Saturday, October 31, 1998
today's calendar
|
B U S I N E S S | Saturday, October 31, 1998 |
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
|
|
Panel for 100 p.c. hike in PSU pay NEW DELHI, Oct 30 — A government panel to revise public sector executives’ pay scales today recommended a over 100 per cent hike in their salaries, implementation of which would entail an outgo of up to Rs 2300 crore annually.
|
 |
Improve financial system before high
growth: IMF NEW DELHI, Oct 30 — The IMF today cautioned India against committing to a higher growth path without putting in place a “proper and robust” financial system. Ranbaxy Lab net falls 9 p.c. NEW DELHI, Oct 30 — Net profit of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has declined to Rs 87.1 crore during first half of current fiscal from Rs 95.6 crore in the corresponding period last year, registering a decline of 8.9 per cent. |
|
Credit
policy disappoints market Jindal
strips turnover rises |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
Panel for 100 p.c. hike in PSU pay NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (PTI) — A government panel to revise public sector executives’ pay scales today recommended a over 100 per cent hike in their salaries, implementation of which would entail an outgo of up to Rs 2300 crore annually. The Justice S Mohan Committee today submitted its report to Industry Minister Sikander Bakht, who said the government would expeditiously process the recommendations and take an early decision. The new scales, benefiting about 3.5 lakh executives and non-unionised supervisory staff in 242 PSUs, are recommended for implementation from January 1, 1997 and there would be no budgetary support for this additional outgo. The pay recommended range from Rs 20,500 to a high of Rs 31,500 for executives of various PSU categories compared to basic salaries ranging between Rs 9,000 and Rs 15,000. Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) Secretary S Narayan clarified that Executives of 90 sick PSUs, including 62 referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, would get benefits of new scales only after these companies implemented revival packages. The committee headed by Justice Mohan, who retired from the Supreme Court, also recommended 100 per cent neutralisation of the cost of living, house rent allowance on the pattern of then Fifth Central Pay Commission and performance-linked allowances and perquisites. The committee has also recommended that the relativity between the pay of the highest paid executive and the lowest paid employee should be in the ratio of 10:1 against the current ratio of 6.2:1. The ratio between the Chief Executive at the highest level and the Executive at the entry level should be 4:1 compared to the present 3.4:1. The committee has recommended 100 per cent neutralisation of cost of living, adding that dearness allowance (DA) should be revised once in six months as is the practice in the Central Government and not once in three months. House rent allowance (HRA) has been recommended based on the reclassified list of cities as notified by the government based on the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission. “These rates are in
the nature of ceilings and public sector enterprises
would have the flexibility to operate within the
ceilings”, it said. |
Improve financial system before high growth, cautions IMF NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (PTI) — The IMF today cautioned India against committing to a higher growth path without putting in place a “proper and robust” financial system. IMF Deputy Director Flemming Larsen, who headed the team that prepared the IMF’s World Economic Outlook this year, told reporters here India was justified in its “cautious approach” in moving towards capital account convertibility particularly after the East Asian meltdown. He, however, said capital account convertibility was essential in the long run if India were to integrate itself with the global economy. An important lesson of the East Asian crisis was that strong growth was not sustainable when high capital accumulation was not matched by adequate rate of return. It was more dangerous if capital accumulation was through a lot of borrowing at a time when the rate of return was nil or negative. Larsen said huge non-performing assets in the banking system and massive lending in real estates contributed to the East Asian meltdown and this emphasised the need for carrying out financial sector reforms. He said neither an average annual 5 per cent growth as in India was good enough nor a high 10 to 12 per cent growth as in South-East Asia was advisable. But a moderate 6 to 7 per cent was sustainable and the South-East Asian economies were expected to bounce back to this level from the middle of 1999. Larsen was against stepping up public expenditure by resorting to fiscal deficit and said this would push up interest rates which would amount to diverting scarce resources. There was no way one could push up growth rate without a check on fiscal deficit and this applied more so to India. Citing the example of Brazil, he said the government’s failure to check fiscal deficit had led to the current economic crisis and it was now facing the arduous task of resorting to fiscal discipline when there was a global recession. “It is easier to
