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Govt under pressure to review oil prices
ONGC loses Angolan block to Chinese consortium
TRAI asks for compliance certificate from telecom cos
TCS topples Infosys as m-cap leader
Exports grow 40 pc in June
SC stays proceedings in Jet-Sahara case
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India woos French industry
Nod to 68 pc foreign equity in Hutch Essar
UB Group to set up winery near Pune
Gold above Rs 10,000
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Govt under pressure to review oil prices
New Delhi, July 14 “The situation is continuously under our watch and the price review will take place on a monthly basis. So, you will have to wait for a decision on oil price till August 1,” said a senior official in the Petroleum Ministry here today. He admitted that the average price of a basket of Indian oil import has gone up from $66.55 a barrel in June to $71.64 a barrel by July 7, thus leading to rise in under-recoveries of the oil companies. Notably, the Petroleum Ministry had proposed while announcing a hike in the petrol, diesel prices last month that oil companies would be allowed to take an independent decision on a price hike whenever the average price of Indian basket of oil products rose above $70 a barrel. On June 5, the Cabinet had allowed the oil companies that with an every increase in international crude by $1 a barrel, once the Indian oil basket price touches $70 a barrel, these would be allowed to hike the petrol prices by 39 paise, diesel by 30 paise, kerosene by 36 paise a litre, besides 60 paise per LPG cylinder. Sources said Petroleum Minister Murli Deora was finding himself in a tight spot as the government was still struggling to convince the UPA allies and supporting Left parties about the unprecedented hike in the petrol and diesel prices by Rs 4 and Rs 2 a litre, respectively. In fact, the minister is not in favour of any hike in oil prices at least for the time being, and is working to convince the state governments to bring down the petrol and diesel prices by withdrawing state tax on increased prices. Meanwhile, the Petroleum Ministry has urged the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to consider the withdrawal of state taxes on the hiked petrol and diesel prices. Mr Ramesh Chandra, Secretary, Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers said: “ In the committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow, some state Finance Ministers may raise the issue of uniform state taxes on petro products or withdrawal of taxes on hiked rates, though I am not aware of any such item on the committee agenda.” “It is unlikely that in the given political and economic scenario when the government is facing flak from public and the opposition over high prices of general commodities, the government would dare to allow the oil companies to implement another hike in oil products,” said another official in the ministry.
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ONGC loses Angolan block to Chinese consortium
New Delhi, July 14 The Indian firm offered $310-million signature bonus for becoming a partner in Block 18 but its bid fell short of $725 million offered by a 75/25 Sino-Angolan joint venture, Sonangol-Sinopec International (SSI), industry sources said. The ONGC had bid lower than even Angola’s Grupo Gema ($400 million),the sources said. The pre-qualified operators for Block 18, Petrobras of Brazil and Chevron of US bid only $276 million and $272 million, respectively. However, Petrobras has been made an operator taking a 30 per cent interest with the SSI getting a 40 per cent stake. Angola’s Falcon Oil and Gema Group have a 5 per cent working interest each. Angola had offered seven blocks - three in shallow water and four in deep water - in its first offshore licensing round.
— PTI |
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TRAI asks for compliance certificate from telecom cos
New Delhi, July 14 The certificates of compliance should categorically indicate that all directions of the authority are being complied with by them continuously and there has been no breach of these directions during the year, a TRAI statement said. TRAI has issued several directions to telecom service providers in the past on various tariff-related aspects with a view to protect the interest of the consumers. Some of the directions are prohibiting levy of migration charges by the cellular service providers, mandating cellular service providers to carry forward unused balance during grace period at the time of recharge by pre-paid subscribers and prescription of format for publication/advertisement of tariff for consumer information. PTI adds: Meanwhile, taking a cue from Reliance Communications Ltd, Punjab-based CDMA operator HFCL has applied for GSM spectrum for offering cellular services in its only service area, Punjab.
