The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	TCS pips Reliance as India’s most valued co Sanjeev Sharma/TNS New Delhi, December 30 On the last trading session of calendar 2011, Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) lost the prized tag of being India’s most valuable company to software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). At Friday's market close, the market capitalization of RIL dropped to Rs 2.26 lakh crore overtaken by TCS at Rs 2.27 lakh crore. Market capitalization denotes the stock market value of companies listed and traded on the stock exchanges. Reliance Industries has been the country's most valued company for many years, except for a brief period in August this year, when it first lost its top slot to state-owned Coal India Ltd, then regained it and was again overtaken by another state-run firm ONGC. ONGC is ranked third now while Coal India is ranked fourth. Jagannadham Thunuguntla, strategist & head of research, SMC Global Securities said that in the last three years for Reliance Industries, except the joint venture with British Petroleum, there were not many good news for the group. He said the challenges in KG-D6 gas basin in terms of lower gas rampage surely proved to be a drag on the company and stock. “The KG-D6 basin was the one of the largest bets the company had made. Unfortunately, the bet has not delivered as originally anticipated”, he added Thunuguntla said all the new businesses the company has launched, such as retail, have turned out to be facing much longer gestation periods and may not have any meaningful impact in the short term. “The telecom bet that the company has been attempting may also prove to be long gestation venture”, he added. Thunuguntla said that, all in all, the continuous pressure of challenges of past three years have forced Reliance losing the privilege of being the largest company of India. On TCS, he said the company has transformed and taken over the leadership position from Infosys in the information technology industry. Earlier this month Reliance Industries also lost its tag of the country's most influential stock to Infosys, as measured by their weightage on the stock market barometer, the BSE Sensex.
	Rupee posts biggest annual drop since 2008 Mumbai, December 30 The rupee ended the year with its biggest annual loss since 2008 as foreign capital took flight on growing concerns about India's current account deficit, its poorly performing stock market and an uncertain global economic outlook. Only, suspected intervention by the Reserve Bank of India kept the rupee from falling sharply in the last few sessions, traders said. Thin liquidity due to the end of the quarter and RBI curbs on speculation have amplified moves in the currency, they said. A weak stock market and month-end dollar demand from oil importers, the biggest buyers of dollars in the local foreign exchange market, also weighed on the currency. he rupee closed at 53.08/09 to the dollar, marginally down from Thursday's close of 53.07/08. For all of 2011, it closed down 15.8 percent, compared with a fall of 19.1 percent during the global financial crisis in 2008. The rupee hit a record low of 54.30 on Dec 15, after which the RBI imposed curbs on banks' trading limits to help rein in speculation on the currency. With India's economy showing clear signs of a slowdown and global markets still dominated by headlines about Europe's debt crisis, investors have pulled funds from riskier markets such as India, a trend that continued on the year's last trading day. "The key events to watch are the developments in euro zone," said Mohan Shenoi, head of treasury at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai. The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange index fell 24.6 percent in 2011 to be the world's worst-performing major equity market. Traders expect the rupee to strengthen in 2012 on improved fundamentals. (The fiscal) fourth-quarter is seasonally a strong quarter for current account," said A. Prasanna, economist at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership. "Also, recent RBI measures to attract more inflows should help," he said. "Finally, expect sentiment on India and rupee to improve by end of financial year on the back of the fiscal 2012-13 budget and start of monetary easing by RBI," he added. Prasanna said he expects the rupee to touch 51.5 to the dollar in March. "As to whether they will intervene, I would expect the need for intervention will be lesser in 2012 compared to the current quarter," he said. The $15 billion currency swap between India and Japan, announced late on Wednesday, did not provide much near term solace to the market, traders said. — Reuters
	Gold heads into new year with final qtr loss London/Singapore, December 30 Gold rose on Friday, rebounding from six-month lows touched on Thursday as the dollar weakened, but the euro zone crisis that has kept investor cash out of the market will stay in sharp focus heading into the new year after a volatile 2011. The precious metal headed for a rise of nearly 10% for 2011, after 10 straight annual gains. But it is down nearly 19% from a record $1,920.30 hit in September, and is on track for its first quarterly loss in more than three years. Despite the difficult year gold has in recent months often abandoned its traditional status as a shelter from turmoil as investors liquidated positions to free up dollars as the euro zone debt crisis caused money markets to seize up. Gold still gave investors a return of about 9.3% in 2011, but it underformed U.S. 10-year Treasuries, which returned about 17%, Brent crude oil gave 13.5% and German 10-year Bunds 31.1%. Spot gold was up 1.6% at $1,570.79 at 1050 GMT, but was still down around 10 percent for the month. "We need to see the hot money from speculators, we need to see real money from the money managers coming back to this market, they have been absent throughout December," said Saxo Bank senior manager Ole Hansen. A weaker dollar helped prop up precious metals. The dollar index edged lower, after rising to its highest in more than 11 months in the previous session. "That is really where it's coming from," Hansen said. A weaker dollar can lift dollar-denominated commodities by making them less expensive for consumers using other currencies. The most-active U.S. gold futures contract gained 2 percent to $1,572 by 1050 GMT, snapping six straight sessions of losses. Technical analysis suggested that spot gold could rebound to $1,588 during the day, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. The 20-day moving average crossed below the 200-day moving average for the first time since 2009. — Reuters
