Mumbai, October 24
The Sensex today fell 42 points after an intra-day rally that took it past the 21,000 mark for the first time in almost three years fizzled out in the afternoon as IT stocks declined.

TCS, Reliance Industries, Wipro and Infosys were the biggest drag on the index. Coal India, Jindal Steel and BHEL were among the major losers as 19 shares on the Sensex declined. Among the sectoral indices, IT, power, realty and metal retreated.

The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex opened little changed and surged to 21,039.42, crossing the 21K mark after 35 months on buying in auto, banking, consumer durables and oil and gas sectors on the back of persistent foreign capital inflows.

The index then retreated and closed at 20,725.43, a drop of 42.45 points or 0.20%. The Sensex was last above 21,000 on November 8, 2010.

"IT is in correction mode for short term but will ultimately outperform if one has view of more than 3-6 months," said Rakesh Tarway, AVP Research, Motilal Oswal Securities. "There will be some buying in beaten down sectors of infra, banking. Apart from this, media will do well."

The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange moved down 14 points, or 0.23%, to 6,164.35. The SX40 on the MCX Stock Exchange closed at 12,331.32, down 7.5 points.

Shares of PSU banks gained after the Ministry of Finance said after trading hours yesterday that the government has approved infusion of Rs 14,000 crore in 20 lenders.

Most Asian markets ended higher after a measure of Chinese manufacturing hit a seven-month high. Key indices in South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan rose while indices in China and Hong Kong fell.

European markets were higher in early trade as indices in France, Germany and UK moved up. — PTI

New Delhi, October 24
The government today gave green signal to Singapore Airlines' proposal to start an aviation venture with Tata Sons entailing an initial foreign investment of $49 million.

"It (Tata-SIA proposal) has been cleared," Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters after a meeting of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) here. Mayaram said no riders have been set for the joint venture.

In their new venture, Tata SIA Airlines Ltd, Tata Sons would hold 51% stake and Singapore Airlines (SIA) 49%.

With the clearance of the FIPB, decks are cleared for Tata SIA to launch operations as a full-service air carrier in India.

The two partners are making an initial investment of $100 million to launch the airline, which may take off next year after getting all the required clearances.

Tatas and Singapore Airlines have assured the government that control of their proposed venture would always remain in Indian hands, while seeking approval to offer full-service passenger airways on both domestic and international routes.

Meanwhile, aviation industry analysts today welcomed the government's approval to Singapore Airlines' proposal to start aviation venture with Tata Sons.

"Welcome news. This sends our very positive signals to the global investor community," global consultancy KPMG partner and head for aerospace and defence Amber Dubey said.

A Tata Group spokesperson said the company is still awaiting a formal communication from the government in this regard . — PTI

Chandigarh, October 24
Electrical equipment industry across India is witnessing a period of sharp degrowth because of increased import of Chinese electrical equipment and poor financial health of state power utilities which have put all major power projects on hold.

As a result, the electrical equipment manufacturers across India are using just 40-60% of their production capacities. Business, especially in the cable, transformer and capacitor manufacturing, has been recording a negative growth for almost a year and many of the smaller players are on the verge of closure.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Vishnu Aggarwal, vice-president, Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA), the parent body of 800 electrical equipment manufacturers, said 24% of electrical equipment used in the country is imported from China.

“Though there are lots of quality issues with the Chinese equipment, the private power producers and those executing projects in the public-private partnership mode, continue to use Chinese equipment for setting up power generation units. This is because the Chinese equipment is much cheaper, its delivery is faster and the Chinese manufacturers also give long-term finance to buy their goods,” he said.

Aggarwal said the IEEMA members had been coerced by the government to double their production capacities before the recession hit the country in 2008-09. “The government was going strong on increasing the power generation and the industry doubled its production capacity. But because of a slow GDP growth, the state power utilities facing financial crunch and going in the red, slow environmental clearances for setting up new power plants and lack of coal linkages, the additional power generation has been slow. This has meant that we have made heavy capital investment, but are not getting any returns,” he said.

