New Delhi, August 21
The BSE Sensex today fell below the 18,000 mark, its lowest closing in almost a year as the rupee continued its falling trajectory, hitting another record low.

The Sensex, which has been in turmoil for the past few days, crashed another 340 points today. It has lost almost 1,500 points in the past four days. The four-day rout in stock markets has left investors poorer by over $100 billion while they suffered a loss of more than Rs 1 lakh crore today alone.

The rupee continued its downslide for the fifth trading day in a row, falling to 64.54 against the US dollar in afternoon deals, amid fresh measures announced by the RBI yesterday to increase the availability of cash in the banking system.

The Indian currency finally settled at 64.11, down 86 paise, on heavy dollar demand and capital outflows. In the past five days, it has lost 292 paise.

The rupee also closed below 100-level for the first time in history against the British pound.

The Sensex rallied more than 300 points from yesterday's close in the morning before closing at 17,905 points, a loss of 340.13 points, or 1.86 per cent, the lowest level since September 11, 2012.

The Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange dropped 98 points, or 1.83 per cent, to 5,302 points.

Brokers said market sentiment was hurt by sustained weakness in the rupee and expectations that the US Federal Reserve would start withdrawing its bond-buying programme next month.

"The fall was led by selling in index heavyweights. This coincided with further weakness in the rupee," said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice-president, private client group research at Kotak Securities. "The market is now awaiting the Fed meeting notes to be released today for fresh clues on when the central bank plans to taper its monthly bond purchases."

He added that the market opened on a strong footing following measures by RBI to arrest the rise in bond yields and contain the losses on banks bond portfolio. However, by the middle of the trading session, the markets had reversed its direction and came in for some heavy selling pressure.

Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Sterlite Industries, ITC and Reliance Industries led the losers on the Sensex, while BHEL, HDFC and HDFC Bank gained.

Analysts are expecting the rupee to head further down. Deutsche Bank said in a report that the rupee could touch 70 level against the dollar in a month's time, although some revival of the currency is expected by the year-end. 

New Delhi, August 21
A Delhi court holding trial in the 2G scam case today dismissed a plea by Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) for postponing the examination of ADAG chairman Anil Ambani and his wife Tina, slated for tomorrow and Friday, respectively, as additional witnesses.

“I see no reason as to how any prejudice would be caused to the accused if these witnesses are examined now,” special CBI judge OP Saini remarked, pointing out that the court had already given further time to Anil. He was to appear in the court on July 26, but this was deferred till August 22.

The judge also noted that Anil and Tina had not made any plea for postponing their examination. The present plea had been made by an accused company and not by any witness. “Accordingly, I find no merit in the application and the same is dismissed,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan today reserved verdict on RTL’s petition seeking recall of the Supreme Court’s order denying the 2G accused their right to approach the Delhi High Court challenging the orders of the trial court.

Appearing for the CBI which investigated the 2G case, senior counsel KK Venugopal today opposed the RTL’s plea contending that the magnitude of the scam had threatened the very foundation of democracy and as such quick disposal of the case by dispensing with the HC’s role was in the interest of justice.

New Delhi, August 21
A Thailand-India Business Joint Forum is being set up to stimulate expansion of bilateral trade and investments and facilitate business partnerships between the two countries.

This was stated by Sakchai Luangsathitkul, Director Regional Economic and Investment Centre, Thailand, while inviting SMEs from Chandigarh to invest in Thailand.

He said that India-Thailand business partnership is a win-win situation for both the nations as it helps both countries meet their demands and also strengthen their economies.

He added that in recent years, the northern states of India have emerged as a prime focus area for Thailand as the number of MSMEs here has grown tremendously. He was addressing the CII Chandigarh members at an Interactive session with the Members of Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) in Chandigarh today.

“We would like to invite Indian companies to invest in Thailand in sectors in which India is strong, such as auto parts, software development, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Thailand can be the base for India in expanding or exporting goods into ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand and East Asia”, said Pimonpat Sinpiboon, Investment Promotion Officer, Thailand Board of Investment Thailand.

Man Mohan Singh, Chairman, CII Chandigarh Council, said, “The Thailand-India development partnership is about sharing knowledge and expertise, exchange of best practices, supporting innovation and building capacity and skills. As a lot of local investors are looking towards Thailand to expand their businesses, this interactive session helped in understanding the nuances of expanding business with Thailand and other international markets via Thailand.” 

Bangkok, August 21
Tata Steel Thailand, a major steel producer here, today said it foresees a high demand for its products due to the country's planned $70 billion investment in major infrastructure projects.

