New Delhi, May 8
Riding on a global upsurge in equities, the BSE Sensex today scaled the psychologically important 20,000-level for the first time in over three months.

After hitting the 20,000 level, the Sensex closed 101.23 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 19,990.18, a level last seen on January 31. It had gained 313 points in the last two sessions.

The upsurge in the stock markets is owing to a flood of liquidity in global markets which has seen markets in the US, Asia, Japan scale new highs.

According to RK Gupta, managing director, Taurus Asset Management Company, the Sensex hitting the 20,000-mark is on account of FII inflows even though the domestic institutions have been selling.

He added that globally there is a trend that liquidity is shifting from commodities and gold towards equities which has led to a rise in many markets.

The fall in commodity prices like crude oil and gold in international markets has fuelled the rally in domestic markets as it is seen as beneficial for the macro economy and will help to lower the worrying current account deficit.

In addition, the forecast of a normal monsoon has led to expectations of inflation coming down and demand being boosted.

Today’s rise in the markets was led by stocks of FMCG, oil and gas and banking sectors, besides a rally in HDFC and Lupin on better earnings.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 25.75 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 6,069.30.

The recent rate cut by the RBI has also helped to boost sentiment, which is expected to boost economic activity.

Foreign funds bought a net $171 million of Indian shares in the previous session, extending their net investment this year to $12 billion, a record for the period.

They said a firming global trend as China’s exports topped estimates and European Central Bank cutting interest rates to revive economy further fuelled the uptrend.

In 30-BSE index components, 14 stocks gained led by HDFC, HDFC Bank, ITC, Reliance Industries, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.

New Delhi, May 8
A compliance audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has revealed that out of 303 Central government companies and corporations, the equity investment in 60 companies has been eroded by their accumulated losses.

As a result, the audit for 2011-12 placed in Parliament says the aggregate net worth of these companies had become negative to the extent of Rs 70,946 crore as on March 2012. Only 10 companies out of 60 companies earned profit of Rs 1,981 crore during the period.

The audit points out that the Central Government has invested Rs 2.04 lakh crore directly in the equity capital of PSUs. Loans amounting to Rs 61,410 crore had been received by the PSUs from the government.

On return on investment, it shows that the total profit earned by 191 PSUs was Rs 1.27 lakh crore, of which as much as 67 per cent was contributed by 44 companies in just three sectors, namely petroleum and natural gas, power and coal.

Of these 191 companies, 112 companies declared dividend for 2011-12 amounting to Rs 42,671 crore and represented a return of 13.52 per cent on the total investment by government in all companies.

Non-compliance with the government’s directive in the declaration of dividend by 43 companies resulted in a shortfall of Rs 8,506 crore in the payment of dividend.

On corporate social responsibility (CSR), the audit says that 47 companies did not comply with the guidelines on minimum CSR budget. Out of 39 companies with profit of more than Rs 500 crore, five companies did not meet the minimum requirement.

The PSUs are sitting on a huge cash surplus. As on March 31, 2012, 406 active PSUs held cash balance amounting to Rs 3.11 lakh crore. From a sample size study, 28 companies had planned projects for expansion and diversification during the period 2012-17. Most of these companies had invested at least 60 per cent of their funds in PSU banks.

New Delhi, May 8
Industrial cities to be developed as a part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project are projected to attract huge investments of about $90-100 billion over the next 30 years.

"It is expected that the development of industrial cities with world-class infrastructure would involve an estimated investment of around $90-100 billion over the next 30 years," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry D Purandeswari said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

During the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, the government has approved financial assistance of Rs 17,500 crore at an average of Rs 2,500 crore per city (subject to a ceiling of Rs 3,000 crore per city) for the development of seven industrial cities.

The seven cities include Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad Investment Region, Manesar-Bawal Investment Region, Khushkhera-Bhiwadi- Neemrana Investment Region and Ahmedabad-Dholera Investment Region.

She also said the project would generate employment to about 2.8 crore people.

"The employment needed to create the estimated value of output as per perspective plan of DMIC is estimated to be 9.1 million in 2020, 17.5 million in 2030 and 28.7 million in 2040," she added.

The minister said the process of land acquisition was in progress in the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and master planning had started in Uttar Pradesh.

"The contribution of the state government will be in the form of land...the cities would be launched with the development of townships of 25-50 sq km which are envisaged to be completed by the end of 2019," she said.

New Delhi, May 8
Indian Oil Corporation plans to add three Latin American and two middle-eastern countries to its annual oil purchase deals during the fiscal year through March, a Parliamentary Committee said, as the energy-hungry nation diversifies its crude basket.

"For 2013/14, new term contracts are being proposed with NOCs (national oil companies) of Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil as well as NOCs of Qatar and Dubai," it said in a report published on Wednesday.

Apart from traditional oil suppliers like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, India's largest refiner had entered into new term contracts with NOCs of Angola, Brunei, Azerbaijan and Mexico in the last few years, the report said.

In 2012/13, IOC signed term deals to import about 808,000 bpd oil, the report said. — Reuters

New Delhi, May 8
Gold prices fell further by Rs 85 to Rs 27,565 per 10 gm in the national capital today on sluggish demand at current levels amid a weak global trend.

However, silver found scattered buying support from industrial units and recovered by Rs 400 to Rs 45,700 per kg.

Traders said sluggish demand at current levels and a weak global trend mainly kept pressure on gold prices.

Gold in New York, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front, fell by $17.70 to $1452.60 an ounce. — PTI

Chandigarh, May 8
FICCI secretary-general Dr A Didar Singh today said all subsidies were bad for the country and should be done away with.

Talking to mediapersons after a meeting of the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal chapter of FICCI here, he said subsidies always led to inflation and a fiscal imbalance. He said subsidies in the country had presently risen to 14 per cent of the GDP.

Saying that subsidies were only important in a typical time frame, Didar Singh said governments needed to spend more on education and skill development, which was the mandate of FICCI also. He said the distribution system of subsidies also needed to be more efficient, saying FICCI supported the direct transfer of case proposal in this regard.

However, industrialist and Punjab Planning Board vice-chairman Rajinder Gupta, who was today appointed the chairman of the Punjab and Haryana council of FICCI, was not supportive of the same. He said all governments were giving subsidies and it was unfair to target Punjab alone.

He also claimed it was not true that industry was migrating from Punjab to other states as has been made out in the past. He said this was part of the growth cycle, and industrialists in Punjab, who were part of the small and medium scale, now wanted a pan-India presence. “It is perfectly normal for such players to go near the ports to make their business models better”.

FICCI secretary-general said the industry body had chosen four focus areas, including agriculture and food processing, manufacturing, textiles and tourism, for propagation in the northern region. He said besides these FICCI would also work for increasing the skill set in media and entertainment sector and textiles.

New Delhi, May 8
Mortgage major HDFC today said consolidated net profit increased by 17.2 per cent to Rs 2,083.12 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013.

Its consolidated net profit during the same quarter (January-March) a year ago stood at Rs 1,776.74 crore.

Total income during the last quarter of 2012-13 increased to Rs 11,042.88 crore from Rs 9,278.11 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, it said in a BSE filing.