The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Gold touches Rs 22,520 Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, April 29 With signs of increased buying by retail customers ahead of Akshay Tritya and the subsequent wedding season, gold prices touched a new high of Rs 22,520 per 10 gm today. There are signs that prices could firm up further, experts say. “Gold dealers have been increasing stocks for the past several weeks in anticipation of the Akshay Tritya festival. We expect strong buying,” says Shantilal Jhaveri, a jeweller from the gold trading hub of Opera House in South Mumbai. Jhaveri added the trade expected lower sales volumes, though in value-terms sales are expected to be higher than last year. “Last year, gold prices at this time were Rs 18,500 per 10 gm. People will always continue to buy gold though they would buy less when prices are high,” Jhaveri added. Jewellers, however, are working furiously to exhaust stocks in the next week. A number of schemes are on offer to lure in customers in case they are put off by the price. “We are giving a discount on making charges on selected gold jewellery during this season,” says the manager of VN Jewellers in suburban Mumbai’s Borivli area. Tata Group’s Tanishq today opened its biggest showroom in Mumbai with superstar Amitabh Bachchan inaugurating it. Reliance Jewels from the Reliance Industries is promoting schemes to promote sales. Some jewellers have launched schemes, whereby customers can book jewellery in advance and pay in instalments before taking delivery. While this would provide a hedge against rising gold prices, buyers would be forced to pay higher prices if gold prices decline. Smaller jewellers are panicking as they expect a lag in sales. “There is fear of inventory piling up among smaller jewelers,” says Hemantbhai Choksi, a jeweller based in the Gujarati area of Kandivli in suburban Mumbai. “Gold prices will touch Rs 25,000 (per 10 gm) by Diwali,” he adds. Meanwhile, global trends also show gold prices firming up over the short-term. Analysts said gold prices have touched a record $1,540.85 an ounce, amidst fears of American securities being downgraded. With gold prices soaring, silver prices are also running at just below Rs 75,000 a kg.
	Hero Honda to pay Rs 2,450 crore to Honda for licensing till 2014 New Delhi, April 29 India’s largest two wheeler-maker Hero Honda will pay Honda 45 billion yen (about Rs 2,450 crore) till 2014 as part of a new licencing agreement signed between the Hero Group and the Japanese auto major after deciding to part ways on their joint venture. Hero Honda Motors Ltd (HHML) said the amount is in line with its existing rate of royalty payment, which is about 2.7 per cent to 2.8 per cent of net sales. For the existing products, the Indian group will stop paying royalty by June, 2014, it added. “... Honda and HHML have signed a new licencing agreement, which enables HHML to continue producing, selling and servicing its current products. Consideration for the licencing agreement was JPY 45,000 million and becomes due through 2014,” Honda Motor Co said in a statement. Last December, the Hero Group and Honda had agreed to end their 26-year-old relationship, with the Indian partner agreeing to buy out Honda's 26 per cent stake in Hero Honda for Rs 3,841.83 crore. HHML CFO Ravi Sud said the amount to be paid to Honda till June, 2014, does not reflect any increase in royalty payment. “Hero Honda has been paying royalty to Honda at around 2.7 per cent to 2.8 per cent of net sales and it will remain the same even in future,” Sud told PTI. The royalty payment will gradually taper off from about 2.75 per cent now to 2.2 per cent by 2014 and after that for the existing products, the Hero group will not pay any royalty for the existing products, he insisted. “Even for new products, which we may get from Honda after June, 2014, the royalty will be in line with what we are paying today,” Sud said. Shares of Hero Honda were trading 0.95 per cent down at Rs 1,680 a piece on the BSE in late afternoon today. — PTI
	Decision on bail to 5 executives in 2G scam case deferred New Delhi, April 29 The Delhi High Court deferred a decision on bail to five executives charged in the country's largest corruption scandal, two defence lawyers told reporters on Friday. Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor's India partner Unitech, Vinod Goenka, a director of DB Realty, Etisalat's India partner, and three executives from the Reliance ADA Group will continue to be held in custody following the order from the Delhi High Court. The court will resume hearing the arguments for and against the bail on Monday. The case has rocked the political and business establishments in Asia's third-largest economy. A lower court had last week denied them bail after the five were charged by federal police of involvement in rigging the grant of lucrative telecoms licences and radio spectrum during 2007-08. The flawed process may have cost the state coffers as much as $39 billion in lost revenue, a state auditor had said. — Reuters
	Apple launches iPad 2 New Delhi, April 29 Apple’s iPad 2 hit Indian stores on Friday, just over a month after the company started selling the updated version of its popular tablet device in the US. The iPad 2, a thinner and faster version that features two cameras for video chat, is priced between Rs 29,500 and Rs 46,900, depending on the model. “The response (from customers) has been quite good … we have sold 15 units since morning,” a sales assistant at iWorld, one of Apple's premium resellers, said in New Delhi. The model with 16 GB of memory that works only on Wi-Fi is priced at Rs 29,500, while the one that can operate on both Wi-Fi as well as third-generation (3G) mobile networks costs Rs 36,900. Customers have the option to buy an iPad 2 with 16, 32 or 64 GB of memory and can choose a model that works only on Wi-Fi or on both Wi-Fi and 3G. Research firm IHS iSuppli estimates Apple will ship 39.7 million units for all models of the iPad this year. The first iPad — which went on sale a year ago — sold 300,000 units on the first day, 500,000 in the first week, and crossed the 1 million unit mark in 28 days. — Reuters
