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Global stocks rally in volatile trade
RBI may cut repo rate
Punjab industrialists buy land in Gujarat for expansion
Jet’s U-turn: Patel ‘claims’ credit
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Top US nuke Cos to arrive for trade ties
34 regional airports to be upgraded
Tatas keen on small Nano plant at Pantnagar
MRTPC orders probe into Jet-Kingfisher pact
Satyam Q2 net soars 42%
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Global stocks rally in volatile trade
London, October 17 But extreme market volatility remained the dominant feature as stocks were buffeted by both fears of deep economic recession and hopes the financial crunch is finally starting to ease following dramatic government and central intervention in the banking system over the past
week. Key measures of stock market volatility, gleaned from the options market, have skyrocketed this week. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, known as the VIX, set a record of at 81.27 per cent on Thursday. This so-called "fear gauge" was as low as 20-25 per cent right through August. The German Dax equivalent index was equally supercharged and set a record high of 85.12 per cent on Friday. Europe, Asia stabilises
MSCI's main world stock index, which has lost more than 40 per cent of its value this year, was up 0.7 percent on the day. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 gained 2.26 per cent and Japan's benchmark Nikkei closed up 2.8 per cent after losing more than 11 percent on Thursday. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes all indicated a lower start on Wall Street later, however. In an opinion column in Friday's New York Times, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he was now buying US stocks. "A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful," Buffett wrote in the paper. "What is likely...is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up," he said. "So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over. Interbank thaw
Signs of the first substantial thaw in that credit winter were also seen on Friday and encouraged optimists that the worst of the financial freeze, if not the economic recession, was at least at hand. The interbank cost of borrowing dollars, euros and sterling fell across all maturities up to one year again on Friday, most notably at the very short end, the British Bankers Association's daily fixing showed on Friday. Interbank lending rates have eased this week in response to governments' aggressive steps to unclog money markets, with the effect particularly noticeable for the shortest lending periods. Yen rises, oil steady
US crude oil prices clawed back above $70 per barrel on Friday, helped by growing expectations for an OPEC production cut, after plunging to a 16-month low of $68.57 on Thursday. The yen rose on Friday as stocks gave up much of their early gains due to fears of a global recession.
— Reuters |
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RBI may cut repo rate
New Delhi, October 17 “An indirect cut in statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) has already released about Rs 60,000 crore and Rs 1 trillion through CRR cuts and we expect a cut in repo rate on October 24 by the central bank,” the official said.
The further cut in repo rate — the rate banks pay RBI to borrow short-term funds — which at around 8 per cent right now will ease liquidity pressure on the banks and also help them cut lending rates on personal loans, a relief for consumers who have been burdened by high cost of interest in the past one year. However, the RBI might not cut CRR, mandatory deposit requirement for banks, further in the immediate future and might opt for other instruments to infuse liquidity in the system, a finance ministry official said. The RBI has cut CRR by 2.5 percentage points to bring it down to 6.5 per cent from 9 per cent to infuse Rs 1 lakh crore into the cash-strapped system. The RBI today said Rs 14,030 crore was available under the special lending window set up by the central bank to deal with the redemption pressures of mutual funds. On October 14, the RBI had decided to conduct a special 14-day repo auction at 9 per cent per annum for Rs 20,000 crore to meet the liquidity requirement of mutual funds. |
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Punjab industrialists buy land in Gujarat for expansion
Ludhiana, October 17 Assured of an uninterrupted power supply and a strong infrastructure, manufacturers, most of whom are from the engineering segment and into exports, said they had opted for Gujarat for expansion of their existing operations. These manufacturers are expecting a major saving in production costs primarily on account of freight and power. A group of manufacturers have joined hands with Gujarat-based entrepreneurs for the deal for which "initial advance has already been paid". The land is located some 30 km from Ahmedabad and is between two focal points. Even as these units are not shifting base, the move is a definite setback to Punjab, as it indicates the present mindframe of industrialists preferring to move out of the state for expansion. "We would get an uninterrupted power supply. Abundant availability of electricity and gas would help us save around 4.5 per cent on costs whereas there would be another 3.5 per cent saving on account of freight," said S.C. Ralhan, one of the directors of AGB Infrastructure, the company formed by industrialists for the project. Among those who are keen to set base in the new set-up are 23-odd industrialists from Ludhiana and four from Jalandhar. The allotment would begin in around a month and developers are planning to start building infrastructure from the beginning of next year. Poor power supply has been causing major hardships for industry here. Already facing locational disadvantage, industrialists in this state have been feeling discriminated against due to special industry incentives given by the Centre to neighbouring states. Adding to it is the poor condition of infrastructure like roads in focal points here. Industrialists said they have been able to strike the deal at economical rates, roughly Rs 550-600 per square yard in comparison to Rs 1,200 onwards a square yard which is current rate for land around that area. This price is
significantly lower in comparison to the prevailing price in focal points in Punjab, they added. |
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Jet’s U-turn: Patel ‘claims’ credit
New Delhi, October 17 That the Jet-grounding-its-staff issue had all the makings of a major political drama had become evident soon after the decision was announced by the airline. The move evoked strong condemnation from unions and politicians and ever since the Jet staff took to the streets to protest against the layoff, pressure started building up on the airline from different quarters, including the ruling Congress, to take back the staff. MNS leader Raj Thackeray had even warned that his party would ground Jet flights in Mumbai if the sack order was not reconsidered. Sources say, this also forced Patel to fly to Mumbai on Wednesday, soon after the inauguration of the civil aviation show in Hyderabad to diffuse the situation. Patel, who had earlier said that sacking of the staff was an internal issue of Jet Airways, said he was happy that 1,900 persons had got back their jobs within a day of his asking the airline's boss to solve the problem. In a statement on Friday, he said, "I welcome the move. I also spoke to Goyal last night on the issue. I am glad that they have reversed the decision." Meanwhile, Jet Airways’ employees, whose services were terminated, will soon be given letters asking them to rejoin the airline, a company official said today.
