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Govt to speed up equity sale in
Sensex touches 5,800 mark
SBI fixes BPLR at 10.25 pc
TV Today IPO priced at Rs 95
FM clears 34 FDI proposals
Forex reserves growth may slow down: IEG |
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Punjab fails to release subsidy of 200 cr to industry
HP to have 42,000 cell connections
Infosys announces solution for RFID adoption GRAPHIC: Consumer Price Index for Urban Non-Manual Employees
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Govt to speed up equity sale in ONGC, GAIL
New Delhi, December 29 “We have asked the shortlisted bidders in the last four disinvestment cases to submit their bids in two three days... we should complete the appointment (financial advisors for ONGC and GAIL) by this week if we have to complete the process during the current financial year,” Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie told reporters here. The proposal for disinvestment of 10 per cent equity in the two oil PSUs had come from the Petroleum Ministry, Mr Shourie said, adding that many of the procedural delays in decision making would be cut by taking the consent of Group of Ministers either in a meeting or through a circular route. Asked about the meeting of his ministry officials with SEBI chief G.N. Bajpai on the issue, Mr Shourie said that, “The response was positive. It can be done (during the current financial year). SEBI chief has told that good issues (IPOs) should be brought when the market is good.” While exuding confidence about the success of the ONGC and GAIL issues, the minister, however, did not rule out the possibility of floating an overseas ADR issue. “We have not ruled out an ADR. If financial advisors and SEBI feel that there is not much depth in the market then we will go back to the CCD... these things have been left open,” he said. Mr Shourie said the CCD had decided to divest equity in the two oil PSUs, which Petroleum Ministry felt be handled by Disinvestment Ministry on a fast track and the decision to invite the shortlisted bidders among the merchant bankers was part of efforts to
expedite the issue. Those merchant bankers, who were either appointed advisors or shortlisted in the last five cases of privatisation, have been asked to submit their bids, he said. He, however, added that suggestions from some of them, to give all eligible players a collective mandate, would not be preferable and advisors would be selected through a bidding route. Asked about the cabinet’s decision on dissolution of cross holding between ONGC, GAIL and IOC taken a week ahead of the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment which cleared 10 per cent equity sale in two oil PSUs, Mr Shourie said first the partial disinvestment would be taken up. “We discussed this issue at the meeting of the CCD and it was felt that cross-holding should be sequenced later,” he said. Elaborating, Mr Shourie said that 10 per cent equity could be anything — Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 12,000 — crore and cross holding by the oil PSUs could be much more. Everything simultaneously could not be absorbed by the market and therefore it was needed to sequence, he said, adding that cross-holding could be taken up after the disinvestment issue in ONGC and GAIL.
— PTI
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Sensex touches 5,800 mark
Mumbai, December 29 The CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also scaled a new peak and ended at an all-time high of 1,874.05 points, gaining over 2 per cent from its weekend close. The expectation of impressive corporate results on the backdrop of the sufficient monsoon, that would start tickling from January and higher foreign fund allocation in the New Year, kept the fire burning at the Indian bourses, Mr Sumeet Lala, analyst at the Asit.C. Mehta Intermediaries said. The 30-stock BSE Sensex opened 26 points higher at 5,725.44, which itself was the day’s low, crossed the 5,800 mark to touch a high of 5,814.26 points, before signing off the day at 5,797.33 points, its strongest closing level since February 24,2000 and up by 98.09 points or 1.72 per cent from last Friday’s close of 5699.24 points. Most of the new and old economy stocks posted smart gains with foreign funds continuing their buying spree despite the year-end, while the hopes of better corporate earnings and dividends cheered the local operators. Though the market rally was