	After Murthy who? Infosys to take call today New Delhi, April 29 Amid heightened interest in industry circles and markets over who will succeed Infosys after NR Narayana Murthy, the company’s board of Directors is meeting in Bangalore tomorrow to finalise the plans of next leadership. “The Board of Directors will meet on April 30, 2011 to finalise plans for the company’s leadership succession, post N R Narayana Murthy’s retirement as Chairman of the Board in August 2011,” the company had said. Current CEO S Gopalakrishnan is tipped to take over as Chairman when Murthy retires, while present COO S D Shibulal is expected to be promoted to the post of CEO. Infosys has a practice of founder members becoming chairman. The billion dollar question now is if the company will change this practice or opt for an outsider The succession plans in the iconic company comes at a time when its not-so-exciting earning numbers have dampened the market expectations, while rivals like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies posted stellar results. The company registered lesser-than-expected 13.6 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 1,818 crore in the last quarter of the previous fiscal. — PTI
	50,000 MT storage capacity developed in Amritsar Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 29 Delhi-based food processing company, LT Foods, has created a state-of-the-art silo storage complex in Amritsar, with a storage capacity of 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat. Vijay Arora, CMD, said that the technology for construcing the silos had been imported from the US. “Though the design and specifications for the silos were given to us by the Punjab government, we brought the best available technology from the world. The silo has been constructed at Rs 36 crore,” he added. “The rising wheat procurement has been adding to storage woes in Punjab. The production capacity of the state is 18 million tonnes, of which, storage is available for only 13 million tonnes. LT Foods has built these silos and will operate these for 30 years,” said Arora. Arora said that an MoU will be signed with the Punjab government for operating these silos. The company hopes that the state government will soon declare their silos open stockyard. This will ensure that farmers can directly get their produce to the silos for procurement, instead of being routed through the mandis. “We are considering giving a slightly higher price (over the MSP) to the farmers who get their produce here directly,” he said.
	India, Mauritius to meet on double taxation pact On Board Special Aircraft, April 29 Amid growing concerns over flow of black money into the country, India and Mauritius have agreed on convening a meeting of Joint Working group to renegotiate 28-year-old Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) treaty between the two countries. This was stated by President Pratibha Patil while talking to reporters on board the special plane during her return from the five-day visit to the Island nation. While terming her visit to this country as a success which ensured "deeper, strengthened and more diverse partnership", the President said Mauritius expects India to play an important role "which we are ready to fulfil." Listing the highlights of the visit, she said her discussions focused on a diverse range of issues covering multi-sectoral and vibrant bilateral partnership. "While expressing satisfaction over the current state of our relations, we did feel that the already considerable and growing opportunities could be exploited particularly in the area of trade and economic cooperation. "It was agreed to convene the next meeting of the Joint Working Group on the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention," she said. The President's comments assume significance in the backdrop of growing demand from the Finance Ministry to re-negotiate the 1983 Tax Treaty with Mauritius so that India could have access to banking details besides tax related information. — PTI
	FII cap on infra firms’ bonds doubled Mumbai, April 29 To boost investment in the infrastructure sector, the Reserve Bank of India today hiked the limit on FII investment in listed non-convertible debentures and bonds issued by core segment companies by $20 billion. Till now, the limit for such investment was $15 billion in corporate debt, with an additional limit of $5 billion in bonds with a residual maturity of over five years. This additional limit has been raised to $25 billion, taking the maximum limit of FII investment in bonds and non-convertible debentures issued by infrastructure companies to $40 billion, RBI said in a notification. The apex bank added that such investments by FIIs would have a minimum lock-in period of three years. However, the FIIs can trade among themselves during the lock-in period. — PTI
	Corporate Results Titan okays 250 pc dividend TNS/Agencies Bangalore/New Delhi, April 29 Titan Industries today announced 250 per cent dividend for shareholders. The Board of directors also decided to issue bonus shares in the ratio of one equity share for every one existing equity share held. The Board also approved sub-division of the equity share of the company of a face value of Rs 10 each to 10 shares of Re 1 each. This followed after the net profit of the company during 2010-11 rose to Rs 430.42 crore, up 72 per cent over previous year’s profit. The year also witnessed expansion of the company’s retail network with a net addition of 122 shops for the company’s watches, jewellery and eyewear businesses. The company now has 665 shops across the country with a turnover in excess of Rs 6,150 crore. OBC net up 5 pc Oriental Bank of Commerce today announced a 5 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 333.6 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 3,532.1 crore during the quarter from Rs 2,950.9 crore in the same period a year ago. UCO Bank net down 41 pc UCO Bank today posted 41 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 225.9 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011 as a result of higher provisioning for bad assets and retirement benefits. However, the total income of the bank rose to Rs 3,360 crore in January-March quarter as compared to Rs 2,690 crore in the same period previous fiscal. The bank proposed a dividend of 20 per cent, or Rs 2 per share for 2010-2011. SAIL net dips 28% Steel Authority of India today reported a 28 per dip in net profit for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs 1,507.12 crore. The total income of the company during January-March quarter of 2010-11 was at Rs 12,166.43 crore, marginally lower than Rs 12,229.76 crore in the same quarter in the previous fiscal.