New Delhi, February 18
The Union Budget will focus on fiscal rectitude as a lower fiscal deficit will leave more money for the private sector and moderate interest rates, according to analysts.

According to a research report by Kotak Securities, the rating agencies are also closely watching out for any further fiscal slippage and India needs to sustain and improve the strong capital flows of 2012.

The reduction in FY14 target will be achieved by controlling expenditure - both plan and non-plan - the report says. With the given plan expenditure constraints, which may impact growth, the FM will likely rely on private sector to boost investments by giving incentives for the same in targeted areas. “We believe that significant stress will be laid on more effective implementation of the outlays rather than increasing any outlays significantly”, it adds.

The Budget will aim to provide an investment-led supply push to growth (with private sector participation) as against a consumption-led demand pull (higher subsidies). However, containing subsidy burden beyond a point may prove difficult especially keeping in mind the high food inflation and rising food subsidy bill.

On reforms, the report adds that the Finance Minister may signal the Government's intention to move ahead with the reforms process on several fronts. DTC and GST are now expected to be implemented totally by financial year 2015 only. However, some enabling measures may be announced.

There are several reform initiatives which the Government has initiated outside the Budget. The Budget may take some of them ahead or announce new ones, including insurance and pension reforms.

“We expect stability in tax rates, though there may be some adjustments in the list of exemptions, deductions keeping in mind the eventual movement to GST and DTC. Tax exemptions on targeted investments may also be announced. We expect the divestment target to be increased to Rs 40,000 crore versus FY13 target of Rs 30,000 crore.”

The report says no major initiatives for the stock markets are expected.

According to a report by Angel Broking, fiscal consolidation is expected to remain the priority in the Budget as macroeconomic stability and attracting capital inflows gains focus.

The report says the Budget may focus on incentives to boost savings and channelise households’ savings in financial assets and away from non-productive physical assets such as gold (since it is also adding to the current account deficit).

New Delhi, February 18
A large number of ‘pump-and-dump’ activities in stocks has come under the scanner of market regulator SEBI, which suspects certain brokers and other entities of luring small investors into artificially high trade volumes.

The surge in these manipulative activities, known as 'pump-and-dump' in market parlance as they involve sudden sale of shares after creating huge volumes with significant buying activities, has been noticed by SEBI’s Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence System (DWBIS).

The system has now begun providing "pattern recognition algorithms" to monitor the trade and order data received by SEBI in order to identify networked clients who possibly collectively indulge in violations of securities laws.

A senior official said alerts of high materiality are being generated by the DWBIS, pursuant to which SEBI has detected possible market violations through activities such as pump-and-dump, insider trading and front running.

The pump-and-dump cases have been found to be quite frequent in certain mid-cap stocks, especially from the infrastructure sector, he added.

These stocks are mostly of those companies that have been in news for problems relating to their funding plans, the official said, but did not specify the names.

The modus operandi generally starts with huge buy orders alongside circulation of positive news about resolution of long-pending problems at those companies, followed by large-scale sale of the same shares at a later stage, he said.

Besides detecting the possible cases of market manipulation, SEBI’s DWBIS tools are also helping it to build linkages between various transactions and activities of the networked entities.

The official said DWBIS is providing SEBI with a capability to query and perform analytics on vast amounts of data and obtain the desired output in a timely manner.

SEBI has so far implemented two phases of the ambitious DWBIS project and the third phase is currently being tested for live implementation and the tools available in this system are proving very useful in catching the manipulators at an early stage, the official said.

The first phase was implemented in early 2011 for speedy analysis of data and identification of possible violations by use of modern technology in terms of computation. — PTI

Chandigarh, February 18
The resource crunch in Punjab Government has hit hard big ticket investors in the state. Initially wooed by the state to set up projects in the state, these investors are now left in the lurch, with the government failing to refund their money, which they have paid as stamp duty.

