BUSINESS NEWS
18-05-2012
India can grow at 8-9% for 20 years: Montek
India has the potential to grow at 8-9 per cent for the next two decades and a supportive global environment will help the country achieve this goal, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said.
Addressing a high-level debate on 'State of the World Economy and Finance in 2012' at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Ahluwalia said the Indian economy grew at an average rate of 9 per cent in the five years prior to the financial crisis of 2008.
Rupee rebounds after hitting latest record low
The rupee recovered after earlier dropping to its third consecutive daily record low, tracking a recovery in domestic stocks and after a RBI deputy governor said the Reserve Bank of India would continue to defend the currency.
RBI's Subir Gokarn said the central bank will continue with its intervention as well as administrative measures to support the local currency, which has fallen over 10 percent since its February peak.
State Bank of India Q4 net soars at Rs 4,050 crore
State Bank of India, the country's biggest lender, has reported Rs 4,050 crore in net profit for the quarter ending March 31. The lender had reported a net profit of Rs 20.9 crore a year.
The higher than expected profits, however, came on account of a sharp rise in non-core income. SBI's other income rose to Rs 5,264 crore in the March quarter over Rs 4,815.49 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
The bank's core income, or the net interest income, rose slightly lower than expected at Rs 11,704 crore against estimates of Rs 11,787 crore.
The biggest surprise was on the asset quality front. Gross non-performing assets, as a percentage of advances, declined 4.4 per cent in the fourth quarter against 4.61 per cent in the third quarter. SBI, which has given loans to some of India's most troubled borrowers including Kingfisher Airlines, said its net non-performing assets were at 1.82 per cent of total loans at end of March compared with 1.63 per cent a year earlier and 2.22 per cent at end-December.
Sensex, Nifty set for big fall, Asian stocks drop sharply
The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty look set to open gap down Friday as global cues worsened overnight, leading to another selloff in risk assets. At 08.10 am, the Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange, traded 77 points or 1.6 per cent lower at 4,765.
Negative global news has driven stock prices down and the Sensex has lost over 1,000 points in May. The Nifty, too, is trading well below long term supports.
"The trading window has narrowed... we maintain targets of 4,650-4,700 for the Nifty," independent analyst Sarvendra Srivastava told NDTV Profit.
Japan's Nikkei share average dropped sharply today with securities hammered by fears of contagion from Spain's ailing bank system and a strong yen pushed down exporters.
The Nikkei dropped 2.4 percent to 8,652.04, having dropped through support at 8,800. The broader Topix followed suit with a 2.5 percent fall to 728.81.
"Almost everybody is trading for no longer than a couple of days now and the hedge funds are trying to make hay out of this by shorting stocks aggressively," said a trader at a foreign bank. "They just have the market to themselves and can knock stocks down because there's nobody to support them."
Concerns of a weakening banking sector in Spain could negatively impact its counterpart in Japan and pulled securities down 4.3 percent, with Nomura Holdings losing 4.2 percent.
Moody's downgrades 16 Spanish banks
Moody's Investor Service carried out a sweeping downgrade of 16 Spanish banks on Thursday, including Banco Santander, the euro zone's largest bank, citing a weak economy and the government's reduced ability to support troubled lenders.
All the banks' long-term debt ratings were downgraded by at least one notch, and some suffered three-notch cuts.
Spain's banks, awash in bad loans after a real estate boom went bust, are at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis because markets fear a state bailout would put a severe strain on the country's already stretched public finances.
Spain relapsed into an economic recession in the first quarter and likely faces a prolonged slump as the government tries to shrink its budget deficit by slashing spending.
Dow slumps again; 10-year yield near all-time low
Unable to shake their worries about Europe, investors drove stocks to a four-month low Thursday and piled into bonds, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury note close to an all-time low.
The Dow Jones industrial average posted its 11th loss in 12 days after a pair of discouraging economic reports further unnerved traders already concerned about a possible exit from the euro by Greece.
The Dow lost 156.06 points, most of it toward the end of the trading day, to close at 12,442.49. It is down almost 6 percent for May, and what had been a strong year for stocks has been reduced to a slender 1.8 percent gain.
