The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Stocks tumble; banks hit by deposit growth worries Mumbai, April 9 The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex and the NSE Nifty posted their biggest daily falls in two weeks on Monday as banks were hit by fears about slowing deposit growth, while capital good stocks like Larsen & Toubro fell on fears industrial output data due this week would weaken. Traders, returning after domestic markets were closed on Thursday and Friday, also cited caution ahead of other key events this week, including Infosys' earnings and inflation data on Friday. Investors are also keenly awaiting the Reserve Bank of India policy meeting on April 17. The BSE index has fallen nearly 4 percent since the RBI disappointed investors by leaving rates on hold on March 15. Expectations are split about whether the RBI will deliver a cut in the repo rate this time, or whether it will find it more urgent to deal with liquidity shortages by again targeting the cash reserve ratio after two previous cuts this year. "Markets are preempting weak IIP and inflation data," Ambareesh Baliga, COO at Way2Wealth s aid, referring to industrial output. "On monetary policy the expectation is now there will be no change (in repo rates)," he added. The country's main 30-share BSE index closed down 1.51% at 17,222.14 points and the 50-share NSE index 1.66% at 5,234.40. Those falls outpaced the 0.8% falls in the MSCI index for Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, as the region was hit by worries about the U.S. economy after Friday's slower-than-expected jobs growth data. Indian banking shares were among the top decliners after deposit growth fell short of projections for the fiscal year ended in March, as customers withdrawals contributed to an acute liquidity crunch in the sector. Net interest margins in the sector could be hit as banks may have to raise the rates offered on deposits to retain customers, analysts said, as customers prefer physical assets to financial ones in order to counter high inflation. State Bank of India fell 2.87% while private lender ICICI Bank fell 2.61%. Shares in power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro dropped amid expectations for weak February industrial output data due on Thursday. The uncertainty about the data sparked a round of profit-taking in the two stocks after both recently outperformed the Nifty's gains of 0.5% last week. BHEL shares ended 4.3% lower after surging 6.4% last week. L&T slipped 3.5%. But Ranbaxy Laboratories rose 3.99% after brokerage Macquarie said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was "likely" to approve next month the distribution of acne medicine CIP-Isotretinoin in the United States. Macquarie did not specify sources for its prediction, but noted such an approval could lead Ranbaxy to gain a 20-25% market share in the segment, making it a $120-160 million product. Shares of tyre manufacturers gained after India extended anti-dumping duties on certain types of tyres from China and Thailand until October 7, according to the finance ministry. — Reuters
	Sony to axe 10,000 jobs in turnaround bid Tokyo, April 9 Japan's Sony Corp is to cut 10,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai looks to steer the electronics and entertainment giant back to profit after four years in the red. The job cuts would be the latest downsizing in Japan Inc where companies from cellphone maker NEC Corp to electronics firm Panasonic Corp are trimming costs in the face of a strong yen and competition from rivals like Apple and South Korea's Samsung Electronics. TV makers in particular have been hit hard by the tough business climate as well as sharp price falls, with Sony, Panasonic and Sharp expecting to have lost a combined $17 billion in the fiscal year just ended. Investors will closely monitor a briefing on Thursday by Hirai, who formally took over this month as chief executive from Howard Stringer, for further clues on how Sony plans to revamp its business. "Under a new CEO, it's easier to cut jobs or go in a new direction," said Yuuki Sakurai, head of fund manager Fukoku Capital, which had around $7 billion worth of assets under management as of end-March 2011, and which holds a small stake in Sony, according to Reuters data as of last July. "One of the things I'd like to see is that they shift their resources to other areas outside TVs ... If they stick to TVs, they may have to fight a war they may not be able to win." The Nikkei said half of the latest round of job cuts would come from consolidating the firm's chemicals and small and midsize LCD operations. Sony said last month it was selling a chemical products division, accounting for some 3,000 people, while on April 1 it merged its Sony Mobile display unit, which had about 2,000 workers, with the small LCD panel businesses of Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd into a new firm called Japan Display. The Nikkei said it was not clear how many of the cuts would take place in Japan or overseas. As of end-March 2011, Sony had 168,200 employees on a consolidated basis, according to the company's website. Sony may also ask its seven executive directors who served through the fiscal year to end-March, including Stringer, who is now chairman, to return their bonuses, the Nikkei said. Sony declined to comment on the report. Sony announced 16,000 job cuts in Dec 2008 after the global financial crisis battered demand for its products, but it has not managed to make a profit since then. The company has forecast a 220 billion yen net loss for the fiscal just ended, hurt in large part by its ailing TV business. — Reuters
	AOL to sell over 800 patents to Microsoft for $1 billion New York, April 9 AOL Inc said it would sell more than 800 patents to Microsoft Corp and grant Microsoft a nonexclusive license to patents it retains for slightly over $1 billion in cash. AOL said a "significant portion" of the proceeds would be passed on to shareholders. AOL shares jumped 37 percent to $25.16 in premarket trading Monday on news of the r esults of the patent auction. One person familiar with the matter said Facebook Inc and Google Inc participated in the auction. Spokesmen for Facebook and Google were not immediately available for comment. AOL will continue to hold more than 300 patents, including advertising, search and mapping patents, and said it would receive a license to the patents being sold to Microsoft. "This is a valuable portfolio that we have been following for years and analyzing in detail for several months," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said. Activist shareholder Starboard Value LP had pressured AOL's management to pursue a sale, arguing t he patent portfolio could produce more than $1 billion in licensing income if properly monetized. The deal with Microsoft, expected to be completed by the end of 2012, includes the sale of an AOL unit, on which AOL expects to record a capital loss for tax purposes. AOL said it expected to use about $40 million of its existing deferred tax assets -- 20 percent of its total -- to offset any ordinary income taxes resulting from the licensing of its remaining patent portfolio. Evercore Partners and Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisers to AOL. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner acted as legal counsel. Cov ington and Burling LLP offered legal advice to Microsoft. If the deal falls through, Microsoft may pay AOL a termination fee of $211.2 million, AOL said in a regulatory filing. — Reuters
