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Friday,
November 29, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Lok Sabha passes UTI Bill
Sonia opposes Nalco privatisation
Tata Steel served show-cause notice |
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Identify spots for
casinos: Chautala
FDI in India likely to go up: Unctad
Ranbaxy’s gesture to AIDS patients
HLL acquires remaining 26 pc in Modern Food
Maruti to review price in January
Bank
stocks find favour
Dating game on AirTel
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Lok Sabha passes UTI Bill New Delhi, November 28 “Three to five years down the line, the government may consider to disinvest Unit II. This will depend on how the situation changes. After all, Unit II is a mutual fund which could be disinvested,” he said while replying to a debate on the Bill. While Unit-I will comprise US 64 and the assured return scheme, Unit II will have under its umbrella net asset value schemes which are market-determined. The government stands behind and will support Unit-I, which will be managed by an administrator who will be assisted by advisers. The US-64 existed because of the trust that investors had placed in the fund. “It was talked about as being like the RBI,” he said. A professional will be brought from outside the government or from within the government to manage Unit II. “He will be the best in the field,” Mr Jaswant Singh said. After the maturity of US-64 and other assured return schemes, it may not mean the demise of Unit I. Whether new schemes will be launched will depend on the management. He had been encouraged by the Rs 3,000 crore inflow into the UTI by the investors since the restructuring of the UTI was announced. Earlier, the Finance Ministry had taken the position that Unit II would be eventually privatised. It had also stated that there would be no new schemes under Unit I. He said he was giving an assurance on the floor of the House that every employee of the UTI will be protected. UNI TNS adds: The Centre today assured the Lok Sabha that the government was not making any attempt to bail out the beleaguered UTI even as the Opposition charged the government with “mismanaging” the mutual fund and hitting small investors hard. “There is no bail out of the UTI”, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said . The Finance Minister said certain weaknesses had developed within the UTI and explained that high dividends and sale and repurchase price of units unrelated to the actual earnings and similar other weaknesses in the operation of the UTI were primarily behind the collapse of NAV units. “These inherent weaknesses coupled with the problems of the capital market in March, 2001, resulted in US-64 scheme facing substantial redemption during April and May, 2001, forcing temporary suspension of the sales and repurchases”, he said. Keeping in mind the interest of investors, the government decided to allow a limited repurchase facility he said, adding that the problems persisted with the UTI because of the depressed capital market. |
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Sonia opposes Nalco privatisation New Delhi, November 28 Mrs Gandhi said even if the government wanted disinvestment of any government-owned company it should keep 51 per cent to maintain the public sector character. Accepting a memorandum submitted by Orissa MPs and major trade union leaders against the privatisation of the PSU, Mrs Gandhi said Nalco being the only public sector in Orissa, the people of the state were emotionally attached to this unit and the government should not take any decision against the emotions of the people. Meanwhile, hundreds of workers of Nalco staged a massive demonstration to protest the privatisation. The protest was led by country’s top trade union bodies, including AITUC, HMS, INTUC, UTUC-LS, AICCTU. MPs from Orissa were also present at the rally near Parliament house. The trade union leaders and MPs later submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Coal and Mines Minister Uma Bharti. Copies were given to Leaders of the Opposition in both the Houses and other leaders.
UNI |
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Tata Steel served show-cause notice Jamshedpur, November 28 The show-cause notice was despatched by Deputy Commissioner of the district Nidhi Khare to Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman yesterday. It directed Muthuraman to explain within three days the steel major’s stand on the violation of the agreement, which had specified that land could not be sub-leased, Khare told newsmen here today. Stating that Tata Steel had not submitted a list of land sub-leased by it in spite of being directed to do so by the administration six months ago, she said the company had been again directed to furnish it. The lease agreement was “grossly violated” by the company in over 4,000 acres under schedule IV and V, which caused loss of revenue to the government. There was a clear guideline in the lease agreement reached between the government and Tata Steel that no land under it was transferable, but Tisco had violated the lease norms by sub-leasing the land. The firm has neither adhered to the lease norms nor paid the government.
PTI |
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Identify spots for casinos: Chautala Chandigarh, November 28 “During his recent tour, the Chief Minister telephoned Mr Chatterjee from Johannesburg after a meeting with proprietor of the Sun City tourism complex situated near the Pretorian capital”, official sources here said. They added that the proprietor of the Sun City complex would visit Haryana shortly. The Chief Minister had asked to have about four spots ready to be examined by the visitor for investment. The sources added that the Tourism Commissioner had been asked to hire a professional for identification of probable spots for setting up of the proposed tourism complex, including a casino. The Finance Minister of Haryana, Mr Sampat Singh, confirmed that the Tourism Department had been asked to identify spots for setting up a tourism complex before visit by the Sun City proprietor. |
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FDI in India likely to go up: Unctad
New Delhi, November 28 “FDI inflows in India is slated to go up from $ 3.4 billion last year, which was up by 47 per cent from $ 2.3 billion in 2000,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) Director Karl Sauvant told reporters here today, quoting the latest FDI report. Unctad also expects, for the first time, China will outsmart the USA and attract over $ 50 billion FDI this year, he said. “Overall, the possible drastic decline in FDI in most of the region’s economies is unlikely to be offset by an increase in such economies such as China and India,” the report said. Indications are that China and India will be highlighted separately in the next World Investment Report slated to be released in September, 2003. Sauvant, chief author of the report and a Director of Unctad’s division on investment, technology and enterprise development, declined to give numbers for India’s FDI inflows for this year. Even as global economic slowdown is expected to drag the FDI flows in the world by 27 per cent, India stands a good chance in attracting higher FDI.
