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Sugar stocks - sweet on decontrol hopes?MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian sugar stocks, which have underperformed the broader market so far in 2010, have been edgy over the last one month on hopes the government will soon de-control the tightly-regulated sector as oversupply fear looms.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 3:11 am India to generate 1,000 MW solar power by 2013India will generate 1,000 MW of solar power by the year 2013, with financial assistance from Power Finance Corp and Rural Electrification Corp, under the government's Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Jul 2010 | 3:04 am Facebook could be social pariah in AsiaAt the end of the day, Facebook's best chances for success in Asia may come through teaming up with local partners, either through joint ventures or acquisitions, analysts said.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 3:04 am Bahrain to privatise Gulf Air as soon as possibleMANAMA (Reuters) - Bahrain plans to privatise national carrier Gulf Air as soon as possible encouraged by positive results in its restructuring, a senior government official said in remarks published on Sunday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 3:00 am 18 killed in stampede at German Love ParadeDuisburg, Germany: A stampede killed 18 people after mass panic broke out in a tunnel at a “Love Parade” techno music festival in Germany on Saturday. Overcrowding at the entrance tunnel to a former freight rail station where the event was being held sparked the stampede and then a crush among the mainly young festival-goers, police said. The festival, which police said drew about 1.4 million people, was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared an abrupt halt could spark a second panic. Music blared out after the stampede and people danced on, unaware of the unfolding tragedy nearby. Organisers finally called the event off in late evening hours after the deaths. “There were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets,” 18-year-old Love Parade participant Isabel Schloesser said. “It was way too full in the afternoon, everybody wanted to get in,” she said after leaving the rubble-strewn entrance where echoes of a throbbing bass beat could still be heard more than three hours after the crush. Rescue work was initially hampered by the huge crowds attending one of Europe’s biggest electronic music events in fine weather, officials said. People had come from all around Europe to the Love Parade, most in the 18-25 age bracket. Police in the industrial Ruhr city of Duisburg in western Germany had tried to close the tunnel entrance about a half an hour before the chaos broke out in late afternoon. “Apparently some tried to enter the area by climbing a fence along a ramp and then fell,” the head of an emergency task force, Wolfgang Rabe, said on ARD television. “It is still a presumption at the moment, but this could have caused a panic.” Sufferning, pain for revellers North Rhine-Westphalia state interior minister Ralf Jaeger arrived at the scene in the evening and said 5,500 police and emergency workers had been mobilised to organise evacuation and an orderly end to the festival, which left thousands in a state of shock. German President Christian Wulff expressed sympathy in a statement and Chancellor Angel Merkel sent a message of condolence to the relatives of the victims. “These young people went to party and instead found death and injury. I am appalled and saddened by so much suffering and pain,” her statement said. Authorities put the death toll at 18, with at least 80 more injured, many severely. No further details were immediately available about the dead, which earlier police reports said included nine women and six men. A doctor from the nearby Johanniter hospital told Reuters some 20 to 30 more people were badly injured. Police earlier tried to resuscitate some with CPR and the kiss of life inside the 200-metre long tunnel. In the direct aftermath, ambulances rushed to pick up victims and police set up an emergency first aid station near the entrance, where live images from WDR television showed thousands of revellers streaming out of the festival towards the main train station as rescue helicopters circled overhead. “The emergency workers had problems getting to the area due to the massive crowds,” a fire department spokesman from Duisburg said, declining to be named. The annual event with a backdrop of electronic dance music such as House, Trance and Techno, flamboyant outfits and energetic dance moves, was first held in Berlin in 1989 as an event to promote peace through music. Internationally, similar Love Parades have taken place in Zurich, San Francisco, Mexico City, Acapulco, Vienna, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Sydney, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo and Budapest. Organisers could not immediately be reached for comment. Police said an investigation had already begun. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Jul 2010 | 2:42 am Dubai World document reveals price of failureDUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai World warned that lenders, aside from the government's own support fund, would face a "significantly" worse deal if its debt plan fails and it is forced to seek liquidation, according to the debt restructuring plan outlined to bankers on Thursday.Source: Reuters: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 2:33 am Integrated plan key to neutralizing Left extremism in backward districts: PM - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Jul 2010 | 2:31 am Indian Bank seeks partners for merchant banking and MF business - Sify