The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index closed at its lowest point since Jan. 17.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year note hit 1.69 percent. That is lower than any 3 p.m. reading since at least 1953, according to records kept by the Federal Reserve.
Finance ministry wants Central PSUs to go for listing
Unfazed by the current stock market volatility, the government has advised the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to go for listing in order to improve corporate governance and reduce their dependence on government finance for their capital requirement.
The financial advisers, who are the board of CPSEs, are requested to emphasise the benefits of listing and get them listed in compliance with the disinvestment policy, the finance ministry said its communications to CPSEs.
Samsung India eyes 35% share of flat TV market
South Korean consumer electronics major Samsung is bullish on the flat panel TV business in India and is eying a 35 per cent market share in the segment that is expected to touch 50 lakh units in the current year.
The company, which is present in India through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Samsung India Electronics, currently has a market share of around 30 per cent of the 38 lakh units of flat panel TVs in the country.
Government proposes to spend Rs 73,793.35 crore on major ports by 2017
The government on Thursday, said it has proposed an investment of Rs 73,793.95 crore for the development of various projects in the port sector in the ongoing 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).
"As regards Major Ports... In the 12th Five Year Plan the Government of India has proposed to invest Rs.73,793.95 crore for the development of various projects in the port sector," an official statement said quoting Shipping Minister G K Vasan.
Rupee falls to record low at 54.71
The Indian rupee continued to slide on Friday and opened at 54.65 to the US dollar, falling to a record low of 54.71 in early trade. Global worries weighed on financial markets that saw a selloff across Asia as trading began.
This is the third straight day that the rupee has fallen to a new low, starting Wednesday when it breached its earlier record low of 54.30 in mid-December
Twitter agrees to 'do not track' policy action
Twitter will honor requests from users who do not want their online behavior tracked, the company said on Thursday, in contrast with Web companies such Google and Facebook whose business models rely heavily on collecting user data.
Twitter said it will officially support "Do Not Track," a standardized privacy initiative that has been heavily promoted by the US Federal Trade Commission, online privacy advocates and Mozilla, the non-profit developer of the Firefox Web browser.
JSW Steel promoter pledges 59.8 lakh shares
JSW Steel on Thursday said one its promoters, JSW Investments, pledged 59.8 lakh shares of the company.
Post pledging, holding of JSW Investments in the company came down to 1.16 per cent, the steel firm said in a BSE filing.
Shares were pledged in favour of L&T Finance. Before pledging, the promoter held 85.8 lakh shares in the company, it added. Shares of JSW closed down 2.84 per cent at Rs 601.85 a piece on the BSE, yesterday.
DLF in advance stage of talks to sell stake in Amanresorts
Realty giant DLF, which plans to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore by selling its stake in luxury hospitality chain Amanresorts, is in advanced talks with a few interested buyers and a deal could be closed soon.
DLF had acquired a controlling stake in Amanresorts for $400 million in 2007. It now has a 100 per cent stake in the hospitality chain that has about 25 resorts across the world.
SBI to lend Rs 1,400 crore to DVC's 500-mw Bokaro plant
The country's largest lender, State Bank of India, says it has agreed to lend Rs 1,400 crore to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for its upcoming 500-mw thermal plant at Bokaro.
"State Bank of India has agreed to lend Rs 1,400 crore to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to part-fund its 500 mw Bokaro thermal power station (A) project," a bank release said here, adding SBI's associate banks will lend Rs 1,000 crore for this purpose.
Tariffs can't be hiked within 6 months from enrollment date: Trai
Telecom operators cannot increase tariffs of subscriber plans for six months from the enrolment date, but they are free to reduce call rates at the same time, sectoral regulator Trai said.
In its Consumers' Handbook on Telecommunications released on Thursday, Trai said, "A tariff plan once offered by an access provider shall be available to a subscriber for a minimum period of six months from the date of enrolment of the subscriber to that tariff plan."
However, for any tariff plan, the operator is free to reduce tariffs at any time but "no tariff item in a tariff plan can be increased by the service provider," it added
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