driven by 20% rise in gold prices,” CLSA Asia Pacific Markets added. However, the Bangalore-based retailer is likely to see a marginal dip in operating profit margins due to higher contributions from its jewellery segments, an analyst from a local brokerage told Reuters. “Over 70% of Titan’s sales come from the jewellery segment which has lower margins compared to watches. This may put pressure on its bottomline,” the analyst said. “It will be a muted quarter for them due to the slowdown in consumer spends,” he added. “Improvement in consumer sentiment and stability in gold prices holds the key to volume growth in the coming quarters,” the report by Motilal Oswal said. Titan is scheduled to report quarterly results on 27 July. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:07 am Mumbai braces for highest tide in 100 yearsNearly 200 people have been evacuated from coastal areas, warnings have been sent out to those in low-lying regions and schools have advised students to stay at home as India's financial capital braces for a massive 5.5 metre high tidal wave, billed as the highest in 100 years, to lash it Friday afternoon.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:00 am Sensex moves up 126 points in early tradeA key index of the Indian equities markets opened stronger Friday, moving up 126 points from its last closing figure about five minutes into trading.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 24 Jul 2009 | 5:00 am Retailers likely to post revenue growth of 15-25%, say analystsMumbai: Organized retailers are expected to report higher net profit and revenue for the three months ended June, benefiting from a turnaround in consumer sentiment and falling rentals, according to industry analysts. The earnings season for retailers begins 29 July when Shoppers Stop Ltd announces its results for the quarter. Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, Shoppers Stop, Vishal Retail Ltd, Koutons Retail India Ltd, Trent Ltd and Provogue India Ltd are the only listed retailers in the country. A March report by global consulting firm KPMG estimated the size of the organized retail market at $25 billion (Rs1.21 trillion at today’s rates).  Photo: Ashesh Shah/Mint “Pantaloon is doing well as its main focus is value retailing and will outperform its competitors—Shoppers Stop, Vishal Retail, Koutons and others,” said Kunal Lakhan, an analyst at Mumbai-based brokerage KR Choksey Shares and Securities Pvt. Ltd. Koutons, which surpassed analyst estimates in the March quarter, would also post a higher profit from the preceding quarter, he said. Pragati Khadse, an analyst at Mumbai-based brokerage IIFL Capital (institutional equities), said profit growth for the firm is likely to be significantly higher than in the past two quarters because of lower interest costs although revenue growth could slow. “For Pantaloon, sales growth will continue to remain muted at 21% year-on-year due to the subdued same-store sales growth as well as slowdown in new space addition,” she said. Same-store sales growth is a statistic comparing sales of stores that have been open for a year or more. Pantaloon had sales growth of 35.5% in the year-ago quarter. Space addition has slowed due to the credit crunch last year, and the company would not be able to benefit from lower staff costs by moving employees to subsidiaries because it had done so in the previous quarter, Khadse said. India’s retail growth in recent years has been driven by an increase in disposable income, a favourable demography, changing lifestyle and high potential for penetration into urban and rural markets, the KPMG report said. With the onset of the global economic slowdown, Indian retailers have been hit by a credit crunch that has all but halted expansion. Retailers have shut stores that have not been profitable and cut costs, particularly rentals, by renegotiating prices agreed upon in better times. A number of retailers have experienced a decline in sales since October 2008 through March this year, resulting in an inventory pile up. This quarter, said analysts, the tide could turn as consumers start to spend again. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has projected a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of at least 7% for the current fiscal at a time when mature economies such as the US are in recession.  Pantaloon had sales growth of 35.5% in the year-ago quarter. Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint “With the increase in sales the top line is improving, (and) at the same time rentals have come down significantly. In some cases the commercial rentals have fallen by 40% from the peak,” he said. “Retailers had also taken various cost cutting measures during the economic downturn like consolidating operations, shutting down stores, reducing manpower (and) rationalized operational costs.” Pantaloon posted sales of Rs1,381.38 crore in the June quarter last year and a net profit of Rs32.53 crore. Shoppers Stop had sales of Rs303.18 crore and a loss of Rs15.32 crore in the same period. Vishal Retail earned Rs396.90 crore of revenue and a profit of Rs14.01 crore while Koutons posted net sales of Rs157.84 crore and a profit of Rs10.84 crore. However, analysts as well as the KPMG report caution that it would take at least 12-18 months beginning April for retailers to return to the growth they enjoyed in the years preceding the slowdown. The segment grew at about 50% between fiscal 2006 and 2008, but fell to 15% growth in fiscal 2009. “The current slowdown is expected to last 12-18 months conditional on government incentives in increasing spends on infrastructure, development initiatives and other activities to stimulate (the) economy,” KPMG said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 4:36 am Stocks to watch: ONGC, Idea, Infosys, Reliance - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 4:19 am Rupee rises by 5 paise to 48.39 a dollar in opening tradeMumbai: The rupee strengthened by 5 paise at 48.39 in opening trade today as strong rally in the stock markets raised hopes of more capital inflows by foreign funds. Dollar’s losses overseas also supported the Indian rupee. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit gained 5 paise to quote at 48.39 a dollar over the previous close of 48.4445/4550. Yesterday, rupee ended 7.50 paise higher after the BSE closed 2.61% higher. Forex dealers said hopes of increased capital inflows by foreign funds in line with better trends on the other Asian equity markets and dollar’s weakness against other currencies mainly supported the Indian rupee. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 4:19 am Indian outsourcers vie for $1 bn BP dealBangalore: India’s top outsourcers, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, are vying with global rivals for up to $1 billion deal from oil major BP, the Economic Times reported on Friday. Wipro, India’s No. 3 IT firm, and Mahindra Satyam are also competing with IBM and Accenture for the contract to be awarded in August, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed person with knowledge of the matter. A spokeswoman at Infosys declined comment on the report, while Tata Consultancy spokesman said the company does not comment on customer specific issues. Officials at Wipro and Satyam could not be immediately reached. BP, which has outsourced most of its application development, system integration and infrastructure management works, to about 30 firms including IBM, Accenture, Mahindra Satyam and Infosys, wants to bring down the number of vendors, the paper said. A BP spokesman told the paper the company was reviewing its IT services providers and the process was nearing an end, but he would not confirm numbers of current or future technology service providers. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2009 | 3:41 am US SEC reviews progress on restatement of Satyam a/cs - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2009 | 2:16 am Strong numbers make it a jubilant day for India IncOil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, the upstream oil company, and Ambuja Cements Ltd, a Holcim group company, saw their net profit falling for the April-June quarter over the same period last year, on an otherwise happy day for India Inc, whenSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Infrastructure sector grows 6.5% in JuneNew Delhi, July 23 Green shoots, budding sprouts or whatever else you may call it, an economic recovery does seem under way.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am ACC net profit surges 85% in Q2; Ambuja Cements’ falls 44%Mumbai, July 23 It was a mixed bag for two Holcim-owned cement companies for the second-quarter ended June 30,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am HT Media (Rs 102.75): BuyWe recommend a ‘buy’ in HT Media from a short-term perspective. It is evident from the charts that after recording an all-time low of Rs 35 in early March, the stock reversed direction and began to trend northward. Since this low, theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Major reservoirs on the riseChennai, July 23 With the monsoon registering a 15 per cent surplus for the week ended July 22, the major reservoirs in the country have begun to receive bounteous inflows.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideThe near-term outlook remains positive as long as DLF trades above Rs 357. We recommend a buy with stiff stop-loss. Avoid trading in ICICI Bank as the stance is cautious. Initiate fresh short-position ifSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Union Bank net soars 94% on high non-interest incomeMumbai, July 23 Union Bank of India’s net profit surged 94 per cent to Rs 442 crore for the quarter ended June 2009, against Rs 228 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The rise in net profits was driven by non-interest income,Source: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Low crude prices, discounts hit ONGC netNew Delhi, July 23 Lower crude oil prices and discounts given to public sector refiners have led to ONGC registering a 26.9 per cent dip in its net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal. The company has reported a net profit of RsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Oil refiners sold more, lost more in June as demand soaredMumbai, July 23 June was a tough period for the oil marketing companies from the viewpoint of mounting losses on subsidised fuels such as petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene. It was a month when demand for petrol and diesel literally wentSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am Results lift market spiritsWhile the market began on a strong note on Thursday thanks to strong Asian markets, better-than-expected results from a host of companies across sectors lifted the spirit further. So far 12 companies out of the Sensex 30 have announced theirSource: Business Line - Home Page | 24 Jul 2009 | 12:00 am ONGC net dips 27 percent in first quarterThe net profit of state-run energy major Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) dipped for the fourth consecutive quarter, declining 27 percent to Rs.4,847.92 crore (about Rs.48.48 billion) for the quarter ending June 30 owing to lower oil prices.