Mumbai, July 10
The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex rallied to its highest close since mid-March led by gains in private sector banks such as ICICI Bank on hopes improving asset quality would lead to better-than-expected earnings in the upcoming reporting season.

Sentiment was also boosted by data showing foreign institutional investors remained buyers of Indian stocks this month, helping domestic indexes rebound after two previous sessions of mild falls.

Gains in European stocks on hopes that Germany's constitutional court would approve the eurozone's new bailout funds also helped by improving the global risk environment.

The gains on Tuesday outperformed most Asian indexes, though analysts have warned they expect muted earnings growth in the April-June quarter, which may lead to a correction, particularly if the guidances provided fails to inspire.

"We’re expecting flat earnings this quarter. It will not be even double digit growth yoy," said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO of Destimoney Securities. "I think most of the sectors would be under pressure due to rising interest cost and rupee depreciation," he added. "There is nothing positive that is coming out on economic front even the monsoons are bad so far."

The 30-share Sensex rose 1.3% to 17,618.35 points, the highest close since March 15, more than offsetting the 0.8% fall over the previous two sessions. The 50-share Nifty gained 1.33% to 5,345.35 pts.

Investors were encouraged after provisional exchange data showed FIIs were net buyers of Rs 2.5 billion in Indian shares on Monday, for a preliminary total of Rs 58.2 billion for the month.

Those purchases come despite recent concerns about lower-than-expected rainfalls during the monsoon season, which could depress rural consumption and lead to higher food prices given the impact on agricultural output.

Deutsche Bank said last week total revenue would rise 16.4% in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, below 20% for the second quarter in a row, due to pressures from a slowing economy. The bank expects after-tax profit growth for the BSE members to be curtailed at 9.6%. — Reuters

New Delhi, July 10
A big jump in sales of the country’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, in June helped car sales to rise 8.28 per cent even though the overall market sentiment remained low in the background of high interest rates and fuel prices.

Even as the industry’s umbrella body, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), lowered the sales outlook for fiscal 2013, it said June witnessed sales of 155,763 units over 143,851 in the same month last year.

SIAM lowered its car sales growth forecast,as higher costs and slower economic expansion impinge on demand. But it hoped demand would revive later in the year. Car sales for the current fiscal are expected to rise 9-11%, the group said, lower than the 10-12% growth it had forecast in April.

Car makers are struggling to achieve double-digit sales growth targeted by the industry as Asia's third-largest economy grows at its slowest pace in nine years, hurting a sector that has been one of the best performers over the past decade.

"June car sales grew because of the low base in last year due to industrial problems at some manufacturers' plants. So this has been reflected in this year's figure," SIAM senior director Sugato Sen told reporters.

Maruti Suzuki India had witnessed strike by workers at its Manesar plant in June last year, which had severely hit production. In June this year, the firm sold 70,977 units, up 23.11%, as against 57,653 in the same month last year.

Rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd posted a marginal increase in sales to 30,363 units in June this year, as against 30,302 units last year. Tata Motors, on the other hand, witnessed a decline of 26.6% to 13,595 units, from 18,522 units in June 2011.

"Overall, there is moderation in sales growth and reasons, we all know, are high petrol prices and interest rates. For the future, we are optimistic as interest rates are stable and we hope that they will come down," SIAM president S. Sandilya said.

SIAM said in terms of volumes, car sales in June this year were the lowest since Oct 2011 which stood at 138,095 units.

According to the SIAM data, motorcycle sales grew 6.58% during June this year to 879,713 units from 8,25,388 units in the same month last year. Market leader Hero MotoCorp sold 489,505 units in June as against 466,501 in the same months last year, up 4.93%. Bajaj Auto Ltd's sales in June stood at 211,510 compared to 208,883 in the same months last year, up 1.25%. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India sold 95,315 units during the month against 61,435 units in June last year.

Total two-wheeler sales in June this year rose 9.2% to 11,69,733 units from 10,71,161 units in the same month last year, SIAM said.

Chandigarh, July 10
Haryana has urged the central government to reduce the minimum size requirement for the national investment and manufacturing zones (NIMZs) to be developed in the nature of greenfield industrial townships under the national manufacturing policy.

A request in this regard was made on Tuesday by Haryana chief secretary P. K. Chaudhery at a meeting with commerce & industry secretary Saurabh Chandra held to discuss various issues and projects relating to industrial and infrastructure development in the state.

Chaudhery said the minimum size of an NIMZ at 5,000 hectares was on the higher side and that it needed to be lowered substantially to enable the state government to benefit from the policy. He said the state government had taken an initiative to set up a leather cluster project in the state and Mewat was a candidate site. The leather cluster project would give impetus to the development of the Mewat region and also boost leather industry in the state.

Chaudhery added Haryana was also keen on partnering the development of a defence-sector related manufacturing zone, for which he said the state was an ideal location.

Brussels, July 10
Eurozone ministers struggled to reassure financial markets on Tuesday that an aid package for Spain they outlined overnight will help stabilize the currency bloc — a task made all the harder by a German legal challenge to its crisis-fighting tools.

The ministers agreed early on Tuesday to grant Madrid an extra year until 2014 to reach its deficit reduction targets in exchange for further budget savings. They also set the parameters of an aid package for Spains ailing banks. The decisions were aimed at preventing the currency area's fourth largest economy, mired in a worsening recession, from needing a full state bailout which would stretch the limits of Europe's rescue fund and plunge it deeper into a debt crisis.

"There's no emergency here, there's a clear path towards stabilisation," Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden said of the measures agreed for Spain. "The markets have to realise that the money is there, more money than is necessary."

But markets were disappointed the meeting did not offer more. The euro initially traded near a two-year trough against the dollar and hit a five-week low versus the yen, with sentiment edgy as the focus shifted to a German court hearing.

Germany's top court also will pick up the issue on Tuesday about whether Europe's new bailout fund and budget rules are compatible with national law in a process influencing not just how to tackle the eurozone crisis, but how much deeper European integration can go.

The hearing into complaints about the fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and fiscal pact may indicate how long the court will keep Europe on tenterhooks.

Anything more than a few weeks would mean a serious delay to implementing the ESM, which has already been postponed from July 1, and raise serious doubts about whether Europe will really get the extra firepower it needs to combat the crisis.

"A considerable postponement of the ESM (bailout fund) which was foreseen for July this year could cause further uncertainty on markets beyond Germany and loss of trust in the eurozone's ability to make necessary decisions in an appropriate timeframe," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the court. — Reuters

Bangalore, July 10
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is contemplating a number of measures to contain fiscal deficit and the government will get the economy back to high growth trajectory, home minister P. Chidambaram said Tuesday.

"I think the PM-cum finance minister is contemplating a number of measures to tighten revenue collection and to control wasteful expenditure. We’ve already imposed across-the-board cut on non-plan expenditure. That will help," he told reporters here.

Identifying savings, investment, fiscal deficit and current account deficit as four fundamental issues that need to be tackled, he said the measures being taken by the government would improve savings and investment. "We will get back to the high growth rate," he said.

On the current account deficit, he said it depends on the international commodity prices and rupee exchange rate as the country imports many commodities it needs.

"Once confidence builds up , the (rupee) exchange rate will stabilize. And we must produce more in the country and depend less on imports...the current account deficit will come down over a period of time. So, if we can tackle these four issues — savings, investments, current account deficit and fiscal deficit — you will see we will soon get back to the high growth path”, Chidambaram stated. — PTI