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FII inflows to accelerate in coming years: FM
SEBI to allow institutions to short-sell equity
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Shareholders okay Reliance demerger
A model showcases a mobile handset at Mobile Expo, 2005, in New Delhi on Friday. — A Tribune photograph
Exports from Punjab hold promise
Infosys accuses Gowda of lying
Ranbaxy posts Rs 10.77 crore loss after tax
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FII inflows to accelerate in coming years: FM
New Delhi, October 21 “We in government promise to maintain moderate and reasonable tax rates, encourage investment and continue to maintain high rate of economic growth,” Chidambaram said. He was addressing a conference on 'Resurgent India' organised by the Assocham to mark its 85th annual general meeting here The Finance Minister said, "we will press on with the financial sector reforms...unless financial sector is sufficient, we cannot convert savings, capital flows, tax revenues into production of goods and services leading to high growth." Taking cue from China, he felt both public and private sector companies should make large portion of their equities tradable to improve corporate governance and accountability. He said communist China has announced a programme to raise $270 billion by making mostly state-held stocks publicly traded and noted that this was the biggest shake-up of ownership since 1990. Hinting at the recent volatility in the stock markets, he said Foreign Institutional Investment was here to stay with these flows accelerating in the coming years and indicated that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. ''If there is an inflow of FII money, then there will also be outflows. This is a fact of life one has to live with,'' he said. He gave facts and figures to stress the buoyancy of the external sector as well as the economy and the gradual transition to
integration with the global economy. Admitting that India's trade deficit is currently quite high, the Finance Minister said it is no cause for worry as it reflects a growing demand from the manufacturing sector. Pointing to India's strong economy, Chidambaram said the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of $2.57 billion during the 2005 calendar year so far has been the highest since 2000-01. On the strength of the rupee, he said despite the 3.1 per cent depreciation against the dollar there is no cause for worry as the Indian currency has gained 4.4 per cent against the euro, 3.3 per cent against the pound and 4.3 per cent against the yen. The annual rate of inflation continued its upward trend to reach 4.62 per cent during the week ended October 8 compared to 4.24 per cent in the previous week following rise in prices of food and manufacturing products. But Finance Minister P Chidamabarm maintained that it was still "moderate." Meanwhile, the Planning Commission today said the draft paper on opening up the retail sector for foreign direct investment is likely to be presented to the Prime Minister's Office early next year. "We are looking into the pros and cons to allow FDI in retail. Internal discussions are on. I think the paper should be ready next year," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.
India ‘flubs’ as China grows Slow disinvestment of PSUs, high tax rates and lack of labour reforms also came in the way of India attaining the same pace of growth as its Asian neighbour, the Hong Kong-based magazine said in an article to be published in October 31. Comparing India and China, it said “China’s economic miracle was achieved by getting the basics right... India, by contrast, is the global economy’s idiot savant. India flubs the obvious stuff.” The observation comes close on the heels of the Finance Minister’s admission that China’s growth was “furious” while India’s growth remained “satisfactory.”
— PTI
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SEBI to allow institutions to short-sell equity
Chennai, October 21 Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also reiterated that the deadline to comply with the clause 49 of the listing agreement would not be extended beyond December 31 next and warned tough action against companies that "step out" of the rules. Speaking at the 33rd national convention of company secretaries here, SEBI Chairman M Damodaran said short-selling by institutions would be allowed before the end of the this calendar year. Currently, only individuals can short-sell. In other markets, institutions are allowed short sale of equities. "A dichotomy exists in India. We will remove that," he said, adding that other steps such as securities lending and borrowing and physical settlement of transactions, instead of cash settlement, would also be implemented simultaneously. He said SEBI would also bring all mutual fund intermediaries, including agents and brokers, under its regulatory ambit to protect the interests of investors. Already, some mutual funds have removed some agents from their list following the SEBI move, he pointed out. SEBI would also shorten the timeline for companies to raise funds from the domestic markets through the IPO without "lowering the bar" or diluting the existing regulations, he said. At present, companies spend considerable amount of time from the date of filing the document to the actual raising of funds. "We will shorten the timeline." On the derivatives market, Damodaran said the position limit would be increased to make both futures and options popular. "There are position limits that are presently prescribed. These are at lower levels," he said. In India, single stock futures had become very popular instrument. "We are the largest single stock futures market in the world (at) the NSE. Because of that we are not leaving anything for those who want to write options," Damodaran said.
— PTI
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Shareholders okay Reliance demerger
Mumbai, October 21 The shareholders approved the demerger scheme, which envisages changing the shareholding pattern following a split in the Reliance group. Under the scheme, a shareholder having one RIL share would be entitled to get one share each in all four new entities sought to be created. The new entities are Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd, Reliance Energy Ventures Ltd, Reliance Capital Ventures and Global Fuel Management Services Ltd. Justice M.L. Pendse, who chaired the EGM, will submit the report to the Bombay High Court. The Bombay High Court had, on September 16, given its nod to a committee formed by RIL on the demerger of the group companies for settlement between the Ambani siblings — Mukesh and Anil. Earlier in a bid to bring about the settlement, RIL headed by Mukesh moved the Bombay High Court on September 13, seeking its stamp of approval on the demerger, which had already been approved by the RIL Board on August 5. The settlement of ownership of Reliance empire was announced on June 17, under which Mukesh got flagship RIL and IPCL, while Anil got Reliance Infocomm.