Though there are lots of quality issues with the Chinese equipment, the private power producers and those executing projects in the PPP mode, continue to use Chinese equipment for setting up power generation units. This is because the Chinese equipment is much cheaper, its delivery is faster and the manufacturers also give long-term finance to buy their goods
— Vishnu Aggarwal, vice-president, IEEMA

New Delhi, October 24
Energy tycoon and Reliance Industries' chairman Mukesh Ambani is India's richest man with personal assets of $18.9 billion, a report says.

As per the China-based Hurun India Rich List, Ambani retained the top position for the second year even after a wealth decrease of 2 per cent.

Ambani is followed by London-based steel baron LN Mittal with assets of $15.9 billion. Mittal's wealth declined 6% from last year.

Sun Pharmaceuticals' founder Dilip Shanghvi broke into the top three for the first time with a 66% surge in his wealth.

"This rise in stock price was supported by the expected sales of the cancer drug Doxil, following Janssen Pharma Inc's admission of shortage of the drug supply," the report said.

Among others in the top 10 are: Wipro's Azim Premji (4th) with assets of $12 billion, HCL Technology's Shiv Nadar (5th, $8.6 billion), Grasim Industries' Kumar Mangalam Birla (6th, $8.4 billion), Godrej Group's Adi Godrej (7th, $8.1 billion).

The other three who make the list of top 10 billionaires are Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji & Co ($8 billion) ranked 8th, Shashi & Ravi Ruia (Essar Energy, $7.6 billion) ranked 9th and Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel, $7.3 billion).

Anil Ambani of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group occupies the 11th position with a personal fortune of $7.1 billion. — PTI

Chandigarh, October 24
Technological advancement, research and development, enhanced awareness about the assisting schemes and knowledge dissemination can work wonders to upscale the level of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India, particularly in North. At a time when the MSMEs are facing a cash crunch and have limited resources for availing finance, they must look at alternate sources of funding in order to keep working and growing.

This was the gist of a seminar on ‘Financing for Growth - Focus on Sustainable Development for MSMEs’, organised by CII here yesterday. The seminar focused on creating awareness among the MSMEs in the region, regarding alternate sources of capital funding.

Speaking on the occasion, Jaspal Singh, Secretary, Expenditure, Punjab, said: “It is imperative that finance is easily available to MSMEs and at reasonable rates so that they can grow to the next level. We are continuously working to create an enabling environment for the MSMEs in Punjab as they play a critical role in Punjab's economy", he said.

Jyoti Prakash Gadia, managing director, Resurgent India Ltd, said in the present MSME scenario, only 25% of the overall funding comes from financial institutions due to which the debt ratio is very high. “So an organised debt market needs to come up and working capital mechanism needs to be regularised. There are several other sources of raising money like venture capital funds, through SME exchange, receivable finance and risk capital, and MSMEs should be made aware of these,” he said.

An MOU was also signed between CII and Canara Bank to facilitate credit access for MSMEs. Under this MoU, Canara Bank will extend a concession of 50 bps on rate of interest to the MSMEs. 

BRIEFLY

HDFC Bank raises $500 m abroad
Mumbai: HDFC Bank on Thursday raised $500 million from an overseas bond sale as part of its $2-billion medium-term bonds sale plan. The funds were raised by offering a coupon — a periodic interest payment — of 3%. — PTI

PowerGrid FPO in December
Mumbai: Power Grid Corporation on Thursday said it expects to launch the follow on public offer (FPO) anytime next month. The government could get about Rs 1,900 crore from the process, while the company will garner about Rs 6,000 crore. — PTI

Ranbir Kapoor to endorse Philips
Mumbai: Actor Ranbir Kapoor was on Thursday named the brand ambassador for Philips. "Endorsing India's No 1 lighting brand is a great opportunity and I am privileged to be associated with this power house of innovation," Ranbir said. — IANS

Aditya Birla Retail plan
New Delhi: Aditya Birla Retail Ltd will invest up to Rs 100 crore by March 2015 to open up to 10 large format 'Hypermarket' stores as it scales up operations with more product offerings. — PTI

Western Union Diwali offer
Chandigarh: Western Union has launched ‘Diwali Dhamaka’ offering an array of diamond, gold, silver and cash prizes to recipients of Western Union Money Transfer transactions to the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The offer, which opened on October 22, will close on November 2. — TNS