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RIL targets quick ramp up of 20K MW thermal power: SourcesReliance Industries is targeting a quick ramp up of 20,000 MW thermal power, reports CNBCTV18, quoting sources. The company has plans for 50,000 MW within the next 10 years.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 8:49 am See 1114% revenue growth ahead: 3i InfotechIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Amar Chintopanth, ED and CFO, 3i Infotech, spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 8:48 am Expect sector margins to take a hit ahead: Mangalam CementIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Yashwant Mishra, Senior Joint President and Marketing Head of Mangalam Cement, spoke about latest happenings his company and sector.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 8:32 am QuippoWTTIL looking to raise equity: SREI InfraMacquarie SBI Fund is planning to acquire some stake in QuippoWTTIL. SREI Infra is one of the parts, which own this stake. In an exclusive interview with CNBCTV18, Hemant Kanoria, SREI Infra, speaks about that.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 8:29 am DIPP releases discussion paper on allowing FDI in retailThe department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has released the discussion paper on allowing foreign direct investment in retail. The department is seeking comments on putting FDI cap in multibrand retail, which is currently banned.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 7:07 am QuippoWTTIL plans to sell 25% stakeTelecoms tower firm QuippoWTTIL is looking to sell between 2% and 5% stake to raise funds for growth, a director of the company said on Tuesday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 7:00 am Istithmar sells 6.9% in SpiceJetDubai\'s Istithmar on Tuesday sold its 6.9% stake in lowcost carrier SpiceJet for USD 25.3 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 6:15 am New fertilizer policy won\'t be very different: ExpertsThe existing fertilizer policy, NPS III, is being altered. The government will now bring NPS IV, a note for which is expected to go to Cabinet. How will it help, experts discussSource: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 6:08 am Citigroup weighs moving proprietary traders: WSJCitigroup Inc is weighing moving about two dozen proprietary traders to desks that trade with clients as some banks try to find new positions for star traders amid financial regulation overhaul, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 4:24 am NTPC, govt sign production sharing pactsTop power producer NTPC Ltd said on Tuesday it had signed production sharing contracts with the government for exploration blocks awarded in the eighth oil and gas blocks auction round held in 2009.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 4:24 am Volkswagen unveils entry-level sedan Vento - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 4:06 am Bafna Pharma gets UK approval for anxiety drug - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:40 am IOC starts buying Cairn's Rajasthan crude oilState-owned Indian Oil Corporation has started buying crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan oil fields, which have now crossed the 1,00,000 barrels per day mark in production.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:32 am BP approaching SWFs over strategic stakeBP executives have held talks with a number of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) including Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:32 am Hindustan Media IPO issue expensive on pricing front: HEM Securities - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:28 am BP shares rise as company says no plan to issue stockLONDON (Reuters) - Stock in BP rose on Tuesday as the British oil major ruled out a share issue and talk persisted of sovereign wealth fund interest, while its Gulf of Mexico oil slick spread to the Texas coast.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:27 am Fitch: Sub-50 percent chance of double-dip recessionLONDON (Reuters) - The risk of a double-dip recession is less than 50 percent, Brian Coulton, managing director of European ratings at Fitch Ratings told Reuters Insider Television in an interview on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:26 am Rupee largely steady as importers buy dollars - Reuters India
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:20 am Successful strike buoys opposition, for nowNEW DELHI (Reuters) - A successful national strike against high prices has rejuvenated the opposition, but their disunity may hamper efforts to force the Congress party-led government to go-slow on its reforms agenda.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:18 am Renesas Electronics to buy Nokia wireless modem opsHELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is selling its wireless modem business to Japanese Renesas Electronics for $200 million, and the companies will form an alliance to develop modem technologies.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:08 am Naval version of LCA rolled out - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:03 am Gold falls to Rs 18750 per 10g - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 3:02 am Quippo-WTTIL plans to sell 2-5 pc stakeTelecoms tower firm Quippo-WTTIL is looking to sell between 2 per cent and 5 per cent stake to raise funds for growth, a director of the company said today.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:56 am Gold falls on weakening trendNew Delhi: Gold prices fell by Rs50 to Rs18,750 per 10 grams in the national capital on Tuesday as stockists sold heavily amid sparse demand at existing high prices at home and a weakening trend in global markets. The trading sentiment for the precious metal has been cautious following the sharp fall in gold prices from their record level of Rs19,220 per 10 grams on 8 June. This has fuelled speculation that demand for gold will go further downhill from here, especially in light of the trend in global markets. Reduced offtake from retailers at existing higher levels and shifting of funds from weakening bullion to rising equity markets also dampened the trading sentiment for gold, traders said. Gold in overseas markets, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, declined by 0.5% to $1,203.15 an ounce in Monday’s session. Gold of 99.99 and 99.5% purity fell by Rs50 each to Rs18,750 and Rs18,650 per 10 grams respectively. However, sovereigns gained Rs25 to Rs14,600 per piece of eight grams on emergence of local buying. In line with the general weakening trend in bullion, silver ready declined by Rs50 to Rs29,000 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs45 to Rs 28,710 per kg. Meanwhile, silver coins continued to be traded at around the previous level of Rs34,100 for buying and Rs34,200 for selling of 100 pieces. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:54 am World stocks bounce back from lowsLONDON (Reuters) - Investors boosted global stocks strongly on Tuesday and sold the dollar, lifting equities off six- and seven-week lows.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:47 am Bajaj Auto says tie-up with Renault-Nissan intactThe company was responding to a media report that said it had scrapped the joint venture agreement with Renault for a supply agreement.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:45 am Monsoon covers entire country - Hindustan Times
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:42 am Toyota to invest $100 million for India parts outputLocal unit Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, held 90% by the Toyota group, plans to produce 100,000 engines a year starting in the fall of 2012.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:41 am Quippo-WTTIL plans to sell 2-5% stakeTelecoms tower firm Quippo-WTTIL is looking to sell between 2% and 5% stake to raise funds for growth, a director of the company said on Tuesday.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:39 am BSE Sensex extends gains to 1 pct on dayMUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex extended gains to 1 percent on Tuesday afternoon, with financials and outsourcers leading the rise, helped by improving monsoon and firm global markets.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:38 am Monsoon covers entire countryThe annual monsoon rains, a key factor that drives India's economy, have covered the vast country after a sluggish spell, a top weather official said today, boosting the outlook for farm products and rural income.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:37 am ECI Telecom gets $800 million deal with BTECI Telecom has won its largest ever contract, an $800 million deal with British telecom BT'sSource: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:36 am Monsoon covers entire countryNEW DELHI (Reuters) - The annual monsoon rains, a key factor that drives its economy, have covered the vast country after a sluggish spell, a top weather official said on Tuesday, boosting the outlook for farm products and rural income.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:33 am Istithmar sells 6.9% in SpiceJetThe investment arm of Dubai World sold 22.14 million shares to a clutch of investors at an average price of Rs53.52 per share.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:25 am Citigroup weighs moving proprietary tradersOne provision, called the Volcker rule after White House special adviser and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, would bar proprietary trading by banks for their own accounts unrelated to customers.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:24 am Sensex extends gains, IT stocks shine - Times of India