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 23 Jul 2009 | 11:33 pm HDFC net up 20 percent in first quarterHousing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) has seen its net profit for the quarter ended June 30 increase over 20 percent to Rs.565 crore, as compared to Rs.468 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 23 Jul 2009 | 11:30 pm Direct tax collections up nearly 4 percentIndia's net direct tax collections increased 3.65 percent in the first quarter this fiscal, but the growth was stymied on account of a 52-percent jump in refunds and lower corporate tax collection, the government said Wednesday.Source: IndiaeNews.com: Business News | 23 Jul 2009 | 11:03 pm Bharti net up 24%; MTN kitty ready - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 23 Jul 2009 | 10:54 pm Satyam funnelled crores through hawala: CBIThe CBI has established that the Raju brothers were funnelling around Rs12 crore every month from Satyam through hawala.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 9:41 pm Satyam probe: SEC team hereThe Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US has sent a fact-finding mission over the Satyam scam.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:29 pm Marico sees cooling hair oil a hot segmentFMCG player Marico Ltd is looking at increased contribution from newer category products that it is currently test marketing.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:26 pm AI best case is a breakeven in FY12SBI Caps, the management consultant appointed to suggest a financial restructuring plan for Air India, has presented the airline with the best case scenario.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:22 pm Manganese Ore share split on cardsSteel ministry has proposed splitting Manganese Ore (India) Ltd shares to bring down the face value to Rs 10 from Rs 100 in order to increase the number of outstanding shares.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:18 pm Hindujas return to junked power plant projectHinduja group is planning to revive its Andhra Pradesh power project plan mothballing since the last 15 years.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:16 pm Accenture hugely short on hiringAccenture, the multinational consulting firm, has failed to meet its hiring target in India for the current year in the wake of the global slowdown.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:13 pm Experts debate on how Air India can revive itselfIts crunch time for Air India as it gets ready to submit a restructuring plan to the government. The national carrier posted a loss of over a billion dollars in FY09, it owes Rs 16,000 cr to banks and another Rs 1,200 cr to the AAI and oil marketing companies (OMC), so what can the airline do operationally to make things better.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2009 | 8:07 pm See credit growth for FY10 at 25%: OP BhattOP Bhatt, Chairman, State Bank of India (SBI), sees 25% credit growth in FY10, reports CNBCTV18. SBIs loans in the period April to June grew from Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2009 | 6:11 pm Armstrong dares to dream of a resurgent AOLShortly after Tim Armstrong took over as chief executive of AOL, he asked to see the list of business deals that were being negotiated. He saw 900 of them. It was too many by far. “If you looked through the deal sheet, would you have been able to see the strategy of the company?” he asked. “I had a hard time.” The deals were small and incremental. At best, he said, “you would have thought it was a small- to medium-size Internet company.”  Five-point strategy: Tim Armstrong, CEO and chairman of AOL, wants the weary and beaten-down company to grow again. Rick Wilking / Reuters Armstrong plans to outline his five-point strategy on Friday for the company at an all-hands meeting under a large tent on its half-empty campus near Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Beyond talking about business lines, however, Armstrong’s primary challenge is to address what he calls AOL’s “crisis of confidence.” He wants the weary and beaten-down company to grow again. “AOL has a choice to make,” he said. “We either lose slowly or win quickly. We are choosing to win quickly.” Nine and a half years after Steve Case combined the company with Time Warner, AOL suffers from myriad problems. It has long since lost the mantle of king of the Internet to Armstrong’s former employer, Google. It has suffered through wrenching waves of mass layoffs, management turmoil and constant bickering with its corporate parent. Time Warner plans to shed the unit by year end. Meanwhile, AOL struggles with the prospect of fading into irreversible irrelevance, a collection of tired brands for a shrinking core of customers hanging on mainly because they are too lazy to change their AOL.com email addresses. This year, AOL is expected to post revenue of about $3.2 billion, down 38% in two years. A majority of that revenue is advertising, but AOL’s 6.2 million remaining customers for its dial-up Internet service are highly profitable and the most avid readers of its content. About 200,000 of them cancel service every month. Armstrong and a core group of managers brought from Google are trying “to change the DNA of the company”, in the words of Jeffrey A. Levick, a long time aide to Armstrong who is now the president of AOL’s advertising unit. “People put numbers on the board and I say, ‘You are missing a lot of zeros and a lot of