Mumbai, June 1
Fresh worries about the economic situation in Europe pummeled the markets worldwide with the Sensex falling 372.60 points after opening in positive territory. In the broader markets, the Nifty fell below the psychological 5,000 mark to close at 4,970 points.

Among the major losers were Jaiprakash Associates, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco and Tata Steel, which all fell below the 4 per cent mark. Today’s Sensex gainers were led by Maruti Suzuki which closed 1.80 per cent higher after reporting strong sales figures in Q4 of FY10. The other gainers were Cipla and ACC.

Metals and realty stocks were the biggest losers among the sectoral indices all of which were in the red by the end of the day. Metal stocks were down sharply as investors dumped major scrips on reports of prices getting hammered in global markets.

Even auto stocks fell despite good showing in the last quarter. The auto index fell 1.35 per cent at close.

Trading sentiment turned bearish on weakening global trend after the ECB said eurozone banks face up to 195 billion euros in a "second wave" of potential loan losses over the next 18 months due to the financial crisis.

The market was down in tandem with a weak trend in Asian region and lower opening in the European stock markets this afternoon.

Among Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 1.36 per cent, while Shanghai closed 0.92 per cent lower. The Nikkei and Kospi were down 0.58 and 0.66 per cent, respectively.

New Delhi, June 1
Gold prices zoomed to an all-time high of Rs 19,050 per 10 grams in the national capital today on skyrocketing global rates amid the ongoing marriage season in India.

In international markets, gold prices surged for the seventh straight day as the European debt crisis increased demand for the precious metal as a safe haven.

Bullion in the Asian region gained as much as 0.5 per cent to $1,222.47 an ounce, its highest level since May 19, as the euro extended its 2.4 per cent decline against the US dollar last week.

"The steep rise in gold prices comes at a time when the Indian markets are passing through a bullish mood on hectic buying by jewellers and retailers for the ongoing marriage season," said All-India Sarafa (Bullion) Bazaar Association president Sheel Chand Jain.

"The only trigger for domestic gold prices touching a new high is rupee depreciation," said Kochi-based commodity brokerage firm JRG Wealth vice-president and research head Harish G.

The precious metal's rise in futures trading was another supporting factor boosting the sentiment in the physical market.

Pure gold (99.9) spurted by Rs 325 to Rs 19,050 per 10 gram and metal with 99.5 purity traded higher by the same margin at Rs 18,900 per 10 grams.

Sovereigns also rose by Rs 50 to Rs 14,650 per piece of eight grams on emergence of buying by retail customers for the ongoing marriage season. — PTI

New Delhi, June 1
India's exports increased by 36.2 per cent to $16.88 billion in April, the sixth consecutive month of growth.

Last April, exports had shrunk nearly 30 per cent to $12.4 billion under the impact of the worst recession in 60 years that dried up demand in key markets such as the US.

However, going forward the European debt crisis may weigh on outbound shipments, even though India's trade exposure to Greece is limited, rating agency Crisil Principal Economist DK Joshi said.

"It all (export performance) depends how the European crisis unfolds," he said. President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) A Sakthivel said the Greek crisis would only have a minimal impact on exports.

"Our big buyers are Germany, Italy and France," he said. European Union generally accounts for about 20 per cent of India's exports.

Experts, however, said the recovery in exports should be viewed in the backdrop of the dismal performance last year.

"Right now the growth rate is basically due to low base effect (poor performance in April last year)...," Joshi said.

As the impact of low base peters off in the coming months, "We can expect moderation in exports in the second half of the current fiscal," he said.

Before turning positive in November 2009, the country's merchandise consignment had contracted for 13 months in a row since October 2008.

Reflecting a growing domestic demand, imports, too, increased in April by 43.3 per cent to $27.3 billion from $19.05 billion a year ago.

Trade deficit for April was $10.4 billion, against $6.7 billion in the year-ago period. Non-oil imports increased by 34.3 per cent in the opening month of the current fiscal.

Oil imports increased to $8.08 billion, against $4.74 billion in April last year. — PTI

New Delhi, June 1
Three years after it was forced to shift the manufacturing plant of its dream car over a land row in West Bengal, Tata Motors will start the production of Tata Nano from its new unit at Sanand in Gujarat tomorrow.

The new plant at Sanand will be inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, who seven years ago dreamt of making an affordable family car for the common man.

Spread over an area of about 1,100 acres, the new facility has been created at the cost of approximately Rs 2,000 crore.