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:23 am Fujitsu to let developers test software for freeFujitsu hopes the testing will boost sales of its computer servers, aiming to double such sales to about 10 billion yen ($114 million) by the financial year starting next April.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 2:20 am Toyota to invest $100 mn for India parts outputTokyo: Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it would invest about ¥9 billion ($103 million) to produce engines and transmissions for the Etios compact car in India developed for the local market. Local unit Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, held 90% by the Toyota group, plans to produce 100,000 engines a year starting in the fall of 2012 and 240,000 transmissions from early 2013, Toyota said in a statement. The move would create about 500 new jobs, it said. Toyota is scheduled to begin building the Etios model in India in late 2010, aiming to gain a foothold in the fast-growing market by capturing a new base of price-sensitive customers. The world’s top automaker will assemble the Etios with engines and transmissions exported from Japan until local production begins, a Toyota spokeswoman said. Some of the 240,000 transmissions will be exported from India, she said, declining to disclose the destination. Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts currently produces axles, propeller shafts and manual transmissions with a workforce of about 800. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jul 2010 | 1:41 am Bajaj Auto says tie-up with Renault-Nissan intactTwo-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto said today its partnership with Renault-Nissan alliance to make an ultra low-cost car was intact and the project was on schedule.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 1:31 am Toyota to invest $100 mln for India parts outputTOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it would invest about 9 billion yen ($103 million) to produce engines and transmissions for the Etios compact car in India developed for the local market.Source: Reuters: Money News | 6 Jul 2010 | 1:31 am Shiv Sena lauds opposition unity during bandh - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 1:26 am Shares up 0.5%; IT companies leadMumbai: Shares were trading 0.5% higher on Tuesday, with software outsourcing firms leading the gains, as Asian markets bounced back from early losses and as the revival of monsoon boosted sentiment. Software majors rose on expectations of good volume growth at its June quarter results, to be unveiled later this month. “We expect the big three to report strong 5.1% to 6.5% surge in volumes quarter-on-quarter,” brokerage Edelweiss said in a note, referring to Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro. By 11:10 a.m. (0540 GMT), the 30-share BSE Index was trading up 0.52% at 17,532.65 points, with 25 of its components gaining. A revival of June-September monsoon rains, the main source of water for India’s summer-sown crops, also boosted sentiment. Monsoon rains advanced into its key grain-producing states of Punjab and Haryana, narrowing the shortfall since 1 to June to 13% from 16% earlier. “Recovery in rainfall is a key positive. Monsoon and June quarter earnings will be closely watched for further cues,” said Neeraj Dewan, director of Quantum Securities. Edelweiss expects June-quarter earnings growth for Sensex to come at 6.1% on a year-on-year basis. Foreign funds have poured in $6.8 billion so far this year after pumping in a record $17.5 billion in 2009, which had fuelled a rally of 81%. Top IT firm TCS was up 1.9% while rivals Infosys and Wipro rose 0.9% and 1.4% respectively. Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the main index, climbed 0.5% to Rs1,073.60. Lenders shrugged off a hawkish interest-rate outlook and advanced on hopes that a strong economic growth would boost demand for loans. A Reuters poll forecast the central bank is likely to raise interest rates again in its quarterly review on 27 July, topping up its last Friday’s quarter-point rate hike. Top lender State Bank of India was up 0.8% while leading private-sector rivals ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank climbed 0.7% and 0.6% respectively. In the broader market, gainers led losers in a ratio of 1.7:1 in a volume of 147 million shares. The 50-share NSE index was up 0.5% at 5,263.90 points. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jul 2010 | 1:13 am Toyota to invest $100 mn for India parts outputToyota Motor Corp said today it would invest about 9 billion yen ($103 million) to begin producing engines and transmissions for the Etios compact car in India developed for the local market.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 6 Jul 2010 | 1:06 am Children in e-waste jobs risk healthNew Delhi: Young rag-pickers sifting through rubbish are a common image of India’s chronic poverty, but destitute children face new hazards picking apart old computers as part of the growing “e-waste” industry. Asif, aged seven, spends his days dismantling electronic equipment in a tiny, dimly-lit unit in east Delhi along with six other boys. “My work is to pick out these small black boxes,” he said, fingers deftly prising out integrated circuits from the pile of computer remains stacked high beside him. His older brother Salim, 12, is also hard at work instead of being at school. He is extracting tiny transistors and capacitors from wire boards. The brothers, who decline to reveal how much they earn a day, say they are kept frantically busy as increasing numbers of computers, printers and other electronic goods are discarded by offices and homes. Few statistics are known about the informal “e-waste” industry, but a UN report launched in February described how mountains of hazardous waste from electronic products are growing exponentially in developing countries. It said India would have 500% more e-waste from old computers in 2020 than in 2007, and 18 times more old mobile phones. The risks posed to those who handle the cast-offs are clear to T.K. Joshi, head of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi. He studied 250 people working in the city as recyclers and dismantlers over 12 months to October 2009 and found almost all suffered from breathing problems such as asthma and bronchitis. “We found dangerously high levels -- 10 to 20 times higher than normal -- of lead, mercury and chromium in blood and urine samples,” he said. “All these have a detrimental effect on the respiratory, urinary and digestive systems, besides crippling immunity and causing cancer.” Toxic metals and poisons enter workers’ bloodstreams during the laborious manual extraction process and when equipment is crudely treated to collect tiny quantities of precious metals. “The recovery of metals like gold, platinum, copper and lead uses caustic soda and concentrated acids,” said Joshi. “Workers dip their hands in poisonous chemicals for long hours. They are also exposed to fumes of highly concentrated acid.” Safety gear such as gloves, face masks and ventilation fans are virtually unheard of, and workers -- many of them children -- often have little idea of what they are handling. “All the workers we surveyed were unaware of the dangers they were exposed to. They were all illiterate and desperate for employment,” said Joshi. “Their choice is clear -- either die of hunger or of metal poisoning.” And he warned exposure to e-waste by-products such as cadmium and lead could result in a slow, painful death. “They can’t sleep or walk,” he said. “They are wasted by the time they reach 35-40 years of age and incapable of working.” There are no estimates of how many people die in India from e-waste poisoning as ill workers generally drift back to their villages when they can no longer earn a living. “The irony is that the amounts of gold and platinum they extract are traces -- fractions of a milligramme,” said Priti Mahesh, programme coordinator of the New Delhi-based Toxic Link environment group. “Computers, televisions and mobile phones are most dangerous because they have high levels of lead, mercury and cadmium -- and they have short life-spans so are discarded more,” she said. The government has proposed a law to regulate the e-waste trade, but Delhi environment group the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said any legislation would miss the army of informal workers such as brothers Asif and Salim. “The proposed law says only big firms should be in the business of recycling and dismantling,” said Kushal Pal Singh Yadav, a CSE campaigner. “This is not going to work because the informal sector already has a cheap system of collection, disposal or recycling in place -- so people will use that.” For Joshi, the sight of children working in appalling conditions taking computers apart is as potent a symbol of India’s deep troubles as rag-pickers sorting through stinking household rubbish dumps. “India needs laws which will protect workers’ interests, especially the vulnerable and children. We have a lot to learn from Western societies about workers’ rights,” he said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:58 am UK envoy in Delhi to move to US?London: Sir Richard Stagg, the British high commissioner in India, is likely to move as the next ambassador to Washington and may be replaced by Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, UK’s envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The reshuffle is expected as part of key moves planned in the foreign office by the new government, reports said. Stagg may be replaced by Cowper-Coles, who has gone on “extended leave” from Kabul and is almost certain not to go back, the reports say. The Independent reported on Tuesday that significant changes may take place in the diplomatic service to accompany the recent overhaul of foreign policy by foreign secretary William Hague. The newspaper reported key posts in Washington, Paris and Delhi as well as the foreign and Commonwealth office in london may change hands. Mentioning the likely change in Delhi, the report said: “The Indians, with their civil service culture stuck in many ways in the days of the Raj, were rather taken aback by the informal style of Sir Richard, a former press spokesman in Brussels, when he arrived, but since then he has described by one diplomat as a ‘charming man with twinkling eyes’”. Stagg’s popularity, the report said, may be a factor against his going to the US as the new government is keen to nurture ties with emerging powers. Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to lead a large delegation to Delhi, where the coalition government is keen to operationalize its promise to forge a ‘new special relationship’ with India. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:58 am China on track to become number one IPO market: PwCShanghai: China is on track to become the world’s biggest initial public offering market this year in terms of both the number of new listings and funds raised, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The total number of new listings on the country’s two bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen may reach 300 in 2010, compared to 99 last year, business advisers PwC said in a forecast published this week. Chinese companies are expected to raise 500 billion yuan ($73.6 billion) in IPOs this year, it said. The IPO market picked up significantly in the first half of 2010, even though uncertainties over the global recovery and the euro debt crisis heightened market volatility, Frank Lyn, China Markets Leader for PwC, said. “This really demonstrates that Chinese companies are developing well, along with the continuing growth of the domestic economy and become more mature,” Lyn said in a statement. Domestic companies have raised 212.7 billion yuan from 176 IPOs in the first half of this year, more than the 187.9 billion yuan raised in the whole of 2009, according to PwC. The Agricultural Bank of China, the last one of the “big four” state banks to float shares, is seeking to raise up to 23.2 billion dollars in a massive IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong this month that could be the world’s biggest. In June 2009, China’s securities regulator lifted a nine-month IPO moratorium imposed in September 2008, when global markets began to plummet due to the financial crisis. However the Shanghai Stock Exchange now plans to set up an international board to allow foreign firms and overseas-registered Chinese firms to list shares, but no official timeline has been announced. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:49 am Airbus A380, world's largest passenger aircraft, heads to Delhi - NDTV.com
Source: Business - Google News | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:30 am Indian markets post best returns among BRICIndian markets may have put in the best returns among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations (in US dollar terms) in the first half of the 2010, but that doesn't seem to have impressed the global investorsSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Let banks issue tax-free bonds: ICICI Bank CEOICICI Bank has urged the Government to allow banks to issue tax-free infrastructure bonds. Tax-free bonds would prove to be a cost-effective source of funding for banks and enable them ramp up their infrastructure financing activities, ICICISource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Day Trading GuideFresh short position can be initiated if ICICI Bank declines below Rs 830 levels with tightSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Mumbai Inc works from home as bandh hits transportationIt was a difficult opening to the week for Mumbaikars with the bandh bringing the city to a nearSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Hindustan Media Ventures: AvoidInvestors can adopt a wait and watch approach to the stock of Hindustan Media Ventures (HMV) and refrain from subscribing to the company's initial public offering, given the relatively high valuation that the offer demands and the company's lowerSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Bringing light to the world's billions without electricityEntrepreneur Mr Sam Goldman, 30, won't easily forget the time he lived in Benin, working for the US peace, in a village with no electricity. The kerosene lamps the villagers used almost cost the life of his neighbour's son – for the houseSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Bandh disrupts financial operations country-wideMonday's Opposition-led strike over the fuel price hike disrupted trade and businesses across the country.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Overall inflation to moderate to 6% by Dec, says ChawlaThe Finance Ministry expects the headline inflation, measured by the wholesale price index, to climb down to 6 per cent by December, lower than the 10.16 per cent level seen in May.Source: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am For next small car, Nissan gets inputs from Alto buyersNissan, which is gearing up for the commercial launch of the Micra next Wednesday, is simultaneously preparing the groundwork for its next small car being planned jointly with AshokSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Inox Leisure (Rs 64.7): BuyInvestors with short-term trading perspective can buy the stock of Inox Leisure. The stock was in a medium-term downtrend slipping incessantly from the February peak of Rs 92. This slide halted at Rs 54 towards the end of May and a short-termSource: Business Line - Home Page | 6 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Rupee weakens by 3 paise against US dollar in early tradeForex dealers said the dollar's gains against Asian currencies put pressure on the rupee sentiment, but gains in equities capped the losses.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:54 pm Mercedes-Benz launches pre-owned car business in IndiaLuxury car maker Mercedes-Benz Monday launched its pre-owned car business in India under its 'Proven Exclusivity' programme.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:49 pm Oil falls in Asian trade on weak US employment dataNew York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, shed 80 cents to $71.34 a barrel, continuing its slide from yesterday when it had dipped below June lows.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:49 pm HSBC clients in US probe over accounts in India, Singapore - reportHONG KONG (Reuters) - Some HSBC Holdings clients are being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department on suspicion of failing to disclose accounts in India or Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing three people it did not identify.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:45 pm Sri Lanka dismisses EU withdrawal of trade concessionsSri Lanka on Tuesday shrugged off a European Union decision to withdraw tariff concessions over the island's failure to guarantee an improvement in its human rights record.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:29 pm China to pump 100 billion dollars into western regionsChina has said it will invest more than 100 billion dollars this year in 23 new infrastructure projects in impoverished western regions as part of efforts to boost domestic demand.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:26 pm China on track to become number one IPO market: PwCChina is on track to become the world's biggest initial public offering market this year in terms of both the number of new listings and funds raised, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:22 pm HSBC clients in US tax probeHong Kong / Singapore: Some HSBC Holdings clients are being investigated by the US Justice Department on suspicion of failing to disclose accounts in India or Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing three people it did not identify. Letters from the Justice Department sent to HSBC clients did not mention the bank by name, but were directed to people with accounts at the bank, the report added, citing unnamed lawyers. Gareth Hewett, HSBC’s spokesman in Hong Kong, declined to comment on the case, but said the bank “fully supports government moves for appropriate disclosure by its citizens”, and that it “does not condone or assist tax evasion”. Two sources familiar with the matter in Singapore said there did not appear to be any concerted investigation by the US Internal Revenue Service into HSBC accounts in the city-state. Earlier this year, the US government charged several former wealthy clients of UBS AG after the Swiss bank last year admitted to actively helping US citizens evade taxes overseas. Two clients of HSBC were also charged by US prosecutors with concealing $45 million in unreported bank accounts. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 10:47 pm BP eyes stake sale; oil in Lake PontchartrainLondon / New Orleans: Shareholders in BP balked on Monday at reports the energy giant would seek a strategic investor to ward off takeover bids while the company’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico spread. On the disaster’s 77th day, BP spokesman Mark Proegler confirmed that government tests showed tar balls that washed up on the Texas coast near Galveston were from the spill, but only about five gallons were found. Texas joins Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida among the states whose coastlines have been soiled by the largest offshore oil spill in US history. The US Coast Guard also reported an oily sheen and tar balls in the inland estuary of Lake Pontchartrain, which surrounds much of the city of New Orleans and its suburbs. The oil is being tested to determine if its origin is the Deepwater Horizon well, which ruptured on 20 April, the government said. Over the weekend, while US Independence Day vacationers largely avoided beaches tarred by the leaking well, media reports said BP was looking for a strategic investor among the sovereign wealth funds (SWF) of the Middle East and Asia. Such an investor could help ward off a takeover and raise funds for liabilities created by the spill. But some shareholders balked at the idea. “We don’t think a strategic partner is at all necessary,” said one top-10 BP shareholder who did not want to be named. “We think this is just people trying to panic the company and stampede (them) into doing something to earn huge fees from selling new shares. ... Shareholders will be saying ‘No, thank you´ to this and we have communicated this to the company.” Another top-10 investor agreed BP “probably did not” need a strategic investor at the moment. BP shares closed up 3.5% in London but off earlier intraday peaks on the reports. Strategic partner? Britain’s Sunday Times said BP’s advisers were trying to drum up interest among rival oil groups and sovereign wealth funds to take a stake of between 5 and 10% in the company at a cost of up to £6 billion ($9.1 billion). BP declined to comment. A London banker said any SWF involvement might more likely involve the Far East than the Middle East. Separately, several newspapers reported interest among SWFs in buying some of BP’s assets in the Middle East and Asia. BP has said it hopes to raise $10 billion from asset sales this year as part of its plan to fund a $20 billion clean-up fund set up under pressure from US authorities. Arabic language daily al-Jarida was most specific, saying state-run Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co (KUFPEC) is reviewing investing in oil fields in Egypt, Yemen and east Asia. BP shares have lost more than half their market value since the spill was unleashed on 20 April, the result of an explosion on a drilling rig that caused the undersea well to rupture. Attempts to stop the flow have not worked, with BP pinning hopes on a relief well that should be completed in August. The disaster is playing havoc with fragile coastal ecosystems, fishing communities and a tourist industry seen as especially important during a time of high unemployment. A whale of a tanker Some oil gushing out a mile undersea is being captured through a pipe, while some is being burned off. Tests on a supertanker adapted to skim large quantities of oily water from the surface were inconclusive because of high seas, ship owner TMT Shipping Offshore said. Dubbed “A Whale,” it is seen as a potential savior of efforts to clean up the oil because it can collect 500,000 barrels (21 million gallons) per day of contaminated water. Skimmer vessels have been out in force — a fleet of 89 returned through the Biloxi Bay channel on Sunday — but high seas were preventing many from operating. Eight fresh skimming vessels, leased from the French government by the state of Mississippi, have arrived in the state. BP said on Monday it had so far spent $3.12 billion on the response effort, including $147 million paid out in claims to those affected by the disaster. A storm in the Gulf packing heavy winds is likely to strengthen into a tropical cyclone before it tears into coastal Louisiana on Monday evening, complicating storm clean-up efforts, the National Hurricane Center said. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 10:38 pm Oil extends drop to 4-week low on economic pessimismSingapore: Oil extended losses on Tuesday to four-week lows near $71 after a raft of negative economic indicators over the past week undermined confidence about growth in energy use. Global services growth slowed in June, data showed on Monday, a further sign just days after weak manufacturing data that emerging and developed economies are set to cool off through the second half of the year. Concern about the health of European banks and a potential double-dip recession also fanned risk aversion, sending the dollar higher on Tuesday, making commodities denominated in the US currency more expensive for Asian buyers. US crude for August delivery fell as much as $1.05 to $71.09 a barrel, its weakest since 8 June and a fall of 1.5% from Friday. It was down 58 cents at $71.56 by 0436 GMT. The extended session combined the trades of Monday and Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) because of the US Independence Day holiday. A single settlement price will be issued for 6 July. “The market mood is very bad as people try to look for bearish data all over the world and liquidity is low due to the US holiday,” said Keichi Sano, general manager of research at SCM Securities in Tokyo. “The economic recovery is even slower than most people expected. Everything is going down and that reflects the weaker Chinese economy.” ICE Brent crude for August slid 25 cents to $71.22 a barrel, posting a smaller decline than US crude after Monday’s settlement price already accounted for part of Tuesday’s drop in NYMEX crude. S&P 500 futures fell more than 1% on Tuesday, before paring losses, while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei fell to a seven-month low. China’s services sector growth slowed to its weakest in 15 months in June, with a similar slowdown across Europe, where governments are taking the hatchet to budgets and where consumer spending is already lacklustre. Traders were looking to Tuesday’s release of US non-manufacturing PMI data for June for further indications about the direction of the economy. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia cut the August official selling price (OSP) for its Arab Heavy crude oil grade to Asia, in line with expectations, although it unexpectedly raised the price for Arab Light crude. A weather system located between Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and western Cuba had a 30% chance of developing over the next two days into a tropical cyclone, a category that includes tropical storms and hurricanes, the US National Hurricane Center said late on Monday. The system’s location and expected course are similar to those Hurricane Alex followed in its formation late in June, before moving into the Gulf of Mexico, forcing Mexican oil terminals to shut and US producers to curb output. Mid-week US inventory reports are typically delayed by one day in weeks when Monday is a holiday. This means that supply data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) is published on Wednesday and government statistics from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) are published on Thursday. ( Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 10:33 pm Indian rupee little changed; share gains helpMumbai: The Indian rupee treaded water on Tuesday as the dollar’s losses against major currencies and gains in domestic shares were mostly offset by broadly weak regional peers. At 10 a.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 46.80/81 per dollar, little changed from 46.78/79 at close on Monday, and moved in tight band of 46.70 to 46.82. “The rupee is just tracking stocks and the dollar index. It should hold in a range of 46.65 to 46.85 in today’s session,” a senior dealer with a foreign bank said. Most Asian currencies dropped versus the dollar. The index of the dollar against six majors was little changed and would be watched. “The strategy for exporters is to absorb weakness into 46.80 to 46.95 while importers stay away for reversal into 46.50 to 46.65 ahead of 46.10-46.25,” J. Moses Harding, head of global markets at IndusInd Bank wrote in a daily note. “There is no ‘buy recommendation´ as we await reversal into 46.10-46.25 tracking accelerated offshore supplies for investment into India debt and equity capital market,” he added. Dealers said they would continue to watch the dollar for direction during the day while the sharemarket sustaining current gains would also be crucial. Shares were trading up 0.4% as Asian markets erased most of their early losses. Foreign fund flows into and out of the stock market set the rupee’s trend. So far in 2010, foreigners have bought a net $6.8 billion worth of shares, after investing a record $17.5 billion last year. The central bank is likely to raise interest rates again in its quarterly review on 27 July, a new survey found, and rates at the end of the year are likely to be higher than forecast before Friday’s unexpected 25 basis point rise. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 47.02, weaker than the onshore spot rate. In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange and MCX-SX were both at 46.9550, with the total traded volume on the two exchanges at about $670 million. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 10:28 pm Sensex up 60 points in opening tradeThe 30-share index, which had lost over 67 points in the previous two sessions, recovered by 59.50 points, or 0.34%, to 17,500.94 points.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 5 Jul 2010 | 10:26 pm Asia stocks fall on growth worry; yen climbsTokyo: Asian stocks slipped on Tuesday on growing investor concerns of slower economic growth in the United States and China, the main pillars of the world economy, and fading risk appetite sent the yen up against the dollar and the euro. After data showing the US labour market shrank for the first time this year in June, slower Chinese manufacturing activity and euro zone austerity policies fuelled concerns over prospects for the global economy and sent European shares to their lowest close in nearly six weeks on Monday. In early Asia trade, S&P 500 futures were down nearly 1%, after Wall Street was closed for a holiday. Some market players said comments from ex-IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff that China’s property market is beginning a “collapse” that would hit banks was contributing to the stronger yen. “There’s a lot of uncertainty out there, the Chinese real estate issue is just one,” said Hiroaki Osakabe, a fund manager at Chibagin Asset Management. “The yen strengthened suddenly and exporters were sold. In addition, we’ve seen some pretty strong selling of Nikkei futures.” Financial markets reflect a slide in risk taking as a result of perceptions of the global economy. The MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.5%, after earlier touching its lowest in a month, particularly weighed down by falls in shares of materials and information technology firms. The euro slipped 0.3% to $1.2500 on the trading platform EBS, while the single currency fell 0.6% to ¥109.40, as caution set in. Yen also gained ground helped by a report that China has expanded JGB buying. The Nikkei business daily said China has boosted its purchases of Japanese government bonds this year, snapping up a net ¥541 billion ($6 billion) of mostly short-term JGBs in January-April, double the record amount logged for all of 2005. September 10-year JGB futures rose 0.14 point to 141.71. The buying has so far been mostly in short-term T-bills. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei fell more than 1% to hit its lowest in seven months, well below one support at a key retracement level. It faced pressure from sliding US stock futures and a stronger yen, hurting shares of Japanese exporters such as Canon Inc. US crude prices extended losses to a four-week low near $71 as risk aversion related to the health of European banks sent the dollar higher and commodities down. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 9:45 pm NTPC, govt sign production sharing pactsMUMBAI (Reuters) - Top power producer NTPC Ltd said on Tuesday it had signed production sharing contracts with the government for exploration blocks awarded in the eighth oil and gas blocks auction round held in 2009.Source: Reuters: Money News | 5 Jul 2010 | 9:40 pm India’s underbelly exposedDahod, Gujarat; Mokhada, Maharashtra: In the last 15-16 years, Jhaluriben Baria has had eight children, two of whom died within five days of their birth. Her youngest child Heera Gopabhai Baria, a boy, is seven months old. The infant is ensconced in a plastic sack strung across two sticks at the entrance of their house in Panchyasan village in Devgadh Baria block of Dahod district, Gujarat. Playing alongside is his sister, Premilaben Baria. At four years of age, Premila’s height is that of a two-year-old, her legs are short and slightly bent, her stomach protrudes and she struggles to walk. Two years ago, Premila, severely undernourished, was finally admitted to the nearby Godhra government hospital, as she was too weak to even sit up. Her father Gopabhai Baria had refused to admit her to a hospital and relented only after Pradeepa, representing Anandi, a non-profit, pressurized him. “I had to agree to his condition that if anything happened to Premila, it would be my responsibility,” recalls Pradeepa, who uses only one name. Though Premila is much better now, her parents are following the same routine with Heera, who is visibly undernourished, still fed only his mother’s milk. Heera’s case is compelling as it is not in isolation. Nearly two million children in India don’t celebrate their sixth birthday. Among those who do, 61 million are severely undernourished and, hence, too small for their age; of them around 20 million die. The Mokhada block in Thane district in Maharashtra is on the frontiers of the Deccan plateau. Here, water is scarce, the land is dry and the wells are almost empty. At a distance of almost every one kilometre, there is a cluster of three-four houses. Among the Adivasis or tribals that reside in this block, undernutrition among children is a common occurrence: So much so that these people have come to believe that this is how it should be. In Pendkechiwadi village of Mokhada, Lalita Hanumant Baraf poses happily with her three children—two boys and a girl. Her younger boy is eating dry rice flakes from a steel bowl and though both boys are thin with protruding bellies, Lalita insists they are healthy and not undernourished. Her four-year-old boy weighs 12kg while the two-year-old weighs 7kg. As per the World Health Organization’s child growth standards, the two boys’ healthy weight should be 16kg and 12kg, respectively. “Sometimes you might think that some symptoms are part of normal life. When the child is too weak, when the child is too sick, when the child is not gaining weight; mothers, fathers and the community need to know that that is not normal,” said Victor Aguayo, chief, child nutrition and development at the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), India. “But when in your community 50%, 60%, 70% of the children are underweight, stunted, wasted and anaemic, you might consider that normal because actually that is a norm,” he added. For a country that is home to around one-fifth of the world’s children under five years of age, India accounts for 42% of the world’s burden of undernourished children according to Unicef, and has the highest levels of undernourishment in children below five years of age. The third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-06 shows that of the 20% under-fives in the country, 43% are underweight, 48% are stunted (chronically malnourished) and 20% are wasted (acutely undernourished). More recent data shows that the situation has deteriorated. According to the 2009-2010 data of the women and child development ministry’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), as on 31 December, only 54.16% children in the country are normal, the rest being either moderately or severely malnourished. Under nutrition in India is almost twice as high as that in sub-Saharan Africa. The highest levels of undernutrition, according to NFHS-3 are found in Madhya Pradesh (60%), Bihar and Jharkhand (50%), Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Meghalaya (40%). Interestingly, Gujarat, one of the richest states in the country, had an undernutrition rate of 40%—suggesting that economic growth is no defence against undernutrition. The death count due to undernutrition could be worse, since many deaths are attributed to symptomatic causes of undernourishment. “Under nutrition is an important factor contributing to the death of young children. If a child is malnourished, the mortality risk associated with respiratory infections, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and other infectious diseases is increased,” states the NFHS-3. More worrying, the levels of undernutrition have remained unchanged despite the acceleration of the Indian economy to over $1 trillion in size. Between the NFHS-2 (1998-99) and NFHS-3, surveys that were conducted with a gap of seven years, the undernutrition rate among children aged between 0 and 35 months was 43% and 40%. Over the same period India’s gross domestic product growth jumped from 6.7% to 9.5%. Pushing growth alone won’t tackle this malaise, says Aguayo. “It is about how the economic gains trickle down and translate into policies that will address the major drivers of nutrition. Also, how women benefit from economic growth—are they empowered and are they able to make household and budget decisions?” radhieka.p@livemint.com Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Parched villages walk backwards in time to save waterNeem Singhs daily bread comes from water. He draws water from a kuin (small well), fills a metal container reminiscent of the trunk used for storing clothes, and takes it back to the village pulled by his camel-cart the tyres of which are the same as used in jets. For each journey he makes, which would be half a kilometre, he gets Rs 50. Ask him how much he earns and he says: In summer I make at least five-six such trips.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:57 pm Employees steer clear of IPOsEmployees of a company are believed to be the first to know the intricacies of the organisation, but if one goes by their response to most of the recent public offerings, it appears that they are the last ones to subscribe to their company shares.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:54 pm Services grow at a blistering paceAny concerns by the June HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) that the pace of growth in the economy may be decelerating have been quickly dispelled by the services PMI, which shows that business activity in the sector reached a two-year high reading of 64 last month. Given that manufacturing contributes less than 20% to the gross domestic product, while services account for over 60%, the strong growth in the services sector is more than sufficient to offset any weakness in manufacturing. Also See Rapid Expansion (Graphic) The net result: at 62.8, the HSBC Composite Output Index (for both manufacturing and services) for June points to the sharpest rise in activity for almost two years. What’s more, the new business component of the services PMI, which is an indication of the strength of future activity, reached a new cyclical high of 63.32. Businessmen in the services industry are very optimistic, with the business confidence component of the PMI showing a reading of 75, which, according to Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian Economics Research at HSBC, is at levels last seen at the end of 2007. Clearly, the Reserve Bank of India did the right thing on Friday by raising rates. Unlike in the manufacturing sector, where the rate of growth of output prices eased, prices charged by services industries continued to rise at a higher rate in June. The rate of increase in input prices, however, fell for both manufacturing and services. Prices continue to rise, but the pace of the increase has moderated a bit. India is one of the few countries that have shown an improvement in the services PMI reading in June. China’s HSBC services PMI, although showing growth, was the weakest in 15 months. The Markit euro zone services PMI is at a three-month low. In the UK, services business activity rose at its slowest pace in 10 months. And in Japan, the services sector continued to decline. This clearly suggests that monetary policy in India needs to be much tighter than in the rest of the world. Graphic by Yogesh Kumar/Mint We welcome your comments at marktomarket@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:52 pm Raja wants free spectrum for BSNL, MTNLTwo years after having allotted third-generation (3G) spectrum without any contest to its own telecom companies, on the promise that theyd match the prices later paid by private sector winners of the auction for it, the communications ministry now wants them to get it for free.