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Costlier food items push March inflation to 5.7%
Diageo makes Rs 11,449-cr offer for 26% stake in USL
New govt’s policy initiatives to determine credit rating: S&P
Infosys Q4 profit up 25%; gives subdued FY15 revenue guidance
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OilMin wants rules relaxed for RIL in KG gas discoveries
Zebra to buy Motorola’s enterprise biz for $3.45bn
Arvind Mayaram is new Finance Secy
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Costlier food items push March inflation to 5.7%
Wholesale Price Inflation (WPI) came in higher than expected due to increase in food articles like potato, onions, fruits and rise in core inflation. The higher inflation numbers came on the back of a sharp contraction in industrial growth numbers by 3.7% in February. Retail inflation also came in higher at 8.31% in March from 8.03% in February, mainly on account of a rise in fruit and vegetable prices. Retail inflation has been easing for three months since December 2013. Overall inflation in the food basket, including beverages, increased to 9.1% in March from 8.57% in the previous month, according to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the CSO today. Vegetable prices increased 16.8% in March as against a 14.04% rise in February. The prices of fruits rose 17.19% compared with a 15.79% increase in February. Industry has criticised the stand taken by the RBI on interest rates and warned that a prolonged low growth scenario will have implications for employment also. Birla said tackling food inflation should be the top priority for the incoming government and unless this critical economic variable is brought under control, it could have a lasting impact on the overall growth scenario. Aditi Nayar, senior economist, ICRA, said the substantial month-on-month increases recorded by fruit (3%) and vegetables (1.4%) in March reflected the impact of weather-related disturbances on short-term supply-demand dynamics. Nayar said the substantial contribution of wages in the core-CPI basket is expected to keep inflation levels sticky in the near term. Bhupali Gursale, economist, Angel Broking, said the headline WPI inflation for March 2014 has surprised negatively by coming in at 5.7%, higher than market expectations of 5.3% and inflation of 4.68% in February 2014. “We maintain that the non food, non-fuel component is likely to edge higher going forward as well partially impacted by the low base effect setting in”, she said. |
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Diageo makes Rs 11,449-cr offer for 26% stake in USL
New Delhi, April 15 Diageo will pay Rs 3,030 per share of USL, which is more than double the price of Rs 1,440 per share it offered in the previous bid last year. USL shares gained 11.85% to Rs 2,860.05 in afternoon trade on the BSE. The offer for 3,77,85,214 USL shares, being made through Relay BV, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Diageo, is another attempt by the company to increase its stake beyond 50% in the flagship firm of Vijay Mallya-led UB Group. If the offer is fully subscribed, Relay will hold 54.78% of USL’s issued share capital and will have paid about Rs 18,023.14 crore for its total shareholding in USL, Diageo said. Relay currently holds 28.78% of USL’s issued share capital, acquired for Rs 6,574.22 crore, it added. "The price represents a premium of 22.5% to the price at which Diageo acquired USL shares on January 31," it said.
— PTI Offer to shareholders
United Spirits’ stock up nearly 12%
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New govt’s policy initiatives to determine credit rating: S&P
New Delhi, April 15 "The direction and pace of policy reforms, more than which political party takes control, can affect the ratings on the sovereign," S&P said. The outcome of India's General Election can provide an insight into the political stability, ability, and willingness of the new government to implement reforms for boosting economic growth, it said. The results of General Election would be announced on May 16. "We believe that the current political landscape in India suggests that no single party could win an outright majority," said S&P sovereign credit analyst Kim Eng Tan. An important factor is how fragmented the government will be, it said, adding, the more parties involved in the next coalition government, the more likely policies will be incoherent and less supportive of credit attributes. "If we revise our sovereign outlook to stable, those negative outlooks on banks and corporate entities, which reflect the sovereign outlook, could also be revised to stable," it said. A decisive mandate can create an environment for speedy resolution of policy bottlenecks and reforms, and improve private sector investments, it said. This can lay the foundation for India's return to a stronger and healthier growth phase in the medium term. Conversely, a fragile government could further delay critical reforms as decision-making may get hampered, curbing revival in the investment cycle and derailing growth, it added. |
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Infosys Q4 profit up 25%; gives subdued FY15 revenue guidance
The Bangalore-based firm posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,992 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal from Rs 2,394 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue for the reported quarter rose 23.2% to Rs 12,875 crore from Rs 10,454 crore. However, the country's second largest software services exporter said it expects its US dollar revenues to be in the range of 7-9% for the 2014-15 fiscal, which is way below industry body Nasscom's projection of 13-15%. Even in rupee terms, the firm gave a revenue guidance of 5.6-7.6% for the current financial year. Reacting to the results, Infosys opened the day on a positive note and gained 4% to Rs 3,371.80 at the BSE. However, by 11:30 am the scrips lost their initial gains and were trading at Rs 3,286.40 apiece, up by 1.50%. Commenting on the guidance, Infosys CEO and managing director SD Shibulal said: "As we have said in the past, our guidance is a statement of fact. We are coming out from a low momentum quarter, Q4 as well as Q3."We have said that some of the challenges that we faced in Q3 and Q4 will continue to be there during the coming year.”
— PTI |
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OilMin wants rules relaxed for RIL in KG gas discoveries
New Delhi, April 15 Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) had sought taking away the three finds from RIL as the company had failed to prove their commerciality by not conducting prescribed tests. The Oil Ministry is, however, seeking relaxation of the rules for RIL as it feels rebidding the finds may lead to delay in development of the discoveries, which hold 345 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves, sources privy to the development said.
— PTI RIL a parallel state: Former WB Governor
Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Tuesday dubbed Reliance Industries as a "parallel state" that exercised power "brazenly" over natural and financial resources. "We used to talk of black money as a parallel economy and so it continues to be. But Reliance is a parallel state. I do not know of any country where one single firm exercises such power so brazenly, over the natural resources, financial resources, professional resources and, ultimately, over human resources as the company of the Ambanis,” he said delivering the 15th DP Kohli Memorial lecture organised to mark the year-long golden jubilee celebrations of the CBI. |
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Zebra to buy Motorola’s enterprise biz for $3.45bn
Washington, April 15 "This acquisition will transform Zebra into a leading provider of solutions. It positions Zebra as a leading technology innovator, with the accelerating convergence of mobility, data analytics and cloud computing," Zebra's CEO Anders Gustafsson said. Zebra, which recorded sales of $1 billion in 2013, provides technology solutions like barcodes, smart tags that are used for asset or product tracking in places like shopping malls, hospitals etc.
— PTI |
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Arvind Mayaram is new Finance Secy
Mayaram, a 1978-batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, has been holding charge as the Economic Affairs Secretary since 2012 and will continue to look after the Department of Economic Affairs. The post of Finance Secretary was lying vacant after Sumit Bose retired on March 31. |
Wipro gets BSE, NSE approval to merge subsidiaries Mahila Bank to open 55-60 branches by end of FY15 Punj Lloyd wins
Rs 3,254-cr contract in Libya Honda launches special edition of Amaze
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New Delhi, April 15
Sidharth Birla, president, FICCI, said, “The central bank must take a more nuanced stand on its reading of the growth inflation dynamics as we are fast losing ground with regard to performance of the industrial sector. Latest IIP numbers show a decline of 3.7% in manufacturing in February 2014. For how long we can stay on this course should be a matter of national debate. Along with growth of the industrial economy, we also have on stake sufficient employment generation”.
Bangalore, April 15
New Delhi, April 15
