New Delhi, April 18
Investments into Indian shares through participatory notes (P-Notes), a preferred route for HNIs and hedge funds from abroad, surged to the highest level in nearly three years at Rs 2.07 lakh crore (over $34 billion) in March.

According to the data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the total value of P-Note investments in Indian markets (equity, debt and derivatives) rose to Rs 2,07,639 crore at the end of March from Rs 1,72,738 crore in the preceding month.

This was the highest level since May 2011, when the cumulative value of such investments stood at Rs 2,11,199 crore.

P-Notes, mostly used by overseas HNIs (High Networth Individuals), hedge funds and other foreign institutions, allow them to invest in Indian markets through registered Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), while saving on time and costs associated with direct registrations.

According to market analysts, investment into equity market via P-Notes has been rising in the past few months mainly on hopes of a stable government after the ongoing General Election.

Also, it can also be attributed to stability in the rupee value against the US dollar.

Besides, the value of P-Notes issued with derivatives as underlying, stood at Rs 1.36 lakh crore as on March 31, 2014.

The quantum of FII investments through P-Notes grew to 13% in March from 11.7% in the previous month.

Till a few years ago, P-Notes used to account for more than 50% of the total FII investments, but their share has fallen after SEBI tightened the disclosure norms and other regulations for such investments.

P-Notes have been accounting for mostly 15-20% of the total FII holdings in India since 2009, while it used to be much higher, in the range of 25-40%, in 2008. It was as high as over 50% at the peak of Indian stock market’s bull run during a few months in 2007.

FIIs, the key drivers of Indian markets, pumped in Rs 20,077 crore in the Indian stock market. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
Reliance Industries today posted its highest quarterly profit in more than two years as robust petrochemical margins and a surge in export earnings on a drop in rupee value offset weakness in the natural gas business.

Net profit rose 0.8% to Rs 5,631 crore, or Rs 17.4 per share, in the January-March period from Rs 5,589 crore, or Rs 17.3 a share, in the same period a year ago.

Earnings from oil refining climbed 12.3%, while those from the petrochemical segment were up 10.6%, offsetting a 17.8% dip in the oil and gas business, it said.

RIL, which operates the world's biggest refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, earned $9.3 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the quarter, compared with a gross refining margin of $10.1 a barrel a year earlier and $7.60 a barrel in the preceding three months.

Earnings got a boost as the rupee declined to Rs 61.8 against the US dollar in Q4 from Rs 54.2 a year earlier. Sales rose 13% to Rs 97,807 crore in Q4.

For the full financial year, the company reported a record net profit of Rs 21,984 crore, the highest by any private sector firm in the country. Turnover, too, was at a record high of Rs 401,302 crore. — PTI 

New York, April 18
Facebook users in the US will soon be able to see which of their friends are nearby using a new feature launched by the company.

The "Nearby Friends" feature launched yesterday must be turned on by the user, so people shouldn't expect to broadcast their location unknowingly. It will use your smartphone's GPS system to tell your Facebook friends you are nearby provided they have the feature turned on as well. Rather than share your exact location, it will show only that you are nearby, say, within half a mile.

If you like, you can manually share a more precise location with a specific friend you'd like to meet up with.

Friends can see where you're located in a particular park, airport or city block. By default, your exact location will be shared for only an hour, although you can change this.

Nearby Friends is launched amid the growing popularity of location-based mobile dating apps such as Tinder and Hinge. — AP

New Delhi, April 18
As many as five listed companies, including Cairn India and DCM Shriram, have announced plans to buy back shares worth nearly Rs 6,000 crore from shareholders this year so far.

Other three firms that have launched their buyback offers are Isgec Heavy Engineering, Gujarat Apollo Industries and Indo Borax & Chemicals.

Together, all the five firms have planned to infuse a capital of Rs 5,940.85 crore to repurchase 19 crore shares from their respective shareholders through open market route on stock exchanges, according to the SEBI data.

Cairn India's whopping Rs 5,725-crore buyback offer, which was launched in January, is the major among five programmes this year.

These five firms would have to complete their buyback plans within a period of six months from the date of opening their offer and it would also be mandatory for the companies to repurchase at least 50% of the offers, under the new norms issued by SEBI in August, 2013.

Those not able to meet the target would be barred from launching another offer for a period of one year while they could also be imposed with a penalty amounting to maximum of 2.5% on the funds lying in the escrow account.

Meanwhile, 14 companies have completed their respective buyback programmes, so far this year, and have repurchased nearly 8 crore shares for an amount of Rs 1,210.62 crore.

These include buyback plans of Crompton Greaves, Aptech, UPL Ltd, Jindal Steel & Power and Maharashtra Seamless.

Jindal Steel and Power utilised a total of Rs 500.8 crore to buyback around 2 crore shares followed by UPL Ltd which invested Rs 282.57 crore and repurchased 1.40 crore of its scrips from the shareholders.

Buyback involves purchase of outstanding public shares by a firm in order to reduce the number of shares in the market. — PTI

New Delhi, April 18
Industry has expressed concerns over the issue of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) auditing private telecom companies.

Industry chamber FICCI said the episode raises serious questions on the sanctity of Indian contracts.

The FICCI reaction comes after a Supreme Court order which said the CAG can audit accounts of private telecom firms.

“We have no comment to make on the judgment of the Supreme Court. However, the episode raises serious questions on the sanctity of Indian contracts,” FICCI president Sidharth Birla said.

Birla said if an external audit is part of the contract it is automatically applicable. “Whatever is incorporated ab initio in the contract, the parties must live with it”, he pointed out.

Birla raised concerns over the interpretation of the contract at a later stage through judicial challenge or otherwise as the government has revenue sharing arrangement at all levels of business.

“Subsequent judicial challenge and interpretation creates the possibility of much wider ramifications especially as the government has extensive revenue engagement at all levels of commerce”, he said.

Birla also voiced the bigger fear in industry circles that following the judgment, the applicability of a CAG audit may be extended to many more private sector areas and companies that have an interface with the government.

New Delhi, April 18
Petroleum Secretary Saurabh Chandra today said India needs multi-pronged approach to address its energy security.

"The country needs a multi-pronged and coordinated approach of focused research in multi-disciplinary fields. There is no single answer to the question of energy security," Chandra said at the International Symposium of Fuels & Lubricants, ISFL-2014, organised by Indian Oil Corporation.

He stressed the need for a time-bound action plans for carrying out futuristic research to improve energy security in all sectors.