broad-based, banking, technology and PSU shares were in limelight and posted impressive gains. Tech stocks advanced on hope that corporates would record improved quarterly results. Heavyweights like State Bank of India, ITC, Hindustan Lever and Reliance Industries contributed significantly to the gains of the Sensex. With the quarter coming to a close, expectations have started building up over corporate performances and prices of most commodities, particularly cement, steel, aluminium, paper and copper have been on an uptrend. The Sensex which crossed the 5,800 barrier in intra day deals today, would touch the 6,000 level by the end of the week as the sentiment remained bullish with unabated foreign fund inflows, the market may race ahead without any correction, Mr Lala added. Among the top gainers, ICICI Bank shot up by 5.74 per cent to Rs 301.90, HDFC Bank 4.06 per cent up at Rs 372.85, Tisco 3.78 per cent up at Rs440.55, Satyam 3.45 per cent up at Rs 370.60, SBI 2.81 per cent up at Rs 537.15, Tata Power 2.60 per cent up at Rs 305.55, BSES 2.54 per cent up at Rs5 07.25, Wipro 2.33 per cent up at Rs 1,753.50, Telco 2.05 per cent up at Rs 447.50, Infosys 1.82 per cent up at Rs 5,489.10, ITC 1.81 per cent up at Rs 993.15, HLL 1.60 per cent up at Rs 205.85 and Reliance 0.74 per cent up at Rs 251.20. The only six losers in the 30-stock Sensex included Cipla which slipped by 0.91 per cent to Rs 1,275.25, Grasim 0.78 per cent down at Rs 1,012.05, Zee Tele 0.39 per cent down at Rs 154.25, Bharti Tele 0.33 per cent down at Rs 105.95, HDFC 0.25 per cent down at Rs 657.60, Hero Honda 0.09 per cent down at Rs 461.75.
— UNI
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SBI fixes BPLR at 10.25 pc
Mumbai, December 29 The BPLR would be known as State Bank Advance Rate (SBAR) and all loans (except those linked to market benchmarks), presently linked to PLR, State Bank Medium Term Lending Rate and State Bank Short Term Advance Rate would be linked to it with effect from January 1, 2004. The rates on loans, which are presently linked to PLR, SBMTLR and short-term advance, would be reduced by 0.25 per cent, the release said. With this, tenor-linked PLRs would be discontinued. Term Premia and credit risk premia would be added to SBAR for determining lending rates, it said. The bank also announced a cut in its interest rates by 0.25 per cent with effect from January 1 on domestic term deposits with maturity of two year to less than three years and three years and above.
— PTI
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TV Today IPO priced at Rs 95
New Delhi, December 29 TVTN has
decided to allocate 30 per cent of the IPO to retail investors, 25 per
cent for non-institutional investors and the balance 45 per cent for
qualified institutional investors. — PTI
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FM clears 34 FDI proposals
New Delhi, December 29 These mainly pertain to sectors like chemicals and petro-chemicals, automotive components, white and brown goods, information and broadcasting, software development and IT-related services. The proposals were cleared by Mr Singh after recommendation by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, an official release said. It included a Rs 35 crore proposal of Washington-based International Finance Corporation, the Netherlands Development Finance Company and Deutscheinvestitions-UND of Germany to increase the foreign shareholding in Delhi-based Indian Infrastructure Equipment Ltd, to 100 per cent from 49.80 per cent. The Rs 22-crore proposal for transfer of shares in Pune-based Arklite Speciality Lamps Ltd from the resident shareholders to a foreign national, Steve Dumont and non-resident Indians — Anand Bhasin, Ranbir Bhalla, Harminder Bhalla, Nam Parshad Bhatia and Girish Gaitonte was also approved. The Rs 10 crore proposal of UK-based Sethia London Ltd to establish a joint venture company for setting up tea-packaging units and procurement of tea from domestic market received the nod from the Finance Minister. Other proposals included British firm Capital International which received the go-ahead to invest Rs 3.60 crore in Thane-based Mastek BPO Ltd, a business process outsourcing provider. Mauritius-based Edgefield Securities also
received approval to invest Rs 2.5 crore proposal in paper maker JK Corp Ltd. Another Mauritian firm, Customer Solutions has been allowed to invest Rs 1.39 crore in Delhi-based Tele Tech Services, an IT-enabled services provider.