Source: Business - Google News | 25 Jul 2010 | 2:31 am MFs resist SEBI idea of same charges for small, big investorsMutual fund houses are strongly resisting a proposal from market regulator SEBI for treating small investors at par with large institutional ones in terms of various charges, such as exit-loads, with the argument that retail investors are costlier to service.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Jul 2010 | 2:30 am Wall St banks scale back pay, for nowWall Street's surviving titans, eager to impress regulators writing the rules that will govern the financial industry, are scaling back their lavish and much-maligned pay practices, at least for now.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 1:58 am RBI, RIL to set tone for the Street; rally may go onNew Delhi: The RBI monetary policy review and Reliance results will set the tone for the Dalal Street this week, analysts said, while expressing optimism that the markets will continue the winning streak for the fourth week on back of strengthening fund inflows. “Investor sentiment is upbeat and the Dalal Street may see hitting new highs this week. Tracking positive global cues, the market is likely to start the week in the green on Monday,” CNI Research chairman and managing director Kishore P Ostwal said. The coming week will be action-packed as the market will be closely watching the RBI policy announcement and the first quarter numbers of the Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries, both of which are slated for Tuesday. So far, the earnings by most of the corporates have been in line with Street expectations brokers said, adding the market is expecting a good show by the country’s largest corporate house on July 27. Analysts say Reliance Industries’ first quarter numbers on Tuesday will be a deciding factor for the markets and will decide the direction in the immediate short-term. According to the brokerage firm ICICIDirect, another key event is the monetary policy announcement by the Reserve Bank on Tuesday. Any hike rate more than 25 basis points is likely to be a dampener for the markets, it said, adding the market has already factored in a 25 bps policy rate hike. However, most marketmen say they do not see a steep hike in the key policy rates. “We expect a 25 basis points hike in the lending and borrowing (repo and reverse repo) rates in the upcoming monetary policy review by the Reserve Bank,” Birla SunLife chief investment officer Vikram Kotak said. According to analysts, another key factor will be the monthly F&O settlement due Thursday, which is likely to be volatile. Besides, global cues are likely to be positive at least in the early part of the week as the result of the stress tests of European banks has come out without any shocks, say analysts. Following the stress tests, wherein only seven out of the 91 European banks failed, the US and European markets closed in the green on Friday. The domestic market maintained the upward march and regained the 18,000 level after 30 months on the back of positive domestic sentiment and strong global cues. The positive momentum during the last three days of the week helped both indices to close at their highest levels since early February 2008. On a week-on-week basis, the BSE Sensex rose by nearly 1% to close at 18,131. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Jul 2010 | 1:33 am RBI, RIL to set tone for the Street; rally may go onNew Delhi: The RBI monetary policy review and Reliance results will set the tone for the Dalal Street this week, analysts said, while expressing optimism that the markets will continue the winning streak for the fourth week on back of strengthening fund inflows. “Investor sentiment is upbeat and the Dalal Street may see hitting new highs this week. Tracking positive global cues, the market is likely to start the week in the green on Monday,” CNI Research chairman and managing director Kishore P Ostwal said. The coming week will be action-packed as the market will be closely watching the RBI policy announcement and the first quarter numbers of the Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries, both of which are slated for Tuesday. So far, the earnings by most of the corporates have been in line with Street expectations brokers said, adding the market is expecting a good show by the country’s largest corporate house on July 27. Analysts say Reliance Industries’ first quarter numbers on Tuesday will be a deciding factor for the markets and will decide the direction in the immediate short-term. According to the brokerage firm ICICIDirect, another key event is the monetary policy announcement by the Reserve Bank on Tuesday. Any hike rate more than 25 basis points is likely to be a dampener for the markets, it said, adding the market has already factored in a 25 bps policy rate hike. However, most marketmen say they do not see a steep hike in the key policy rates. “We expect a 25 basis points hike in the lending and borrowing (repo and reverse repo) rates in the upcoming monetary policy review by the Reserve Bank,” Birla SunLife chief investment officer Vikram Kotak said. According to analysts, another key factor will be the monthly F&O settlement due Thursday, which is likely to be volatile. Besides, global cues are likely to be positive at least in the early part of the week as the result of the stress tests of European banks has come out without any shocks, say analysts. Following the stress tests, wherein only seven out of the 91 European banks failed, the US and European markets closed in the green on Friday. The domestic market maintained the upward march and regained the 18,000 level after 30 months on the back of positive domestic sentiment and strong global cues. The positive momentum during the last three days of the week helped both indices to close at their highest levels since early February 2008. On a week-on-week basis, the BSE Sensex rose by nearly 1% to close at 18,131. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Jul 2010 | 1:33 am Focus shifts to EU banks to scrape test passLondon / Frankfurt: So few banks failed Europe’s long-awaited stress tests on Friday that investors will likely focus instead on the dozen or so banks that just scraped through when markets reopen next week. Seven banks failed the unprecedented test of Europe’s banking system — including five small regional Spanish lenders — and need to plug a much smaller-than-expected combined capital shortfall of €3.5 billion. But the health check on 91 banks in 20 countries was criticised as being too soft. It was also overshadowed somewhat by a slew of data on European economies that suggested the banks may face less pressure and loan defaults than earlier thought. That leaves investors to make up their own minds about particular banks, armed with the extra data the tests provided, including on sovereign bond holdings, to judge where further weak spots may be. “With so few banks failing, investors will question whether the economic scenarios are sufficiently severe,” said Jon Peace, analyst at Nomura in London. “It will be natural for investors to consider the margin by which banks passed,” he added, citing a good pass margin for Scandinavian and British banks, but Greek, Spanish and Italian banks faring less well. Banks were tested on how they would withstand another recession in the next two years, including some losses on government bonds. They failed if their Tier 1 capital ratio dropped below 6%. There were 17 banks whose ratio fell to between 6% and 7%. They included Deutsche Postbank, Greece’s Piraeus Bank, Allied Irish Banks, Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UBI Banca, Spain’s Bankinter and eight smaller Spanish banks. Weak Links Even in the hours before the results w ere released National Bank of Greece, Slovenia’s NLB and Civica in Spain all announced plans to raise capital. Piraeus has already hired three investment banks to underwrite a capital increase of more than 1 billion euros, a Greek newspaper said on Saturday, although much of that may go on the acquisition of state stakes in two other Greek banks. Postbank, Germany’s largest retail bank by clients, identified its own capital shortfall months ago. The Bonn-based lender last year took drastic measures to improve capital, including scrapping its dividend, cutting staff and shrinking assets. It said it will continue with the overhaul. Franz-Christoph Zeitler, Bundesbank’s vice president, said: “In the regulators’ view no other German bank (other than Hypo Real Estate) needs further capital as the level of 6 percent is clearly above the regulatory minimum, but the markets could see that differently.” Italy’s smaller banks will also come under scrutiny. “As we expected, bigger banks have higher capital ratios, while the market will probably say that banks such as Monte dei Paschi and Banco Popolare still lack adequate ratios,” said Centrosim analyst Luca Comi. Access to funding? A main aim of the test was to open up funding markets for banks who have been shut out in recent months. Those still deemed too risky could still have problems unless they raise more capital. “This isn’t necessarily the last word, and if funding costs do not improve for some banks then we would not be surprised to see additional stress tests by some national central banks in the future,” Nomura’s Peace said. Europe’s so-called “stress tests” were never expected to show massive capital shortfalls, as its banks have also already raised about 300 billion euros since the start of the crisis. That includes about €170 billion of government support to 34 banks. Just as investors take a view when markets reopen on Monday, Central bank governors and heads of supervision will meet in Switzerland to review proposed capital reforms, and the resilience shown by Europe’s banks could make it harder for them to argue they cannot implement tough new rules. “The banks are ready to start implementing the new rules which are necessary to reinforce the capital provision and liquidity management of the banks,” Vitor Constancio, ECB Vice President, told Reuters Insider after Friday’s results. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 25 Jul 2010 | 1:12 am Focus shifts to EU banks to scrape test passLondon / Frankfurt: So few banks failed Europe’s long-awaited stress tests on Friday that investors will likely focus instead on the dozen or so banks that just scraped through when markets reopen next week. Seven banks failed the unprecedented test of Europe’s banking system — including five small regional Spanish lenders — and need to plug a much smaller-than-expected combined capital shortfall of €3.5 billion. But the health check on 91 banks in 20 countries was criticised as being too soft. It was also overshadowed somewhat by a slew of data on European economies that suggested the banks may face less pressure and loan defaults than earlier thought. That leaves investors to make up their own minds about particular banks, armed with the extra data the tests provided, including on sovereign bond holdings, to judge where further weak spots may be. “With so few banks failing, investors will question whether the economic scenarios are sufficiently severe,” said Jon Peace, analyst at Nomura in London. “It will be natural for investors to consider the margin by which banks passed,” he added, citing a good pass