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| Friday, April 21, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Punjab ropes in experts
Revenue collection from
valley drops New heads for PNB, Allahabad Bank BEL records 25 pc surge in
turnover Sundaram fund to offer units from
April 26 |
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Castrol, Smithkline
profits soar 8 lakh eggs destroyed
Punjab ropes in experts CHANDIGARH, April 20 — The Punjab Infrastructure Development Board, was reorganised today. Mr R.C. Sinha, who formerly headed the Maharashtra State Roads Development Corporation, has been appointed its Managing Director on a contractual basis for three years in the rank of Financial Commissioner. The Secretary, PWD, has been inducted as a member of the board. The PWD Chief Engineer is a permanent invitee to in the newly constituted Executive Committee headed by Mr R.S. Mann, Chief Secretary. Mr Nasir Muniji,
Managing Director, Infrastructure Development Financial
Corporation; Mr V. Suresh, Managing Director, HUDCO; Dr
Rakesh Mohan, Director, National Council for Applied
Economic Research, New Delhi, (all experts on
infrastructure) have been inducted as members. |
Revenue
collection from valley drops CHANDIGARH, April 20 — A record revenue of Rs 1394 crore has been generated during 1999-2000 by the Central Excise Commissionerate, Chandigarh II, which is Rs 288 crores above its allocated target. Commissioner Inder Raj Soni said here today that the commissionerate had registered 63 per cent growth in revenue generation over 1998 - 99. The jurisdiction of the commissionerate extends over the states of Punjab (excluding the districts of Ludhiana, Patiala and Ropar) and Jammu and Kashmir. While an overall growth of about 22 per cent had been registered in Jammu and Kashmir, where a revenue of Rs 99 crore was generated as against Rs 81 crore last year, the revenue collection from the Kashmir valley had shown a downward trend, with revenue collection falling by 6 per cent. Mr Soni informed that the commissionerate’s revenue collection had more than doubled during the past two years from Rs 668 crore to Rs 1394 crore. Petroleum products, motor vehicles parts, yarn, edible preparations and aerated water were the main items contsibuting to the revenue in this commissionerate. About Rs 850 crore had been collected from the petroleum sector, while Rs 545 crore had been generated from other sector. The petroleum sector registered growth of 133.5 per cent whereas the growth in revenue from other sectors was about 11 per cent. Meanwhile, 196 cases of duty evasion involving Rs 1804 crore, were detected during 1999-2000, of which 36 cases involving duty of Rs 9 crore related to misuse of Modvat credit facilities. As a deterrent against
duty evasion, three criminal complaints were filed in
courts at Amritsar and Hoshiarpur against some leading
manufacturing units. Further, the department also managed
to get four manufacturers at Amritsar convicted for duty
evasion. |
New heads for PNB, Allahabad Bank NEW DELHI, April 20 (UNI) — The Government has appointed new chiefs for three banks — Allahabad Bank, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank. Mr B Samal has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Allahabad Bank, while Mr Leeladhar has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of the Union Bank of India. Mr Leeladhar was heading Vijaya Bank. Meanwhile, Mr S.S. Kohli has taken over as Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab National Bank. Samal earlier held the charge of the Executive Director of the Calcutta-based bank. Kohli, a mechanical
engineer, joined Punjab and Sind Bank in 1970 as an
officer and after working in various capacities, he
became General Manager in 1990. |
BEL
records 25 pc surge in turnover NEW DELHI, April 20 — Bharat Electronics Ltd has registered an all time high turnover of Rs 1496.40 crore during 1999-2000, a 25 per cent increase over the previous year’s performance. The value of production during the year was Rs 1540.59 crore, an increase of 26.6 per cent over the previous year’s figure of Rs 1217 crore. The profit before tax of the company was Rs 152.04 crore, which was a significant improvement over the previous year’s figure of Rs 70.21 crore. Likewise, the profit after tax for the year was Rs 101.52 crore as against the previous year’s Rs 53.63 crore. For the first time, all nine units of BEL, including that at Panchkula, have achieved profits, despite the adverse market situations faced by some of the units. Three units of BEL at Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gaziabad continue to be in the entity list of the US Government. Along with the US sanctions, these units are also faced with passive sanctions from some European countries. According to a company
release, a task force had been set up for these units and
it helped identify alternate sources, components and
redesigning wherever necessary. |
Sundaram
fund to offer units from April 26 NEW DELHI, April 20 — Sundaram Newton Asset Management Company has launched its “balanced fund” targeting North India. “The fund is targeted at those who seek to generate capital appreciation and current income through a mix of investment in equities and fixed income securities (debt and money market instruments), the Managing Director, Mr T P Raman, told The Tribune. The fund will invest 55 per cent in equities and 45 per cent in the debt market. Units are offered at Rs 10 and the entire amount is payable on application. The minimum investment is Rs 5000 and in multiples of Rs 500 thereafter. The fund opens its
initial public offering on April 26 and closes on May 25. |