— PTI
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| Forex reserves growth may slow down: IEG
New Delhi, December 29 “We expect further accumulation of (forex) reserves and to reach $ 104 billion by the end of March 2004,” IEG said in a latest monthly report, reasoning that huge inflow of foreign institutional investments and high interest rate differentials had helped the reserves to rise. However, “The rising trade deficit may hamper the current high growth of reserves in the coming months,” the economic think-tank said, adding trade deficit increased by 107.9 per cent during April-October this year as compared to the levels in the year ago period. Exports grew by 8.44 per cent, while imports surged by 21.46 per cent during the first seven months of this fiscal, leading to a widened trade deficit, IEG said, expecting that exports would maintain an average 5.0 per cent growth while imports were set to rise by 13 per cent for the next three months.
— PTI
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Punjab fails to release subsidy of 200 cr to industry Chandigarh, December 29 As per the election manifesto of the ruling party, the state Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, had announced in the state Assembly that out of Rs 550 crore capital subsidy pending towards thousands of industrial units over the past many years, the state government would release capital bonds of Rs 100 crore annually. He had announced that industrial units would be paid pending subsidy in a phased manner. Further, in the New Industrial Policy of the state, the government had announced in June this year, that the light engineering, textile, hosiery and knitwear, sports goods and agro and food processing units would be offered capital subsidy to the extent of 25 per cent of the cost of the fixed capital investment, up to a maximum limit of Rs 25 lakhs per unit. The government had announced to set up a technology development fund with a budgetary allocation up to Rs 25 crore. The state Finance Minister, Mr Lal Singh, had further announced that in order to enhance competitiveness of the specified
industries, a subsidy up to 1 per cent of the value of exports, subject to maximum limit of Rs 50 lakh on freight incurred on transporting goods from manufacturing place to sea coasts, would be provided. He had declared to allocate Rs 50 crore for this purpose during the current Budget itself. Senior officials in the Department of Industry and Commerce claimed, “Despite repeated reminders, not a single penny has been released so far by the Department of Finance during the current fiscal year. The exports from the state have indeed increased from about Rs 4400 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 7,014 crore in 2002-03, and are set to increase substantially this year as well. But, the state government has not released any subsidy despite the fact it has issued a notification in this regard.” Mr S.C. Ralhon, Chairman, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), North Region, claimed, “A delegation of the exporters had recently met the Principal Secretary, Department of Industry and Commerce, Mr S.C. Agarwal, recently, but without any result.” He lamented that despite inherent disadvantage of location in the border areas, the exporters in the state were not getting any support from the state government. A recent survey by the Department of Industry had also revealed that out of about 2 lakh small scale industrial units registered in the state, over 50 per cent had either closed down or had become unviable. A major cause of their closure had been found that the government had not paid the capital subsidy promised to them. The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the CII have also urged the state government to release the subsidy promised to the exporters and other industrial units, otherwise they would be forced to shift towards neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, which were offering attractive incentives to the investors.
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HP to have 42,000 cell connections Dharamsala, December 29 He said at present against a capacity of 43,000, there were 58,000 cellular connections in the state and the number would be raised to 85,000. The Chief General Manager was here in connection with the release of new telephone directory for Dharamsala Telecom Circle for the year 2003. He said more towers were also being erected so that the mobile phones covered more area in the state. He said 35-36 new towers were in the offing for better services. He said tribal areas would also be covered in the near future. Mr Rajendra Singh said that the rates of cellular calls may fall further due to increased subscription and competitiveness. Mr Rajendra Singh said that Himachal had the telephone density of 7.7 per 100 which was much above the national average. He said at present there were 50,000 in waiting list. He said 25,000 WLL connections would also be sanctioned this year. The Chief General Manager said now a toll free complaint section at Shimla had been set up and complainants dialling 1094 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. can register their complaints at this number.
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Infosys announces solution for RFID adoption
Bangalore, December 29 “Enterprises across verticals face many challenges in real-time visibility and tracking of physical movement of goods, assets and personnel”, the company’s President and CEO, Mr Nandan M. Nilekani said here in a statement. “Our customers can now look to us to provide the cost reduction, improved customer service and streamlined operations with the launch of our RFID solution and expertise”, he said. The company said its solution approach would enable its customers to derive business benefits while requiring optimal capital investments and also ensuring a low total cost of ownership.
— PTI
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