carry out fiscal reforms when the global economy is
looking up,”he said adding India should effect
fiscal discipline when the going was relatively good. |
US-64 price hiked MUMBAI, Oct 30 (PTI) — The UTI has hiked the sales and repurchase price of its flagship scheme US-64 by 15 paise for the month of November at Rs 14.70 and Rs 14.40, respectively. Simultaneously, UTI has also announced the sale and repurchase price for December 1998 at Rs 14.80 and 14.50, an increase of 10 paise, according to a release here. The scheme, having eroded its networth currently, faces a crisis of confidence and the 30 paise increase in its repurchase price is being seen by market sources as a confidence building measure. The sale and repurchase
price in September, when the crisis broke out, was Rs
14.40 and Rs 14.10, respectively. Redemptions in the last
month have crossed over Rs 800 crore. |
Ranbaxy Lab net falls 9 p.c. NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (PTI) — Net profit of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has declined to Rs 87.1 crore during first half of current fiscal from Rs 95.6 crore in the corresponding period last year, registering a decline of 8.9 per cent. However, sales of the company increased by 9.6 during April-September 1998 as the sales volume was Rs 713.4 crore during the period as compared to Rs 651 crore in the same period last fiscal. According to a company release, export sales of products — cafeacllor and its late stage intermediate 3-chloro-7acca-declined significantly, both in terms of volume and price realisation reflecting the global trend. Export sales of some medicines to Russia and other markets in CIS had been adversely affected since August due to crisis in Russia, the release said. Ranbaxy introduced six new
products over the last six months including anti-allergic
drug Altiva, anti-infective medicine Azosttat and Mox
Clav and cardio-vascular drug covance, the release said. |
ITC operating profit up 28 p.c. CALCUTTA, Oct 30 (PTI) — ITC has made an operating profit of Rs 312 crore in the second quarter of the year, registering an increase of 28 per cent over the corresponding period of last year. The profit also rose by 19 per cent during the period over corresponding period last year, which demonstrated the strong fundamentals of the company in its core businesses, an ITC release said here today. The company’s performance in terms of net income growth of 21 per cent for the half year and that in operating profit has made it possible for the company to absorb large increase of interest cost which for the half year was doubled to Rs 83 crore and for this quarter to Rs 43 crore over the corresponding period last year. The impact of the interest burden has arisen due to the company’s exit from the financial services businesses which required significant cash flows, it said. The company’s profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 520 crore and profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 350 crore for half year, registering a growth of 16 per cent over the corresponding period last year. The quarterly results of
the company were approved at a meeting of the board of
directors here today. |
Guj Ambuja profit rises by 13 per cent MUMBAI, Oct 30 (PTI) — Gujarat Ambuja Cements performed well during the first quarter of the financial year ended September 30, 1998, with its operating profit rising by 13 per cent to Rs 72.95 crore as compared to Rs 64.74 crore in the first quarter of the previous year. During the first quarter, the company sold 1.17 million tonnes cement, showing an increase of 20 per cent as compared to 0.97 million tonnes sold in corresponding period last year. The turnover was up by 9 per cent to Rs 241.64 crore as against Rs 222.08 crore in first quarter of 1997-98. Cash profit was higher at
Rs 45.26 crore as against Rs 41.50 crore. After providing
depreciation of Rs 28.24 crore (Rs 24.81 crore) profit
before tax was Rs 17.02 crore as against Rs 16.69 crore
for first quarter in previous year. |
VSNL net up 77 p.c. NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (PTI)
— State-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL)
today declared a 77 per cent increase in their net
profits during the first half of fiscal 1998 at Rs 736
crore as against Rs 415.3 crore a year ago. The
company’s revenue increased by 17.2 per cent to
touch Rs 3,592.5 crore during April-September compared to
Rs 3063.7 crore achieved in the first half of 1997-98. In
the second quarter of the current fiscal year, the net
profits went up by 36.4 per cent to Rs 424.6 crore on an
increased revenue of Rs 1901 crore. |
OBC profit soars 27 p.c. NEW DELHI, Oct 30 —
Oriental Bank of Commerce has recorded growth rates of
27.7 per cent in profit, 32.4 per cent in deposits and
35.9 per cent in advances during the first six months of
1998-99 on a year-on-year basis. As against an operating