Castrol, Smithkline profits soar CASTROL India today reported a 2.08 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 44.04 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2000, from Rs 43.14 crore during the corresponding period last year. The company’s gross profit stood at Rs 57.67 crore, a 2.3 per cent increase from Rs 56.36 crore of the same period last year. Total expenditure was 18 per cent high at Rs 233.51 crore, while net sales rose by 12.2 per cent to Rs 280.65 crore from Rs 249.94 crore during the same period last year. The Other income stood at Rs 11.67 crore, a 144 per cent surge against Rs 4.78 crore. Indian Rayon: Indian Rayon today reported a net loss of Rs 241.23 crore during the financial year 1999-2000 against a net profit of Rs 106.04 crore in 1998-1999. Official sources said the net profit has been impacted negatively due to the provisions of a one-time non-cash loss of Rs 298.82 crore on the assets of Sea Water Magnesia Plant by bringing down value of the assets to their realised value on the closure of the plant. Smithkline Beecham: Smithkline Beecham on Thursday reported a 14.47 increase in the profit after tax at Rs 22.70 crore during the quarter ended March, 2000, against Rs 19.83 crore in the same quarter last year. The net sales increased to Rs 172.64 crore from Rs 164.25 crore and other income to Rs 11.03 crore from Rs 9.27 crore last year. Interest charges during the quarter shot up significantly to Rs 2.16 crore from a low of Rs 0.34 crore while other expenses increased to Rs 48.91 crore from Rs 43.62 crore last year. Thomas Cook: Thomas Cook (India) Ltd reported an 11 per cent increase in the net profit at Rs 4.31 crore on an 11 per cent rise in the turnover at Rs 20.02 crore in the third quarter ended March 31,2000, over the same period last year. In the reporting quarter it posted another income of Rs 26.4 lakh (Rs 29.8 lakh in Q1 last year) and incurred total expenditure of Rs 10.93 crore (Rs 10.45 crore), as per the unaudited financial results released here. Interest expenditure increased by 67 per cent to Rs 1.47 crore and gross profit after interest, but before depreciation and taxation, was up 13 per cent to Rs 7.88 crore. IEC Soft: The Board of Directors of IEC Software has announced a 75 per cent interim dividend having registered a 239 per cent surge in the net profit during the 1999-2000 fiscal. Its net profit surged to Rs 2.66 crore as against Rs 78.62 lakh a year ago. Telco sales up: Tata
Engineering has registered a 36 per cent jump in sales at
70,732 units in the medium and heavy commercial vehicles
segment during 1999-2000 as against 51,992 units in the
previous fiscal. The company has improved its market
share in the segment to 66.6 per cent.— agencies |
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PUNE, April 20 (PTI) — More than eight lakh eggs have been destroyed in Pune, Nasik and the adjoining areas to deal with the glut in the egg market, an annual phenomenon, brought on by the onset of summer. Anil Pawar, Commissioner of Animal Husbandry, told PTI here that the prices of eggs had also fallen with more produce and less demand as people do not like eating eggs or egg-products in summer. Pawar said the Commissionerate of Animal Husbandry has proposed introduction of the “market intervention scheme” which, if implemented, will help stabilise the market. There has been a sudden sharp drop in the prices of eggs which has hit producers who are now getting less than what they spend on producing eggs. The prices of eggs are
fixed by the National Eggs Coordination Committee, a
registered body of private egg producers. |
cr
Rebound may be equally sharp NOBODY was complaining when the upsurge at the Nasdaq pulled up the Indian markets for no fathomable reasons to unprecedented and unrealistic levels. Everyone spoke then of the brave new economy and modern day valuation models that justified patently absurd P/E multiples. Suddenly, and mind you, not a day too late, the bubble has burst and the Nasdaq has taken a nosedive. Its ripple down effect on markets worldwide and more particularly in our context, the Indian markets, has been unpleasant to say the least.Thus, it is in this light that we have to comprehend what “esteemed” experts mean when they groan and moan that there should be no co-relation between the dot com littered Nasdaq and our “very” profitable IT companies. Alas! It is too late in the day to complain. While the Sensex will inevitably shake off the Nasdaq shadow that looms larger than life at the moment, the downslide has first to be completed.Again, the despondency in the market suggests that there could be a sharp rebound all over again as the Indian market has this amazing quality of proving all pundits wrong. Punters who thrive in a high risk scenario can consider taking the plunge with long positions at the counters of Infosys Technologies at Rs 7444 (square up at Rs 8009), Zee Telefilms at Rs 799 (square up at Rs 847) and VSNL at Rs 1449 (square up at Rs 1998). Short positions could be considered at the counters of Reliance Industries at Rs 329 (cover up at Rs 299) and Global Telesystems at Rs 1598 (cover up at Rs 1543). There is no dark horse bet this week though discerning investors with a long term perspective can keep an eye out for the coming results of Hughes Software, which is undoubtedly a potential market leader. Adding to its potential
for an immediate upside is the fact that it is now in the
“No Delivery” trading mode. Another IT stock
worth a look in is DSQ Software which declared fairly
impressive results earlier this week. The unusual message
this week is — start bargain hunting with a three
month time frame! |
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