	iGate accepts Patni delisting offer Bangalore, April 9 US-based iGate Corporation said Monday it would offer Rs 520 per share to shareholders of Patni Computer Systems to get its Indian arm delisted from stock exchanges. The company accepted the discovered price of Rs 520 determined through a reverse book building process using the electronic facility at the Bombay Stock Exchange, in accordance with SEBI regulations, iGate officials announced at a press conference here. he public shareholders holding equity shares of the company were invited to submit bids via an offer that opened on March 28 and closed on March 30. "We believe the price of Rs 520 provides both a reasonable premium to the Patni shareholders and is still accretive to iGate shareholders while being strategic to the company," iGate chief executive officer Phaneesh Murthy said. "In addition, the better performance in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the benefits of a streamlined corporate structure enabled us to arrange for some extra funding during the last week and raise the debt amount of $265 million," he said. US-based iGate, along with private equity player Apax Partners, had acquired a majority stake in Patni for $1.2 billion and had paid Rs 503 per share in one of the largest IT deals in India. After the acquisition, iGate has said it wants to delist the domestic company from the Indian bourses and New York Stock Exchange by mid-2012. Currently, iGate holds about 82 per cent stake in Patni. — PTI
	Efforts on to improve rural teledensity DoT launches Nat’l Optical Fibre Network project Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 9 Low rural teledensity has been a cause of concern for the government and efforts are underway to improve this teledensity to at least 60 per cent by the turn of 2017. Lagging far behind the urban teledensity figures, the rural teledensity has now come on to the radar of the private telecom operators also with the decreasing operating margins in the cities due to they having reached a saturation point. According to available reports rural teledensity is just about 38% as compared to urban teledensity of 168%, which has forced the department of telecom (DoT) to come up with special efforts and launch special schemes to improve the rural teledensity. While looking to increase rural telecom penetration to at least 60% by 2017, the government has also launched the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN). It has awarded the contract to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for setting up the network, which aims at establishing telecommunications links in all villages across India. The project will entail an investment of Rs 20,000 crore and provide telecommunications and Internet connectivity to villages. It will also help in offering governance, banking, health and other basic services online to rural and far flung areas. The NOFN project is expected to be completed in the next two years. At present, BSNL accounts for around 80% of the country’s landline and 90% of broadband connections, but it has failed to maintain its supremacy in wireless connections. Only 30 per cent of the nation's mobile connections are covered by BSNL. The government is also looking at initiating necessary policy changes for encouraging the sharing of active and passive infrastructure in order to address the various infrastructure issues related to rural areas. As part of its efforts to improve rural teledensity, DoT also wants to develop broadband kiosks, on the lines of STD PCOs. These would provide easy access to rural people to broadband services. The government is also wanting to encourage the use of facilities like m-banking and e-governance projects and development of low cost customer premises equipment and application in regional languages. Expecting rural areas in the country will offer high growth opportunities in the 12th five year Plan, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has also suggested the government must ensure provision of low cost handset, besides development of regional content, affordability of service through rationalization of levies and duties, reduction in Universal Service Obligation (USO) levy, financial inclusion through mobile banking and automating government services and government service delivery mechanism. Incidentally, industry experts, operators and handset makers all realize the next phase of telecom growth will come from rural India.
	CII to focus on north region this fiscal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 9 Improving investment climate in the north, key to facilitating growth and employment generation would be CII’s agenda for the northern region for fiscal 2012-13. This was stated by Malvinder Mohan Singh, chairman, CII northern region and executive chairman of Fortis Healthcare. He said the CII northern region would continue with its theme of ‘Building a Sustainable north for Tomorrow’, which entails laying out a roadmap to make north a preferred investment destination and manufacturing hub, strengthening governance and inclusivity and pushing for policy reform to fast track an enabling investment climate in the region, Singh said. Outlining the chamber’s plans to build a sustainable Malvinder outlined CII’s plans to build a sustainable, futuristic and inclusive north with a focus on reviewing economic growth. The northern region, constituting 8 states and one union territory, Chandigarh, contributes about 25.4% of the national economy, he said. “The region has immense potential but investments have not been commensurate with its size and resource base. CII believes that sustained and planned reform can help overcome the challenges”. “We believe the proposed goods & services tax would be of immense benefit to industry and business. Adoption and early implementation of GST can help in the creation of a common market and may also raise GDP by about 1.0-1.5%. Therefore, advocacy and consensus building on GST will be a top agenda in the region this year”, he said.
	Gold hits one-wk high, up over 1% London, April 9 Gold prices rose more than 1% on Monday, recovering from last week's hefty drop after disappointing US jobs data revived hopes for fresh monetary easing and a spike in Chinese inflation boosted appetite for the metal. Spot gold was up 1% at $1,646.19 an ounce at 1312 GMT, while US gold futures for April delivery were up $18.00 an ounce at $1,648.10. Trading was thin, with most European financial markets closed for the Easter holidays. — Reuters