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:52 pm Bandh shows BJP-Left unity, tests UPA resolveTodays bandh had all the signs of being successful. Flights were grounded, companies shut offices, buses were set on fire and tyres were burnt in response to a nationwide strike over the rise in fuel prices called by the main opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party, and the leftist bloc. The predominant colour on the street was khaki, as policemen fanned out and people stayed in.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:49 pm Indian firms should hire Indians firstNew Delhi: India has new rules regulating the issue of work visas for foreigners, but while these remove a cap on the number of foreigners a firm can hire and scrap a minimum stipulated salary, they seek to explicitly articulate the philosophy that should guide the hiring of foreigners: Indians first. Previously, Indian firms had to limit their foreign hires to 1% of their workforce and pay them at least $25,000 a year (Rs11.68 lakh). Both restrictions have been scrapped in the new rules that were communicated to the ministry of external affairs by the ministry of home affairs in a letter dated 31 May. The ministry of external affairs then communicated the same to all Indian diplomatic missions.  Pdf: Ahmed Raza Khan/Mint The home ministry has also asked that only “skilled” foreign workers be given work visas. “We have instructed our missions not to issue visas for unskilled work...that can be simply performed by an Indian. Visas will only be issued to highly skilled people, who bring technical expertise into the country,” said a senior home ministry official, who did not want to be identified. This person added that India has a population of 1.2 billion and any employment opportunity should first be made available to Indians. The official said that the 1% policy was put in place at the request of the labour ministry, but that it was never really followed. India’s labour secretary Prabhat Chaturvedi clarified that the cap had been misunderstood. “The policy stated that an Indian embassy abroad can clear employment visas only up to 1% (of a company’s workforce) at its end. In case the employer demanded more visas, the matter would be referred to the labour ministry.” He said he wasn’t aware about the recent changes in rules. India’s rules for issuing work visas to foreigners have been continually evolving. The salary stipulation that has now been scrapped, for instance, was instituted only in April. “We had to withdraw it after feedback from the diplomatic missions, which in their report said that such policy would severely impact flow of workers especially from Eastern Europe. Now, there is no such income policy in place for any country,” the official cited in the first instance said. Interestingly, details of this salary stipulation first came to light after it had been scrapped. On 2 July, The Times of India reported the case of a Ukrainian woman who had approached the Bombay high court against the ministry of external affairs, challenging the policy that mandated a minimum annual salary of $25,000 for a work visa. She did this after her application to work in India was rejected. An officer from the consular section in the Indian embassy in Ukraine, who did not want to be identified, said her application had been rejected on the basis of then prevailing rules. An official at the ministry of external affairs said the rules are aimed at “protecting Indians and Indian jobs”. However, the new rules will be cheered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs); foreigners applying for a work visa in India to work at or volunteer in such organizations will now be given visas—a change from the earlier regime. “Such people were earlier facing problems; now they will be given employment visa even if their income from their NGO is nil,” said a second home ministry official, who also did not want to be identified. sahil.m@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:30 pm Jet Airways to jointly develop BKC property with GodrejMumbai: In a move that could give it some breathing space, cash-strapped Jet Airways (India) Ltd is working on a three-way deal with the Godrej group’s real estate arm, Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), to develop a 1.47-acre plot in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), a business district in suburban Mumbai, according to an investment banker and a real estate consultant. Both are advising the companies on the deal. GPL will pay upfront cash to Jet Airways and absorb a certain portion of the debt that Jet Airways will raise to pay for the land. Both companies will also share revenues once the real estate is developed. Two senior Jet Airways executives also confirmed the talks with GPL without divulging details. The GPL spokesman declined to comment for this story. The Jet Airways’ spokeswoman said the company “is still in discussion with parties as regards the BKC property”. “Godrej Properties will invest Rs700 crore to buy additional floor space index (FSI) to build 1.4 million sq. ft of saleable space,” said the investment banker. FSI is the ratio of the total floor area of buildings on a certain location to the size of the land of that location. Jet Airways, India’s largest carrier by passenger traffic, had bid Rs826 crore for rights to develop the space in an auction by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the apex body for planning and coordination of development activities in Mumbai, in 2008. Till date, Jet Airways has only given Rs10 crore to MMRDA and it faces the risk of losing the earnest money—a deposit made to show a serious intent in a transaction—as it could not pay more. “Godrej will give upfront cash to Jet Airways since it has made some work on the plot. It will also take TDR (transfer of development rights) from MMRDA. One of the Godrej group companies will take over the liabilities of Jet Airways towards this land deal,” the banker said. According to him, Godrej will also approach the Airports Authority of India to increase the height of the proposed property so that it can have more saleable area. BKC is in close proximity to the Mumbai airport. Jet Airways will also purchase 250,000 sq. ft space for shifting its headquarters to BKC, but it will not pay anything for this as the cost will be adjusted against the company’s share in the revenue from the property. The airline is currently headquartered at SM Centre in Andheri, a Mumbai suburb. This property is on lease. One senior Jet Airways executive, requesting anonymity, said his airline is yet to sign the agreement, though both the parties have more or less agreed to the current three-way structure. According to experts, this deal will bring relief to Jet Airways as it will bring some cash immediately to the airline that has Rs13,759.50 crore debt on its books as of 31 March. Also, the airline will save at least Rs10 crore rent a year by shifting to the new office space, experts say. Hit by the global economic slowdown beginning late 2008, Jet Airways was unable to develop the BKC plot. “It is a win-win situation for both Jet Airways and Godrej Properties. By giving away the developing rights to Godrej Properties, Jet Airways would not require to go for raising debt to buy the plot and invest management in real estate development. Besides, the airline would also get a state-of-art headquarters in BKC,” said Sanjay Dutt, chief executive officer (business) of real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. The deal will also be an opportunity for GPL, which does not have a presence in Mumbai’s front-office segment, to demonstrate its presence and capabilities of building an A-grade office space in the new financial hub, he added. pr.sanjai@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:14 pm IFCI: from financier to infrastructure builderNew Delhi: IFCI Ltd, India’s oldest development financial institution, is reinventing itself as an infrastructure company. The firm has bid for as many as 16 road, port and power projects worth around Rs10,250 crore. IFCI said it has entered into partnerships with construction companies such as Patel Engineering Ltd, KMC Constructions Ltd and Gayatri Projects Ltd, among others, to execute projects if it wins any of the bids. “We have been supporting infrastructure projects as a term lender and now we are looking at playing the role of a developer as well,” an IFCI spokesperson said in an email response to Mint. “We are targeting at becoming a significant player in the infrastructure sector in next two-three years.” IFCI’s decision has been influenced by the tough regulatory environment for finance companies. The firm is not allowed to access public deposits and is dependent on banks for funds, making pure lending in infrastructure unviable. Industry experts said that as long as the financial risk of being a developer was sufficiently thought through, and the company tied up with other firms that had actual project development experience, entering the infrastructure space was a good idea. “Very few institutions can stay out of infrastructure,” said Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of consultancy firm Feedback Ventures Pvt. Ltd and a member of IFCI’s board in 2007. “When I was there, there was a decision to get far more into infrastructure financing, which was not something they were hitherto known for.” “The upside on developer risk is far higher than the few percentage points as a lender. Also you can lend to them (the consortia) as a lender of first choice,” Chatterjee said. “As long as they have sufficiently thought