New Delhi, August 1
The BSE Sensex today fell over 414 points, logging its biggest single-day drop in over 3 weeks, to end at 25,480 points due to selling across the board triggered by a global sell-off.

The Sensex ended down 414 points, or 1.60% — its biggest fall since July 8 when it tanked 518 points after Railway Budget. The BSE barometer had lost 192 points yesterday. The Sensex finished the week with a loss of 646 points, snapping two weeks of successive gains.

Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty dipped below 7,600-mark by plunging 118 points or 1.54%, to end at 7,602 points.

Dipen Shah, head — Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities, said markets sold off in the second half of the day to close 1.5% lower. Weak global markets and continuing geo-political tensions rode over the positive core sector growth data released in India yesterday.

Shah said for the week benchmark indices lost about 2.5% and have ended at a near two-week low. Lower inflation in EU, expectations of earlier-than-expected rise in US interest rates, default by Argentina and some lower-than-expected quarterly results in India soured sentiments, he added.

In the short term, quarterly results, geo-political factors and the progress of monsoons will take most of the attention of the market.”

Alex Mathews, head, Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, said the new F&O August series started with a negative bias, but during the first half Nifty tried to recover from the lower levels on various macro-economic datas, but failed to sustain at higher levels, global market cues spoilt the party. The European markets were trading lower as of weak corporate earnings. The US index futures were also trading lower.

Macro data has been good with India’s factory activity expanding at its fastest pace in 17 months. The HSBC manufacturing PMI data for the month of July stood at 53 from 51.5 in June, which was its highest level since February 2013. The reading of 50 separates expansion from contraction.

The FIIs were sellers in capital market segment, sold shares worth Rs 1,654.86 crore on Thursday, 31 July 2014. On the other hand, the DIIs were net buyers on 31 July 2014, bought shares worth Rs 1420.36 crore as per the provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Mumbai, August 1
Concerned over flouting of listing norms by companies and lack of good governance practices, market regulator SEBI today asked stock exchanges to step up their vigil to identify any errant behavior, including while holding AGMs.

The regulator said there have been cases when corporate groups with multiple listed companies have wrapped off various AGMs (annual general meetings of shareholders) within time gaps of 15 minutes without giving enough discussion time to shareholders, numbering over a lakh.

“Such a practice affects the rights of investors to seek clarifications/hold discussions and prima-facie appears to be prejudicial to the interest of the investors,” SEBI said in a strong-worded circular to the stock exchanges.

SEBI asked the stock exchanges to “step up and equip their monitoring framework to identify and monitor such practices” and ensure that the Principles of Corporate Governance are followed in “letter and spirit”.

There have been instances when multiple listed companies of a single corporate group held almost back to back AGMs on a single day with very short-duration time gaps.

The companies explain such practices by saying that their various listed companies mostly have common shareholders, while holding AGMs on single day and at single venue saves time and cost too.

In its circular, SEBI said “the Principles of Corporate Governance, inter-alia, provide that shareholders should have opportunity to participate effectively and vote in general shareholder meetings.

“These principles also require companies to facilitate effective shareholder participation and exercise of ownership rights and require that company procedures shall not make it unduly difficult or expensive to cast votes.

In this regard, SEBI observed that “some listed companies belonging to a common group have held their AGMs, with a time gap of 15 minutes between two AGMs”.

“It is also observed that these companies were formed out of demergers and had 80% common shareholding thereby leaving only 15 minutes each for the common shareholders to attend the AGM of these companies,” it added.

While SEBI did not identify the corporate group, late last year it had asked the stock exchanges to seek clarification from listed companies of Indiabulls group after they were found to have held 15-minute-long AGMs of various listed firms. — PTI

New Delhi, August 1
Internet giant Google is the most attractive employer for graduates from the Asia-Pacific region in a list of top firms which figures no Indian company.

According to global employer branding firm Universum’s 2014 Most Attractive Employers in Asia-Pacific Ranking, Google has emerged as the most desirable employer in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Google is followed by Deloitte, Citi, Apple and P&G in the top-five firms for business students. Among engineering and IT students, Google is followed by Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and BMW.

The list has 50 companies each for the two categories, but no India company figures in either of the lists, although a number of these companies have significant headcount in India.

The latest Fortune Global 500 list has eight Indian firms, including public sector undertaking Indian Oil Corporation which was featured in the top 100 at the 96th position.

Besides, Deloitte, the other three major accounting firms were also placed among the Top 10. KPMG was ranked 6th, PwC 7th and Ernst & Young 8th.

The popularity of banks and professional service firms were also visible in the rankings as these firms took 11 of the top 20 positions. — PTI 

New Delhi, August 1
Major carmakers today posted growth in domestic sales in July signalling revival in the automobile market. Maruti Suzuki India reported 19.9% increase in domestic sales at 90,093 units in July as against 75,145 units in the same month last year.

Hyundai posted a growth of 12.69% in its domestic sales at 29,260 units as compared to 25,965 units in the same month last year.

Honda reported 39.97% increase in domestic sales at 15,709 units as compared to 11,223 units in July last year. Toyota’s sales in July stood at 11,921 units as against 11,515 units in the year-ago month. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Rupee crashes 63p vs $ to end at over 4-month low
Mumbai: Weakness in global stock markets and a strong US currency pulled down the rupee by a whopping 63 paise to end at over four-month low of 61.18, logging its worst weekly loss since January 24. Importers and some banks bought dollars and short-sellers covered their positions on hopes of further hike in the dollar value after US Fed recently trimmed its monthly economic stimulus by $10 billion. — PTI

Forex kitty up $2.71 bn to $320bn; nears all-time high
Mumbai: India’s foreign exchange kitty surged $2.714 billion to $320.564 billion on a healthy increase in the core currency assets. With this jump, the total reserves are shy of the all-time high of $321 billion achieved in late 2011. — PTI

BHEL commissions another 68 MW unit
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has commissioned the fifth 68 MW unit of the Rampur hydro power project in Himachal Pradesh. "The earlier four units at Rampur plant were commissioned between March 2014 and June 2014. All the four have since been put into commercial operation. The sixth and last Unit is in an advanced stage of execution and is likely to be commissioned shortly," the power equipment maker said on Friday. — PTI

KV Chowdary is new CBDT chairman
New Delhi: Senior IRS officer KV Chowdary has been appointed new chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the top policy-making body of the Income Tax Department. He today took charge at his office in North block in the Finance Ministry. He will have a tenure of three months. — PTI

Losses on sale of diesel dip to Rs 1.33/litre
New Delhi: Losses on the sale of diesel have dropped to an all-time low of Rs 1.33 per litre, bringing the prospect of deregulation of the nation’s most consumed fuel within sniffing distance. If the current trend continues, diesel will be deregulated in three months. — PTI