Hong Kong, November 20
A 6 per cent fall in Asia pushed world stocks to their lowest in 5-½ years on Thursday, while oil fell below $53 and safe havens such as the yen gained on fears the global recession and a financial crisis will get uglier. European shares were also set to sink, with London's FTSE and Frankfurt's DAX seen posting opening losses that could top 2 per cent.

Expectations that central banks may respond to the crisis with another wave of interest rate cuts helped push the two-year US Treasury yield to a record low, while regional bond prices surged amid the market turbulence.

Investors are bracing for tough conditions ahead after the latest bearish signals for the global economy. The Federal Reserve slashed its US growth forecasts, US consumer prices fell at a record pace last month, and Japan's October exports fell by the most in seven years.

The bleak outlook, which is hitting sectors from US automakers to Asian chip makers, comes amid renewed worries about the financial system. Citigroup shares hit a 13-year low on Wednesday as investors questioned its survival amid mounting losses from credit cards, mortgages and toxic debt..

Like dominoes, Asian markets fell a day after US stocks hit their lowest in more than five years. The MSCI All-Country World Index was down 1.4 per cent at 0700 GMT, having hit its lowest level since May 2003.

Japan's Nikkei average dropped nearly 7 per cent, below the key technical level of 8,000 points for the first time in three weeks.

South Korean and Hong Kong shares tumbled more than 6 per cent, while markets in Sydney, Mumbai and Taiwan fell more than 4 per cent each. Shares in Singapore fell 3.5 percent, while Shanghai fell 1.8 per cent. More broadly, the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan MSCI index was down 6.5 per cent.

Expectations for a sharp slowdown in global growth sent oil down for a fifth consecutive session, with prices falling 87 cents to $52.70. — Reuters

New Delhi, November 20
The government today awarded 44 oil and gas exploration blocks, with the maximum going to ONGC and its partners and first timer BHP-Billiton- GVK power. This award will attract $1.5 billion investment into the country and also help in improving the domestic oil production.

The oil ministry had offered 57 blocks for exploration but the bids were received only for 45 blocks. According to R.S. Pandey, oil secretary, a total of $1.49 billion investment is expected from the exploration and production activity from these blocks.

ONGC and partners bagged the maximum number of 20 oil and gas exploration blocks. BHP Billiton and GVK Power bagged as many as seven deep sea blocks.

Reliance Industries forged an alliance with British Petroleum and managed to get only one Krishna-Godavari basin block.

According to oil secretary, the government was considering bringing a next edition of bid round, NELP 8, in February 2009.

The phase I investment commitment includes $321.15 million for exploration in deepsea, $598.255 million for exploration in shallow waters and $572.75 million has been committed for onland blocks, officials said.

The CCEA, in awarding the blocks, went by the suggestions made by a committee of secretaries that recommended for award seven out of the 12 deep-water blocks to the consortium of BHP Billiton and GVK oil and gas. Two blocks went to ONGC- GSPC consortia, while one block each went to Reliance Industries- British Petroleum joint venture and ONGC-OIL India consortia.

Of the shallow water blocks, the consortia of ONGC, GSPC and HPCL-Mittal energy bagged two Krishna Godavari basin blocks. ONGC-GSPC, Adani Welspun and Essar-Nobel were recommended winners for one shallow water offshore block each.

Mumbai, November 20
Intervention by the Reserve Bank through state-owned banks notwithstanding, the Indian rupee today ended at yet another record low of 50.20/21, cheaper by 18 paise against the greenback due to exodus of foreign investments and descending equity markets.

Dealers said heavy dollar selling caused high level of volatility at the Interbank foreign exchange (forex) market even as the Indian unit moved widely in a range of 49.88 to 50.60 during the day.

They said unstoppable capital outflows and bearish local stocks were the main factors for the rupee's downfall.

It resumed weaker at 50.50/51 a dollar against its previous close of 50.02/03 a dollar. Sustained dollar demand from importers amid negligible supplies also weighed on the rupee sentiment, they added.

Fears of more portfolio outflows from emerging economies in the light of the current financial crisis, which seems to be blowing out of control, heightened worries that it may pull global economy deeper into recession.