commas,”’ he said. “I don’t think people have talked that way around here since the days of Steve Case.” Investors just see zeros when they think about the potential value of an independent AOL. “Expectations from myself and Wall Street for AOL are still dire,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Capital. Still, he said the choice of Armstrong to run the company “is far better than we would have expected”. And if Armstrong leads even a modest turnaround in AOL, it “could surprise people and lead to substantial upside”. The market value of AOL after the spinoff to Time Warner shareholders will depend on how much debt Time Warner saddles it with. Greenfield said AOL may be worth $2 billion to $3 billion, far less than its $20 billion valuation in 2005, when Google invested $1 billion in it—a deal Armstrong helped negotiate. Armstrong has long thought big. Levick worked at an advertising agency in Chicago when he met Armstrong, who was selling an early form of advertising for a tiny search engine named Google. “Here was a man standing at a whiteboard drawing the picture of all advertising all coming in through one place, Google,” Levick said. “I don’t think even anyone saw how big this was going to be, but Tim’s plan was for this to be bigger than anyone’s wildest imagination, even the people at Google.” Despite having the wealth that comes with being one of Google’s early employees, Armstrong, 38, said he was lured to AOL to create a new kind of media company. “One of the biggest challenges in the media business is also one of the biggest opportunities,” he said. “If you tried to recreate AOL’s assets, it would be incredibly expensive.” Before Armstrong can move forward with his strategy, he must stabilize AOL’s ranks. In the last three years, the company has had three chief executives and five heads of ad sales. Armstrong’s plan is to compete directly with Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to become the dominant network for display ads. Armstrong says the company’s technology, with the data it has on millions of consumers accumulated over nearly 25 years, will give it an edge. “Nobody owns the display space today,” he said. The combination of specialized content and display advertising, he said, should make AOL appealing to large consumer products companies with big marketing budgets such as Procter and Gamble. ©2009/THE NEW YORK TIMES Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2009 | 5:09 pm India managers more upbeat during crisis than China’s In fact, corporate India exudes greater optimism about managing the impact of the global slowdown—and emerging stronger from the storm—than China Inc., though China’s economy is forecast to grow at a faster clip of at least 7% this year. This confidence is reflected in a Bain and Co. global survey, which found that a large majority of Indian executives believe their companies responded proactively to the downturn: Only two out of 10 felt their firms waited too long to act. In China, 40% of managers felt their firms’ response was slow, while for rest of Asia Pacific the figure was 34%. Also See Crisis management (Graphics) Also, less than half of Indian managers agreed that unclear decision making authority has hurt their company’s performance whereas nearly two-thirds of Chinese executives thought so. Our 2009 survey of executive views on business trends further shows that less than 40% of Indian managers think their decisions are guided by short-term financial considerations instead of long-term strategies. In China, 54% of executives believe short-term financials dictate their decisions. The research covered at least 1,400 managers across the world, including nearly 130 from India and 100 from mainland China. The survey showed distinct differences between Indian and Chinese managers and provided new insights into how they think their companies are handling the global downturn—and where their organizations are headed when the economy recovers. Globally, it showed that Indian managers, when compared with their counterparts in North America, Europe, and the rest of Asia, were the most confident on a range of business issues as they ride out the downturn. For example, the survey showed that 80% of Indian managers believe their company will use the downturn to improve its competitive position, compared with 70% of Chinese and a similar number of North American executives. While it is impossible for more than half of the companies to improve their competitive position, the finding illustrates the comparative level of confidence on the part of Indian managers. The survey also asked executives about the importance of international growth. It found that close to 90% of Chinese executives still feel international growth will be vital to their firms’ performance in the next five years. China is facing a significant slump in exports, which fell at least 21% in June compared with June 2008. To counter this slowdown, China has acted swiftly to boost domestic demand by implementing a nearly $600 billion (Rs29 trillion) stimulus package. Domestic consumers have responded—as seen in retail sales rising at least 15% in June against the same month last year. The stimulus has also resulted in a surge in fixed asset investments, with the number of new projects up 96% in January-May year-on-year. But this massive programme will take time to percolate across the entire economy and build momentum for higher gross domestic product (GDP) growth. In India, where domestic growth has so far held up and provided a protective cushion to the economy, as many as 72% of executives