through the financial risk and they have the right partners, that is what I would look for.” The development finance institution’s plans come even as the government looks to catalyze investments worth some Rs20 trillion over the 11th Plan, which terminates in 2012. The highways ministry alone awarded projects worth in excess of Rs60,000 crore last year. “We are focusing on thermal, hydro and wind power, highways and port sectors. We have been allotted three hydropower projects in consortium in Himachal Pradesh and have also submitted bids for eight hydropower projects in Uttarakhand,” IFCI’s statement said. IFCI, which in the early half of this decade went through a liquidity crisis and posted losses, did not have an easy entry into the infrastructure business. An official of the National Highways Authority of India, who did not want to be identified, said the firm had bid for several projects. “At first, there was confusion over whether the company’s articles of association allowed it to bid for highway projects, leading to its disqualification. However, subsequently the company produced documents that showed that it could bid,” the official said. IFCI’s current strategy has come in the wake of an unsuccessful track record in development financing after the economic liberalization of 1991. The Union government bailed out the company by rolling over its outstanding debt, which was followed by an unsuccessful attempt to bring in a strategic partner in 2007. The possibility of inducting a strategic investor in the near future has not been ruled out by the government, which has representatives on the company’s board. As shareholding issues have not been settled, the possibility of being granted a banking licence by the central bank is slim, a member of the board, who did not want to be named, said. As on 31 March 2009, infrastructure contributed 16.5% of IFCI’s outstandings —9% to power and the balance to ports, telecom and bridges. IFCI’s financial position improved last fiscal. Gross non-performing assets were down to Rs3,810 crore as on 31 March, against Rs5,152 crore a year ago. Provision coverage is 98%. In the March quarter of fiscal 2010, profits from operations before other income and write-back of provisions were Rs242 crore, against Rs109 crore in year-ago period. Sanctions were up 75% to Rs7,016 crore, while disbursements at Rs6,054 crore have grown by 82%. The balance sheet size at the end of the fiscal year was Rs18,172 crore, up 36% during the year. The capital adequacy ratio is 18%. The company’s net worth is Rs3,152 crore. rahul.c@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:12 pm NBFCs rush to bond markets to raise cheap moneyMumbai: On Tuesday, Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC) will enter the bond market to raise Rs500 crore worth of nine-year and 15-year bonds, with a so-called greenshoe option to retain an additional Rs1,500 crore. Only a fortnight back it had raised Rs1,250 crore from the bond market. REC is one of many non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) that are accessing this source of finance. In the first half of this year, NBFCs raised Rs35,808.20 crore by selling bonds, a 40% leap from the previous year, according to Bloomberg data. This amount is more than one-third of the Rs93,605 crore worth of bonds sold by Indian companies this year. “The cost of borrowing is much cheaper than bank loans,” said H.D. Khunteta, director of finance at REC. “Our overall cost is more or less the same as last year.” REC wants to raise some Rs28,000 crore this year, and sold its last batch of 15-year bonds at 8.75%, 50 basis points (bps) higher than the yield on government bonds of comparable maturity. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its key interest rates by 25 bps last week. Analysts and bond dealers expect another round of rate hike in July-end, when RBI reviews its monetary policy and overall 150 bps raise in interest rates during the year. NBFCs, according to them, will increasingly tap the bond market with longer maturity papers to lock in the current rates. “Spreads have narrowed considerably,” said Alpana Dave, vice-president at Edelweiss Securities Ltd, a Mumbai-based brokerage firm, referring to the gap between the yield on a government bond and that floated by corporations, including NBFCs. “Earlier the spread was 100-150 basis points between bonds issued by an NBFC and a comparable government security; now it has narrowed to 50-60 basis points,” she added. Demand for corporate paper had increased in the earlier part of the year from banks and mutual funds driving down the spreads. What’s also helping are growing signs of depth in India’s corporate bond market, with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India ruling that all trades in corporate bonds would have to be cleared and settled by a clearing company to eliminate counterparty risk and increase liquidity. Apart from that, demand for funds from NBFCs has increased. A robust economy which is forecast to grow at 8.5% this fiscal year has pushed up demand for assets such as cars and houses from individuals. Companies, too, are starting to build capacity and infrastructure, and all of them are approaching lenders for capital. Indeed banks’ loan books are growing, but they may not be able to meet the credit demand of corporations as well as individuals as the deposit growth so far has been sluggish. Till mid-June, the year-on-year credit growth has been 19.6% against 15.7% a year ago. In contrast, the growth in deposits has been 13.9%, sharply down from 21.9% a year ago. According to credit rating agency Crisil Ltd, “NBFCs’ disbursements are growing, collection efficiencies are improving and non-performing assets are coming down as they stay away from taking fresh exposure to unsecured loans. As they expand, the requirement for funds are also increasing.” Typically, an NBFC raises around 40% of funds from banks, 20-25% from short-term loans, and the rest from long-term non-convertible debentures and other debt market instruments. These are supplemented by securitization as well as retail deposits for some NBFCs. But the tightening of liquidity and RBI rules, which prohibit banks from lending more than 15% of their capital funds to NBFCs, has driven these firms to enter the bond market in hordes. “As they grow, NBFCs’ credit needs are also growing, but the banks are limited in their exposure to NBFCs,” said Viren Mehta, director at audit and consulting firm Ernst and Young India Pvt. Ltd. “The rates they are getting through the bond market are relatively better than what banks would offer them for loans.” Borrowing more through the bond market not only enables these finance firms to diversify their sources of funds, but also extends the maturity profile of their borrowings, said Pawan Agrawal, director of ratings at Crisil. “Most NBFCs became acutely aware of the inherent risks in running a short-term asset-liability mismatch, particularly during the liquidity crisis (of 2008) and, therefore, want to increase the tenure of their average borrowings in line with their asset tenures,” Agrawal said. The largest bond issue so far this year has been Power Finance Corp. Ltd’s Rs1,500 crore, 15-year bonds. Other prominent firms who raised money through this route include National Housing Bank, which sold three-year bonds for Rs750 crore, and Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd, which sold four-year bonds worth Rs700 crore. Half of the 113 bond issues from NBFCs this year had tenures longer than five years. A Rs220 crore issue of the Indian Railway Finance Corp. Ltd had the longest maturity of 25 years. anup.r@livemint.com Source: Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:10 pm Stocks dip on growth fears; dollar off 2 month lowLondon: World stock and oil prices fell on Monday on growing concerns of slowdowns in the United States and China — the two main pillars of global growth, though the dollar was off its two-month low. Trading was expected to be light on Monday because of the US Independence Day holiday. Data showing the US labour market shrank for the first time this year in June, slower Chinese manufacturing activity and euro zone austerity measures fuelled concerns over prospects for the global economy. “Double-dip (recession) fears are the pervading influence on market psychology at present even as European sovereign (debt) concerns appear to be easing,” said Mitul Kotecha, global head of foreign exchange strategy at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. World stocks measured by MSCI All-Country World Index dipped 0.2% after losing nearly 4% last week. The index has lost 16.2% since mid-April, and is down 11% for the year. The index carried a one-year forward price-to-earnings ratio of 11.9, a level last seen in April 2009 and well below its 10-year average of 15.42, according to Thomson Reuters DataStream. By comparison, MSCI emerging equities index had a one-year forward P/E of 10.76, in line with its 10-year average of 10.8, DataStream showed. Europe’s FTSEurofirst 300 drifted 0.1% lower, with the continent’s banks losing 0.5%. French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Saturday that stress test results to be published on 23 July will show that “banks in Europe are solid and healthy.” However, “there is a certain amount of scepticism that the stress tests (on banks) ... will either be fudged or the complete results won’t be published. What we need is clarity,” said Felicity Smith, fund manager at Bedlam Asset Management. In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei average put on 0.7%, while the Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8%. Brazil’s Bovespa index slipped 0.2%. Dollar near 2-month low The dollar added 0.3% against a basket of major currencies, recovering from a near two-month low as traders held back given the US market holiday. The dollar index lost 1.9% in the previous two sessions. The euro paused after last week’s boost from unwinding of short and leveraged positions. It slipped 0.3% to $1.2521 and dipped 0.3% to ¥109.87. The shared European currency has lost 12.5% against the dollar so far this year, though attention now appears to have turned to concerns of a slowdown in the United States and away from the euro zone’s banking and government debt woes. “The market last week was clearly concerned about a US slowdown. It was the first week in a long time we have seen the dollar react like that,” said Chris Turner, head of foreign exchange strategy at ING. “There is a creeping fear that the strong dollar environment will start to break. That has not happened yet and it is likely to be steady this week.” BNP Paribas said investors can cheaply hedge a cross-asset portfolio against the risk of a double dip in global growth with currencies. In a note, it recommended investors short a basket of 2/3 Australian dollar and 1/3 New Zealand dollar and long a mix of Swiss franc and yen. Global growth worries also sent German government bond futures 44 ticks higher to 129.75 from Friday’s settlement close, and yields on benchmark 10-year Bunds fell 2 basis points to 2.545%. In the commodity market, crude prices fell 0.4% to below $72 a barrel, extending last week’s 8.4% drops. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 12:01 pm India on hold, but trending on TwitterNew Delhi: Although parts of India might have come to a standstill thanks to todays ’Bharat Bandh”, it has kept Indian tweeters very busy! The Hashtag ‘Bharat Bandh’ became the most trended topic on the site, as users tweeted out their experiences and opinions about the situation. The Bharat Bandh or pan-India shutdown was called to protest against the fuel price hike. Schools, colleges, public transport and offices across the country remained closed for the day causing inconvinience to the aam admi. But it seems like many enjoyed this unexpected holiday and almost everyone certainly had an opinion! By early noon, ‘Bharat Bandh’ was on the top of the ‘trending on Twitter” list. Some tweeples called it a a complete flow-shop with nothing to achieve. Others enjoyed the holiday. Most just poked fun at the situation.  Bharat Bandh was the number. 1 topic on Tiwtter’s trending list for Monday. Shirish Shete/PTI TusharG (Tushar A. Gandhi) sarcastically tweeted that he expected to find everything cheaper tomorrow as a result of a successful Bharat Bandh. Many Mumbaikars however, were really surprised at the impact of the bandh on day to day life in the city, including actor Amitabh Bachchan who tweeted ”Bharat Bandh, insaan band, saans band, aasha band, niraasha band, ...!! Mumbai is so silent this morning ! Eerie !!” b50 (Bombay Addict), a man from Mumbai suggested that we all should ‘halt and stall’ parliament to protest against the poor functioning of our MPs. Another user Ventrino suggested that we should use Vuvzela to ‘blow out’ the protestors off the road. There were supporters of the bandh as well, but they were in a distinct minority. Parishpatil (Parish Patil) tweeted that he expected fuel prices to cool off after the bandh. But not too many people agreed. What was noticeable, was that although the bandh captured a lot of attention, it was mostly due to the destruction caused by its enforcers across India. The larger point of the bandh, which was to demand relief for the ordinary man went largely unremarked upon. Source: Tech News - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:34 am Losses from strike pegged at Rs3,000-13,000 croreNew Delhi: Monday’s successful strike called by the opposition parties to protest soaring inflation and the recent hike in fuel prices may have resulted in losses of anything between Rs3,000 crore and Rs13,000 crore, according to industry lobby groups. The Bharat bandh, called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Left parties and non-NDA opposition parties disrupted life and work across India, and resulted in sporadic acts of violence by the protesters. In states ruled by these parties, the strike was near-total. The Confederation of Indian Industry estimated the total loss to the economy on account of the strike at a minimum of Rs3,000 crore; the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India at around Rs10,000 crore; and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry at close to Rs13,000 crore. Also See Protest Mode (PDF) The finance ministry said that food inflation, which fell sharply by almost 4 percentage points during the third week of June, to 12.92%, would take some more time to fall to an acceptable level of 5-6%. “Food inflation is going down, it will take some time before it really comes into a range which is acceptable to the government and which is good for the people,” finance secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on state highways in New Delhi. The Opposition claimed the strike was “an unprecedented success”. Senior BJP leader and chairman of NDA L.K. Advani said: “Never before in the history of political agitation in independent India have so many opposition parties combined to register a joint protest on a single issue.” The opposition parties separately called for a shutdown, protesting the government’s last month decision to deregulate fuel prices, which resulted in petrol becoming costlier by Rs3.50 a litre and diesel by Rs2 per litre. It has also increased the prices of kerosene by Rs3 per litre and liquefied petroleum gas by Rs35 per cylinder. Claiming that the common man had participated in the strike and made it a success, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) said it would continue its attempts to isolate the government politically. “The Left parties in consultation with secular opposition parties will chalk out plans for further intensifying the movement against price rise to compel the government to reverse these harmful steps,” the CPM said in a statement. Leaders of both the BJP and the Left parties courted arrest in different cities; flights were disrupted in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata; and angry political workers attacked buses, blocked roads and organized sit-in protests across the cities. According to an Indian Railways spokesperson, the running of 340 long-distance trains was affected. Both the NDA and other parties demanded a rollback in the government’s decision on fuel prices. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday had said there was no question of doing this. Terming the Bharat bandh as a “complete flop”, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said: “Except for the state-sponsored initiatives in certain states where they are in power, it has been a complete flop; (there has been a) complete negative reaction against the bandh.” The government has justified its 25 June decision on fuel prices and said the move was an attempt to bring retail prices of fuel closer to their actual cost. Even after the move, the retail prices of essential energy products such as diesel, kerosene and cooking gas continue to be subsidized, the government said in a press release. In Congress-ruled Delhi, the strike was partial. In Mumbai, Shiv Sena activists tried to stop suburban trains and schools, colleges and businesses were closed down. In Kolkata, the capital of the Left-ruled West Bengal, public transport was off the roads. And in Bangalore, capital of BJP-ruled Karnataka, software firms remained closed. Strikes in India were declared illegal by the Supreme Court of India in 1998. In a landmark judgement the apex court upheld the Kerala high court ruling of 1997, which declared, forced bandhs by political parties as “illegal and unconstitutional”. In 2007, the Supreme Court made a rare sitting on a Sunday and restrained the then ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam front in Tamil Nadu from going ahead with the statewide bandh protesting a canal project. The court said that such protests essentially paralysed public life and violated the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 19 (Freedom of speech) and Article 21 (Right to Liberty) of the Constitution. Manish Ranjan, Rahul Chandran, Tarun Shukla of Mint and PTI contributed to this story. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 11:19 am The Mint Report for 05 July 2010Businesses remained closed in many Indian cities on Monday, in response to the opposition’s nationwide strike protesting fuel price increases. Many of Mumbai’s streets were deserted and many shops were closed. Even taxis and three-wheelers remained off the streets. The response was mixed in Delhi, though businesses were shut down in much of the old city. The strike was most successful in Kolkata and Mumbai. Both those cities lie in states ruled by opposition parties. Companies, schools and government offices closed for the day. And flights out of Kolkatta were cancelled until later in the evening. Industry bodies reacted with their own estimates of how much the strikes cost India. CII places the figure at more than Rs3,000 crore. Assocham’s estimate is Rs10,000 crore. And Ficci places the losses even higher at 13,000 crore. Internet firm Tikona says it will follow in the footsteps of RIL. The company plans to adopt whatever technology RIL decides to use to deliver broadband wireless access. Tikona says it makes sense for it to follow whatever the industry’s biggest player does. During the recent BWA auction, Tikona paid Rs10,58 crore for licenses in five telecom circles. RIL, meanwhile, acquired a pan-Indian license after it bought Infotel, the most successful bidder. RIL can now choose from either of two technologies for broadband- WiMax or LTE. Monday’ strike kept trading volumes low on Indian markets, which ended the day flat. The Sensex closed down 20 points 17,441. And the Nifty ended trade down one point at 5,236. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 5 Jul 2010 | 10:12 am
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