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Industrial output grows by 2.4% in January
Rupee at 2-week high, rebounds 23 paise
Reliance shortlisted for mega Iraq oil project
SEBI-Sahara case |
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BlackBerry shares rally on AT&T launch, takeover hopes
NMDC eyes Rs 10,000 cr from stake sale
MMTC stake sale deferred; scrip surges over 7%
Nokia unveils insurance scheme for mobile handsets
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Industrial output grows by 2.4% in January
New Delhi, March 12
Industrial production inched up 2.4 per cent mainly on account of good show by manufacturing and power sectors. For the April-January period of 2012-13 fiscal, the industrial production growth is 1 per cent, down from 3.4 per cent in the same period of 2011-12. The markets fell today interpreting this data as dimming hopes of a deeper rate cut by the RBI next week. Markets have factored in a 25 basis points rate cut but rising inflation and higher industrial growth may prevent bigger rate cuts. Indranil Pan, chief economist, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said the January IIP numbers are an assertion that growth downturn has bottomed out. However, this is not to indicate that there would be a big bounce in growth as in the previous slowdown cycle immediately after Lehman. “There is a little room being afforded by the global crude oil prices, the fiscal is on an austerity mode and there is too much hope from the monetary policy side to provide a boost to growth. From this perspective, and even otherwise, the bigger worry is the CPI inflation data that was also released today and which came in at 10.91%. Emerging out of this, domestic savings of the economy is on the downward trajectory as bigger shares of individual budgets get allocated to food consumption,” he added. Commenting on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for January 2013, which was released today, Naina Lal Kidwai, president, FICCI, said the growth in industrial and manufacturing sector remains an area of concern as positive growth of 2.4% in January 2013 comes over a low base. With 50% per cent of manufacturing sectors registering negative growth, any sustained growth remains elusive in the sector in immediate future. Kidwai added that fixed investments, particularly the private sector investments, are drying up which is also evident from the negative growth of capital goods sector for nine months in the 10 months period to January 2013.
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Rupee at 2-week high, rebounds 23 paise
Mumbai, March 12 Earlier in the day, the rupee commenced higher at 54.30 a dollar from last closing of 54.41. It then moved erratically on alternate bouts of buying and selling in a range of 54.17 and 54.40 as
higher-than-expected Industrial Production (IIP) data for January was partially neutralised by rise in retail inflation
for February. The rupee finally closed near the day's high at 54.18, showing a rise of 23 paise or 0.42 per cent. This is the strongest closing level for rupee since 53.86 on February 27. Yesterday, rupee fell by 13 paise, snapping a 3-day rally. The Indian stock market benchmark Sensex, however, saw a volatile trade today and closed further down by 81.29 points. — PTI |
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Reliance shortlisted for mega Iraq oil project
New Delhi, March 12 Russia's Zarubezhneft and JGC and Tonen General of Japan are the other two shortlisted from 14 companies that expressed interest in taking up the multi-billion dollar project. The seven qualified firms will now be invited to review data packages and discuss contract terms. Iraq intends to award the project by the year-end. The OPEC nation has three main refineries —Baiji, Daura and Basra —with a total capacity of around 567,000 barrels per day (bpd). It wants to increase the refining capacity to 750,000 bpd through improvements in existing plants. It also plans four new refineries in Karbala, Kirkuk, Missan and in Nasiriya. "The Al-Nasiriya Integrated Project contemplates the development of the 4+ billion barrel Nasiriya oil field in Thi-Qar province together with the construction and operation of a new 300,000 bpd refinery," Iraq's Petroleum Contracts & Licensing Directorate (PCLD), part of the Ministry of Oil, said. The Nasiriya project marks re-entry of RIL into Iraq. The company's Dubai-based arm Reliance Exploration and Production DMCC had in 2007 taken a 100 per cent stake in the Rovi and Sarta blocks in Kurdistan. Baghdad termed the award of exploration contract to RIL and other firms by the autonomous Kurdistan region as illegal and threatened to blacklist any firm that dealt with the Kurds. A year after the blacklisting threat, RIL did not apply for being shortlisted for development of oil fields in Iraq. Thereafter, it did not figure in the list of companies applying to bid for successive licensing rounds of Iraq. RIL finally got rid of the Kurd blocks in July last year when it sold its stake to Chevron Corp for an undisclosed sum. — PTI |
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SAT to hear Subrata Roy’s plea on March 23
New Delhi, March 12 The matter relates to a Supreme Court direction ordering refund of more than Rs 24,000 crore of investors' money raised by two Sahara group firms —Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd — through issue of bonds, wherein SEBI has been asked to facilitate the refund. After expiry of the court-set deadline for the refund, SEBI last month issued attachment orders against the two firms and their top executives, including Subrata Roy. Roy has appealed to SAT against the attachment orders. After hearing both the sides, SAT Presiding Officer P K Malhotra today said the matter would be taken up for disposal expeditiously and posted the matter for final hearing on March 23. He, however, refused to give any interim relief. "The final hearing will be in Mumbai on March 23, 2013. In view of the early hearing granted, we do not consider it necessary to pass any interim order...," Malhotra said. In its latest order in this long-running case, SEBI last week said the companies had not complied with the Supreme Court orders and therefore it was compelled to pass the attachment orders. — PTI