feel international growth is crucial for the future. But it is clear that India needs to do more to boost domestic demand and must invest in infrastructure if it is to achieve its ambition of returning to 9% GDP growth. However, there are some common themes as well. The vast majority of executives in both China and India—85% and 89%, respectively—still believe innovation is more important than cost-cutting for long-term success. In North America, a significantly lower 67% hold the same view. The reduced enthusiasm for innovation in the world’s biggest economy is understandable: When a company’s survival is at stake, innovation often takes a back seat. This sentiment is a sharp contrast to the late 1990s which was seen as a great period of innovation in corporate America, especially in the information technology and biotechnology sectors. What everyone seems to agree on is that the established ranking of companies is likely to change. Only about a quarter of the respondents—consistent throughout the world—expect today’s market leaders to be top-ranked five years from now. But a major reordering of industry leadership ranking presents both strategic opportunities as well as risks, with more firms recording dramatic changes than in normal times. A Bain study that analysed the net profit margins, sales growth and shareholder returns of at least 750 firms showed that in the 2001 US recession, nearly twice as many companies moved from the top to the bottom of the pack compared with the subsequent period of economic growth. This downturn has the potential to have similar outcomes, especially given the fact that it will be more prolonged. The survey shows the majority of executives in Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America are preparing for the slowdown to last at least until early 2010. Until then, companies need to monitor the environment and, if possible, seize opportunities to enhance their strategic position and strengthen their core business. The following represent four elements of a game plan that every company should consider: • Balance your company’s short-term financial stability (through cost competitiveness) with long-term investment, with an emphasis on innovation • Protect—and grow—customer loyalty by focusing on promoters of your brand and converting those who are “passive” or lukewarm into promoters • Manage complexity—organizational, product and process—so that your organization remains nimble in the downturn. However, separate complexity that benefits your business from what hurts the organization • Keep an outward focus: look for acquisitions if your company’s cash and strategic positions are strong, and keep an eye out for expansion possibilities in new segments and new geographies Sri Rajan is a partner with Bain & Co. in New Delhi and leads the M&A and private equity practices in India. David Mountain leads the financial services practice in India and is based in Bain’s Mumbai office. Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint Respond to this column at feedback@livemint.com Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2009 | 3:35 pm Cement demand in north, east India strong: ExpertsDemand for north and east India is still strong while west and parts of south India are seeing pressure on prices, say experts.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2009 | 1:41 pm Tata Motors says eyeing Indonesian marketJakarta: Tata Motors Ltd, India’s largest vehicle maker, is conducting a feasibility study to market its cars in Indonesia, a senior company official said on Thursday. Indian vehicle manufacturers, including motorcycle-makers Bajaj Auto Ltd and TVS Motor Co Ltd, already have production plants in Indonesia. “We have a whole spectrum of products. We’ll see what the market requires. We plan to look at this market very seriously,” said Amarjit Singh Puri, senior general manager for government affairs and collaborations, at Tata Motors. “We need to identify which segment we should bring in and what products we should bring in. We’ve just started the feasibility study. It could take between three to six months.” Tata Motors has a plant in Thailand and has sold nearly 600 one-tonne pick-up trucks since entering the Thai market about a year ago. Separately, Dilip Chenoy, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), said there are several Indian car manufacturers who are interested in Indonesia because of the country’s stable economy. “Indonesia’s economy is still positive. And it’s a growing market,” said Chenoy. Indonesia, along with China and India, posted positive growth in the first quarter of this year. The economy expanded 4.4% in the first quarter and is estimated to have grown by 3.7% in the second quarter. Domestic car sales in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy are expected to reach 450,000 units in 2009. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 23 Jul 2009 | 1:29 pm Moser Baer settles Philips case, sees stable profits aheadMoser Baer has said it has settled the case with Philips relating to license and patenting. In an interview to CNBCTV18, Moser Baer said the case would bring in stability for the company and would end volatility, which was impacting its profits.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2009 | 10:53 am No cash? Go to a shop, not ATM!According to an RBI announcement, you can now swipe your debit card at any pointofsale terminal, and withdraw up to Rs 1,000 per day.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 23 Jul 2009 | 10:13 am
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