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Friday,
January 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Another feather in Reliance cap
Opec to mull India’s plea on concession |
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Forget cash, e-wallets coming soon
Gold glitters, zooms 7-year high
Mphasis BFL net jumps 43 pc
Lover offered £4 m for 10 Diana's letters
GM rolls out Opel Vectra
SBI cuts rates on deposits
Microsoft to launch smart watches
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Another feather in Reliance cap
New Delhi, January 9 Reliance struck hydrocarbons in the very first well it drilled in the GK-OSJ/1 block in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Cambay, senior company officials said here. No assessment of in-place reserves had been done as the reserves were yet to be tested, they said adding the company would make an announcement on the find in a month’s time. The block was one of the five blocks Reliance Industries acquired from Tullow Oil of UK for just over one million pound. Sources, however, indicated that gas production from the new find could be close to one million standard cubic metres per day as per the initial assessment. The block was close to the four hydrocarbon discoveries Scottish explorer Cairn Energy Plc had made, of which Lakshmi gas find had started commercial production. The remaining (Gauri, Ambe and Parvati ) were in different phases of development. Reliance Industries, in consortium with Canadian Niko Resources (RIL 90 per cent, Niko 10 per cent) had last year struck 7 trillion cubic feet of in-place reserves in KG-DWN/98/3 block in the deep waters of KGB. It had estimated that the field could produce up to 40 million standard cubic metres per day in two-and-a-half years. The hydrocarbon finds augur well with India’s quest for attaining oil security. The country is presently 70 per cent import dependent on crude oil and meets just half of the 120 million standard cubic metres per day gas demand. Sources said Reliance had sought gas reserves in the sixth well it drilled in the KG block, whose testing too would be undertaken shortly. Reliance would this month start drilling in the Mahanadi basin block, where government’s upstream nodal agency the Directorate-General, Hydrocarbon, had predicted the next big hydrocarbon find, they added. PTI
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RIL leads rally
Mumbai: Led by Reliance Industries (RIL), select key old economy stocks rallied smartly lifting the sensex by 26 points at close on the BSE today on fairly good buying by speculators. Heavy off-take in RIL shares was prompted by the news that the company has struck significant oil and gas in an exploration block offshore Gujarat. Earlier the company had discovered 7 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in Krishna Godavari basin.
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Opec to mull India’s plea on concession
New Delhi, January 9 Mr Attiyah told reporters on the sidelines of Petrotech 2003 here that according to his calculations, prices of crude oil, because of speculation and political uncertainty, had risen by $ 4 per barrel. Mr Al Attiyah said the meeting would also take into consideration the possibility of Iraq production drying up if US attacks that country. He said the Opec was also considering India’s request for concessional pricing of crude oil for developing countries, but did not give any timeframe for taking a decision. Earlier, inaugurating the Petrotech conference, the Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said India envisages an investment of over Rs 1,70,000 crore in the 10th plan for the development of its oil and gas sector, which plays a major role in increasing the country’s annual GDP growth. TNS
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Forget cash, e-wallets coming soon
Bhubaneswar, January 9 “One can make payments with one’s fingertips from anywhere, anytime,”. This was stated by Mr Pitroda, who led India’s telecom revolution in the 1980s by giving the rural hinterland access to telephony, in an interview during a brief visit here. Pitroda’s C-Sam Inc., a Chicago-based telecom company that he set up in 1999, has finalised the wallet’s design after four years of hard work. “It will be visible across the globe by the end of this year.” Mr Pitroda is in India to attend the CII’s partnership summit in Hyderabad and the diaspora convention in New Delhi. He said, “When you go from one place to another, you take currency. To make even a micro-payment, you stand in a queue. It is your money and you are paying but you face hassles. The payment systems that exist are obsolete. The (electronic) wallet will change this concept.” “You can store everything electronically, including your credit card, debit card, health card, insurance card, even driving licence. You can transfer your payment electronically,” explained Mr Pitroda, who has secured about 50 telecom patents. “Using this wallet, even a government can deposit the salaries of its employees in a bank, cutting the logistics of writing out cheques and waiting in queues to deposit them. The same goes for the payment of electricity and telephone bills.” Consumers will be charged a wallet fee of $10 a year, plus a transaction fee. Mr Pitroda said the electronic wallet could even help the poor living in rural areas. “When you send a money order, you need to purchase a form, give cash and wait in a queue. That takes time. If the wallet will be available at the local PCO booth, you can do it at once.” He said C-Sam’s technology and product suite enabled an electronic wallet user to convert physical payment cards into electronic images on mobile phones and information appliances with Web-based facilitation and support. Services can be accessed both remotely and locally. Users can store their payment and non-payment cards in a client-based wallet in the mobile phone handset and use it for purchase transactions and financial management with online and real world merchants. When making the payment, the user simply selects the payment card icon in C-Sam’s OneWallet and presses the “buy” button. For a secure transaction, the user is asked to enter his or her personal identification number and the payment information is beamed to the point of sale device. IANS
