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Saturday,
January 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Wipro fares below
expectations Gold
touches Rs 5,775 SEBI norms
on debt papers likely Make
market safer: PM
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Banks’
powers being misused ‘Give
liberal loans to farmers, youth’
ITC, ACC
net profits jump
Microsoft
nets $ 2.5b, to pay dividend
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Wipro fares below
expectations
Bangalore, January 17 Describing the third quarter results as “balanced and boring,” Wipro Vice-Chairman Vivek Paul said here Wipro’s revenue for the nine months ended December 31, 2002, was Rs 3,100 crore and the net profit was Rs 640 crore. “It is a boring quarter as it turned out to be as we had expected,” Paul, also President of Wipro Technologies, which contributes 67 per cent of the Wipro group’s revenue, told reporters as he and Wipro Chairman Azim Premji announced the results. Q-4 outlook
Premji said for the quarter ending March 2003, the company estimates the revenue of the company’s global IT services to be
approximately $162 million, the revenue of its subsidiary Spectramind to be $ 12 million, and of Wipro HealthScience to be $ 2.5 million. In the IT-enabled services segment, however, intense price competition resulted in revenue of $ 11.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2002, against the company’s estimates of $12.5 million. “The global technology sector continues to be under pressure,” Premji said. Wipro’s performance while meeting its own expectations, failed to enthuse the Mumbai stock market where IT stocks turned weak on selling induced by company’s “discouraging” Q3 results. Wipro Technologies, reported a 23 per cent rise in its revenue year on year to Rs 745 crore and profit before interest and tax at Rs 210 crore. Premji said Wipro was looking at acquisitions from “strategic and opportunistic” points of view. Microsoft chief Bill Gates had visited the Wipro campus recently and hinted at joining hands with the company, saying it would be a “win-win situation” for both. Wipro also made a gross recruitment of 1,526 employees during the quarter ended December, 2002, highest compared to the previous two quarters, and said it would continue to hire depending on its business needs. The company would visit 30 campuses this year for hiring, Paul said. The attrition rate fell significantly to 7 per cent during the third quarter from 19 per cent reported in the second quarter.
PTI
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Gold touches Rs 5,775
New Delhi, January 17 Silver also joined the bullish trend and notched up notable gains on the local buying support. There was a sharp rise in the yellow metal in the international markets on brisk buying by stockists and local customers, fearing escalation in the tension between the US-led allies and Iraq. Gold was last seen around these levels in the first week of February 1996 when it registered a high of Rs 5,810 per 10 gram.
PTI
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SEBI norms on debt papers likely New Delhi, January 17 “We propose to relook at the listing requirements of corporate debt instruments to safeguard the interests of the retail investor”, SEBI Chairman G.N. Bajpai told newspersons here today. There is already an existing set of listing guidelines. But in the context of retail trading, a few amendments could be brought about, Mr Bajpai said. On the proposed Serious Frauds Office, Mr Bajpai said it would primarily be an investigative body to check irregularities and work in close tandem with SEBI, the RBI, the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) and the CBI. Regarding the lacunae in the market regulator’s functioning as pointed out by the JPC which probed the securities scam, Mr Bajpai said SEBI would implement the recommendations of the
Parliamentary panel within a year’s time. On the investor awareness campaign which was launched today, he said seminars, conferences and workshops would be held in various parts of the country from the next month. The SEBI chief said the campaign would also be carried out in regional languages.
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Make market safer: PM New Delhi, January 17 “Indian household investor, of late, has been putting much of his savings in non-financial assets. Even within the financial assets, most of the savings are going to the banking system. This is not the best or the most productive use of our savings”, Mr Vajpayee said during the launch of ‘Securities Market Awareness Campaign’ organised by SEBI Terming small investor as the “backbone” of the securities market, the Prime Minister said the prolonged quiet in the stock market has tested the confidence of the small investor. The fact that very few companies have tapped the primary market in recent years is certainly a cause for worry, Mr Vajpayee noted. “If investors are not attracted then companies will not be able to raise money through the capital market”, he said, adding that concerted efforts were required to motivate savers and investors to put their money into shares and bonds so that the economy benefits through a “vigorous and dynamic capital market”. SEBI, market intermediaries and investors should join hands to make India’s capital market the safest place to invest in the world, Mr Vajpayee said. On the corporate scams that had rocked the market, he said: “I am pained to say that the standards of corporate governance have not kept pace... there are many companies that often use questionable and even illegal means to achieve their ends”.