— PTI
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Cellphone firms India-bound
New Delhi, October 21 Speaking at the inaugural of the 2nd Mobile Expo, 2005, organised by CII and the Indian Cellular Association here, he said there were about 29 mobile manufacturing companies in the world and he hoped that a majority would start producing handsets in India. He said “a beginning has already been made by Nokia, which will start manufacturing handsets in the first half of next year and Ericsson which has also announced plans to start infrastructure manufacturing its sets in Jaipur.” Exuding confidence at the progress in the mobile sector, he said that there were already 110 million mobile users in the country and a target of 200 million mobile users has been set for 2007. The Expo is witnessing participation from top companies including, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Airtel, Reliance Infocom, Motorola, Tata Indicom, America Online and Sagem. Besides handset manufacturers & network operators, large number of participation from related services providers & equipment manufacturers like accessories, banks and finance companies, insurance companies, software and application providers are participating at the Expo.
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Exports from Punjab hold promise
Chandigarh, October 21 This was highlighted at the first meeting of the sub-committee of State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) held here today to take up exporters’ problems. Export turnover had increased to Rs 10,729 crore during 2004-05 as against Rs 8,933.00 crore during 2003-04. Three districts namely Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar account for 96 per cent of total export turnover while remaining 13 districts constitute the remaining 4 per cent. The Executive Director of PNB, Mr C.P. Swarankar, disclosed that banks were required to achieve export credit to net bank credit of 12 per cent on an average in terms of the RBI guidelines.
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Infosys accuses Gowda of lying
Bangalore/Hyderabad, October 21 The company came out with a reaction to Mr Dewe Gowda’s statement made last week in which he claimed that IT companies, including Infosys were grabbing land in the state, and that zoning regulations were being changed to accommodate the request of Infosys to acquire 845 acres of land in Bangalore. Though Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy has already accused Mr Dewe Gowda of not according him basic courtesy, the company today accused the Janata Dal leader whose party is part of the coalition government in the State, of lying to make a point against the company. The company claimed that Mr Gowda’s statement that Wipro, Intel, Accenture, IBM, HP and Honeywell had not been given any land was not true. The company said two of these companies had large campuses in the Electronic City while another company had a large campus on the outer ring road. It went on to say that even rented premises required land and space and that “surely our leaders do not recommend that we go to real estate developers only and not build campuses ourselves”. Speaking about changes in zoning regulations, Infosys claimed that it had submitted its application for 845 acres of land in 2000 and that no land had been granted to it till now. The company said it had requested the government to acquire land for it after securing zoning regulations according to the law. It said the land was being acquired on a consent basis after paying market rates adding no concession had been sought from the government.
Cisco’s $50 m plan
As part of its global strategy to develop India as one of its largest R&D centre outside the US, networking major Cisco Systems today announced its plans to invest $50 million in developing a new 1 million sq ft campus on the city outskirts. The new integrated campus at Sarjapur, officially launched today, will have the capacity to seat 3,000 staff, including R&D, IT, sales and customer support teams, when completed by June 2007, Cisco President and CEO John Chambers told reporters. The $50 million would be in addition to the $1.1 billion investment in India announced by Cisco earlier. “India has been and continues to be a strategic market for Cisco in terms of business opportunities and as a base for outstanding engineering talent,” Mr Chambers said.
AP, Wipro sign pact
The Andhra Pradesh Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wipro for allotting 100 acres of land at Gopannapally, Hyderabad, and seven acres in Vishakapatnam for its expansion. The MoU was signed by IT Secretary Ratna Prabha and Wipro Chief Operations Officer A.L. Rao in the presence of the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Reddy said that the state government was keen on playing a key role in the emerging knowledge economy.
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Ranbaxy posts Rs 10.77 crore loss after tax
New Delhi, October 21 Commenting on the results, RLL CEO Brian Tempest said: “It has not been a good quarter for us. Weakness in the US market due to price deflation has not only affected our sales but also our net profit.” He said the price deflation in the world’s largest pharmaceutical market, which started in the beginning of the year, continued in the third quarter and was expected to continue through the year. The company’s total income also decreased to Rs 870.23 crore in the third quarter ended September 30, 2005, as against Rs 896.57 crore in the corresponding period last year. For Ranbaxy and its subsidiaries, the consolidated profit after tax (after minority interest) in the third quarter was down by 90.8 per cent at Rs 18.4 crore as against Rs 200.1 crore in the same period last year. The company’s consolidated sales stood at Rs 13,03.9 crore as against Rs 1,343.9 crore last year.
Exide profit jumps
Auto and industrial battery major Exide Industries Limited today announced a 47 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 29.1 crore during the second quarter of the current financial year, as compared to Rs 19.73 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. The country’s largest producer of lead acid storage batteries also reported an 11 per cent rise in its total turnover to Rs 425.6 crore during the quarter under review as compared to Rs 381.72 crore during Q2 of last fiscal thus showing that the buoyancy in the market shown at the beginning of the current fiscal was still prevalent. The second quarter financial result of the company was taken on record at the company’s Board meeting held here today.
Glaxo gains Rs 30 cr
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd today recorded a 34.01 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 30.26 crore for the third quarter in this fiscal as compared to Rs 22.58 crore for the same quarter last fiscal. Total revenues grew 9.79 per cent to Rs 263.35 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 from Rs 239.86 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Castrol net up 8.17 pc
Castrol India Ltd today reported a 8.17 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 33.60 crore for the third quarter this fiscal, as compared to Rs 31.06 crore for the same quarter a year ago. Total income grew 8.62 per cent to Rs 337.59 crore during the third quarter this fiscal from Rs 310.78 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Godrej dividend
FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products Ltd today reported 59.55 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 27.81 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 as compared to Rs 17.43 crore in the year-ago period. Total income has increased 19.93 per cent to Rs 163.13 crore for the second quarter from Rs 136.02 crore in the same period last fiscal, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The Board of Directors have declared a second interim dividend of 75 per cent, that is Rs 3 per share of Rs 4 each for the year 2005-06, it said.
— PTI
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