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Gold glitters, zooms 7-year high
New Delhi, January 9 Trading activity was bullish after the reports of a sharp rise in the gold prices in the international markets where it gained over $6 announced at $ 354. Marketmen said gold was last seen around present levels on February 4, 1996, and its prices in the international markets quoted above $415 an ounce. Gold's recent high level was Rs 5,710 per 10 gram on this Monday. They said there was "safe heavy" buying concerned over softer crude oil prices together with rising tension between US-led and Iraq, and week dollar against regional currencies. The dollar fetched 119.90 yen against previous day's level of 120.18 in Tokyo. Standard gold and ornaments shot up by Rs 65 each at Rs 5,735 and Rs 5,585 per 10 gram. Sovereign also moved up by Rs 25 at Rs 4,425 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready also joined the firm trend and rose further by Rs 10 at Rs 8,020 per kilo. Weekly-based delivery rose by Rs 20 at Rs 8,040 per kilo. Silver coins, on the other hand, continued to be asked at the previous levels of Rs 12,000/12,100 per 100 pieces. The following were today's quotations: Silver ready 8,020 and delivery 8,040. Silver coins buyer 12,000 and seller 12,100 Standard gold 5,735, ornaments 5,585 and sovereign 4,425. PTI
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Mphasis BFL net jumps 43 pc
Mumbai, January 9 The company's revenue for the quarter increased to Rs 56.48 crore in the period under review from Rs 47.67 crore in the same quarter last year, Mphasis BFL said in a release in Mumbai today. It reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 18.18 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2002 against Rs 12.91 crore for the corresponding quarter in the last financial year. Hughes Soft net drops 21 pc
Hughes Software Systems today reported an over 21 per cent fall in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2002 at Rs 11.4 crore as against Rs 14.5 crore during the same period last year. The company’s net sales also dropped by over 4 per cent to Rs 57.1 crore during the quarter as against Rs 59.9 crore a year ago, its Managing Director Arun Kumar told reporters here today. For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2002, the net profit was also down at Rs 24.1 crore as against Rs 39.5 crore in same period last
fiscal. Aptech stake cut by 4 pc
Institutional investors, including mutual funds
(MFs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs), have reduced their holding in Aptech Ltd by 4.22 per cent to 12.81 per cent during the quarter ended December 31
2002. MFs and FIIs held 7.25 per cent and 5.69 per cent stake in the company as on September 30, 2002 which they scaled down to 5.6 and 3.08 per cent as on December 31, according to the shareholding information filed by Aptech with the BSE today. Centurion Bank net up
Centurion Bank posted a net profit of Rs 3.10 crore for the third quarter ended on December 31 as against a loss of Rs 26.04 crore for the corresponding period last year. This time the bank has been able to post an operating profit of Rs 20.41 crore for the quarter against an operating loss of Rs 2.43 cr for the corresponding quarter last year. Agencies and
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Lover offered £4 m for 10 Diana's letters Washington, January 9 "Yes, I was interested when someone offered me a large sum of money," Hewitt said in answer to questions from CNN host Larry King. At some point in the one-hour program, Hewitt said an article in London's "News of the World", which quoted him as saying the letters would bring 10 million pounds (about $15 million) "is not absolutely accurate." Hewitt was reportedly offered 4 million pounds (about $6 million) for 10 of the "most salacious" of the 64 letters from Princess Diana. The letters "are in a safe place abroad," Hewitt told King. King asked: "And are they for sale? Will you sell them? If someone is looking at tonight, with that kind of money to buy them, are you available to sell them? Do you want to sell them?" "Yes, I would be available to sell them," Hewitt replied.
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GM rolls out Opel Vectra
Mumbai, January 9 Launching the all-new ‘Vectra’, Mr Aditya Vij, President & Managing Director, GMIL, said, “in terms of excellence in engineering, safety features, passenger comfort, space design, prestige and ease in driving, it’s a car that is ideal for the premium segment car buyers.’’ Claiming to be the ultimate car in driving luxury, Mr Vij said Vectra was equipped with all exquisite features to meet demanding tastes, lifestyle and needs of the premium segment car buyers in India.
UNI |
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SBI cuts rates on deposits
Mumbai, January 9 On deposits with maturities of 2 years to less than 3 years, the reduction has been from 6.25 per cent per annum to 6 per cent per annum while for deposits with maturities of 3 years and above, the interest rates have been reduced from 6.50 per cent per annum to 6.25 per cent. The interest rates payable on term deposits with maturities of 7 days to 14 days, 15 days to 45 days, will remain unchanged.
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Seminars on oil Hindustan Seals Investors invited Bharti Tele Marketing board NCAER revision PNB Gilts net up
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