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BlackBerry shares rally on AT&T launch, takeover hopes
Toronto, March 12 The speculation was sparked by a comment from the head of China's Lenovo Group Ltd, who told a French newspaper yesterday that the personal computer maker might consider an acquisition of Canada's BlackBerry at some point in the future. "External growth remains a question of opportunities," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's CEO, in an interview with Les Échos. "As for BlackBerry, the file could eventually make sense, but I must first analyse the market and understand the exact weight of this company," he said. BlackBerry has bled market share to Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy line and other devices powered by Google's Android operating system. In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced the new smartphone to much fanfare in January, and said it was abandoning its old name, Research In Motion,
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NMDC eyes Rs 10,000 cr from stake sale
New Delhi, March 12 The company intends the partner to bring in necessary technologies capable of producing high-end steel products like CRGO, CRNO and auto-garde steels which India mostly relies on imports to meet the domestic demand, a Steel Ministry source said. "Since NMDC is currently a pure-play miner, it has been felt necessary to bring in a partner which can produce those types of steel. It has already sought expression of interest (EOI) from interested parties and the response so far has been very encouraging," the source said. Work on NMDC's steel plant, estimated to cost Rs 16,000 crore, at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh is almost half way through. The project is slated to start production within the next couple of years. The source said the state-run firm would like to partner with a foreign company, having good reputation in the world steel market and sufficient experience of running steel mills. Candidature of the local firms like Tata Steel, SAIL, JSW Steel, RINL, Jindal Steel and Power, Essar Steel would also be accepted, but keeping in view the target products in mind, many may not remain in contention in the last lap, where only 2-3 firms would be called for financial negotiation after seeing presentation of all the participants. "Following presentations, an expert committee would take stock of the merits and demerits of the participants and call only two to three firms for financial negotiation," he said. — PTI
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MMTC stake sale deferred; scrip surges over 7%
Mumbai, March 12 After making a weak opening and falling over 5 per cent to Rs 280.25 — its 52-week low in the morning trade, the stock bounced back 7.55 per cent to Rs 318.85 on the BSE following the announcement. At the NSE also, the scrip climbed 7 per cent to Rs 317.70. An inter-ministerial panel today deferred government's 9.33 per cent stake sale in state-owned trading company MMTC on concerns over valuation of company's equity. The issue was planned to hit the markets on March 14. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on disinvestment, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was slated to be decided on the base price of the MMTC stake sale. The government was expecting to raise somewhere between Rs 250-300 crore through the stake sale. — PTI
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Nokia unveils insurance scheme for mobile handsets
New Delhi, March 12 "Through this initiative, our effort is to address one of the major concerns of mobile phone buyers and enhance their buying experience with us. Insurance cover will be provided on purchase of new Nokia mobile phones from today onwards, initially across 10 cities," Nokia India's Director Retail Kannan Gopalakrishnan said here. The plan will be available on all Nokia devices purchased through Nokia branded retail stores across the country, initially in Delhi and the NCR Jaipur, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Cochin. The customers will have to pay a premium of Rs 50 or 1.25 per cent of mobile phone cost, whichever is more, at the time of purchase to avail this offer. Mobile phone lost through thefts, burglary, malicious acts, riots, theft of device from locked or unattended building, or any act of violence will be covered under insurance and payment will be processed within 5 days, he said. "Customer will be required to make police complaint, inform its service provider and furnish acknowledgement to us for claim. It is not mandatory to get an FIR for making claim. He will have to approach for claim within 48 hours of loss. We have surveyor who will verify the claim after which amount will be paid to customer," New India Assurance's general manager Segar Sampathkumar said. The customer will not get any claim if the device is lost overseas or because of forgetting it at some place. Mobile phone damaged in an accident, damage caused by external impact on the device due to dropping, accidental entry of fluid in the device will also be covered under the offer. — PTI
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Retail inflation moved up for the fifth consecutive month to 10.91 per cent in February — remaining in the double-digit terrain for third month in a row — on account of higher prices of vegetables, edible oil, cereals and protein-based items.
Besides RIL, French energy giant Total, Russia's Lukoil, CNPC of China and American firm Brown Energy have been shortlisted for the project, according to Iraq's Oil Ministry.