margin for Scandinavian and British banks, but Greek, Spanish and Italian banks faring less well. Banks were tested on how they would withstand another recession in the next two years, including some losses on government bonds. They failed if their Tier 1 capital ratio dropped below 6%. There were 17 banks whose ratio fell to between 6% and 7%. They included Deutsche Postbank, Greece’s Piraeus Bank, Allied Irish Banks, Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UBI Banca, Spain’s Bankinter and eight smaller Spanish banks. Weak Links Even in the hours before the results w ere released National Bank of Greece, Slovenia’s NLB and Civica in Spain all announced plans to raise capital. Piraeus has already hired three investment banks to underwrite a capital increase of more than 1 billion euros, a Greek newspaper said on Saturday, although much of that may go on the acquisition of state stakes in two other Greek banks. Postbank, Germany’s largest retail bank by clients, identified its own capital shortfall months ago. The Bonn-based lender last year took drastic measures to improve capital, including scrapping its dividend, cutting staff and shrinking assets. It said it will continue with the overhaul. Franz-Christoph Zeitler, Bundesbank’s vice president, said: “In the regulators’ view no other German bank (other than Hypo Real Estate) needs further capital as the level of 6 percent is clearly above the regulatory minimum, but the markets could see that differently.” Italy’s smaller banks will also come under scrutiny. “As we expected, bigger banks have higher capital ratios, while the market will probably say that banks such as Monte dei Paschi and Banco Popolare still lack adequate ratios,” said Centrosim analyst Luca Comi. Access to funding? A main aim of the test was to open up funding markets for banks who have been shut out in recent months. Those still deemed too risky could still have problems unless they raise more capital. “This isn’t necessarily the last word, and if funding costs do not improve for some banks then we would not be surprised to see additional stress tests by some national central banks in the future,” Nomura’s Peace said. Europe’s so-called “stress tests” were never expected to show massive capital shortfalls, as its banks have also already raised about 300 billion euros since the start of the crisis. That includes about €170 billion of government support to 34 banks. Just as investors take a view when markets reopen on Monday, Central bank governors and heads of supervision will meet in Switzerland to review proposed capital reforms, and the resilience shown by Europe’s banks could make it harder for them to argue they cannot implement tough new rules. “The banks are ready to start implementing the new rules which are necessary to reinforce the capital provision and liquidity management of the banks,” Vitor Constancio, ECB Vice President, told Reuters Insider after Friday’s results. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 25 Jul 2010 | 1:12 am Govt asks pharma cos to stop advertising ECPsThe government has issued an advisory to all the marketers of oral emergency contraceptive pills asking them not to advertise the product.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 25 Jul 2010 | 1:00 am Goenka Diamond plans Rs100 crore expansionOn the back of expansion plans, the company aims to grow at 25% annually atleast in the next five years.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:33 am Home loan disbursals zoom 61% in GujaratIn fiscal 2009-10, member banks of the State-Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) disbursed fresh home loans of Rs3,786.74 crore to 52,307 applicants, against Rs2,344.42 crore to 46,130 applicants in FY 2008-09Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:14 am Delivery delays, fiscal worries… It is name of the game in London, DelhiExasperation, resignation, and a sense of déjà vu. Some of the emotions many Delhi-ites will be experiencing amidst the ongoing delays and monsoon-led damage to the facilities that have already tarnished the international image of theSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Karnataka set to ban iron ore exportsKarnataka proposes to ban exports of iron ore from ports in the State, till the ongoing probe into illegal mining by Lokayukta, the State ombudsman, isSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am ‘Social investing' gains traction“Stockezy is the Facebook for stocks”, that's how 28-year-old Mr Tushar Makhija, Co-founder and CEO of Stockezy.com, describes his Web site. Stockezy is an online community of investors who come together from all over the country andSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am IOC posts Rs 3,388-cr loss as refining margin slumpsIndian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) posted a loss of Rs 3,388 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal ended June 2010 compared with a profit of Rs 3,683 crore for the same quarter last year. This was mainly because of unmetSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Direct Taxes Code Bill draft forwarded to Law MinistryThe Finance Ministry has forwarded a draft of the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill to the Law Ministry, it isSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Maruti Q1 net slows 20% on costlier raw materialCar market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Saturday announced a 20 per cent drop in its profits to Rs 465.36 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2010. The company had reported a profit of Rs 583.54 crore in the same quarter lastSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am PM