Mumbai, February 15
The BSE Sensex shot past the 18,000 mark today after a gap of over six months to 18,202.41, up 354 points on FII inflows and investor hopes that falling inflation will prompt the RBI to ease tight monetary policy stance.

Besides, equity markets across Asia and Europe were firm on hopes of a resolution to the Greek debt troubles. Strong Q3 earnings posted by the country's largest auto firm Tata Motors bolstered investor sentiment.

Interest-sensitive stocks in the realty, banking and auto sectors attracted strong buying, helping markets make gains for the third day in a row. Capital goods, power and consumer durables supported the market.

"The bulls were back on the Dalal Street. There was broad-based buying in the market after a long time. Positive global cues, easing inflation, continued FIIs buying and short covering lifted the market," said Vikas Vardhan, AVP Research, Motilal Oswal Securities.

"Banking stocks continued their northbound journey on the hope of a cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the RBI," he added.

In all, 12 of the 13 sectoral indices closed in the green and only BSE-Oil & Gas ended in the red following a dip in the top Sensex heavyweight, RIL, on reports that the KG-D6 gas fields may see gas output falling next fiscal.

FIIs, which have been picking up Indian equities since the start of this year, bought shares worth Rs 1,030.12 crore yesterday as per provisional data with stock exchanges. They have pumped in Rs 20,890 crore (over $4 billion) till February 13 this year.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensex opened at 18K-level and continued to gain through the day, closing at 6-1/2 month high of 18,202.41, up 353.84 points or 1.98 per cent. It had ended at 18,314.33 on August 1. The NSE 50-scrip index Nifty regained the 5,500 mark by jumping 115.90 points, or 2.14 per cent. — PTI

New Delhi, February 15
Running against time to raise Rs 40,000 crore from disinvestment by March-end, the government is planning to move ahead with 5 per cent stake sale in the oil major ONGC through the auction route in the current fiscal.

BHEL disinvestment, however, has been pushed to the next fiscal as the stock market conditions are not appropriate, sources said after a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) which was chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Jaipal Reddy said, "EGoM has taken a decision to exercise the option (of auction route of Sebi)... in respect of ONGC and BHEL. As for further decision (timing and price), EGoM is going to meet shortly again. For all other decisions, next meeting will have to be awaited".

He further said the EGoM was competent to take a decision and there would be no need to seek the approval of the Cabinet with regard to stake sale of ONGC and BHEL.

On BHEL, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel said, "We have not taken any decision on BHEL. At this moment, we feel it is a little premature. Sentiments about the power sector at this moment are low ... the approach or outlook is not bright or positive". — PTI

Mewat, February 15
Mubarik Ali, a youth of Chandaani village in Nuh (Mewat) district, has now turned a banker. He is not a private moneylender, but an authorised business correspondent (BC) of Syndicate Bank, the lead bank in the district.

Fellow villagers can deposit money with Mubarik and also withdraw it from their bank accounts, even at odd hours. The village banker has portable equipment, which has a biometric identification mechanism to rule out any irregularity and prints out transaction receipts on the spot.

A bank official visits the village on fixed week days with a laptop having VPN connectivity to the bank’s server and helps the villagers in other financial and banking-related matters.

Several banks, including Syndicate Bank and its sponsored Gurgaon Gramin Bank, SBI, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Union Bank, have a full network of such BCs (mostly small-time shopkeepers) and ultra-small branches in 95 villages of the district.

In fact, after reviewing the performance of the Financial Inclusion programme at the national level, the Union Ministry of Finance had selected Nuh (Mewat) district of Haryana and Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh for a pilot study for holistic and meaningful implementation of the Financial Inclusion programme.

Under the pilot project, 95 villages of the district having population of more than 2,000 were identified. Of these, 72 villages were allotted to Syndicate Bank 14 to SBI, three to Canara Bank, five to Oriental Bank and one to Union Bank.

In all, these banks have appointed 81 business correspondents, thereby covering all 95 villages well before the stipulated date of March, 2012.

As of now, the banks have provided banking access to 1,06,100 households by opening 4,85,000 no-frills accounts. Apart from providing Kisan Credit Cards and General Credit Cards, the banks have also introduced a new product for Financial Inclusion customers with an in-built overdraft limit of Rs 10,000 in the savings account.

Moreover, customers of any bank are now able to transact through business correspondents of any other bank through the facility of inter-operability.

