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40% import duty on sugar is required: Sakthi SugarsIn an interview with CNBCTV18, M Manickam, Managing Director of Sakthi Sugars, spoke about the happenings in the sugar sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 8:42 am Ashok Leyland May vehicle sales surgeAshok Leyland, India\'s secondbiggest truck and bus maker, said on Friday its total vehicle sales more than trebled to 6,502 units in May.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 8:34 am JP Associates eyes growth in cement, constructionDiversified firm Jaiprakash Associates plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore (USD 640 million) in 201011, mostly to add cement capacity in a market growing in doubledigits, a top official said on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 8:24 am Current order book at Rs 7,100cr: Welspun CorpIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Akhil Jindal, Director, Welspun Group, speaks about the latest happenings in his company and sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 8:20 am Oil industry grapples with risk, volatile pricesOil\'s steep drop of more than USD 20 a barrel over three weeks last month, sparked by European debt woes, underscored market volatility from stocks to commodities and the fragile state of global economic recovery.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 7:58 am AIG not decided on Asia unit\'s future: SourcesAmerican International Group Inc CEO Robert Benmosche asked the insurer\'s board for time to explore options besides a public offering for its Asian life unit after a USD 35.5 billion deal to sell it to Prudential Plc fell apart, a source familiar with the matter said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 7:57 am BP puts containment cap on gushing Gulf well pipeBP made promising strides in its latest bid to capture some of the oil spewing from its ruptured deepsea well in the Gulf of Mexico, while President Barack Obama called off an overseas trip and prepared for another visit on Friday to the spillstricken US Gulf Coast.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 7:57 am Pru chairman says no change at top over AIAPrudential\'s management team is under no pressure to step down over the British insurer\'s failed USD 35.5 billion bid to buy AIG\'s Asian life unit, Chairman Harvey McGrath said in an interview published on Friday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 7:57 am Washington Post fields several bids for NewsweekAt least four interested parties appear to have submitted bids for Newsweek, the magazine that The Washington Post Co put up for sale on May 5.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 7:57 am Coal India benchmarks premium coal to foreign ratesStateowned Coal India Ltd, the world\'s largest coal miner, will increasingly benchmark its premium grade coal to world prices, a company official said, a move that could be seen as a step towards energy pricing deregulation.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 6:54 am India will not pause rate hikes for now - MukherjeeBUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - India will keep unwinding economic stimulus deployed during the financial crisis and continue raising interest rates despite uncertainty linked to euro zone's debt woes, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 4:02 am ANALYSIS - Wealthy Qatar tries to build niche as conflict mediatorDOHA (Reuters) - Sudanese rebel leaders, far from the war in Darfur, whiled away their free time in recent months smoking fruit-flavoured waterpipes and dining at all-you-can-eat buffets in Doha luxury hotels as peace talks wore on.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:57 am BP puts containment cap on gushing Gulf well pipeVENICE, La. (Reuters) - BP made promising strides in its latest bid to capture some of the oil spewing from its ruptured deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico, while President Barack Obama called off an overseas trip and prepared for another visit on Friday to the spill-stricken U.S. Gulf Coast.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:53 am INTERVIEW - Jaiprakash eyes growth in cement, constructionMUMBAI (Reuters) - Diversified Indian firm Jaiprakash Associates plans to invest 30 billion rupees ($640 million) in 2010/11, mostly to add cement capacity in a market growing in double-digits, a top official said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:47 am Sensex on firm foot; SBI, HUL, DLF, ITC, Maruti up - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:43 am Doubts over global economy return as G20 meetsBUSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Leading policymakers expressed concern on Friday about the health of the world economy even as they closed ranks behind the euro zone's efforts to tackle a debt crisis that has rattled global markets.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:43 am India to ease sugar stock limit for big buyers: Sources - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:40 am Nobody will resign over failed AIA bid: PrudentialNobody will have to resign from British insurer Prudential Plc's top team over the collapse of its USD 35.5-billion bid for AIA as it has the support of the board and a majority of the shareholders, a media report said.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:39 am Commonwealth Games tickets now on sale - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:37 am Why Infosys' top execs got huge compensation - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:36 am ‘India to ease sugar stock limit for big buyers’New Delhi: India, the world’s top sugar consumer, could decide before August to allow large consumers to keep bigger stocks of the sweetener as prices keep dropping and supplies are likely to rise, officials said on Friday. Hit by poor domestic supplies, India in February had barred large consumers like soft drink and confectionary makers from holding sugar stocks needed beyond 10 days — a move that had helped retail consumers in the tightly supplied market. In May, the limit was relaxed to 15 days as local supply scenario improved and global prices eased. “The limit will be relaxed,” said a food ministry official, who did not want to be identified. Another official said the ministry would review the rules on stock limits before August, when the current restrictions are set to lapse. Improved production outlook in Brazil and India, the world’s two top producers, has halved the price of New York raw sugar futures that had hit a 29-year peak of 30.4 cents a pound in February. Raw sugar futures closed 0.05% up at 13.99 cents a lb on Thursday as dealers saw prices moving in a range for the near term, with any stronger gains capped by big crop expectations in Brazil and India. Last year, India had allowed overseas purchase of white and raw sugar to calm local prices as supply fell by 44% to 14.7 million tonnes last year due to the worst monsoon in nearly four decades. The government had also asked millers to sell sugar in the open market on a weekly basis, instead of on a fortnightly basis. However, output prospects improved for the current marketing year that began in October 2009 to 18.5 million tonnes, as heavy late monsoon rains over northwest India, the main cane producing belt, improved sugar recovery. India’s sugar output in 2010-11 is likely to rise to 24-25 million tonnes, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said, indicating a likely halt in imports as output would exceed demand for the first time in three years. With the supply situation improving and prices falling, the government is likely to review the measures taken last year to ensure domestic supplies. Also, a panel of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to meet on 10 June to consider a tax on white sugar imports as millers fear a flood of cheap imports, a food ministry official told Reuters on Thursday. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:30 am Sensex moves up amid volatile tradeThe BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday crawled up in choppy trade amid mixed cues from other global markets.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:29 am Godrej Consumer sees inflation softening Q1 earnings - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:25 am India gold buying perks up a tad; $1,200-level eyedMUMBAI (Reuters) - India gold buying picked slightly on Friday as prices fell for a second day, with traders waiting for the $1,200 an ounce level to replenish stocks, dealers said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:24 am Hindalco FY10 consol net surges(Versus the same period a year earlier, in billion rupees unless stated)Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:17 am Access to markets in India at a price, says official - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:11 am HUL buyback offer only a sentiment booster: Angel Broking - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 3:10 am S.Korea fin min: it's not time to loosen grip - Reuters