seeks States' ‘full support' for GSTThe Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Saturday urged Chief Ministers to give “full support” to implement the Good and Services Tax (GST) from April 1 nextSource: Business Line - Home Page | 25 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Malaysia Airline to double India-bound flights by 2012Malaysia Airlines plans to double the number of flights to India to 60 per day from 30 at present by 2012 and is eyeing over 20 per cent growth in the Indian aviation market, a senior official of the airline said.Source: HindustanTimes.com - Top Business News Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 11:51 pm BP resuming oil spill work as storm fizzlesHouston: Ships and workers moved back into BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill site on Sunday as seas calmed, and BP could begin pumping mud into the blown-out well later this week in a bid to plug the gusher. As remnants of Tropical Depression Bonnie dissipated over the Gulf on Saturday, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, head of the US spill response, said a “static kill” operation to plug the well by pumping in heavy drilling mud and possibly cement could start in three to five days. “The ‘static kill’ could go very quickly,” Allen said. The rig drilling a relief well intended to permanently stop the leak was back in place at the spill site, although Allen said the storm could push back BP’s mid-August target date for completing it back seven to nine days. BP sealed the leak July 15 with a tight-fitting containment cap, choking off the flow of oil for the first time since an April 20 rig explosion killed 11 workers and sent crude spewing into the Gulf, soiling coastlines in five US states and devastating tourism and fishery industries. As the storm threat passed, the independent administrator running a $20 billion fund set up by BP to compensate people for financial losses from the spill said the British energy giant was holding up payments to economic victims. “I have a concern that BP is stalling claims. ... I doubt they are stalling for money. It’s not that. I just don’t think they know the answers to the questions” from claimants, Kenneth Feinberg told reporters on Saturday in Alabama. Thousands of businesses in Gulf Coast states have been crippled by the spill, the worst in U.S. history. BP agreed to set up the $20 billion fund under pressure from President Barack Obama. At a town hall meeting in southern Alabama, fishermen and other business owners told Feinberg of their frustration and anger at what they say is a slow and complex claims process that lacks transparency. “After today there will be no more business as usual. I learned today the depth of frustration in people here on the coast,” Feinberg told the meeting. The weak remnants of Bonnie were on course to make landfall over southeast Louisiana or southern Mississippi early on Sunday. The ruptured deep-sea well — a mile (1.6 km) under the ocean surface — is off the coast of Louisiana. Though toothless in the end, Bonnie had prompted oil and natural gas producers to evacuate many offshore workers, halting more than half of the oil production in US-regulated areas of the Gulf and about 25% of gas output. Several oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Saturday they were returning workers to offshore operations in the Gulf as the storm threat faded and planned to restart production of oil and gas. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 11:51 pm BP resuming oil spill work as storm fizzlesHOUSTON (Reuters) - Ships and workers moved back into BP Plc 's Gulf of Mexico oil spill site on Sunday as seas calmed, and BP could begin pumping mud into the blown-out well later this week in a bid to plug the gusher.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 10:58 pm Sugar prices to go up by Rs 3 per kgMillers last week decided to raise prices of the sweetener by 4 to 6% in an attempt to trim losses after prices fall below cost of production.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 10:43 pm Sugar prices to go up by Rs 3 per kg - Daily News & Analysis
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 10:40 pm Bonnie fades but disrupts U.S. Gulf oil outputMIAMI (Reuters) - The remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie dissipated over the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday after the mere threat of the storm took a big bite out of production in the Gulf oil patch.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 9:55 pm U.S. won't target more Swiss banks on tax - U.S. diplomatZURICH (Reuters) - The United States, which targeted Swiss bank giant UBS in a damaging tax fraud probe last year, is not planning to carry out new tax investigations against Swiss banks, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland said.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 9:52 pm Indian iron ore mess - CBI can follow illegal mining trail outside India - SteelGuru
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 9:35 pm States express reservation over GST - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:50 pm Panel to probe likely displacement by Vedanta project - The Hindu
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:48 pm Work through the night, orders Sheila - Chandigarh Tribune
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:28 pm Maruti Suzuki skids in June, net profit down 20% to Rs 465 crore - Economic Times