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TCS topples Infosys as m-cap leader
Mumbai, July 14 According to the data available with the Bombay Stock Exchange, TCS’ market cap stood at Rs 91,769.20 crore as the market closed today, as against Infosys’ Rs 91,399.77 crore. TCS has also moved up to the fourth position in the list of biggest Indian companies in terms of market cap, while Infosys has slipped one position down to the fifth position. ONGC, Reliance Industries and NTPC have retained their top-three positions on the list. Another IT major Wipro stood at sixth position on the list, down from its fifth position yesterday. Wipro’s market cap stood at Rs 70,107.73 crore while that of Satyam Computer was Rs 23,542.37 crore. Satyam was placed at 25th position on the top-100 list at the end of today’s trading session. Infosys had slipped to 10th position yesterday, despite strong Q1 results posted by the company earlier this week. Infosys’ share price had soared by more than 7 per cent on Wednesday, when the company had announced better-than-expected Q1 results and had raised its FY07 guidance. However, Infosys’ share price has dropped since then as traders appear to have booked their profit after Wednesday’s sharp rally, said an analyst. In contrast, the share price of TCS has soared higher on expectations of robust quarterly results, said the brokers. TCS’ share price moved up 0.39 per cent to Rs 1,875.50 today, while Infosys dropped 1.76 per cent to Rs 1,650.75. Wipro lost 2.56 per cent to Rs 489.95 and Satyam plunged 3.21 per cent to Rs 721.60. TCS and HCL Technologies were the only two stocks on the BSE IT index that managed to close in the positive territory in a weak trading session when the BSE benchmark, Sensex, registered a 180-point drop to close at 10,678.22. — PTI
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Exports grow 40 pc in June
New Delhi, July 14 The growth in June has pushed up the export growth in the first quarter (April-June) to 32.4 per cent to $27.6 billion. Imports in the April-June quarter were up 24.48 per cent to $40.2 billion. The trade deficit in the first quarter of this fiscal increased to $12.6 billion from $11.4 billion last fiscal. "The sustained buoyancy of India's exports reflects the effectiveness of various policy measures taken by the government and growing global competitiveness of Indian enterprises, especially manufacturing, which accounts for 75 per cent of the exports," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said. "At this rate, I am confident that India's merchandise exports will hit $126 billion this year, representing doubling of exports within just three years — something unprecedented anywhere else," he added. The quick estimates show that exports of engineering products, petroleum products, basic chemicals, electronic goods, cotton textiles, spices, coffee, tobacco, carpets and minerals have shown a substantial increase, a release issued here said. The biggest increase in imports were accounted for by crude oil. Oil imports in June went up by 55.6 per cent to $4.8 billion while in the April-June growth in oil imports was up 38.99 per cent to $13.1 billion. Non-oil imports during June this year grew 9.82 per cent to $8.9 billion. In the first quarter, the non-oil imports went up 9.63 per cent to $27.1 billion. In rupee terms, the exports in the first quarter of this fiscal were up 18.18 per cent to Rs 1,25,915 crore while imports grew 29.86 per cent to Rs 1,83,222
crore. — PTI |
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SC stays proceedings in Jet-Sahara case
New Delhi, July 14 The Lucknow civil judge had restrained Jet Airways from withdrawing Rs 500 crore from the escrow account on June 21, which it had claimed in view of the failure of Rs 2,300-crore deal for buying Air Sahara. As per the agreement, Rs 1,500 crore was deposited in the escrow account with the ICICI Bank by Jet Airways as an advance payment. An order to this effect was passed by a Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal on a petition by Jet Airways seeking transfer of Sahara’s case for invoking arbitration proceedings from Lucknow court to the Bombay High Court where the former had moved an identical petition. The court issued notices to Sahara and ICICI Bank on Jet’s transfer petition and asked them to submit their replies within a week with all relevant documents. The apex court, while listing further hearing after three weeks, gave one week’s time to Sahara to file rejoinder. The Chief Justice took exception to the two airliners launching parallel proceedings in two different courts on the same issue, saying “the case has to be in one court, it cannot be in two courts.” The court also accepted two sets of petitions by seven shareholders of Air Sahara who were selling their shares, raising the same issues against Jet as contained in former’s petition before the Lucknow court. Sahara’s counsel Fali Nariman objected to taking their petitions on record, charging them of trying to further “complicate” the matter. The court, however, said that its stay order on proceedings would apply to the share-holders petitions in the same manner as in the cases of Jet and Sahara.
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India woos French industry
Chandigarh, July 14 A roundtable discussion was hosted by Mr Pierre Simon, President, Paris Chamber of Commerce, whose members account for 40 per cent of the GDP of France. Mr Simon told Dr Kumar that India was the focus of attention in France for developing deeper commercial relations. Dr Kumar, who is an MP from Punjab, invited the French industry to increase their presence in the infrastructure, technology, aerospace, IT and electronic sectors. Dr Kumar also held an interactive meeting with French small and medium enterprises (SMEs), hosted by Director-General of UBI France Mr Louis-Michel Morris. UBI France is a principal organisation, sponsored by French government, to promote French investment across the world, especially through SMEs. |
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Nod to 68 pc foreign equity in Hutch Essar
New Delhi, July 14 The cellular joint venture has the Indian partners Ruias controlling 33 per cent. The FIPB clearance comes in the midst of a debate on the issue of an indirect equity shareholding of Orascom. Orascom had acquired 19.3 per cent stake in Hutchison in a global transaction few months ago, which had given it an indirect stake of 10 per cent in Hutchison Essar joint venture.— PTI |
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UB Group to set up winery near Pune
Mumbai, July 14 “I will be setting up a world-class winery in Baramati and it will mark UB’s formal entry into the wine segment. We will be investing around five million euros for setting up a winery and a bottling plant there,” Mr Mallya said here today. The UB Group recently acquired Bouvet Ladubay, the wine subsidiary of French-champagne maker Taitinger for a total consideration of 50 million euros. “I will import the French technology to Baramati and use it for the new winery,” Mallya said. Earlier in the day, United Breweries Holdings Ltd announced a bonus issue in the ratio of 1:1.
— PTI |
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Gold above Rs 10,000
New Delhi, July 14 Trading sentiment turned bullish on reports of heightened tension in West Asia, pushing the oil prices to a record high and prompting investors to buy the metal as a haven and inflation hedge. The precious metal rebounded and notched up by Rs 540 in last three sessions to touch a five-digit level last seen on May 5 this year. Standard gold and ornaments shot up by Rs 200 each at Rs 10,050 and Rs 9,900 per 10 gm, respectively. Sovereign also rose by Rs 50 at Rs 7,750 per piece of 8 gm. Silver also experienced similar strength on stockists and industrial units buying. Silver ready rose by Rs 150 at Rs 18,000 per kilo and weekly-based delivery by Rs 17,870 per kilo. Silver coins were also higher by Rs 200 at Rs 21,400 for buying and Rs 21,500 for selling of 100 pieces.
— PTI |
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Hyundai chief returns to work Inflation up BMW recall
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