B U S I N E S S

Sensex rallies 358 points on better growth prospects
New Delhi, April 9
The BSE benchmark Sensex today rose by over 358 points to a lifetime closing high of 22,702 points on expectations of the poll outcome and better growth prospects for the economy. The IMF forecast of 5.4% growth in 2014 also helped to boost sentiment as FIIs continued to pour in funds. Sun Pharma after the acquisition of Ranbaxy was among the big gainers followed by banks while IT stocks were under pressure.

Toyota recalls 6.39 million vehicles globally
Tokyo, April 9
Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it would recall 6.39 million vehicles globally for faults affecting various parts ranging from steering to seats in the company's second-largest recall to date. The world's biggest automaker said it was not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by the glitches, which were found in 27 Toyota models, including the RAV4 SUV and Yaris subcompact.

Rajat Gupta seeks re-hearing of insider trading conviction
New York, April 9
India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta has petitioned that a three-judge panel, which upheld his conviction on insider trading charges, should reconsider its decision and the court rehear the case, arguing that "critical evidence" in his favour was excluded at trial.

Sun Pharma denies insider trading charges in Ranbaxy deal
New Delhi, April 9
Sun Pharma today denied insider trading charges against Silverstreet Developers LLP — its wholly owned subsidiary — in the $4 billion acquisition deal of Ranbaxy Laboratories. Silverstreet Developers LLP, which had no holding in Ranbaxy at the end of September 2013, had bought shares of the Gurgaon-based firm aggregating 1.41% stake by end of December 2013. As on March 31, 2014, its holding stood at 1.64%.

New gas rates to be effective April 1: RIL
New Delhi, April 9
After agreeing to temporarily sell gas to urea plants on old terms, Reliance Industries (RIL) has told its sole customers that the new formula, which almost doubles the price of the fuel, will apply from April 1.

Oil India raises $1bn in overseas bond sale
New Delhi, April 9
Oil India Limited (OIL) today announced that it has made an inaugural $1 billion unsecured bond issue in the international capital markets. The bond issue was oversubscribed by 9.2 times (approximately), which is one of the largest order book for a US dollar issuance out of India. This was the debut foreign currency bond issuance by OIL and is the largest ever issuance from an Indian quasi-sovereign corporate.

Chandrasekaran takes over as Nasscom chief
New Delhi, April 9
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) today announced that the executive council has appointed R Chandrasekaran, executive vice-chairman of Cognizant India, as the chairman of the IT body for 2014-15. Chandrasekaran has been a member of Nasscom's executive council and took over the charge today. He succeeds Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO and MD of Mindtree Ltd., who served as chairman of Nasscom last year. — TNS

Airtel offers 50 MB free data on polling day
New Delhi, April 9
In order to help voters make informed choice, Bharti Airtel said it is offering its pre- paid users 50 MB free Internet usage tomorrow. The scheme will be available in Delhi NCR, Haryana and Kerala, which are going to polls tomorrow, from 7 am to 7 pm. Airtel said the idea behind the initiative is that it wants to give customers an option to go online and read about candidates before casting their votes. — PTI

Sensex rallies 358 points on better growth prospects
Nifty flares up by 101 points to close at new peak of 6,796
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 9
The BSE benchmark Sensex today rose by over 358 points to a lifetime closing high of 22,702 points on expectations of the poll outcome and better growth prospects for the economy. The IMF forecast of 5.4% growth in 2014 also helped to boost sentiment as FIIs continued to pour in funds.

Sun Pharma after the acquisition of Ranbaxy was among the big gainers followed by banks while IT stocks were under pressure. However, there have been reports that the Ranbaxy stock surged more than 20% in 3 days before the merger announcement and the market regulator has reportedly sought data from the exchanges.

"Once again, domestic-oriented stocks led the rally with IT ending lower for the day. Continuing expectations on the political outcome supported the sentiment," said Dipen Shah, head, Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

Shah said focus will shift to growth, interest rates and valuations once the political event is out of the way. "Valuations are above the long term average and there is a possibility of sub-normal monsoons. These can act as headwinds for the markets in the medium term," he added.

Motilal Oswal Securities said in a note that markets have already rallied and are expected to consolidate further in the backdrop of a favourable election outcome.

Ten out of 12 sectoral indices settled the day in the positive terrain with banking, metal, pharma, capital goods, realty and auto counters taking the lead.

The 30-share index ended the day at all-time closing high of 22,702 points, a surge of 358 points or 1.61% from its previous close, snapping three days of losses.

This is the biggest gain for Sensex in the past one month. The best gain previously was on March 7 when Sensex spurted by 405 points.

The 50-issue NSE Nifty also flared up by 101 points or 1.51% to end at new peak of 6,796 points.

Sun Pharma soared 6.91% to emerge as the biggest Sensex gainer.

Toyota recalls 6.39 million vehicles globally

Tokyo, April 9
Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it would recall 6.39 million vehicles globally for faults affecting various parts ranging from steering to seats in the company's second-largest recall to date. The world's biggest automaker said it was not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by the glitches, which were found in 27 Toyota models, including the RAV4 SUV and Yaris subcompact.

2nd largest recall Recall spans five faults in parts ranging from steering to seats in 29 models Company has not given any cost estimate for the recall This is the second-largest recall by Toyota to date

Toyota said faults were also found in the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia, two models the automaker built for General Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries. The automaker did not say how much the recall would cost and it was not clear if the faults stemmed from Toyota's suppliers or its manfacturing process. "We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and concern brought by this recall announcement," Toyota said.

To recall 45,000 units of Innova in India

New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) said on Wednesday it will recall 44,989 units of multi-purpose vehicle Innova manufactured between February 2005 and December 2008 in India to rectify a faulty cable on the steering wheel.