Tata Steel Thailand (TSTH) president Peeyush Gupta said if the ambitious infrastructure projects were approved, his company "will stand to gain as all these projects need steel and cement".

"We will have two and a half years worth of extra demand being created over a period of seven years," he said.

Gupta said Thailand was a good market to make steel as domestic scrap was available.

"With the regional market growing, Tata rebar steel was selling well," he said, adding that the company had started "cut and bend" steel solutions for construction companies here.

TSTH's big export markets are neighbouring Laos and Cambodia for its rebars and wire rods to Indonesia.

Commenting on the company's performance, he said the sales were better leading to reduction in inventory.

Gupta added that the company had taken the issue with the authorities of China steel flooding the market under the guise of alloy steel and subsequently being used by the consumers of carbon steel. Tata Steel produces carbon steel.

The Thai government plans to borrow 2.2 trillion baht ($70 billion) to finance four new high-speed train routes and extend mass transit lines in Bangkok.

The government also intends to improve water infrastructure to prevent floods like the ones that inundated Bangkok and surrounding areas in 2011.

TSTH is the largest producer of long steel products in Thailand with a manufacturing capacity of 1.7 million tonne per annum. TSTH operates as a holding company with three subsidiaries.

Through its subsidiaries, TSTH manufactures rebars, wire rods and small sections. — PTI

Mumbai, August 21
Social networking giant Facebook has joined forces with six other technology giants, including the likes of Nokia and Samsung, to launch ‘internet.org’ with an aim to make Internet access affordable for people across the globe.

Focused on enabling the next five billion people without access to come online, the founding members of the project include Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung.

The inititiave will see the partners collaborate on developing lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones and deploying Internet access in underserved communities.

"Everything Facebook has done has been about giving all people around the world the power to connect. There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making Internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it, he added. — PTI

New Delhi, August 21
Ford India today said it has stopped bookings of some of the variants of its compact SUV 'EcoSport' in the wake of heavy demand. "We are witnessing an extended waiting period on certain variants and have temporarily stopped taking bookings on a few variants," a Ford India spokesperson said without specifying details.

The company also did not share the amount of booking backlog.

According to dealer sources, the stopping of bookings differ from dealerships to dealerships. While some dealers have stopped bookings of entry-level variant of the diesel version, others are not taking orders for top-end and mid-level variants of the EcoSport in diesel option.

Some other dealers have also stopped bookings for the optional variant of the one-litre Ecoboost engine-powered petrol variant.

Ford India had launched the EcoSport on June 26 and the company had said it received 30,000 bookings within 17 days of the launch of the vehicle.

According to SIAM figures, till July the company has sold 8,717 units of EcoSport and in July it clocked 4,715 units. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Vodafone unveils M-Pesa in Delhi
New Delhi: Vodafone India along with ICICI Bank launched its mobile money transfer and payment service 'M-Pesa' in Delhi on Wednesday. The company plans to roll out the service in Mumbai and Lucknow in the next couple of days. The service allows customers to transfer money to any mobile phone, remit money to a bank account, make payments for utility bills and deposit and withdraw cash from designated outlets. — PTI

ICICI Bank raises FD rates
New Delhi: ICICI Bank has raised fixed deposit (FD) rates by up to 0.75 per cent across select maturities due to a series of steps taken by RBI, leading to tightening of liquidity condition. It has raised interest rate on term deposits with 46-60 day maturity by 0.75 per cent to 7 per cent. For 61-289 days as well, the increase is by similar percentage points to 7.75 per cent, as per ICICI Bank website. — PTI

Nishi Vasudeva to head HPCL
New Delhi: Nishi Vasudeva was on Wednesday selected to head Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), the first woman ever to head a Navranta PSU. Currently Director (Marketing) in HPCL, she will take over as the Chairman and Managing Director of the company when incumbent Subir Roy Choudhury retires on February 28 next year. — PTI

IOC to invest Rs 8,000 crore
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will invest about Rs 8,000 crore to expand capacity at its Koyali oil refinery in Gujarat to 18 million tonnes per annum by 2016-17. The expansion from 13.7 million tonnes will "lead to improvement in distillate yield thereby enabling production of more value added products from the refinery," a company statement quoted Gujarat Refinery executive director Gautam Roy as saying. — PTI

HDFC opens 11 mini branches
Hyderabad: HDFC Bank on Wednesday announced the launch of 11 mini branches in rural locations across Andhra Pradesh. Each mini branch, comprising two persons, will complement the bank's existing traditional branch set-up in the state, allowing it to reach out to more people in rural geographies, HDFC said. — PTI