	Sensex slips 25% in 2011, outlook bleak New Delhi, December 30 The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex closed 0.6 percent lower on Friday and posted its first annual fall in three years as a combination of near double-digit inflation, high interest rates, slowing domestic growth and policy inaction turned off investors already shaken by global headwinds. The Indian benchmark shed 24.6% in 2011 to be the world's worst-performing major equity market and the outlook for next year remains bleak, although cheaper valuations and a possible cooling off in inflation that would allow the central bank to reverse its monetary tightening cycle raise some hopes. Foreign fund inflows, a major driver of Indian stocks, dried up in the dismal year with net outflows of about $380 million as of Wednesday, a far cry from record inflows of more than $29 billion in 2010 that had powered a 17% rise in the benchmark index, following an 81% surge in 2009. The benchmark's fall in 2011 was only the second annual decline in a decade. The Indian benchmark index currently trades at about 13.6 times one-year forward earnings, Thomson Reuters data showed, down from 20 times in January this year. "The way things are, it (2012) looks uncertain," said Srividhya Rajesh, an equity fund manager at Sundaram Mutual Fund. "Going forward, the positive catalyst should come from the expected cooling off in interest rates, but to sustain the momentum, the government also needs to ensure its long-term reform programmes are on track." The 30-share main index ended down 0.57 percent at 15,454.92 on Friday, with 22 components closing in the red, having risen as much as 1 percent in early trade. The index fell 4.1 percent in December, it's second straight monthly fall. For the quarter, it was down 6.1 percent, posting its fourth straight quarter of losses. By comparison, the MSCI all-country world stock index has lost nearly 10 percent in 2011 and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has fallen about a fifth. India's central bank kept rates unchanged at a review this month after raising them 13 times since March 2010 to control stubbornly high inflation that has stayed above 9 percent for a year through November. — Reuters
	Weak Re to hit profits of cos with high ECB exposure: Govt Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 30 The finance ministry has warned that the increase in external commercial borrowings is a concern as the depreciation of the rupee could impact profitability and the balance sheets of corporate borrowers. Releasing the figures for external debt, a ministry statement said that at end-September 2011, India’s external debt was $ 326.6 billion reflecting an increase of 6.6 per cent over the level of $ 306.4 billion at end-March 2011. The rise in external debt is largely attributed to increase in external commercial borrowings, export credits and short term debt. Between end-March 2006 and end-March 2011, commercial borrowings have registered a compound annual growth rate of 27.4 per cent. “The increase in external commercial borrowings reflects some concern, given that the depreciation of the Rupee leads to higher debt service burden in Rupee terms that could impact profitability and the balance sheets of corporate borrowers”, the finance ministry said. Short-term debt accounted for 21.9 per cent of India’s external debt at end-September 2011 while the rest (78.1 per cent) was long-term. Component-wise, the share of external commercial borrowings stood highest at 30.3 per cent in total external debt followed by NRI deposits (16.0%) and multilateral debt (15.0%). The shares of government (sovereign) and nongovernment in total external debt were 24.3 per cent and 75.7 per cent, respectively, at end-September 2011. The share of debt denominated in US dollar was the highest in India’s external debt stock at 55.8 per cent at end-September 2011, followed by the Indian rupee (18.2 per cent) and the Japanese yen (12.1 per cent). India’s foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of 95.4% to the total external debt stock at end-September 2011 vis-à-vis 99.5% at end-March 2011. The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves stood at 22.9% at end-September 2011, as compared to 21.3% at end-March 2011. Other indicators of India’s external debt remain within manageable limits.
	Investment in telecom sector up 17% in FY11 Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 30 Despite all the controversies that hit the telecommunications sector in 2011, the industry continues to be one of the fastest growing in the world with an over 17 per cent increase in investment in FY2010-11 over the previous financial year. The annual report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) says the capital employed in the telecom sector increased to Rs 337,683 crore in fiscal 2010-11 from Rs 286,837 crore in 2009-10. The report said there was major growth in the subscriber base, which resulted in an increase in the gross revenue of telecommunications services as reported by the service providers for the year to Rs 171,719 crore, a growth of 8.69 per cent from Rs 157,985 crore in the previous year. The growth in the sector was also visible from the increase in the subscriber base, which stood at 842.32 million, a 30.36 per cent growth from 621.28 million in the previous financial year. The overall teledensity in the country registered an increase from 52.74 at the end of March 2010 to 70.89 at the end of March 2011. The revenue contribution from the public sector telecom companies in 2010-11 was 20.37 per cent (previous year 24.82 per cent) and from private sector companies was 79.63 per cent as compared to 75.18 per cent in the previous fiscal. However, capital employed in public sector companies decreased by 7.35 per cent in fiscal 2010-11.
	Govt proposes Rs 33,000 cr aid for AI by 2017 New Delhi, December 30 The civil aviation ministry proposes to provide Rs 33,000 crore to cash-strapped Air India by 2017 as part of the government's 12th Five-Year Plan, according to a working group report seen by Reuters. The proposed aid would include an equity infusion of Rs 19,900 crore into the loss-making carrier and Rs 11,200 crore for aircraft projects, including purchases and maintenance, the report shows. The report says the total debts of India's airlines are expected to rise to $20 billion in 2011-12 ending March as they struggle with rising oil prices, high sales taxes on jet fuel and below-cost pricing. AI, which is burdened with a $4 billion debt, said Thursday its board had approved issuing Rs 7,500 crore worth of shares to its lenders as part of its financial restructuring. — Reuters
	India to borrow Rs 400 bn more in FY12: RBI Mumbai, December 30 India will borrow an additional Rs 400 billion through dated securities in the current fiscal year ending in March, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. The central government will borrow Rs 140 billion each in the January 2-6 week, January 9-13 week and January 16-20 week, the central bank said in a statement. It will borrow Rs 130 billion each in the January 23-27 week and the January 30-February 3 week. The government will also borrow Rs 120 billion each in the February 6-10 week, February 13-17 week, February 20-24 week and March 5-9 week. — Reuters