“The underlying idea of the programme was to reach out to the residents of far-flung rural areas so as to ensure that the benefits of various financial schemes reach the unreached,” said Basant Seth, CMD, Syndicate Bank, who was here to review the progress of the project.

Hyderabad, February 15
Beating the political blues, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as one of the leading investment destinations in the country.Despite the prolonged political uncertainty due to Telangana statehood agitation and a slowdown in the economy, the state stood third in the country after Gujarat and Maharashtra in attracting investments across various sectors.

During 2011, the state had attracted investments to the tune of Rs 12.09 lakh crore, garnering a 10 per cent share of the total investments in the country. The investments during 2010 stood at Rs 8.66 lakh crore, state Minister for Major Industries Dr J Geetha Reddy said.

“We have moved from fifth position to third position in the country as per the latest survey conducted by industry body Assocham,” the minister said. Nearly one-third of the investments in 2011 flowed into power sector which accounted for 32.5 per cent of the investments followed by manufacturing sector 21.7 per cent, services 19.8 per cent and irrigation and real estate 11.6 per cent each.

“Our industrial policy is the best in the country. It offers the best package of incentives for industrialists. We have a pro-active administration and a very conducive atmosphere for investments,” Reddy said. Giving a break-up of the sector-wise investments in 2011, she said the agriculture sector accounted for Rs 1.40 lakh crore while industry and services garnered Rs 8.2 lakh crore and Rs 2.39 lakh crore, respectively.

The recent success of the CII Partnership Summit in Hyderabad came as a shot in the arm for the government. During the three-day event, held in January, the MoUs were signed for projects involving investments of over Rs 6 lakh crore.

The Assocham report said the state has the highest share in the investments in the primary sector, represented by irrigation. “Next are Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. As against these states, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Assam gave the least priority to investing in irrigation development,” said the Assocham secretary-general DS Rawat. 

Chandigarh, February 15
Banks in Punjab and Haryana may not be able to meet their target of providing services in all villages of these states, having a population of over 2,000. With just a month and half to go before this fiscal ends, the banks are yet to cover 316 villages in Punjab and 168 villages in Haryana. This was disclosed during the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting for Punjab and Haryana held here today.

Data shows that in Punjab 289 villages are yet to be covered by public sector banks and 316 villages by various regional rural and private sector banks.

Bankers committee chief Usha Ananthasubramanian, ED of PNB, pre-poned the deadline for all banks in the region to cover the remaining villages by opening new branches/appointing business correspondents, by the end of this month.

Sources in the banking sector informed The Tribune it is unlikely that banks will be able to implement this Financial Inclusion Plan in toto by the end of this month.

“The only way the target can be achieved is by appointing business correspondents in majority of branches, rather than setting up the brick and mortar branches. But even for that exercise, the time set today is too less,” said a senior banker from PNB.

In Haryana, various public sector banks are yet to cover 148 villages, while private sector and regional rural banks have to cover 168 villages. 

Mumbai, February 15
Domestic FMCG giant Marico today acquired Paras brand of personal care products from its current owner Reckitt Benckiser, a UK-based consumer goods major that had last year only acquired this portfolio.

While the financial details of the latest transaction were not disclosed, Reckitt in April 2011 had paid Rs 3,260 crore for acquisition of home-grown Paras Pharmaceuticals.

Reckitt had acquired both pharmaceuticals and personal care products of Paras, but has now decided to sell Paras Personal Care business to Marico.

The transaction is expected to conclude by the end of the second quarter of 2012, Reckitt said.

As part of Ahmedabad-based Paras' acquisition, Reckitt had acquired brands like Moov pain relief ointment, Krack heel care lotion, and D'Cold, as also personal care brands such as Set Wet and Zatak, and hair lotion brand Livon.— PTI

Chandigarh, February 15
Luxury car maker Rolls-Royce today announced its first dealership in this region. The company also launched its ‘Ghost Extended Wheelbase’ model. By the end of this year, the company proposes to set up two new dealerships, taking its total dealerships to six across India.

Talking to the mediapersons here today, Herfried Hasenoehrl, company’s head of business development, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, said the Chandigarh dealership has been given to Select Cars Private Ltd., the company which runs the Rolls-Royce dealership in Delhi.

He said Rolls-Royce had posted 31 per cent year-on-year growth in car sales globally in 2011.