 |
|
SEBI bans UBS Securities
Nod to Star-Tata, Sun DTH ventures
Shipping Ministry favours 15 pc divestment in SCI
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bajaj Auto may pick stakes in Kawasaki arms
DoT against entry fee on 3G spectrum
Exports grow 17.2 pc
Telecom snippets
BSNL, Reliance largesse for pre-paid users
|
|
SEBI bans UBS Securities
Mumbai, May 17 The market watchdog said UBS failed to furnish details of transactions and has been prohibited from issuing offshore derivative instruments. As per SEBI’s order, UBS, its affiliates and agents are prohibited from renewing or rolling over any of the offshore derivative instruments already issued against the positions held by it in the Indian securities market for one year, SEBI whole-time member G. Anantharaman said in his order today. Responding to the SEBI order, UBS said it was complying with the directives: “On May 17, 2005, UBS received an order from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Keeping with this order, UBS has ceased to issue derivative instruments against underlying Indian securities held by UBS in the Indian securities market immediately.” UBS, however, insisted that it did not believe that the description of its conduct or intent as contained in the judgement was fair. The institution said it was seeking further legal advice and intended to appeal the regulator’s decision. Last year on May 17, Sensex had shed nearly 800 points in intra-day trades and ended over 500 points lower. The sharp fall had led to the suspension of trading twice during the day. SEBI noted that on May 17 last year, UBS Securities had sold Rs 188.35 crore in the cash market. It went on to build up short positions of Rs 434 crore in Nifty Futures, and had built up positions of Rs 292 crore in stock futures. SEBI chairman M. Damodaran later said that hedge funds must address regulators’ concerns. “We need to know whose money is being invested. If people drag their feet on this, the regulator will not be comfortable,” the SEBI chief said. Damodaran said UBS failed to furnish information about six of its clients despite being given adequate opportunity. Caxton, largest client of the UBS, sold Rs 99 crore worth of stocks on May 17. Damodaran went on to say that SEBI has sought further information from 12 major clients of UBS. UBS, which did dealings for hedge fund clients on Black Monday, was one of the largest sellers in the cash segment on May 17 last year. The SEBI chief said retail investors should draw comfort from SEBI’s move and added that the size of the player would not stop the regulator from acting tough. SEBI investigators had suspected that the market crash of May 17, 2004, could have been triggered by large-scale bear hammering by UBS Securities with no links to the performance of the scrips.
|
|
Chidambaram eyes more FDI
New Delhi, May 17 He also indicated that the government would undertake further liberalisation of policies to attract more foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investment, particularly in the areas of service exports and tourism. “The first thing we have to do is to complete the agenda of financial sector reforms in the first half of the current fiscal and back it up with appropriate legislations,” Mr Chidambaram said while speaking at the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here. A lot needs to be done to ensure that trade deficit, which is presently hovering around $ 30 billion, “does not become an albatross around India’s neck”, he said. “FDI, FII, invisibles and remittances cannot be looked at as separate compartments. Not enough importance is being given to these components of trade deficit,” he said. Mr Chidambaram also added an appendix to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s grading of the performance of the UPA government. The Prime Minister had yesterday assigned a 6/10 grade to the government. “If we complete the agenda on financial sector reforms, pass the economic and empowerment legislations and more cooperation is received from the opposition parties, the grading would reach 9/10,” Mr Chidambaram said. The passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, were important, as these legislations would empower people, he said. The Finance Minister listed out six major deficits — the fiscal deficit, the revenue deficit, the trade deficit, the investment deficit, policy deficit and governance deficit — as the major hurdles to achieving double-digit inclusive growth.
|
|
Nod to Star-Tata, Sun DTH ventures
New Delhi, May 17 “The applications conform to the stipulated guidelines and the Letter of Intent (LoI) will be issued in a day or two,” Mr S.K. Arora, who took over as the new Information and Broadcasting Secretary today, said here. The Rs 1,600 crore Star-Tata venture had particularly faced hurdles, as the application kept shuttling between various ministries for well over a year. The Tatas hold 80 per cent in Space TV while the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star has the rest 20 per cent. Both had re-worked the agreement after objections were raised about the shareholder agreement and the management structure and the issue was even raised by Mr Murdoch when he met the Prime Minister and I&B Minister S. Jaipal Reddy earlier this year. Sun TV’s proposal had also faced some problems at the ministry level, though it finally received a go-ahead. With the addition of Sun and Space TV, there would be a four players in the DTH segment. While Subhash Chandra-promoted ‘Dish TV’ was the first player to enter the segment in October, 2003, Prasar Bharati launched its free-to-air platform ‘DD Direct+’ late last year.
— PTI
|
|
Shipping Ministry favours 15 pc divestment in SCI
New Delhi, May 17 “The ministry has accorded its nod to the government proposal for a 15 per cent disinvestment in the SCI,” high-level ministry sources said. The proposal would now be sent to the Finance Ministry which would decide the modalities for taking it to its logical conclusion, the sources said. The SCI, which has a fleet of 81 ships, has a paid-up capital of Rs 282.30 crore. The divestment proposal, once approved, would bring down the government share in the company from 80 per cent to 65 per cent. As per the existing share-holding status,
institutional investors hold 13.57 per cent and private corporate bodies 1.72 per cent. In addition, the general public holds a 4.43 per cent share while NRIs account for a miniscule 0.16 per cent.
— UNI
|
|
Bajaj Auto may pick stakes in Kawasaki arms
New Delhi, May 17 “We are looking into this ...might pick up stake in companies of Kawasaki in the Philippines and Thailand,” Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj said on the sidelines of a CII conference here. Saying that the deal has to be of “mutual interest”, Bajaj said its technology partner Kawasaki had interest in companies engaged in assembly and manufacture and also distribution and selling in both the countries.
— PTI
|
|
DoT against entry fee on 3G spectrum
New Delhi, May 17 Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata is believed to have written to Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran opposing allocation of spectrum for third generation services free of cost and proposed a one-time entry licence fee of Rs 1,500 crore.
— PTI
|
|
Exports grow 17.2 pc
New Delhi, May 17 Imports grew by a massive 51 per cent to $ 10.4 billion as against $ 6.9 billion in April 2004, according to the latest data.
|
bb
Chinese textiles Vodafone charges Petronas-PLN deal New DVD format BMI flights Dish TV tie-up Best telecom CEO OVL bids |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