There was a virtual meltdown in global equity markets today after the release of a dismal US economic data and the Federal Reserve lowered the US growth forecast for 2009. — PTI

New Delhi, November 20
Global financial giant Citi today said its South Asia chief Sanjay Nayar has quit the bank and has been replaced by Mark Robinson.

"Mark Robinson has been appointed CEO of Citi South Asia... Robinson succeeds Sanjay Nayar, who is leaving the firm to pursue other opportunities," Citi said in a release.

Robinson, it says, will operate from India's financial hub Mumbai and will look after Citi's banking franchise in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Sanjay Nayar is said to be joining Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co as its CEO and Country Head in the country.

"We are fortunate to have Mark Robinson joining the team in Asia-Pacific and our South Asia franchise will benefit greatly from his professionalism, leadership and acumen," Citi's Asia-Pacific CEO Ajay Banga said.

Robinson is a Citi veteran who has spent the majority of his career in emerging markets, the release said.

"Citi has built an extensive franchise in India, Sri Lanka and Bangaldesh, and I look forward to working with the excellent team on the ground to continue our momentum and deliver the full power of our universal banking model to clients in the region," Robinson said. — PTI

Mumbai, November 20
Capital market regulator SEBI today ruled out stopping short-selling as it has no evidence that short-selling is driving the market down, a top official said.

"We don't really have evidence that short-sellers are driving the market down," SEBI chairman C.B. Bhave told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

He said that though some western markets had banned short-selling, their markets had continued to decline further.

"Their (financial) institutions failed one after another. Some of them have re-started short-selling in their markets," Bhave said.

Commenting on foreign institutional investors (FIIs), the SEBI chairman said the regulator has not found any FII having lent any shares off-shore after "We conveyed our regulatory disapproval to them on the issue".

"We are trying to look at what is happening to FIIs and why they are sellers on a net basis," Bhave said.

One of the things SEBI had found was that FIIs were purchasing as well as selling so it was not as if they were only sellers, he said.

"But on a net basis, they are sellers. So probably, long-term funds are buying into Indian market as well," the SEBI chairman said.

On the behaviour of the stock-exchanges, Bhave said it was not possible for SEBI or the stock-exchanges to predict when the market would rise or go down.

On mutual funds, Bhave said the mutual funds industry was facing a problem of liquidity and that the same liquidity problem was faced by the corporates.

Corporates tried to withdraw money from mutual funds while mutual funds were holding the papers of corporates. — PTI

New Delhi, November 20
Telecom minister A Raja today said call tariffs could go down further in the future with new operators coming to increase competition for the existing operators.

The minister said there was enough scope for tariffs to come down to a level of 20 paise per minute for local calls and 50 paise per minute at national level after new operators start services.

"There is a scope for reduction once the new operators start rolling out. Tariffs may come down to 20-25 paise in a circle and national calls may come down to 40-50 paise," Raja said here.

The minister also said there was further scope for the telecom operators, both existing and new, to expand with the country needing another 300 million telephone lines. There is a large scope for business to reach 750 million phone connections.

He justified the presence of more players in the market and said, "We brought in a competitive atmosphere and that will bring down the tariffs. Is it not the responsibility of the government to introduce more competition?"

At present, local call rates vary from 40 paise (within an operator's own network) to Re 1, and national call rates from Re 1 to Rs 2.65 a minute.

There are 120 new licencees in all who have been given permission by the DoT to start telecom services and some of them, including Unitech, Swan, Datacom and Shyam Telecom, have already got spectrum and could start services once they get the network ready. 

Chandigarh, November 20
The public sector oil marketing companies have hiked the rates of commercial liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs 54 a cylinder over the past two months. As against a price of Rs 1,167.30 per cylinder in September, this 19-kg cylinder is now available for Rs 1,221.62 now.

Official sources say that since the price of commercial LPG is directly linked to the international prices of gas, the rates are revised according to the existing market prices. “During the past months, we saw a surge in the rates of LPG in the international market. Since May, the prices of commercial cooking gas have gone up by Rs 140 a cylinder. Between October and November alone, the rates had gone up by Rs 600 per tonne, forcing the oil marketing companies to effect an increase in the retail price of commercial LPG,” said a top official in the oil ministry.