SEBI to get more teeth
Minister Jaswant Singh said today that giving more teeth to SEBI and strong punitive measures will go a long way in enhancing the confidence of small investors in the market system. “The SEBI Act has been amended further strengthen the regulator. It is our expectation that a strong regulator and increasing the penalty will deter evaders and improve the confidence of the investors”, Mr Singh said during the launch of the Securities Market Awareness Campaign of SEBI here.
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Banks’ powers being misused Ludhiana, January 17 Mr P.D. Sharma, president of the chamber, said the banks and financial institutions had been armed with draconian powers, which were being misused. While at the same time
the banks were shirking in lending money. During the recent high-level meeting of the banks called by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, it was revealed that contribution of SSI towards NPAs in banks was only 19 per cent. The RBI’s guidelines are specific on the issue of NPAs. It has shifted wilful defaulter from genuine defaulter. The RBI allows fresh bank finance to wilful defaulters after the expiry of five years from the date their names appear in the list. Obviously there is no bar on financing genuine defaulters. But the banks are avoiding lending, he adds. The RBI has defined wilful defaulter also. Mr S.S. Kohli, Chairman, Punjab National Bank, has said wilful default
occours when one does not pay even having capacity to pay; diverts the funds from specific purpose. Some bizarre happenings have come to light. One wing of a bank gives clean chit to their defaulters and borrowers, while the other wing of the bank declares the same borrowers as wilful defaulters. The chamber has put specific questions to the RBI. He asked, “If one unit of any family becomes sick will other healthy units of the family should be debarred from bank finance? RBI says nothing doing. Against this clear direction the banks do not even touch the other healthy unit of the family” Mr Sharma disclosed. If this situation continues, no outsider will come to Punjab. If the limited population of entreprenuers are thrown by fault or default on the part of banks the future of Punjab is surely gloomy, he
added.
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‘Give liberal loans to farmers, youth’ Shimla, January 17 The target set up under the annual credit plan for the year is Rs 985 crore. Reviewing the implementation of the plan at the 91st meeting of the state-level bankers’ committee here today, Mrs Rajendra Bhattacharya, Chief Secretary, urged the bankers to improve the credit deposit ratio in the state by disbursing liberal loans to farmers and unemployed youth under various schemes for the welfare of the people. She advised the bankers to make tourism, information technology and bio-technology the thrust areas to improve the credit deposit ratio. Meanwhile, UCO bank upgraded its two extension counters here with this the total number of branches of the bank in the state had gone up to 119.
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ITC, ACC net profits jump
Kolkata, January 17 The cumulative net profit during the nine-month ended December, 2002, stood higher at Rs 1,047.93 crore from Rs 903.35 crore last year. Company officials said after a Board meeting that considered unaudited results that the turnover during the quarter grew by 12.20 per cent to Rs 1,467.60 crore from Rs 1,308.42 crore on the back of all-round growth in all its businesses. The official said the domestic cigarette industry continued to be impacted by the burgeoning state level taxes and despite that ITC leveraged its leadership position to record a revenue growth of 5.7 per cent during the quarter, driven by improved product mix. The two-year old greeting cards business, which recorded its highest sales during the current quarter, had already garnered an impressive market share of 15 per cent.
ACC ACC has posted a 19.37 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 20.21 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2002, as compared to Rs 16.93 crore in the same period of the previous year. However, the net sales or income from operations in the reporting period stood lower at Rs 801.19 crore as compared to Rs 812.99 crore of the previous year, ACC Managing Director M.L. Narual said in a release here today. In the quarter ended December, 2002, cement sales increased by 4.3 per cent to 32.88 lakh tonnes, as compared to 31.52 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period the previous year, it said, adding that the gross cement price realisation for Q3 declined by 5 per cent. The Board of Directors of ACC has alloted 39,600 shares against exercise of stock options granted to employees under the ESOP. The company has informed the BSE that 4,962 shares were alloted against exercise of stock option granted to employees under the ESOP 2001, and 295 shares were alloted from shares kept in abeyance at the time of the Rights Issue 1999.
Vanavil Dyes Vanavil Dyes and Chemicals Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 56.52 lakh during the quarter ended December, 2002 as compared to Rs 16.23 crore in the corresponding period last year. The company’s sales increased by 43 per cent to Rs 12.73 crore during the quarter as against Rs 8.90 crore October-December 2001.
Glenmark Pharma Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has posted a 65.75 per cent increase in the net profit at Rs 9.05 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2002, as compared to Rs 5.46 crore in the same period last year.
Agencies
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bb
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Bangalore,
January 17
In video (