Tata Motors, which first chose Singur in West Bengal for setting up the mother plant, pulled out of the site in October 2008 following violent protests over land acquisition. Tatas, by then, had already spent over Rs 1,000 crore in Singur.

Bookings for the car opened in March 2009 and deliveries began in July that year. It has so far delivered over 35,000 units. However, only the first 100,000 customers are assured of getting the car at an ex-factory price of Rs 100,000.

The Sanand facility has the capacity to manufacture 2.5 lakh units annually, which can subsequently be increased to 5 lakh units per annum. Pilot commercial production of Nano at Sanand has already begun. — PTI

New Delhi, June 1
As the country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) for the first time recorded sales of over one lakh units in a month, auto sales continued to be on a high with almost all the manufacturers recording higher sales in the month of May than the previous year over the same month.

Except for Honda Siel Cars India, which reported a marginal decline in its sales for May, there was an upsurge in sales for the other automobile makers, including the two-wheeler manufacturers.

MSIL reported a 28 per cent rise in sales in May as the total sales rose to 1,02,175 units as compared to 79,872 units a year ago.

Country's second largest car maker, Hyundai Motor India Ltd reported an increase of 15.52 per cent in domestic sales for May at 27,151 units. Total sales in May increased 7.30 per cent to 46,808 units from 43,624 units in the same month last year.

Tata Motors reported a 41.26 per cent increase in sales in May at 56,779 units compared to the same month last year. The homegrown auto major's domestic sales grew by 37.53 per cent at 52,801 units against 38,392 units in the same month last year.

General Motors India saw its sales climbing by 60.99 per cent to 8,225 units, compared to 5,109 units in the same month last year.

The increase in sales was primarily driven by a good response to its small cars Spark and Beat and sedan Cruze, it said.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported 54.18 per cent jump in sales at 6,050 units. The company had sold 3,924 units in the corresponding month last year.

There were similar increase in sales for the two-wheelers also with country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda reporting its highest monthly sales ever at 4,35,933 units, registering 13.92 per cent increase over the same month last year.

Bajaj Auto recorded its highest-ever May sales at 62 per cent. It stood at 2.99 lakh units in May. Of this, motorcycle sales stood at 2.69 lakh units, up 63 per cent year-on-year, while three-wheeler sales were 29,954 units for the month, up 52 per cent respectively.

Chennai-based TVS Motor Company reported a 30.44 per cent increase in two-wheeler sales in the month to 1,54,667 units on the back of good growth across all segments.

New Delhi, June 1
Government's provisional revenue from the sale of airwaves for broadband wireless access (BWA) services today crossed Rs 23,500-crore mark and the pan-India licence price was at over Rs 7,500 crore, raising hopes of the fiscal deficit being reduced further.

With the conclusion of 52 rounds of the auction of airwaves for BWA services on the seventh day, the pan-India BWA licence price went up by over 450 per cent from the Rs 1,750 crore base price fixed by the government.

This is the fastest jump any auction in the telecom sector has seen and with Delhi and Mumbai, as like the 3G spectrum leading the race with excess demand, the auction might cross unexpected limits even in the BWA.

Having collected Rs 67,719 crore yesterday from the telcos for the sale of the 3G spectrum, the government is set to rake in more than Rs 90,000 crore at today’s level of bidding for the BWA. This will help it bring down the fiscal deficit level to may be even lower than 4.5 per cent from the earlier projected mark of 5.5 per cent.

BWA spectrum is essential for rolling out Worldwide Interoperability for Micro-wave Access (WiMAX) services enabling hand-held devices and laptops to access the Internet.

The spectrum will allow the companies to offer high-speed Internet access as well as Internet telephony and television services. It can also be used for voice and high-speed data services.

As many as 11 companies - Bharti Airtel, Reliance WiMax, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Augere Mauritius Limited, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar - are participating in the BWA auction.

It is a simultaneous online auction for two slots in each of the country's 22 service areas.

According to the latest information available on the website of the DoT, Delhi and Mumbai each attracted a bid of Rs 1,172.96 crore with excess demand of six bidders still in line. An increment of Rs 20 crore has been made for the 53rd round of bidding to start tomorrow for Delhi and Mumbai.

Tamil Nadu was at the second spot with the bid reaching Rs 1,084.53 crore and Karnataka at the third spot at Rs 957.39 crore.