On the one hand, the government is aggressively wooing fresh investment in the state. However, investors are unhappy because of the state government’s inability to refund their long-pending stamp duty dues. Stamp duty worth crores deposited by these investors have not been cleared in spite of the repeated reminders made by these investors.

Officials in the Revenue Department said this money had to be refunded by the Industries Department. “A few years ago, an Empowered Committee of Ministers had decided that the dues would be cleared by the Industries Department,” said a senior official. Officials in Industries Department said they would look into the matter.

Real estate major DS Constructions has been seeking stamp duty refund of Rs 6.22 crore from the state government. The company had purchased five properties in Mohali from Golden Forests India Limited through the GFIL committee set up by the Supreme Court of India in 2009. However, the sale of these properties was later cancelled by the Supreme Court and the stamp certificates purchased by the company remained unused. The company submitted these to the SDM, Dera Bassi, in October 2012, but the company officials say they have not received the money back though the stamp certificates were returned to the state government within six months of the Supreme Court judgement, cancelling the sale of property.

In another case, Indiabulls Buildcon had reportedly deposited stamp duty worth Rs 5.68 crore for sale of land measuring 10.76 acres in Amritsar in 2008. However, because of a land dispute, the sale deed could not be executed and the company has since been seeking the refund. 

New Delhi, February 18
Private equity firms invested $1,010 million in India, down 32 per cent, during the October- December quarter, says a PwC survey.

With 30 deals worth $167 million, the IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sector continued to be the leader in value as well as volume. — PTI

Mumbai, February 18
Shares of Jet Airways today tanked more than 7 per cent on bourses today, eroding Rs 412 crore from its market capitalisation, amid reports that Etihad may revise its deal to buy a stake in the Indian carrier.

According to reports, Etihad Airways chairman Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed al-Nahayan said the Abu Dhabi-based carrier needs to revise its deal to buy a stake in the Indian carrier and it was too soon to say when a final agreement between the two carriers would be struck.

Reacting to the news, shares of the company opened on a weak note and then lost further ground and touched intra-day low of Rs 563.30 on BSE, lower by 8.90 per cent from its last closing price.

At the end of today's trade, the scrip however, gained some lost ground and was trading at Rs 570.75, down 7.70 per cent from its previous closing price. In just a single day trading, the company lost a Rs 412 crore from its market worth. At the end of today's trading, the stock's market capitalisation decreased to Rs 4,927 crore, from Rs 5,339 crore in the previous trading session (February 15).

On the National Stock Exchange as well, the stock opened at Rs 615 and touched intra-day low of Rs 563.20, down 8.85 per cent from its previous closing price. At the end of trade, the stock was trading at Rs 573, down 7.27 per cent from its last closing price.

Etihad is likely to buy 24 per cent equity in Jet Airways valued at about Rs 1,800 crore. If the deal is carried through, it would be the first investment by a foreign carrier in an Indian airline. 

Bengaluru, February 18
State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd today commissioned a Rs 4,500 crore pipeline carrying gas from the just operationalised Dabhol LNG terminal into Bengaluru that promises to change the energy landscape of the region.

The 1,000-km pipeline will feed industries at Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Bellary, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkuyr, Ramanagaram and Bengaluru who have till now been using costlier and polluting liquid fuels like naphtha and diesel as feedstock.

"With gas coming in, the devil of pollution will disappear from the City of Gardens," Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said after inaugurating the pipeline.

Gas will help the state power generation utility save Rs 800 crore annually by reducing cost, improving efficiency and drastically cutting down pollution caused by using liquid fuels.

The pipeline, he said, will be extended to Mangalore this year and further to Kochi in Kerala by end of next year.

Gas in its liquid form, or LNG, imported at the just commissioned Dabhol terminal in Maharasthra would fire industries in Karnataka. GAIL commenced supply of gas through the line to its first customer Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts Pvt Ltd. The Dabhol-Bengaluru pipeline has a capacity to carry 16 million standard cubic meters of gas per day. — PTI