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:57 am World stocks near 2-wk highs on U.S. jobs expectationLONDON (Reuters) - World stocks hovered just off two-week highs on Friday and the dollar clung to recent gains ahead of U.S. jobs data that is widely expected to show recovery is gathering pace in the world's largest economy.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:46 am Developers cool to record deal, stay cautiousNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's biggest land deal, a 40 billion rupees for a parcel of land in Mumbai last week, is not going to be the trendsetter for the realty industry still groggy after the 2009 slump, builders and analysts say.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:42 am Developers cool to record deal, stay cautiousNew Delhi: India’s biggest land deal, a Rs4,000 crore for a parcel of land in Mumbai last week, is not going to be the trendsetter for the realty industry still groggy after the 2009 slump, builders and analysts say. “The deal is fairly valued and we have sufficient cashflows to make initial payments,” said managing director Abhisheck Lodha of the Mumbai-based Lodha Group, which has five years to settle the payment and has plans for an IPO. But in a country where developers are still reeling under the excesses of property boom of 2004-07, there is no hurry to emulate Lodha as demand for residential properties shrinks in Mumbai after prices touched an all-time high. “It’s madness again,” said Pranay Vakil, chairman of India unit of international property consultancy, Knight Frank, referring to Lodha’s record purchase. “This definitely means property firms are turning optimistic, as similar land auctions last year fetched no bidder.” Vakil said aggressive bids are not good for companies as high prices have hit sales volumes in land-scarce Mumbai. Volumes have dropped by about ten percent since November but this may not impact prices, Abhisheck Lodha said. Home prices have reached a new peak in most of Mumbai’s suburbs, while they are close to their previous peaks in the plush south Mumbai localities, Kunal Lakhan, an analyst with Mumbai brokerage K R Choksey, said. The record deal is not triggering a rash of land buying by developers like in 2007. India’s top-listed developer DLF said it wasn’t looking at buying land, unless there was some ‘boutique’ property. “We are not buying land, but focusing just on execution (of existing projects),” group executive director Rajeev Talwar said. “People have learnt their lessons. They can’t get irrational now,” said R Nagaraju, vice-president, corporate planning, of Unitech, India’s second-largest listed developer. In the realty boom that accompanied India’s massive economic growth between 2004 and 2007, property firms aggressively competed with each other to amass land. “Developers took a very optimistic view and even borrowed money to buy land that couldn’t be used for years. This ultimately put them in a difficult situation,” said Lakhan. Before the Mumbai deal, in March 2008, just before the property slump, New Delhi-based BPTP won the bid for a 95-acre plot for Rs5,000 crore in the capital’s suburb, Noida. It fell through as buyer couldn’t raise funds after global crisis dried up liquidity and demand for homes in India. Property firms are still saddled with huge debt and raising funds through private equity or IPO is not easy. “It would be very challenging for real estate firms to raise funds through an IPO in current environment,” said Ambar Maheshwari, head of investment advisory at property consultancy DTZ India. Lodha’s own IPO plans are on hold till the market stabilises. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:36 am US seeks to dispel doubts on India partnershipUS president Barack Obama announced on 4 June he would visit India in November, seeking to keep the momentum in a partnership that both sides concede still needs to find its footing. “I firmly believe the relationship between the United States and India will be a defining partnership for the 21st Century,” Obama told a reception at the end of the first official “strategic dialogue” between the two nations. Obama’s announced trip -- which had been expected -- marked another symbolic step forward for US-India ties, which are growing fast despite lingering doubts on both sides. “This is an affair of the heart, not just of the head,” US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said after concluding the dialogue meetings, which brought together high-level officials from both sides and focused on Afghanistan and security as well as fast-expanding economic links. But Clinton earlier acknowledged unresolved problems as India frets over its place on Washington’s priority list and US officials grow frustrated over sometimes slow moves to open the roaring Indian economy. “We must not only build on areas of agreement, but frankly address doubts that remain on both sides,” Clinton said in her opening remarks. “With this dialogue, and the level of confidence that we have established between ourselves, we will confront these concerns directly and candidly,” she said. Clinton again publicly assured India that Washington supports its role in Afghanistan, where New Delhi fears its interests may suffer as the United States seeks to bolster its arch-rival Pakistan against Islamic militants and pursues the war in neighboring Afghanistan. She pledged stronger cooperation on security and counter-terrorism -- a nod to Indian concern that it remains vulnerable to attack from Pakistan-based Islamist militant groups such as those behind the 2008 attack on Mumbai. ‘Various vicissitudes’ External affairs minister S M Krishna also promised to do more to promote cooperation, noting that the two sides can work together on such areas as clean energy, agriculture, high technology and education. “Our partnership has gone through various vicissitudes. But one thing stands out very clearly: that it is an enduring partnership,” he said. US officials said this week’s meeting was aimed primarily at launching the consultative process, and that no big announcements would likely be made before Obama’s trip to India in November. India was a major focus for former President George W. Bush, but analysts say it appears to have slipped a bit on Washington’s radar as the Obama administration confronts crises ranging from the global financial meltdown to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Nevertheless two-way trade between the United States and India is surging, hitting more than $60 billion in 2009. American companies are eager to get better access to India’s retail, defense, education and power sectors -- although progress has been slow. Both Clinton and Krishna repeated their intention to fully implement the landmark 2008 civilian nuclear cooperation accord, which ended India’s atomic isolation following its 1974 nuclear test and could mean billions of dollars in business for US nuclear power companies. Krishna, who earlier noted that India is moving to finalize a delayed nuclear liability bill that is a final piece of the deal, said the United States should respond by loosening controls on many high-tech exports to India. “These controls are not only anomalous, but also a hindrance to furthering trade and investment in these particularly significant sectors of our economies,” he said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:35 am Low -fi, easy buy and “tell me why”On this week’s edition of the Playcast, our three intrepid hosts begin with a discussion on Facebook’s newest beta venture. The social networking site has announced ”facebook questions and answers” – where like “Yahoo ask” and “Google answers”, users will be able to ask and answer those thorny questions that confound us every day. Now despite being heavily promoted, both Yahoo’s and Google’s ventures failed, leaving us with the question “Can Facebook succeed where others before them have failed?” The site has already started asking selected users to help with beta testing by asking and answering three questions – but how will it filter questions and answers? How will it use its social networking landscape effectively? More importantly, should we all be worried? Next up, we discuss online shopping in India for products only available in the US. We look at the recently launched site 20north.com (a reference to India’s geographical position) and later talk to B. Muralikrishnan, Director-Marketing & Product, eBay India,  In our “shorter category” section, Krish introduces us to an insanely addictive and low-tech game called ‘Red square and marks the increasing dominance of the ’chip tune movement. He also recommends we watch this documentary. Sidin debates if Farmville and Foursquare deserve their places on the “Time” list of most useless inventions; and Samanth looks at what Goldman Sachs thinks of the 2010 FIFA world cup. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:16 am Jaiprakash eyes growth in cement, constructionMumbai: Diversified Indian firm Jaiprakash Associates to invest Rs3,000 crore ($640 million) in 2010-11, mostly to add cement capacity in a market growing in double-digits, a top official said on Friday. The New Delhi-based company will consider bidding for road projects by the National Highways Authority of India, in addition to two expressways it is building in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, chief financial officer Rahul Kumar told Reuters in an interview. “We are very bullish India will continue to see double-digit growth in cement demand. Infrastructure, housing and the rural sector will be the biggest drivers,” he said over telephone from New Delhi. Jaiprakash, with interests in hydropower, construction, real estate, cement and hospitality, has benefited over the past few years from a building boom in Asia’s third-largest economy to expand its road network and increase power generation capacity. It currently operates cement capacity of 19.1 million tonnes and hopes to raise this to 29 million by March 2011, Kumar said. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:10 am Coal India benchmarks premium coal to foreign ratesCurrently, most coal prices are heavily discounted by the state miner that produced 87% of India's total production of 531 million tonnes in 2009-10, as the government wants to keep power costs down and encourage industrial growth.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 2:08 am Pfizer recalls IV antibiotics, nausea medicationsPfizer is recalling the antibiotics metronidazole and ciprofloxacin and its drug, ondansetron, used to treat nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy or surgery.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:55 am McDonald’s pulls 12 mn cadmium-tainted Shrek glassesLos Angeles: Cadmium has been discovered in the painted design on “Shrek”-themed drinking glasses being sold nationwide at McDonald’s, forcing the fast food company to recall 12 million of the cheap US-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children’s jewelry. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the voluntary recall early Friday, warned consumers to immediately stop using the glasses; McDonald’s said it would post instructions on its website next week regarding refunds. The 16-ounce glasses, being sold for about $2 each as part of a promotional campaign for the movie “Shrek Forever After,” were available in four designs depicting the characters Shrek, Princess Fiona, Puss in Boots and Donkey. In the animated comedy, which debuted 21 May as the latest installment of the successful DreamWorks Animation franchise, the voice of Shrek is performed by Mike Myers of “Austin Powers” fame, Cameron Diaz performs as Princess Fiona, Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots and Eddie Murphy voices Donkey. The movie has been No. 1 at the box office since its release. The CPSC noted in its recall notice that “long-term exposure to cadmium can cause adverse health effects.” Cadmium is a known carcinogen that research shows also can cause bone softening and severe kidney problems. In the case of the Shrek-themed glassware, the potential danger would be long-term exposure to low levels of cadmium, which could leach from the paint onto a child’s hand, then enter the body if the child puts that unwashed hand to his or her mouth. Cadmium can be used to create reds and yellows in paint. McDonald’s USA spokesman Bill Whitman said a pigment in paint on the glasses contained cadmium. “A very small amount of cadmium can come to the surface of the glass, and in order to be as protective as possible of children, CPSC and McDonald’s worked together on this recall,” said CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson. He would not specify the amounts of cadmium that leached from the paint in tests, but said the amounts were “slightly above the protective level currently being developed by the agency.” Wolfson said the glasses have “far less cadmium than the children’s metal jewelry that CPSC has previously recalled.” Concerns about cadmium exposure emerged in January, when The Associated Press reported that some items of children’s jewelry sold at major national chains contained up to 91% of the metal. Federal regulators worry that kids could ingest cadmium by biting, sucking or even swallowing contaminated pendants and bracelets. The consumer protection agency has issued three recalls this spring for jewelry highlighted in the AP stories, including products sold at Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer; at Claire’s, a major jewelry and accessories chain in North America and Europe; and at discount and dollar stores. Those recalls all involved children’s metal jewelry — and all of that jewelry was made in China. Manufactured by ARC International of Millville, N.J., the glasses were to be sold from 21 May into June. Roughly seven million of the glasses had been sold; another approximately five million are in stores or have not yet been shipped, said Whitman. Associated Press reporters tried unsuccessfully to buy the glasses late Thursday at McDonald’s in New York, Los Angeles and northern New Jersey but were alternately told the merchandise was sold out, no longer available or “there’ll be more tomorrow.” E-mails sent after business hours to two spokesmen for ARC International seeking comment were not immediately returned. McDonald’s said it was asking customers to stop using the glasses “out of an abundance of caution.” “We believe the Shrek glassware is safe for consumer use,” Whitman said. “However, again to ensure that our customers receive safe products from us, we made the decision to stop selling them and voluntarily recall these products effective immediately.” Whitman said that as the CPSC develops new protocols and standards for cadmium in consumer products, “we adjust as necessary to ensure that our customers can continue to trust what they receive from McDonald’s.” Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:53 am Mitsubishi aims 70% jump in green operations ordersThe heavy-machinery maker has designated eight key fields, including integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) coal-fired power plants and lithium ion batteries, to accelerate global expansion.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:52 am Rabobank to sell stake in India's Yes BankRabobank has started negotiations with investors to sell the holding, but it may take some time for a deal to be concluded.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:50 am The Finest Quotes from the Year Gone By - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:20 am ArcelorMittal signs MoU for 6-mln-tonne Karnataka plantBANGALORE (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel maker, has formally signed an initial agreement to spend 300 billion rupees ($6.4 billion) to build a 6-million-tonne-a-year steel plant in Karnataka.Source: Reuters: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 1:06 am ITC's Deveshwar receives global leadership awardThe US-India Business Council has presented its global leadership award to ITC Limited's chairman and CEO YC "Yogi" Deveshwar in recognition of his efforts towards empowering India's rural agricultural community and conserving the environment.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:56 am Commonwealth Games to battle cricket for viewersNew Delhi: The Commonwealth Games in October are set to compete against nation’s obsession with cricket if a high-profile home series against Australia goes ahead as scheduled. Ricky Ponting’s men are due to tour India in September-October at the same time the four-yearly Games take place in New Delhi from 3 to 14 October. An official of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) said details of the tour, which is part of the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Program, were being worked out with Cricket Australia. “We have requested Australia to play two Tests and three one-day internationals instead of a series of seven one-dayers,” the BCCI’s chief administrative official Ratnakar Shetty told AFP. Australia are due to arrive in late September and must return home by 31 October, when they begin a home series of Twenty20 and one-day matches against Sri Lanka. The tour, once finalised, is certain to further annoy Indian Olympic officials, who are already seething at the BCCI’s decision not to send the men’s and women’s cricket teams to the Asian Games in China in November. “The BCCI is not taking part because there is no money to be made at the Asian Games,” said Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi, who heads the Commonwealth Games organising committee. “They think only of money. I am glad cricket is not part of the Commonwealth Games.” Although New Delhi is unlikely to figure in Australia’s itinerary, millions of television viewers will be glued to the cricket when the Games are on. Cricket has such a strong following in India that organisers of the field hockey World Cup in New Delhi in March advanced the tournament by a week so that it would not clash with the Indian Premier League. Cricket, a non-Olympic sport, was last seen at a major multi-sport event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, but was dropped for the next two editions in England and Australia. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:56 am Commonwealth Games to battle cricket for viewersNew Delhi: The Commonwealth Games in October are set to compete against nation’s obsession with cricket if a high-profile home series against Australia goes ahead as scheduled. Ricky Ponting’s men are due to tour India in September-October at the same time the four-yearly Games take place in New Delhi from 3 to 14 October. An official of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) said details of the tour, which is part of the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Program, were being worked out with Cricket Australia. “We have requested Australia to play two Tests and three one-day internationals instead of a series of seven one-dayers,” the BCCI’s chief administrative official Ratnakar Shetty told AFP. Australia are due to arrive in late September and must return home by 31 October, when they begin a home series of Twenty20 and one-day matches against Sri Lanka. The tour, once finalised, is certain to further annoy Indian Olympic officials, who are already seething at the BCCI’s decision not to send the men’s and women’s cricket teams to the Asian Games in China in November. “The BCCI is not taking part because there is no money to be made at the Asian Games,” said Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi, who heads the Commonwealth Games organising committee. “They think only of money. I am glad cricket is not part of the Commonwealth Games.” Although New Delhi is unlikely to figure in Australia’s itinerary, millions of television viewers will be glued to the cricket when the Games are on. Cricket has such a strong following in India that organisers of the field hockey World Cup in New Delhi in March advanced the tournament by a week so that it would not clash with the Indian Premier League. Cricket, a non-Olympic sport, was last seen at a major multi-sport event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, but was dropped for the next two editions in England and Australia. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:56 am Boeing aims to boost international defence salesSingapore: US aircraft and defence firm Boeing said on Friday it expects to boost its international sales to compensate for a slowdown in its home market as the US government tries to rein in defence spending. Dennis Muilenburg, President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, told reporters in Singapore that international sales would grow to 20-25% of total revenue in the next five years from 16% in 2009. He later told Reuters that the overall business would grow at a “moderate” pace, similar to the single-digit percentage rate that it had seen in the past five years. Last year Boeing’s defence business recorded around $34 billion revenue, up around 5%. “What you are going to see is kind of a moderate growth that you’ve seen over the last five years,” Muilenburg told Reuters in an interview. He also said support from Asia Pacific markets, which account for half of its international sales, and the Middle East should compensate for the slowdown in the United States as a result from tighter defence spending. US defence secretary Robert Gates’ new drive to rein in Pentagon spending may target the very operations and maintenance accounts defence companies were counting on to offset slower demand for new weapons systems. “You will see the US services (business) will be relatively flat to slightly growing, but growing faster at the international level,” Muilenburg said, although he added the overall trend was pretty stable. Asian Sales Boeing aims to sell more fighter jets such as the F-15 and the F-18, CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, aerial tankers and transport planes to South Korea, Japan, India and Australia. Korea and Japan are looking to buy the next generation of fighters where Boeing’s F-15 products are competing with more advanced models such as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and F-22, which were jointly developed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Muilenburg said he also expected more sales of C-17 transport planes to India and other international markets. Last year, the United States ordered 10 C-17 aircraft which will keep production of that model occupied until 2012. India has submitted a letter of request for 10 C-17s. If that request became a firm order, it would extend the C-17 line by another year. Boeing’s C-17 has long been a lightning rod for controversy, as the Pentagon pressures Congress to stop ordering the plane. Gates has argued that it already has more than 300 large transport planes. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:41 am Sanofi, Ascenta agree up to $398 mn cancer R&D dealParis/London: Sanofi-Aventis boosted its early-stage pipeline on Friday with a deal worth up to $398 million for rights to experimental cancer compounds developed by US biotech firm Ascenta Therapeutics. The most advanced compounds covered by the agreement, MI-773 and MI-519-64, are expected to enter preclinical development in 2010. Ascenta is working on potential medicines that would be given by mouth to reactivate the tumour-suppressing function of the p53 gene. Ascenta itself in-licensed the compounds from the University of Michigan. The US company will get an upfront payment and be eligible for milestone payments that could reach $398 million. It will also get tiered royalties on any eventual sales. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:26 am Sanofi, Ascenta agree up to $398 mn cancer R&D dealParis/London: Sanofi-Aventis boosted its early-stage pipeline on Friday with a deal worth up to $398 million for rights to experimental cancer compounds developed by US biotech firm Ascenta Therapeutics. The most advanced compounds covered by the agreement, MI-773 and MI-519-64, are expected to enter preclinical development in 2010. Ascenta is working on potential medicines that would be given by mouth to reactivate the tumour-suppressing function of the p53 gene. Ascenta itself in-licensed the compounds from the University of Michigan. The US company will get an upfront payment and be eligible for milestone payments that could reach $398 million. It will also get tiered royalties on any eventual sales. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:26 am Sanofi, Ascenta agree up to $398 mn cancer R&D dealParis/London: Sanofi-Aventis boosted its early-stage pipeline on Friday with a deal worth up to $398 million for rights to experimental cancer compounds developed by US biotech firm Ascenta Therapeutics. The most advanced compounds covered by the agreement, MI-773 and MI-519-64, are expected to enter preclinical development in 2010. Ascenta is working on potential medicines that would be given by mouth to reactivate the tumour-suppressing function of the p53 gene. Ascenta itself in-licensed the compounds from the University of Michigan. The US company will get an upfront payment and be eligible for milestone payments that could reach $398 million. It will also get tiered royalties on any eventual sales. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:26 am Gold extend losses in futures trade on global cuesTracking global markets, gold continued its slide for the second straight day and traded Rs 102 or 0.52 per cent lower at Rs 18,355 per ten gram in futures trade on Friday.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:23 am ITC’s Deveshwar receives global leadership awardWashington: The US-India Business Council has presented its global leadership award to ITC Limited’s chairman and CEO YC “Yogi” Deveshwar in recognition of his efforts towards empowering India’s rural agricultural community and conserving the environment. The award was presented to Deveshwar during USIBC’s 35th Anniversary Summit, ‘A Pivotal Period in US-India Relations: Tackling Education, Infrastructure & Inclusive Growth,’ here on 2 June. USIBC said that under Deveshwar’s leadership, ITC Ltd has invested in rural initiatives across India while embracing environmentally-friendly practices at its headquarters and field offices, besides equipping all ITC-Welcomgroup Hotels, Palaces and Resorts with green technologies. United Technologies Corporation (UTC), known for manufacturing Otis Elevators, Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines and Sikorsky helicopters, feted the ITC chairman with the prestigious USIBC Global Leadership Award. The award was previously bestowed upon corporate greats like Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji and Sunil Bharti Mittal. UTC India’s Jothi Purushotaman presented the award. The award will establish a new learning library at New Delhi in Deveshwar’s name through international literacy organisation ‘Room to Read’ as well as provide three years of associated teacher training, books and learning material, including monitoring support. ITC-Welcomgroup is India’s second-largest hotel chain. ITC Ltd, which figures in the Forbes Global 2000 list of companies, is one of India’s top agricultural exporters. The company is well-known for empowering India’s vast farming community through the provision of computer-generated information on instant pricing, weather and commodities to rural India through its innovative e-Choupal Initiative. It reaches out to more than four million farmers across eight Indian states. Deveshwar joined ITC in 1968. He was appointed as a director on the company board in 1984, and later became its chief executive and chairman on 1 January 1996. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:20 am Doubts over global economy resurface as G-20 gathersBusan, South Korea: Leading policymakers expressed concern on Friday about the health of the world economy even as they closed ranks behind the euro zone’s efforts to tackle a debt crisis that has rattled global markets. Speaking before two days of talks bringing together the world’s top 20 developed and emerging economies, South African planning minister Trevor Manuel said he could not think of a more challenging time than the present for the Group of 20. The meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors was an opportunity to take decisions to banish the spectre of a double-dip recession, Manuel said. “It’s important that we all understand just how fragile the recovery is,” he told reporters in this southern port city. Police boats patrolled near the beach hotel where the meetings are taking place. Authorities have steeped up security in the city in the face of the some of the most war-like rhetoric on the divided peninsula after the South accused North Korea of sinking one of its warships. As well as a €110 billion bailout for Greece, the 16-member euro zone is slinging a financial safety net under other heavily indebted countries that use the single currency. Together with money from the International Monetary Fund, the support could total €750 billion ($910 billion). Investors first responded enthusiastically to the rescue package, but the euro has since slumped on concern that about the ability not only of Greece, but also countries such as Portugal and Spain, to plug holes in their budgets. “First, I don’t think the Greece problem is over yet. We are not out of the woods,” Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Egypt’s finance minister, told Reuters. “Second, I don’t think they got off lightly. The measures they have been required to implement are fairly tough. And there are in some areas doubts whether they are able to continue implementing such tough measures,” Boutros-Ghali, who also heads the IMF’s policy-steering committee, said. New Clouds World stock markets have also been shaken, fearing that Europe’s woes could deal a new blow to growth. “Just when we thought we had turned the corner there are clouds on the horizon,” World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters. But speaking en route to Busan, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner expressed confidence that the global economy was strong enough to ride out Europe’s troubles. “The world economy came into this period of concern about Europe with stronger underlying momentum and growth than many people expected, and we’re in a much stronger position to get through this,” Geithner told CNBC television. Turning to the other main item on the weekend’s agenda, Geithner said the G-20 shared a commitment on the need for common standards across global financial markets that will constrain some of the risk-taking that helped fuel the 2007-08 financial crisis, the worst since the 1930s. Fierce opposition from Canada, among others, has torpedoed the idea of a global bank levy to pay for any future bailout. Rich-country taxpayers had to fork out trillions of billions of dollars to rescue banks felled by the crisis. Instead, finance ministers will work on a menu of options for their political leaders to endorse at a summit in Toronto at the end of the month with a view to making more specific commitments at a follow-up summit in Seoul in November. “Different countries’ banking sectors are in different situations. So there won’t be a a one-size-fits-all policy,” Sakong Il, chairman of the presidential committee for the G-20, told reporters. G-20 governments, with the support of the IMF, would assess the spill over effects of each member’s proposed policies, Sakong said. He acknowledged that this could make big global banks shift some of their business to take advantage of less onerous rules, a concern also expressed by Geithner. “Risk doesn’t respect national boundaries. It’s going to move to where the constraints are weakest,” he told CNBC. “We all have an important stake in making sure we have a strong set of consistent standards in place across these global markets, across these global institutions and what we’re going to try to do in Korea is to try to make sure ... we’re solidifying that consensus,” Geithner added. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:19 am Indian rupee tad stronger in afternoon tradeThe Indian rupee was trading slightly stronger in afternoon trade on the back of some gains in domestic shares while some losses in the dollar against major currencies also helped sentiment.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:10 am South Korean Ssangyong says bidders shortlisted to sixSsangyong declined to disclose the disqualified bidder among the seven, which included France's Renault SA and India's top utility vehicle maker Mahindra, for a deal worth up to $500 million.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:09 am No market access without reciprocal gains, says IndiaCriticising the ‘attempts' by rich countries to change the basic purpose of the Doha Round negotiations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from ‘development' to ‘market access', India on Thursday said it would not provideSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Hindustan Unilever mulls share buybackHindustan Unilever Ltd, on Tuesday, said its board of directors will meet on June 11 to consider a share buybackSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Food inflation rises 16.55% on costlier fish, chickenThe annual food inflation, based on the Wholesale Price Index, rose 16.55 per cent in the year to May 22, up from previous week's annual rise of 16.23 perSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am HUL buyback to indicate stock is under-valuedHindustan Unilever's (HUL) move, announced late Thursday, to consider a stock buyback doesn't come as a big surprise, despite the suddenness of theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Fertiliser industry seeks sops on sulphate of potashFertiliser firms are seeking subsidy on Sulphate of Potash (SoP). Currently, potassium chloride – better known as Muriate of Potash (MoP) – is the only potassic fertiliser covered under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS)Source: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Certificate of Deposit rates continue to remain softDespite the prevailing tight liquidity conditions, the certificate of deposit (CD) rates continued to remainSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am RCom shares rise on Etisalat tie-up talkShares of Reliance Communications continued to rise on Thursday on reports that the Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat has appointed investment bankers to advise the company on acquiring a strategic equity stake in the Anil Ambani telecomSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Emco (Rs 83.4): BuyInvestors with short-term trading perspective can buy the stock of Emco. The stock is moving in a band between Rs 75 and Rs 105 since last June. Within this band, the stock was in a downtrend since January 18 that halted at the key medium termSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am Karnataka wins mega steel, power investmentsStealing the show from the IT majors, companies in steel and power sectors were the big investors at the Global Investors Meet - Karnataka.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am FSA slaps £33-m fine on JP MorganJP Morgan Securities has been handed a £33.3 million fine after Britain's increasingly tough market regulator, the Financial Services Authority, found it in a “serious breach” ofSource: Business Line - Home Page | 4 Jun 2010 | 12:00 am India sees no firm deal on bank levy in BusanBusan: Finance ministers from the world’s 20 leading nations are unlikely to reach firm agreement on a controversial bank levy when they meet Friday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said. The issue may be pushed back to a G20 summit in Seoul in November, Mukherjee told AFP in an interview. The evy is backed by the United States and Europe but opposed by developing nations plus Canada and Australia, who say their banks did not trigger the 2008-9 crisis and should not have to pay for cleaning up the mess. Mukherjee made the same point. “Our banking system could withstand the trouble which counterparts in Europe and America had to face, mainly because of well-placed regulations,” he said. “Well-placed regulations can achieve the job which the new proposal is to achieve through taxation. We are not in favour of taxing the banks.” Mukherjee said ministers meeting Friday and Saturday in the South Korean city of Busan may “arrive at some sort of common formulation” on the issue, but decisions would be taken by their leaders. The Busan meeting is preparing for a Toronto G20 summit on 26-27 June but the Mukherjee said the levy issue may have to wait till later this year. “Perhaps the leaders would like to take more time to ponder over the issues before the Seoul summit,” he said. Ministers are attempting to shore up a fragile world recovery against the threat posed by the eurozone debt crisis. “We shall have to achieve economic recovery,” Mukherjee said. “At the same time we cannot give up fiscal prudence, so striking a balance between two apparently contradictory situations is to be achieved.” Echoing host South Korea, he said the grouping needs “to emphasise development so that strong balanced growth all over the world can take place”. The minister said he expects and hopes that Europe can contain the eurozone damage with a support package for financially distressed countries such as Greece worth €750 billion. At the current level the eurozone crisis would have little impact on India but Europe was an important export destination and source of foreign investment. “If Europe as a whole is affected by the crisis and their recovery is thrown down, then it would have an adverse impact,” Mukherjee said, reflecting widespread fears among Asian exporter nations. India on Monday reported 7.4% growth in the year ended March and Mukherjee at the time forecast 8.5% GDP growth in the fiscal year to March 2011. On Friday he said he hopes for an even higher figure and noted that the International Monetary Fund forecasts 8.8%. But the minister said securing investment in infrastructure is a major challenge. He estimated the country would need $500-600 billion in investment in the next few years, without giving a precise timeframe. Mukherjee said inflation was another important challenge, with food inflation reaching almost 21% in November before starting to fall. He expressed hope of bringing core inflation below five percent in the next year. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:56 pm Oil dips ahead of US jobs reportNew York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, shed 31 cents to $74.30 a barrel while Brent North Sea crude for July was down 16 cents to $75.25.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:43 pm Coal India benchmarks premium coal to foreign ratesNew Delhi: State-owned Coal India Ltd, the world’s largest coal miner, will increasingly benchmark its premium grade coal to world prices, a company official said, a move that could be seen as a step towards energy pricing deregulation. “A decision has already been taken that premium coal should be priced on import parity basis. That is, import price minus 15%,” A.K. Sarkar, director of marketing, told Reuters. He said some coal sold by its unit, Eastern Coalfields, was being based on the new formula since last October. Currently, most coal prices are heavily discounted by the state miner that produced 87% of India’s total production of 531 million tonnes in 2009-10, as the government wants to keep power costs down and encourage industrial growth. The company, which has led India’s hunt for coal assets overseas, is set to launch an IPO for a listing by August. The sale of a 10% stake is expected to raise roughly $2.7 billion, depending on the valuation, in what would be the biggest share sale by a state firm this year. Analysts say large scale imports of coal to feed energy-hungry India and sector reforms on the government’s agenda were paving the way for bringing prices in line with world markets. Sarkar said the benchmarking process would be expanded, but he did not give a timeframe. “We will take it forward. We are already in dialogue with some of our companies,” he said. On Wednesday, a Press Trust of India report published in Financial Express quoted coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal as saying that domestic coal will be brought on par with global rates. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:29 pm Coal India benchmarks premium coal to foreign ratesNew Delhi: State-owned Coal India Ltd, the world’s largest coal miner, will increasingly benchmark its premium grade coal to world prices, a company official said, a move that could be seen as a step towards energy pricing deregulation. “A decision has already been taken that premium coal should be priced on import parity basis. That is, import price minus 15%,” A.K. Sarkar, director of marketing, told Reuters. He said some coal sold by its unit, Eastern Coalfields, was being based on the new formula since last October. Currently, most coal prices are heavily discounted by the state miner that produced 87% of India’s total production of 531 million tonnes in 2009-10, as the government wants to keep power costs down and encourage industrial growth. The company, which has led India’s hunt for coal assets overseas, is set to launch an IPO for a listing by August. The sale of a 10% stake is expected to raise roughly $2.7 billion, depending on the valuation, in what would be the biggest share sale by a state firm this year. Analysts say large scale imports of coal to feed energy-hungry India and sector reforms on the government’s agenda were paving the way for bringing prices in line with world markets. Sarkar said the benchmarking process would be expanded, but he did not give a timeframe. “We will take it forward. We are already in dialogue with some of our companies,” he said. On Wednesday, a Press Trust of India report published in Financial Express quoted coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal as saying that domestic coal will be brought on par with global rates. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:29 pm RComm shares fall over 3% after MTN denialReliance Communications shares were down 2.1% at Rs161.05 by 0344 GMT, having fallen as much as 3.3% earlier, while the main Mumbai market was down 0.3%.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:27 pm ArcelorMittal signs MoU for 6 million tonne steel plant in KarnatakaThe deal, first announced in January, was signed on Thursday at a global investor conference organised by the Karnataka government.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:25 pm Rupee weakens by four paise against dollar in opening tradeForex dealers said that subdued opening on the stock markets also weighed on the rupee sentiment. The rupee had closed 30 paise higher, at 46.68/69 a dollar, in the previous session.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:21 pm Anil Ambani visits Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain on his birthdayAnil, along with his son arrived last night at Indore in his private jet and later drove down to Ujjain, about 55km away to take part in the bhasma aarti at the temple.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:19 pm Yes Bank surges 0.66% to one-year high on Rabobank exit reportMumbai: Yes Bank today surged 0.66% to a year-high of Rs 297.45 on the BSE, amid a media report that its Dutch investor Rabobank International Holding is planning to sell its stake in the Indian bank. Shares of Yes Bank have climbed nearly 7% since 1 June to touch Rs297.45 in the morning trade. On the National Stock Exchange, the stock climbed to a high of Rs299.30, up 1.27%. Rabobank International Holding BV held 15.9% in Yes Bank, as per March quarter shareholding pattern available on the BSE. According to a media report, Rabobank International Holding BV plans to dilute its current stake in the private sector lender because it wants to open a branch in India. Under Indian banking regulations, a foreign bank that holds a stake in a domestic bank cannot simultaneously operate a branch network in the country, the report added. Rabobank currently operates in India through Rabo India Finane Ltd, a non-banking financial company, it said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:08 pm Metals drag markets down; RCom dropsMumbai: Indian shares eased in choppy trade on Friday, with shaky Asian markets reviving worries that foreigners will keep away from risky assets. Tata Steel, Sterlite and Hindalco led the decline on weak base metal prices in London and Shanghai. Reliance Communications shed as much as 3.3% after South Africa’s MTN Group said late on Thursday it was not in talks with the No. 2 Indian mobile carrier, following a newspaper report that Reliance was mulling a merger with MTN. Hindustan Unilever bucked the trend and rose 1.7% after the top household products maker said late on Thursday its board would consider a share buyback on 11 June. By 10:27am, the 30-share BSE Index was trading down 0.15% at 16,997.10, with 18 of its components declining. The 50-share NSE index was down 0.2% at 5,099.80. “It is going to be a choppy market for some time. Monsoon should provide more cues,” said Anish Marfatia, head of sales trading at Avendus Securities. The four-month annual monsoon, which is vital for farm output and rural incomes, hit the country’s southern coast early this week as expected. The government’s weather office has forecast normal rains after the driest season in 37 years last year. Marfatia said debt problems in Europe were weighing on global risk appetite and foreign funds could pull out more from India. Foreigners had withdrawn $2 billion from Indian equities in May, sending the BSE index 3.5% down in its first monthly drop since January. They have sold around $123 million in the first two sessions of June. Tata Steel and Sterlite Industries were down 0.8% and 1.7% respectively while Hindalco declined 1%. Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, fell 0.5% to Rs1,025.70. In the broader market, gainers and losers were almost equal in number on volume of 79 million shares. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:59 pm India to see more fund inflows: Morgan Stanley - Moneycontrol.com
Source: Business - Google News | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:45 pm Rupee weakens by 4 paise against dollarThe Indian rupee depreciated by 4 paise to 46.72 a dollar in the opening trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange today, in tandem with other weak Asian currencies.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:41 pm RComm shares fall over 3 pct after MTN denialShares in Reliance Communications dropped more than 3 percent today, after South Africa's MTN Group said it was not in talks with the Indian mobile carrier about a tie-up.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:39 pm Sensex up 60 points in choppy tradeBSE's Sensex crawled up in choppy trade amid mixed cues from other global markets. NSE's Nifty also showed a surge.