PTI |
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Ranbaxy’s gesture to AIDS patients
New Delhi, November 28 “Ranbaxy has always been at the forefront in addressing the healthcare needs by providing cost-effective and quality medicines,” Bria W Tempest, President (Pharmaceuticals), Ranbaxy Laboratories, said about the coming World AIDS Day on December 1. “To address the growing menace of HIV around the world, Ranbaxy will pledge to serve a large part of the global demand of Anti-Retrovirals (ARVs),” he said. Ranbaxy’s commitment to this segment is evident from the fact that it has filed 300 registrations in 54 countries during the past 18 months. During the past one year alone, Ranbaxy has made around 100 registrations/marketing authorisations with products available in almost 20 countries, a Ranbaxy statement said. Six anti-AIDS products had also been pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation, of which four are ARVs, more than offered by any other generic company.
PTI |
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HLL acquires remaining 26 pc in Modern Food
Mumbai, November 28 This marks the completion of the entire divestment of the government’s stake in Modern Food. HLL had acquired 74 per cent of the Modern Food equity from the government for a sum of Rs 125.45 crore in January, 2000. After taking over Modern Food, HLL brought about a turnaround in the performance of the firm with sales going up by 52 per cent in 2001. It grew further by 20 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal.
UNI |
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Maruti to review price in January
Jammu, November 28 Mr Khattar, who had come here to inaugurate the ultra modern showroom of the Maruti, also announced the starting of trading in second hand cars by the outlets here. Maruti will export 30,000 units of Alto to Western Europe this year. About 24,000 of these will go to the Netherlands where the car is considered as one of the best.
TNS |
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Bank stocks find favour THE much-belated and long overdue rebound in the Indian markets has expectedly been led by the IT sector with the investment bias clearly favouring the bigger players like Infosys, Wipro and Satyam Computers. The volumes clocked at these counters were heartening and has revived memories of the good old days when IT ruled the roost at the Indian bourses. However, given the precarious state of the American and the Indian economy too, it would be premature as yet to pull out the stops and start partying as a broad based rally is yet to
materialise. The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security India Bill, 2002, has finally been passed. The rules concerning the Ordinance had already been notified and the RBI is in the process of issuing guidelines. The law is expected to help state financial corporations, banks and FIs which can also take the help of metropolitan magistrates if necessary for the recovery of assets. Furthermore, the Finance Minister indicated that a lender’s liability law was underway and that a "Serious Frauds Office" to look into corporate delinquency was soon to be constituted. This Ordinance will go a long way towards helping banks address the issue of
NPAs. The Bill, apart from paving the way for asset reconstruction companies, will help lenders enforce their security without additional court procedures. It will also go a long way towards enhancing the strength of the balance-sheets of the Indian banking sector. Notably, the Indian banking sector compares favourably with many of its Asian peers on grounds of both, lower NPAs as well as lower P/E multiples. Against this backdrop, a fair amount of buying was witnessed at the counters of the SBI, ICICI Bank and Corporation Bank. Among the other old economy stocks, Dr.Reddy’s Labs has remained steady notwithstanding market buzz that the UTI was flooding this counter, while Reliance continued to surge ahead on the back of continued FII interest. Relative laggards have been the PSU majors with the ONGC, HPCL and BPCL continuing to cede ground. SCI too has ceded considerable ground on account of news that GE Shipping, a front-runner hitherto in picking up its divestment stake, had decided to pull out of the race for the time being. Like we anticipated and predicted in our exclusive electronic investment newsletter "e-Lotus Stock Flash" last week, the undertone has turned bullish after a long while at the Indian bourses. However, the sharp rebound, especially the speed of the upswing is a cause for some worry. The top of the line IT stocks appear fully priced and the inevitable technical correction at these counters will do more good than harm for the market. For the rally to really gather steam, it must get more broad-based and there is a fair chance that post-correction some of the other tech stocks that had declared good results might attract buying interest. Media stocks too seem to have found favour again, as also banking and pharma stocks. While it does seem that a party could be in the offing, wait a while before popping the champagne corks as there might be big bumps ahead in the form of technical corrections. The optimal course of action would be to book partial profits at successive upswings and to await an opportunity to re-enter the market once the technical correction sets in. |
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