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Top US nuke Cos to arrive for trade ties
Mumbai, October 17 The Nuclear Energy Institute and the powerful US-India Business Council (USIBC), which represents more than 300 companies, including several big names like General Electric, Bechtel and other players in the nuclear game, is putting together the delegation along with the US Commerce Department, according to sources. The Indian side will be represented by a number of bodies like the CII and Ficci, say sources. According to Ron Somers, who heads the USIBC, deals worth more than $150 billion spanning 30 years are likely to be signed. The USIBC has played a major role in shepherding the nuclear deal through the US Congress. It had spent millions of dollars hiring several lobbyists to work the US lawmakers for passing the deal. Many of the top players in the nuclear power business have already touched base in India and have signed exploratory agreements with several Indian companies. For instance, W M Mining has signed a contract with public sector Nuclear Fuel Complex to sell 500 metric tonnes of uranium a year. Another nuclear player, Thorium Power Ltd has already conducted talks with several private sector players in addition to the public sector Nuclear Power Corporation to set up plants generating power from Thorium. The big players in the business like General Electric, Bechtel and Westinghouse have already held talks with companies like Tata Power, Reliance Energy and Torrent Power even before private companies being allowed to enter the nuclear power business. The American nuclear industry estimates that India would have to spend as much as $40 billion in the international market to build at least 30 new reactors of 1,000 MW each to take care of its power needs. With the US industry valuing the complete nuclear business from India at $100 billion, there is considerable excitement among international nuclear suppliers.
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34 regional airports to be upgraded
Hyderabad, October 17 Speaking at the International conference on India Aviation: Scaling new heights organised by Ficci and the ministry of civil aviation, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said the government’s endeavour was to see the development of all metro cities as aviation hubs to connect all cities of India and facilitate transportation of cargo at competitive rates. Patel described the crisis in the aviation industry as “temporary” and urged all stakeholders to cash in on the opportunities of providing low-cost services. Secretary civil aviation, Madhavan Nambiar pointed out that a major challenge before the policy-makers was the financial modelling of infrastructure creation. “Although we have followed the PPP mode in most of the new projects, the recovery of investments by developers has become a key issue,” he said, adding that the debate over user development fee poses a new challenge at a time when airlines are suffering from high operational cost due to soaring oil prices. He said passing on the entire development cost to passengers would not be an optimal solution as had been amply demonstrated by the decrease in traffic in major airports due to the recent hike in fares by airlines. "There is price elasticity of demand for low-cost as well as short destination flights. The entire sector needs to get together and evolve a holistic approach as the sustainability of the recent growth in aviation should be recognised as a key factor by all stakeholders," he added. He, however, expressed optimism that with the formation of the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority, these issues would be addressed and a solution found to the satisfaction of the stakeholders.
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Tatas keen on small Nano plant at Pantnagar
Dehradun, October 17 In another decision, the cabinet has also accepted the demand of the Tatas to charge Rs 1 per square metre for 1,000 acres of land at Pantnagar in Udham Singh Nagar district. Besides manufacturing ACE trucks, the interim production of Nano is also going on from this plant. On account of reducing the lease rate from Rs 5 to Rs 1 per square metre, the state government would suffer an annual loss of Rs 1.5 crore. “The demand was accepted in the wake of the fact that in Pantnagar, the company’s project is a mega project. Also, Tatas have promised that 80 per cent of company’s production in Pantnagar would be sold from there only, which would fill the coffers of the state by Rs 200 crore annually in the form of VAT etc,” the chief secretary informed. |
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MRTPC orders probe into Jet-Kingfisher pact
New Delhi, October 17 According to highly placed sources, taking a suo moto cognisance based on media reports, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) ordered its investigative arm, Director General of Investigation and Registration (DGIR) to conduct a preliminary investigation. In an order the MRTPC asked the DGIR to submit its report within 60 days effective today. The order comes within days of Jet and Kingfisher announcing formation of an alliance for co-operation in several areas, including joint fuel management, common ground handling and cross-selling of flight inventories. The alliance has brought together the two airlines which account for nearly 60 per cent of market share. It envisaged sharing of their network and resources to meet the challenge of aviation downturn. While Jet had earlier acquired ailing Air Sahara, Kingfisher had taken over the crisis-ridden Deccan to emerge stronger till the rising costs and global meltdown hit them hard with each of the entity losing about Rs 10 crore a day. Announcing the alliance, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal and Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya had insisted the alliance had no equity involvement.
— PTI |
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Satyam Q2 net soars 42%
New Delhi, October 17 "While the rupee has depreciated against the US dollar, it has appreciated against other major currencies impacting our US GAAP revenue adversely by three per cent. Given this background and the prevailing market conditions, we are revising our revenue growth projections downward as per US GAAP to between 19-21 per cent," Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju said. The total income rose by 35 per cent to Rs 2,898.87 crore for the quarter under review, from Rs 2,142.26 crore in the year-ago period. The company has declared an interim dividend of Rs 1 on shares of face value of Rs 2 each.
— PTI |
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Rs 846 cr for rural banks
Chandigarh, October 17 |
Oracle plan CLAAS combine harvesters SBI officers’ stir put off HCC bags 1,688-cr orders
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