During the last month itself, the rates have gone up by Rs 15 a cylinder. As against the price of Rs 1,207.27 per cylinder last month, the rates have been revised to Rs 1,221.62 per cylinder now. This means that the hotel owners, eateries, caterers et al will now have to shell out more for getting a cylinder refill.

It may be noted that the total LPG consumption in the country is around 10 million metric tonnes per annum. Of this, only three per cent is the commercial LPG consumption, while the remaining is used as domestic LPG (14.2 kg cylinder).

Officials say other than domestic cooking gas, the oil marketing companies are also incurring losses on sale of kerosene (almost Rs 21 per litre). As a result, the combined loss for the state-run oil companies on sale of the two subsidised products is estimated around Rs 2,831 crore per month.

Interestingly, though the commercial LPG rates have been hiked by the state-run oil marketing companies, these rates have started crashing in the international market. “Though the crude oil prices had started falling three months ago, the LPG rates had been shown an upswing. However, these prices have now started crashing and in the past week prices have crashed by $300 per metric tonne,” said an official.

He, however, added that the prices would be revised again only in December.

New Delhi, November 20
Industry body Assocham today asked the government to bring down taxes such as corporate and service tax to boost the demand side, but said prices were being determined by market forces.

Assocham, which convened the meeting of its working group to take stock of the situation emerging due to global economic meltdown, demanded that banks must provide more liquidity to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

"There should be a review of taxes, because this tax regime was during the boom time. Today we need a special one-time tax concessions," Assocham president Sajjan Jindal told reporters here.

He said the tax concessions could be in the form of investment allowance for inflow of more funds or reduction in corporate tax to 25 per cent from 33 per cent.

The chamber would present a paper to the finance minister and task force constituted by the Prime Minister. DLF chairman K.P. Singh said the government should roll back taxes that were imposed earlier to bring down inflation.

"We must provide more liquidity to the SME sector...Banks must allot 20-25 per cent specifically for the SME sector," Jindal said.

Lauding the government for taking a number of steps to pump liquidity into the system, Jindal said banks have surpluses but there is a "crisis of confidence" which needs to be improved.

Asked whether industry would cut the prices as suggested by finance minister P Chidambaram, Jindal said: "The prices are dependent on demand and supply scenario. Prices are coming down in any way due to slow demand and it is likely to come down further".

Terming the current financial crisis a global scenario, Jindal suggested the government to create a $20-25 billion fund under the banking system to support state-sponsored infrastructure projects.

The Assocham president also said different ministries should accelerate funding for infrastructure projects to boost demand.— PTI

BRIEFLY

Reliance Capital Asset in Malaysia
Mumbai: Reliance Capital Asset Management company has been given approval to commence operations in Malaysia, a top official from the Securities Commission, Malaysia said on Thursday. "The permission to Reliance Capital Asset Management company for beginning operations in Malaysia was granted by the authorities two days ago," said Zarinah Anwar, chairman Securities Commission, Malaysia, at the India-Malaysia Capital Market Forum held here.— PTI

Isuzu Motors to cut 1,400 jobs
Tokyo: Isuzu Motors said on Thursday it would cut 1,400 jobs and slash domestic production by 10 per cent, the latest in a slew of layoffs by Japanese automakers to cope with the financial crisis. The company will reduce its Japanese production for the year to March 2009 to 249,000 vehicles, down 28,000 from the original target, the company spokeswoman said.— AFP

Triveni Engg net up 439 pc
New Delhi: Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd on Thursday said it has posted a whopping 439.20 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 26.96 crore for the fourth quarter ended September 2008, against Rs 5 crore during the same period a year ago. Total income has increased from Rs 304.75 crore for the fourth quarter ended September 2007 to Rs 428.52 crore for the quarter ended September 2008, registering a 40.61 jump.— UNI

OVL to make offer for Imperial
New Delhi: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of ONGC, will make an offer to acquire shares of UK-listed Imperial Energy Corp Plc at £12.50 a share by December 9. OVL last week won Russian government approval for taking over Imperial, which has assets in Tomsk region of western Siberia.— PTI