New Delhi, September 4
Gold hovered around its peak on Tuesday on strong global cues and a weaker rupee, with importers waiting for bargains to stock up for festivals, breaking all previous records to touch a fresh all-time high of Rs 31,850 per 10 grams.

Buoyed by brisk buying by stockists, the precious metal, which has been on an upward swing since last two weeks, shot up by Rs 240 to Rs 31,850 per 10 grams in the national capital region, surpassing previous record of Rs 31,725 set on September 1.

Silver followed suit and gained Rs 1,200 to Rs 60,200 per kilogram.

The trading sentiment was bolstered after gold hit the highest level in more than five months in overseas markets as global data strengthened the case for more central bank measures to boost growth, rising demand for the metal.

Overseas gold edged higher on Tuesday to the highest level in more than five months after lacklustre manufacturing data from around the globe fanned speculation of imminent easing measures from central banks.

In Singapore, gold rose by 0.3 per cent to $1,697.20 an ounce, a record level since March 13 this year.

On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity climbed by Rs 240 each to Rs 31,850 and Rs 31,650 per 10 grams, respectively. Sovereigns held steady at Rs 24,950 per piece of eight grams.

Similarly, silver ready recorded a handsome gains of Rs 1,200 to Rs 60,200 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 980 to Rs 61,780 per kg. Silver coins jumped up by Rs 1,000 to Rs 75,000 for buying and Rs 76,000 for selling of 100 pieces. — PTI, Reuters

Mumbai, September 4
Billionaire Anil Ambani on Tuesday reassured shareholders of his flagship telecoms carrier Reliance Communications Ltd that the company is pursuing options to reduce its heavy debt load, sending its stock up by more than 5%.

India's second-biggest telecoms carrier by customers, whose net debt was at $6.4 billion as of June, has so far been unsuccessful in its efforts to raise funds through asset sales.

A planned sale of its telecoms tower unit Reliance Infratel Ltd has dragged on for nearly two years. In July, Reliance Communications shelved a Singapore initial public offering of its undersea cable unit due to weak investor appetite.

"Hopefully in 2013 we’ll be able to conclude a value-unlocking strategy for Reliance Infratel," Ambani said at the company's annual shareholder meeting.

Reliance Communications said in May that talks on the sale of its tower arm were awaiting clarity in rules in India's troubled telecoms sector after the Supreme Court ordered to revoke permits of nearly half the operators in the 15-player market.

On Tuesday, Ambani said they would have a "fair visibility" of the number of operators in the Indian market and the potential demand for telecoms towers after an airwaves auction is completed in January next year. The company will also again attempt to list its undersea cable arm in Singapore when market conditions improve, he said.

Reliance Communications is the most leveraged among Indian telecoms with net debt at the end of March 2012 at around 5.5 times its operating profit. Ambani said their aim was to bring it to 3 times or lower by 2014-15.

The company this year repaid holders of foreign bonds by raising a loan of $1.2 billion from a clutch of Chinese banks.

"If you ask me, the picture looks rather more gloomy not less," Tobias Bettkober, a portfolio manager with Holinger Asset Management, which held Reliance Communications convertible bonds that were redeemed in March, said last week. — Reuters

New Delhi, September 4
Though currently riding an economic turbulence there is a silver lining for the Indian aviation industry, albeit somewhat futuristic. US aerospace major Boeing on Tuesday upgraded its forecast for India, saying the commercial aviation fleet of the emerging economy would grow more than four and a half times in size and require 1,450 new aircrafts worth US $175 billion over the next 20 years.

The prediction is a clear-cut improvement over last year when Boeing pegged India’s 20-year demand at 1,320 planes, worth $150 billion. The reasons for this optimistic prediction are a high potential for growth in propensity to travel due to increasing discretionary incomes, business progress and easier access to airports.

The main driver, of course, is India’s expected ranking in the global economy-fifth largest by 2021 and fourth largest by 2031. The aviation industry anywhere is a reflection of the country’s economic health and likewise in India. However, the only dampeners in this growth story are slow GDP growth, high fuel prices and weakening rupee. ATE in India accounts for a huge proportion of an airline’s operating costs.