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:34 pm BP lowers containment cap onto crippled wellheadVenice: BP Plc managed on Thursday to lower a containment cap onto its ruptured deep-sea wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico in a high-stakes bid to siphon off some of the oil billowing from its gusher. US President Barack Obama canceled his trip set for this month to Australia and Indonesia to deal with the ongoing oil spill crisis and other matters, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The oil spill, which began in April, is causing an ecological and economic disaster along the US Gulf Coast. Obama, whose reputation is on the line over the spill, scheduled his third visit to the Gulf on Friday. The US Coast Guard in a statement said British energy giant BP had successfully attached the cylindrical well cap onto the jagged top of the crippled wellhead assembly using underwater robots. “The placement of the containment cap is another positive development in BP’s most recent attempt to contain the leak, however, it will be some time before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment,” Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said in the statement. “Even if successful, this is only a temporary and partial fix and we must continue our aggressive response operations at the source, on the surface and along the Gulf’s precious coastline,” he added. Earlier, a live video feed of the blowout site, located on the ocean floor about a mile (1.6 km) down, showed the device being placed as oil and gas continued to billow up. The latest attempt to collect at least some of the escaping crude oil and siphon it safely to collection ships on the surface offers the most immediate hope of gaining control over the worst oil spill in US history. Earlier on Thursday, BP’s robot submarines sheared away the oil-spewing well pipe after two days of attempts, clearing the way for the lowering of the cap. Following the success, BP chief executive Tony Hayward said the next 12 to 24 hours would determine whether the capping operation will succeed. “It’s an important milestone,” Hayward said in Houston, adding, “This is simply the beginning.” BP’s financial outlook -- its shares have fallen sharply since the spill began -- was further clouded as two credit-rating agencies downgraded the company’s debt, reflecting assessments that the company faces lasting damage. Oil has been pouring into the Gulf unchecked at a rate of up to 19,000 barrels a day since an explosion 20 April that demolished a BP-contracted drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 crewmen and unleashing an environmental disaster of epic proportions. BP has said it does not expect to be able to fully halt the oil flow until August, when two relief wells are due for completion, despite mounting pressure from the public and the US government. On Thursday the Obama administration said it had sent a preliminary bill for $69 million to BP and “other responsible parties” to cover oil spill costs. Obama, seeking to contain political fallout from the disaster, planned to visit the Louisiana Gulf coast again on Friday to view what has eclipsed the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history. Obama told CNN’s “Larry King Live” broadcast on Thursday night that he is “furious at this entire situation” in the Gulf because “somebody didn’t think through the consequences of their actions.” Obama said he has not seen enough of a rapid response from BP. He also cited research suggesting that a powerful hurricane could help break up the far-flung oil slick, and that a smaller tropical storm could be worse for the spill because it might leave the slick more intact while washing it further inland. The US National Center for Atmospheric Research projected that the oil slick would be driven by wind and currents around the Florida peninsula by early summer and up the East Coast, possibly as far as North Carolina. The Coast Guard said on Thursday that oil spill investigators were responding to renewed reports of tar balls and other oily debris near several islands in the Florida Keys, which extend from the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. But the substances will be tested to see if they originated from the Gulf spill. Tar balls previously found in the Keys were determined to be unrelated to the blowout. Ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch Ratings downgraded BP’s credit ratings on Thursday and said they might cut them further on rising concerns over clean-up and legal costs. Fitch, which in May admitted it had been wrong to assume that the impact of the spill on BP’s finances would be eased by insurance, said clean-up costs could exceed its worst-case scenario of around $5 billion in any one year. Shares in BP, which are traded in London and New York, had a roller-coaster day but eventually jumped in New York by 4 about percent. Elsewhere in the sector, shares of Halliburton Co. were down about 0.4% and Cameron International dropped 0.7% in late trading. Two US lawmakers have called on BP to suspend shareholder dividends until the full costs of the oil spill cleanup are calculated. London-based investment bank Evolution Securities said in a research note: “We believe BP will bow to political pressure in the U.S. and suspend dividend payments for the remainder of 2010.” Hayward, seeking to reassure the rattled residents of the Gulf coast, vowed BP would work to sop up the mess and would stay “until every drop of oil has been recovered” and will “meet our obligations to our stakeholders.” The spill has threatened to wreak havoc on the fragile ecology and economies of the Gulf Coast states while confronting the Obama administration with a key test of its ability to handle a complex and evolving crisis. In another development, the US Minerals Management Service said it would no longer approving drilling permits for shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico, effectively extending a federal drilling ban the White House had said last week would end soon. Government forecasters said part of the far-flung oil sheen had crept to within 10 kms of Florida’s Gulf coast panhandle and was expected to reach the white, sandy shore there in days. Emergency planners kept a wary eye on two powerful currents in the Gulf, the loop ring that circles the bulk of the spill and the loop current that would carry oil south toward the Florida Keys and then up around the US Eastern seaboard. They were expected to converge in 48 to 72 hours. “Once those connect, that’s it,” state meteorologist Amy Godsey said. Louisiana is the state hardest hit so far by oil, though the spill has fouled beaches in Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands of fishermen, shrimpers and other seafood workers have been idled for weeks by government fishing restrictions that cover 37% of US federal waters in the Gulf. BP could face billions of dollars in fines and penalties if a Justice Department investigation finds wrongdoing, in addition to billions from the economic liability and damages, according to legal experts. It may also find it more difficult to meet targets for expanded production in the future, analysts said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:24 pm Sensex opens negative on Asian cuesThe BSE benchmark Sensex fell by over 48 points in early trade on Friday as funds and retail investors sold stocks amid mixed Asian trend.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:22 pm ArcelorMittal signs MoU for 6-mln-T India plantArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel maker, has formally signed an initial agreement to spend 300 billion rupees ($6.4 billion) to build a 6-million-tonne-a-year steel plant in southern India.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:14 pm RComm shares fall over 3% after MTN denialShares in Reliance Communications dropped more than 3 per cent on Friday after South Africa's MTN Group said it was not in talks with the Indian mobile carrier about a tie-up.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 10:08 pm Ssangyong shortlist six biddersSeoul: South Korean SUV maker Ssangyong Motor, said on Friday it had shortlisted six out of seven firms submitting letters of intent to buy the troubled carmaker, under court-led restructuring since early 2009. Ssangyong declined to disclose the disqualified bidder among the seven, which included France’s Renault SA and India’s top utility vehicle maker Mahindra, for a deal worth up to $500 million. South Korea’s smallest carmaker is 6.2% owned by China’s SAIC Motor Corp. Barclays Bank Plc and Barclays Capital Securities Ltd are Ssangyong’s largest shareholder with a combined stake of 8.02%, Ssangyong said in a separate filing to the stock market on Friday. A Seoul court kicked off the sale process for the cash-strapped SUV maker last month, and is set to receive binding bids by 20 July to pick a preferred buyer during August. Samjong KPMG and Macquarie, which are handling the sale, declined to comment or were not immediately available. Shares in Ssangyong gained 5.2% to 14,150 won as of 0330 GMT, outperforming the broader market. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:45 pm Ssangyong shortlist six biddersSeoul: South Korean SUV maker Ssangyong Motor, said on Friday it had shortlisted six out of seven firms submitting letters of intent to buy the troubled carmaker, under court-led restructuring since early 2009. Ssangyong declined to disclose the disqualified bidder among the seven, which included France’s Renault SA and India’s top utility vehicle maker Mahindra, for a deal worth up to $500 million. South Korea’s smallest carmaker is 6.2% owned by China’s SAIC Motor Corp. Barclays Bank Plc and Barclays Capital Securities Ltd are Ssangyong’s largest shareholder with a combined stake of 8.02%, Ssangyong said in a separate filing to the stock market on Friday. A Seoul court kicked off the sale process for the cash-strapped SUV maker last month, and is set to receive binding bids by 20 July to pick a preferred buyer during August. Samjong KPMG and Macquarie, which are handling the sale, declined to comment or were not immediately available. Shares in Ssangyong gained 5.2% to 14,150 won as of 0330 GMT, outperforming the broader market. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:45 pm Japan’s finance minister set to become PMTokyo: Japan’s finance minister Naoto Kan was set to become prime minister of the world’s second-largest economy Friday, after his predecessor bowed out over the bungled handling of a US base dispute. Kan won the support of 291 lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in an election for party leader, against 129 for the only other candidate, little-known legislator Shinji Tarutoko. Parliament was expected to confirm Kan after 0500 GMT as the successor to Yukio Hatoyama, who tearfully resigned as prime minister this week over the Okinawa base row and a political funding scandal. Kan, a 63-year-old former civic activist, was also deputy prime minister in the centre-left government that came to power last year in a landslide election that ended half a century of almost non-stop conservative rule. “My first job is to rebuild the country, and to create a party in which all members can stand up together and say with confidence, ‘we can do it!´” a smiling Kan said in brief comments immediately after the party vote. “Many people entrusted the DPJ with a torch, to rebuild Japan,” Kan said Thursday when he confirmed his candidacy. “I want to carry on the torch from Prime Minister Hatoyama and realise that goal.” He said his priorities would be to revive the lacklustre economy, restore confidence in his party and root out money politics after the scandals that hit Hatoyama, who received undeclared funds from his millionaire mother. Later Friday, the new premier may announce his cabinet which pundits expect will retain many of Hatoyama’s ministers, including foreign minister Katsuya Okada, a potential rival who in the end backed Kan’s candidacy. Kan, the son of a factory manager and a graduate of applied sciences from a top university, campaigned in the 1970s for pacifist and environmental causes and entered parliament with a leftist party in 1980. His party disbanded, and he later co-founded the DPJ with Hatoyama, gaining popularity in the mid-1990s when as health minister he admitted government culpability in a scandal over HIV-tainted blood products. He took a central role when the DPJ took power last September, becoming deputy premier and heading a new National Strategy Bureau, tasked with wresting power from Japan’s entrenched and secretive state bureaucracy. In January Kan, although not a trained economist, took over as finance minister. In the post he has advocated a weaker yen and badgered the central bank to do more to help Japan recover from its worst post-war recession. He has also pushed for fiscal austerity and tax rises to reduce a ballooning public deficit that is nearing 200 percent of gross domestic product — the highest level in the industrialised world. Kan’s only rival in the DPJ leadership election was Osaka lawmaker Tarutoko, 50, chairman of the party’s environment committee. Public broadcaster NHK reported that Tarutoko had received the backing of lawmakers close to Ichiro Ozawa, a veteran backroom fixer dubbed the “Shadow Shogun” who resigned as the DPJ’s secretary general as Hatoyama stepped down. Ozawa’s faction includes about 150 of the party’s 423 lawmakers, and Kan will have to balance competing interests as he tries to revive Japan’s economic fortunes. With only weeks to go before an upper house election expected on 11 July, the new leader must quickly rebuild trust in a government whose approval rating has now slumped below 20%. “Together with you, I want to build a serious government with an upper house election victory, to realise what Prime Minister Hatoyama wanted to do,” Kan told DPJ lawmakers. Hatoyama’s support plummeted after he backtracked on an election promise to move an unpopular US air base off the island of Okinawa, enraging locals as well as the pacifist Social Democrats, who quit the ruling coalition. The row badly damaged Tokyo’s relations with Washington, which has been Japan’s bedrock security ally since World War II. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 9:39 pm Times School announces innovative business journalism courseThe Times School of Journalism has come up with an innovative business journalism course covering business and financial concepts, and finely distilled media skills.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:49 pm RIL raises $1bn in tight global money marketReliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has raised $1 billion at less than 2 percentage points above the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (Libor), which is hovering around 1.2% per annum at present.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:23 pm Anil Ambani may meet MTN officialsAnil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Communications (RCOM), is expected to travel to Johannesburg in the next few days to meet top officials of MTN for reviving a strategic partnership between the two telecom companies.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:21 pm ONGC, OIL can fix price of natural gasIn a significant development, the government has given national oil firms ONGC and OIL freedom to price any additional natural gas produced from blocks given to them on nomination basis at market rates.Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:20 pm HUL board to consider share buyback on Jun 11 times news networkHindustan Unilever on Thursday said its board will consider a proposal for buyback of its shares at a meeting scheduled for June 11Source: India Business News | Business News - Times of India | 3 Jun 2010 | 1:19 pm RIM in pact with MaestrosWith an aim to increase its market share in India, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) on Thursday entered into a pact with medical equipment-maker Maestros Mediline Systems (Maestros) to launch health care solutions in India by introducing mobile electrocardiogram eUNO R10 application in its handsets. Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:54 pm Change lady draws on a spectrumContrary to perception, Mamata actively solicits advice, across backgrounds.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:44 pm Finance ministry wants veto in GST councilNeeded, it says, to stop states outvoting the Centre on the latters policies.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 12:43 pm Offshore premia soar as BP spill hits reinsurersReinsures have bumped up prices for offshore energy-related insurance premiums by 50 per cent following insurance industry losses of up to $3.5 billion from the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Moody’s Investor Service said in a report on Thursday.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:45 am Fortis to add 1,500 beds; boost capacity by 50 pcFortis Healthcare, Asia’s largest private healthcare provider, is planning to increase its bed capacity by around 50 per cent in the current financial year.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:38 am Tanishq aborts overseas plansTata-controlled Titan Industries Ltd, which has a 4 per cent market share in the domestic gold jewellery market, has shelved all plans for taking its branded jewellery abroad.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 3 Jun 2010 | 11:34 am Ranbaxy expects $100 mn revenues from South Africa by 2010Mumbai: Ranbaxy Laboratories, India’s largest drug firm by sales, on Thursday said it expects revenues of $100 million in 2010 from operations in South Africa, which is the largest pharma market in the African continent. “With the commissioning of a new manufacturing facility, the company expects its revenues from South African operations to cross 100 million dollars in 2010,” Ranbaxy Laboratories managing director and CEO Atul Sobti said. Ranbaxy, in which the majority stake is owned by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, had reported a revenue of about $75 million from its South African operations in 2009. He said the company is setting up a new plant in the country with a capacity of 2 million doses per annum, which will be onstream this year. “The new plant, which will be the largest liquid manufacturing facility in the country, is almost ready and we are waiting for the inspection and once inspection is done, it would start production,” Sobti said. He said the total contribution from the African market is around $150 million, which is expected to go up to $200 million next year. The company also said South Africa is one of its top five markets. Ranbaxy had reported a $39 million revenue from the region for the quarter ended 31 March, 2010, with a growth of 30%. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 6:28 am UK regulator gives JP Morgan record fineLondon: Britain’s financial services watchdog has fined JP Morgan Securities Ltd. £33.32 million ($49 million) for mishandling clients’ funds. The fine announced Thursday is the largest penalty ever handed out by the Financial Services Authority. The regulator says that JP Morgan failed to segregate the client money held by its futures and options business for more than six years. Under the FSA’s client money rules, firms are required to keep client money separate from the firm’s money in segregated accounts with trust status to protect the client funds if the firm goes bankrupt. Source: World Business - Livemint.com | 3 Jun 2010 | 3:22 am
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