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 1:40 pm GST is good economics, but is it good politics?The most obvious flaw in the proposal is that it flies in the face of reality, with regionalism being such a strong force.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 1:29 pm NMDC smokes the peace pipe with Tata SteelIn 2007, Indias largest iron ore producer, NMDC, dragged Tata Steel and Essar Steel to court over allotment of prospecting licences in the rich Bailadila deposits in Chhattisgarh. Three years later, with a memorandum of understanding for an alliance in minerals and steel already inked with Tata Steel, parleys are being held for a possible settlement of the dispute.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Court summons Balco CEO over chimney collapseA local court in Korba has summoned the chief executive of Vedanta-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (Balco), Gunjan Gupta, over the collapse of the chimney in the companys power plant on September 23 last year. Forty-one people had died when the chimney of the 1,200 Mw power plant came crashing down.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:57 pm With growth on track, reforms get big pushBroad convergence on GST rollout in NDC meet.Source: Business Standard | Front Page Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:52 pm IndianOil Q1 loss at Rs 3388 cr - Business Standard
Source: Business - Google News | 24 Jul 2010 | 12:30 pm Royalties, weak euro hit profits at MarutiToyota has said it would treble sales next year, while Ford's Figo, General Motors' Chevrolet Beat minicar and Volkswagen's Polo hatchbacks have met with a good response.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 11:42 am Asia's budding bankers no longer feel need to go WestIn Singapore, Ivy League recruits are signing contracts of up to S$10,000 per month according to a local consultant who did not want to be named because compensation is usually kept private at the banks.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 11:06 am Facebook IPO 'when makes sense': CEO Mark ZuckerbergThe privately held company is one of the most closely-watched Web operators by investors to jump onboard a blockbuster initial public offering.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 11:06 am Currency futures: All the gyaan on how to trade themIn an interview with CNBCTV18, Ananth Narayan, Regional Head FICC, Standard Chartered Bank, U Venkataraman, ED, MCX Stock Exchange and Jamal Mecklai, CEO, Mecklai Financial Services gave their perspective on currency futures and hedging.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 9:23 am Europe's media react to bank stress test resultsLONDON (Reuters) - Just seven European banks failed a health check and were ordered to raise their capital by 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion), confirming fears the continent's long-awaited stress test was too soft.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 9:05 am Income tax department biggest litigant in govt: Pranab MukherjeeThe finance minister said that there must be institutional arrangements to address tax disputes to the satisfaction of both taxpayers and tax collectors so as to reduce litigation to a minimum.Source: Daily News & Analysis: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 8:07 am Focus shifts to EU banks to scrape test passLONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - So few banks failed Europe's long-awaited stress tests on Friday that investors will likely focus instead on the dozen or so banks that just scraped through when markets reopen next week.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 7:31 am Tata Consultancy to double Latin America salesIndia\'s top software service exporter, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), sees Latin American sales more than doubling by 2015 as the company targets one of the world\'s fastest growing regions.Source: Moneycontrol Top Headlines | 24 Jul 2010 | 4:32 am Royalties, weak euro hit profits at MarutiMUMBAI (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki, India's top carmaker, reported a surprise 20 percent fall in net profit in the quarter to June, hit by high raw material costs, an increase in royalty payments, and a weakening of the euro which hurt export revenues.Source: Reuters: Money News | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:45 am Maruti Suzuki Q1 net profit fallsMumbai: Maruti Suzuki, India’s top carmaker, reported a surprise 20% fall in net profit in the quarter to June, hit by high raw material costs, an increase in royalty payments, and a weakening of the euro which hurt export revenues. Maruti said net profit slid to Rs465 crore ($98.9 million) for its fiscal first quarter ended 30 June, from Rs584 crore a year earlier. Additional royalty payments to Suzuki Motor Corp, which holds a 54.2% stake in the company, totalled Rs189 crore. Added falls in “other” income, that made for a net negative impact of about Rs300 crore compared to a year earlier. A Reuters poll had forecast net profit at Rs704 crore for Maruti, which sells roughly half the cars in India but is facing intensifying competition from the likes of South Korea’s Hyundai Motors, the second-largest car maker in India, as well as domestic rivals. “This quarter seems to be a bottom for the company,” said Surjit Arora, auto analyst with Prabhudas Lilladher. “Going forward, we expect margins to improve from here on because sales are still strong. The extra-ordinary other expenses due to royalty payments will most likely not be there in future quarters, though currency fluctuations will have to be watched,” Arora said. The euro also depreciated about 6.5% against the rupee in the quarter, hitting exports which account for up to 15% of Maruti’s earnings. Other recent entrants into the local compact car market are also snapping at Maruti’s heels. Toyota