"India will have the highest passenger traffic growth in the world, higher than even China's in the next 20 years," Dines Keskar, Boeing's senior vice president for Asia Pacific and India, said.

Boeing officials forecast passenger traffic to grow by 8.4% annually in South Asia, which includes India and by 7% annually in China up to 2031.

Boeing and its European rival, Airbus, are locked in a global contest for passenger plane market share and in some cases have resorted to halving prices to bolster orders of newly revamped models of their best-selling narrowbody jets.

India, one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, offers tremendous growth opportunities to planemakers as more newly affluent Indians take to the skies.

However, India's domestic air traffic fell 1.1% in July compared to a year ago, the worst performance for any market globally, according to the International Air Transport Association. India's airlines are struggling with surging oil prices, high sales taxes on jet fuel and fierce competition that has resulted in cutthroat pricing, leading to massive losses.

Boeing has also lost several deals in Asia to Airbus recently, including a $7 billion order from Philippine Airlines.

New Delhi, September 4
India and Pakistan will soon sign three agreements in areas of customs cooperation, mutual recognition of standards and redressal of trade issues, to enhance economic ties between the two countries.

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that these will cover acceptance of certification of internationally accredited laboratories and redressal of grievances to remove nontariff barriers restricting Pakistani exports to India.

Addressing a delegation of Pakistani Parliamentarians at FICCI’s first India-Pakistan Parliamentary Dialogue, Sharma said: “The MoUs for the three agreements have already been exchanged and formal agreements will be signed in a couple of weeks when the commerce secretaries of the two countries meet,” possibly after Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna’s visit to Pakistan from September 7.

He said Pakistan had moved from a positive to a small negative list of items importable from India. “Only 18% of tariff lines now remain in the negative list and the next step for Pakistan would be to completely phase out the negative list as also to grant MFN status to India”, he added.

India, on its part, he said, has decided to bring sown the SAFTA sensitive list by 30% and the sole beneficiary of this decision would be Pakistan.

India has also said Pakistani entities would be allowed to invest in India and Indian companies will also be allowed to invest in that country. “Only procedural issues are in the way and these will be sorted out in a matter of days,”Sharma said, adding free investment flows to India would offer a huge market opportunity to Pakistani investors.

Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi, member of Pakistan’s National Assembly and leader of the Pakistani parliamentary delegation, raised the issue of non tariff Barriers faced by exporters from his country and underlined the need to do away with them to create a more enabling trading environment and allow Pakistani business to trade with India as partners.

He called for opening more land trade routes between the two countries, particularly the Khokrapar (Sind)-Munabao (Rajasthan) route to facilitate greater exchanges.

Pakistan may defer plans to import petroleum products from India for technical reasons, officials here said.

"Imports of petrol, diesel and all other petroleum products from India may not be possible till 2014 due to difference in product specifications used in both countries," a senior official of the petroleum ministry said Tuesday.

Pakistani refineries produce zero-Euro quality oil whereas those in India produce Euro 3 and Euro 4 quality oil, which is cleaner and more environmentally friendly fuel. Pakistan is still preparing a road map to introduce Euro 2, Euro-3 and Euro 4 for clean energy in the country.

New Delhi, September 4
Ruling out relaxation of the mandatory sourcing norms for global retailers who want to set up stores in India, the government said Tuesday the companies have to procure 30% of their merchandise requirements from domestic small industries.

"We’re not talking of any dilution — we’re talking of clarity...We’re very clear that 30% of the sourcing has to be from India, primarily from micro, small and medium enterprises," Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here.

The minister's statement assumes significance as Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, which has proposed to invest Rs 10,500 crore up single brand retail stores in India, had sought tweaking of certain clauses related to the 30% mandatory sourcing norms.

Sharma, however, said the government would issue some guidelines about 100% foreign direct investments in single brand retail.

"To come up with the policy, the guidelines will follow for greater clarity. The policy is meant to attract investments. As long as the sourcing is from India, I’m not going to get into any quarrel over technicalities," he said, adding major single brand retailers are already sourcing from India. — PTI