profit of Rs 160.52 crore up to end-September last year,
the bank recorded a profit of Rs 205 crore. At the same
time, its deposits grew from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 14,534
crore and its advances rose from Rs 5081 crores to Rs
6905 crore. The bank’s total business has thus grown
to Rs 21,400 crore. |
ICICI puts up good show MUMBAI, Oct 30 (PTI) — ICICI today reported a 25 per cent rise in its net profit for the first half ending of 1998-99 as against the corresponding period the previous year. The profit amounted to Rs 518 crore as against Rs 414 crore the previous year, according to audited accounts released after the board meeting here today. Disbursals aggregated Rs 8,247 crore as against Rs 6,737 crore for the corresponding period last year, representing a 22 per cent growth. Approvals aggregated Rs 21,104 crore against Rs 10,886 crore for the same period. The profit after tax of Rs 414 crore for the first half of 1997-98 takes into consideration ITC classic’s loss of Rs 74 crore as a part of regular operations, subsequent to the merger effective April 1, 1997. It excludes the extraordinary one-time capital gain of Rs 84 crore on sale of ICICI Bank shares, the release said. ICICI continued its focus on infrastructure and corporate finance segments leading to a healthy business growth and an improved risk profile of the asset portfolio. The net NPA (non-performing assets) ratio had increased from 7.6 per cent as on March 31 last to 7.8 per cent at the end of the first half. It has also made
provisions and write offs of Rs 189 crore as against Rs
129 crore for the first half of 1997-98. |
Credit policy disappoints market MUMBAI, Oct 30 (PTI) — Equities turned weak on the stock market today despite fresh purchases by domestic institutions, following a disappointing credit policy which did nothing to bring down interest rates, concentrating on further reforms in the financial sector. Focussing on the financial sector had become necessary in after the South-East Asian crisis, which has driven home the importance of strong capital adequacy, income recognition and provisioning norms for banks and other financial institutions. Moving in a narrow range till the mid-session, the BSE sensex plunged later as local operators pressed sales to square up positions on the last day of the current settlement. The BSE sensitive index opened steady at 2,844.15 and moved marginally up to the intra-day high of 2,862.31 before reacting to close at the day’s low of 2,812.49 as against yesterday’s close of 2,845.16, netting a loss of 32.67 points. The BSE-100 index eased by 13.65 points to 1,260.78 from previous close of 1,274.43. Though financial institutions led by the Life Insurance Corporation and some mutual funds bought small lots of shares of EIH Ltd, NIITt, SBI, Hind Lever, Ranbaxy, HPCL and Reliance, operators were seen selling considerably. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were reported to have been net buyers in MTNL and Satyam Computer. Dealers said the big operators were still bearish and the market needed major support from financial institutions to improve the sentiment. The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted moderately down at 293.73 and 115.42 compared with previous close of 297.15 and 116.98 respectively. The volume of business had
improved by Rs 309.10 crore to Rs 1197.29 crore compared
to yesterday’s turnover of Rs 888.19 crore. ITC
remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs
252.00 crore followed by Satyam Computer (Rs 177.78
crore), SBI (106.47 crore), Pentafour Software (Rs 72.89
crore) and RIL (Rs 68.53 crore). |
Jindal strips turnover rises NEW DELHI, Oct 30 — The stainless steel division of Jindal Strips Limited (JSL) registered a 41 per cent increase in turnover during the first six months of the current financial year as compared to the corresponding previous half year.Turnover during this period stood at Rs 422 crore as compared to Rs 305 crore over the corresponding previous half year. The turnover of stainless
steel division increased to Rs 228 crore from Rs 194
crore over the first quarter of the current year.The
sales of the sponge iron division increased to Rs 172
crore from Rs 143 crore and production to 204,500 MT from
Rs 178,000 MT over the corresponding previous half year. |
MUMBAI, Oct 30 (PTI) — Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) recorded a net profit at Rs 47.83 crore for the second quarter ending September 30, an increase of 37 per cent over Rs 35.02 crore in the first quarter. However, net profit in the first half dropped by 36 per cent at Rs 82.85 crore as against Rs 112.44 crore in the corresponding period last year. Income from operations during the first half rose to Rs 1,613.74 crore from Rs 1,589.50 crore for the said period. Eicher BHEL IDBI Crisil Hindalco Ballarpur TTK Prestige SAIL Arvind |
| H |
|
||
| Forex rates MUMBAI, Oct 30 (PTI) — The following were interbank forex and RBI rates (in rupees per unit). U.S.Dollar Rs 42.32/33 Gold firm Price Index Farmers meet PNB office |
 |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