The move is part of a global recall of 6.39 million vehicles announced today by Japanese parent Toyota Motor Corp, the world's biggest car manufacturer.

"The campaign has been announced due to an error in the spiral cable mounted on the steering wheel," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), a joint venture between Toyota and India's Kirloskar group, said in a statement.

The fault leads to continuous illumination of the airbag warning lamp on the instrument cluster. In addition, the driver's airbag may get deactivated, it added.

"Toyota is currently working on obtaining the necessary replacement parts. Once the replacement parts are available, customers will be contacted by the authorised Toyota dealers," the statement added. The repair will be free of cost and is expected to take about one hour for each vehicle, it said. — Reuters/PTI

Rajat Gupta seeks re-hearing of insider trading conviction

New York, April 9
India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta has petitioned that a three-judge panel, which upheld his conviction on insider trading charges, should reconsider its decision and the court rehear the case, arguing that "critical evidence" in his favour was excluded at trial.

Gupta filed a 70-page petition with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday seeking "panel rehearing and rehearing en banc", saying in "rejecting two of his challenges to the exclusion of critical evidence in his case, the panel misapprehended several points" about the insider trading case against him.

"If the panel declines to reconsider its decision, the court should rehear the case en banc," the petition added.

In a unanimous ruling last month, the panel of the appeals court had rejected Gupta's bid for a new trial and upheld his 2012 conviction and sentence.

After a federal jury found Gupta guilty in 2012 of passing confidential boardroom information to his hedge fund friend Raj Rajaratnam, he was sentenced to two years in prison, ordered to pay $5 million in fine and a separate $6 million in restitution to Goldman Sachs.

Gupta's team of lawyers led by Seth Waxman and Gary Naftalis are seeking re-hearing of the case because they feel the panel was wrong in affirming the district court's decision to exclude testimony by Gupta's eldest daughter Geetanjali.

They further say that the district court did not take into account evidence provided by Gupta that Goldman Sachs vice-president David Loeb could have been an "alternative" source of inside information for Rajaratnam, with whom Loeb had shared close relations. — PTI

Sun Pharma denies insider trading charges in Ranbaxy deal

New Delhi, April 9
Sun Pharma today denied insider trading charges against Silverstreet Developers LLP — its wholly owned subsidiary — in the $4 billion acquisition deal of Ranbaxy Laboratories. Silverstreet Developers LLP, which had no holding in Ranbaxy at the end of September 2013, had bought shares of the Gurgaon-based firm aggregating 1.41% stake by end of December 2013. As on March 31, 2014, its holding stood at 1.64%.

In a statement, Sun Pharma said the matter related to purchase of shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd by Silverstreet Developers LLP "does not violate insider trading rules".

It has been reported that Sudhir V Valia, brother-in-law of Sun Pharma managing director Dilip Shanghvi, was one of the partners of Silverstreet Developers LLP. Sun Pharma, however denied this.

"Sudhir Valia is not and was not a partner of Silverstreet Developers LLP when purchase of shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd was effected by LLP," the company said.

Explaining how it has not violated insider trading rules, Sun further said: "Silverstreet Developers LLP has two partners. Both are 100% subsidiaries of Sun Pharma.

Hence, all the benefits flowing from the investment in Ranbaxy shall accrue to Sun Pharma. Sun Pharma shares today closed at Rs 627.80 on the BSE, up 6.91% from its previous close. — PTI

Deal under SEBI scanner

• SEBI has received multiple complaints about alleged irregularities in trading of Ranbaxy shares before the announcement of deal
• SEBI has started collating data related to the matter from stock exchanges and clearing corporations
• Shares of Ranbaxy had witnessed substantial movements last week itself. From March 31 to April 4, Ranbaxy’s shares jumped 26%

New gas rates to be effective April 1: RIL

New Delhi, April 9
After agreeing to temporarily sell gas to urea plants on old terms, Reliance Industries (RIL) has told its sole customers that the new formula, which almost doubles the price of the fuel, will apply from April 1.

Last week, RIL and urea companies failed to settle the key terms of gas supply from April 1 upon expiry of the five-year contracts that priced gas from the eastern offshore KG-D6 fields at $4.205 per million British thermal unit.

While RIL agreed to continue supplies in the interim, the dispute pertained to the rate at which consumers should provide payment guarantees - the expired price or $8.34, which would have been applicable from April 1 had the Election Commission not postponed implementation of the Rangarajan Committee formula till completion of the General Election.

RIL yesterday wrote to the fertiliser firms, saying the gas price of $4.205 per mmBtu was valid only till March 31.

Stating that the terms under which gas is sold was a matter of bilateral discussion, it said fertiliser companies will have to provide security for payment for the differential between the previous and new rates. — PTI

Oil India raises $1bn in overseas bond sale
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 9
Oil India Limited (OIL) today announced that it has made an inaugural $1 billion unsecured bond issue in the international capital markets. The bond issue was oversubscribed by 9.2 times (approximately), which is one of the largest order book for a US dollar issuance out of India. This was the debut foreign currency bond issuance by OIL and is the largest ever issuance from an Indian quasi-sovereign corporate.

OIL conducted an extensive series of investor meetings across UK (London) and Asia (Hong Kong & Singapore). Over 600 investors participated in the landmark two tranche Bond issue.

OIL intends to use the bond proceeds to refinance its bridge loan availed for the recently concluded acquisition of stake in Rovuma block in Mozambique.

SK Srivastava, CMD, OIL, said, “We are pleased with the interest shown by top investors in OIL's debut bond issue. The transaction was well executed in the backdrop of Indian elections and volatile global environment.”