has said it would treble sales next year, while Ford’s Figo, General Motors’ Chevrolet Beat minicar and Volkswagen’s Polo hatchbacks have met with a good response. Maruti shares, worth $8.3 billion, have fallen 13.2% this calendar year, lagging the sector index which has risen 13.4% and India’s main index, which has risen just under 4%. Maruti reached its production limit of 1 million cars in March this year, but is stretching its existing manufacturing capacities to make more cars to meet demand. It is expanding capacity to produce an additional 250,000 cars annually, but that will only be available in April 2012. In the June quarter it sold 283,324 cars, up about a fourth, from a year earlier. Foreign portfolio investments in Maruti have reached the maximum limit of 24%, another reason why the stock has been underperforming. Additional investments by foreign funds will require the company to raise the limit on such investments. Car sales in India have been on a roll, with industry-wide sales up by one-third to 554,566 units in the first quarter of the fiscal year that started in April. For the current fiscal year, car sales are seen rising 12-13%, according to industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Source: Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 3:22 am India, EU in new bid to clinch free-trade dealNew Delhi: India and the European Union (EU) are to hold a fresh series of free-trade talks in August in Brussels in a bid to clinch a deal by the end of the year, an official said. Chief negotiators for India and its largest trading partner will meet at the European Union headquarters in Brussels in August as part of a push to conclude negotiations on the India-EU free-trade pact by December. “We hope we will keep that (December) date,” Daniele Smadja, the head of India’s delegation to the EU, said late Friday. “Concluding the FTA negotiations will send a clear signal of engagement on both sides. It would boost both trade and investment between EU and India. We need to seize the opportunity -- a one-in-a-lifetime for both of us.” As part of the drive to wrap up talks, the two sides will meet in Brussels in the last week of August, she said. Around the same time, Indian commerce minister Anand Sharma and the EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht will meet on the sidelines of an international meeting in Vietnam, she added. India and the 27-member EU have been negotiating the market-opening pact since June 2007 to boost bilateral commerce. But progress has been stymied by differences over intellectual property rights and efforts by Brussels to link trade with climate and India’s social sector performance in such areas as child labour. India has opposed incorporation of what it calls “extraneous” non-trade issues into the EU talks. Other issues include the seizure of Indian generic drugs meant for Third World countries as they pass through European ports. India claims developed countries are using the cover of a fight against counterfeit medicines to protect pharmaceutical giants and suppress legitimate generic drugs. So far nine rounds of free-trade negotiations have been completed. India’s trade volume of $80.6 billion with the EU accounts for 21% its exports and 16% of imports. The EU and India set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $200 billion in the next four years if a free-trade deal is concluded. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:49 am Power sector may turn unviable if losses not checked: PMNew Delhi: The power sector could trip the country’s growth story if states do not check the losses of power utilities that totaled a staggering Rs40,000 crore last fiscal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday . “The power sector is particularly important if we wish to achieve 9% growth...Total loss in 2009-10 is estimated at Rs40,000 crore...Unless corrected, it will make the whole power sector unviable,” Singh told a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in New Delhi. He attributed these losses to low levels of tariff for some categories of consumers and high technical and commercial losses. India has one of highest transmission and distribution losses in the world. It lost 30% of the total power produced (over 160,000 MW) in transmission and distribution, which in monetary terms is estimated at Rs45,000 crore for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2010. “I would therefore urge chief ministers to give this problem their personal attention,” Singh said at the meeting, attended by most of the CMs. The Prime Minister said since investment in generation and transmission depends upon the ability of the distribution companies to pay, these losses are simply not sustainable. He said corrective steps needed in this area lie entirely in the domain of the states. Against the target of 78,000 MW in the 11th five year plan period (2007-12), the mid-term appraisal of the plan suggests that the generation capacity in the 11th plan is likely to expand only by 62,000 to 64,000 MW. “Though short of the 11th plan target of 78,000 MW, it will be nevertheless three times the capacity that was added in the 10th plan,” the Prime Minister said. His economic advisory council had on Friday in fact ridiculed the shortage of expansion in power sector during the current plan period. “We would be lucky to get 62,000 MW by March 2012. This rests on large capacities being commissioned in 2010-11 and 2011-12,” says the economic outlook for 2010-11, released by the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council. Source: LatestNews-Home - Livemint.com | 24 Jul 2010 | 2:25 am
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