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Sensex
bounces back by 120 points in early trade
Mumbai, Mar
10:
The BSE benchmark Sensex bouncedback by more than 120 points to
17,172.04 in early trade today, on renewed buying in oil & gas,
auto and realty sectors amid mixed Asian cues. The benchmark
index resumed higher at 17,072.94 and shot up further to
17,180.04 before quoting at 17,172.04 at 1015 hrs, showing a
rise of 119.50 points or 0.70 per cent from its last close.At
the same time, NSE 50-share nifty also rose by 34.70 points or
0.68 per cent to 5,136.20.Among gainers were, Reliance
Industries that rose by 2.61 per cent, Tata Motors by 2.38 per
cent, ACC by 1.66 per cent, ITC by 1.41 per cent and Hindalco by
1.33 per cent.The fourth and the last installment of advance tax
by India Inc due on 15th March this year will give a broad
indication of fourth quarter earnings.Asian stocks were trading
mixed in the early trade as key benchmark indices in Hong Kong,
South Korea, Japan, and China and were down by between 0.08 per
cent to 0.39 per cent while indices in Indonesia, Taiwan and
Singapore were up by 0.01 per cent to 0.55 per cent.
Terrorism
being fanned to destabilise economy: HM
New Delhi,
Mar 10:
Terrorism and
militancy are being fanned to destabilise the economy of the
country which is at the threshold of a double digit growth,
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
He said hostile forces seek to undermine the security
and stability of our nation.
“Even while they (hostile forces) challenge our
borders and our boundaries, they make attempts to destabilise
our economy. Terrorism and militancy are being fanned to hinder
the growth of our country,” Chidambaram said in his address at
the CISF Raising Day Parade in Ghaziabad on Wednesday.He said
since the 1980’s, India has emerged as one of the most happening
economies of the world. “The past decade has seen good growth
and our economy is on the threshold of a double digit growth,”
Chidambaram said.He said the country’s growth depends on
infrastructure and the CISF, which guards some of the most
critical installations, is securing India’s future.
About the renewed mandate of the force to provide
security to private installations also, the Minister said his
Ministry continues to receive requests which are being examined
and security will be provided as per priority.At present the
government has selected Information Technology, Power, Oil and
Natural Gas sectors as the top three priorities.
PEC floats bids to import 25,000 tonnes of yellow peas
New Delhi, Mar 10:
State-run PEC has invited bids for import of 25,000 tonnes of
yellow peas to be delivered by next month.
In a notification on its website, it said, the bids
will close on 16th March and decision on tenders will be taken
by 23rd March.Bidders should source yellow peas, which were
grown in the current year, from Canada and the shipment should
reach Mumbai port by April, it added.Facing shortage of pulses,
the government has allowed public trading firms PEC, STC, MMTC
and Nafed to import a total of 1.5 million tonnes of pulses this
fiscal.India’s
pulses production stalled has at 14-15 million tonnes against an
annual demand of 17-18 million tonnes.
Oil down in
Asian trade ahead of energy report
Singapore,
Mar 10 (AFP):
Oil prices extended losses in Asian trade today ahead of a
closely watched report on energy demand in the United States,
the world’s biggest energy consumer. New York’s main contract,
light sweet crude for April delivery, dropped 16 cents to USD
81.33 a barrel. London’s Brent North Sea crude for April
delivery was down 20 cents to USD 79.71 a barrel. Analysts said
investors were waiting for signs of firmer demand in the United
States after an industry report showed a surprise build-up of
crude stocks. The American Petroleum Institute (API) said
Tuesday crude stockpiles for the week ended March 5 rose 6.5
million barrels. Analysts polled by Platts had anticipated an
increase of 2.1 million barrels. “The API reported quite bearish
results yesterday. The crude build-up was larger than expected,”
said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst with the ANZ
bank. She said focus will now be on a report by the US
Department of Energy on oil inventories to be released later
Wednesday for indications on energy demand in the United States.
Crude prices have also been under pressure by a stronger
greenback, which makes dollar-priced oil more expensive,
analysts said. The dollar was steady in the morning as traders
took to the sidelines ahead of US and Chinese economic reports.
SAIL to increase capacity to 26 mtpa by 2014
Mumbai, Mar
10:
State-owned steel maker SAIL on Wednesday said it will increase
its annual production capacity in a phased manner, taking it to
26 million tonnes by 2014.
“At present, the company produces about 13.82 million
tonnes of hot metal every year. In the first phase of expansion,
by the end of 2012, it will be taken up to 23.46 mtpa and in the
second phase it will be increased further to 26.18 mtpa,” SAIL
General Manager (Materials Management) R N Rawat said at a
conference organized by mjunction in the national capital.The
second phase of expansion programme is likely to cost the steel
maker about Rs 10,000 crore.At present, SAIL is undertaking a Rs
70,000-crore expansion programme to raise its annual production
capacity to about 23 million tonnes by 2012 from around 13
million tonnes, now.
The PSU had earlier envisaged to double its annual
production capacity to 26 million tonnes by 2012, but later
revised the target downwards to 23 million tonnes due to global
economic slowdown.
It had, however, said that the remaining capacity
would be added in the second phase of the expansion project.
Govt to collect Rs 1,495 cr as toll tax in 2009-10
New Delhi,
Mar 10 (PTI):
The government expects to collect Rs 1,495 crore as toll tax
from highways during the current fiscal, the Rajya Sabha was
informed today. The tax will come from vehicles plying on a
5,434 km stretch, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal
Nath said during the Question Hour. Nath said if truckers were
evading toll tax in any particular state, the state government
should take immediate measures to check it. “We are holding
talks with various stake holders on different issues pertaining
to toll tax,” he said. Pointing out the infrastructure deficit
especially in the road sector which impacted agriculture, trade
and industry, he said there was a need to bridge the gap by
taking adequate measures.
Haryana
Budget creates corpus to fund local bodies
Chandigarh,
Mar 10 (PTI):
The Haryana budget for 2010-11 presented today increased the
total plan outlay marginally by Rs 100 crore to Rs 10,500 crore
and proposed to impose a surcharge on value added tax to
generate additional resources for local bodies, including
panchayats.While the state is expected to earn Rs 30,085.98
crore in revenue in the next fiscal, the deficit is projected to
be Rs 845.82 crore. Finance Minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav,
who presented the Budget, said the revenue deficit is under
manageable limit, and “primarily on account of pay increase
arising out of the Sixth Pay Commission.” Though the Budget did
not reveal the rate of surcharge on VAT or the total collection
under the head, it said 80 per cent of the total amount will be
allocated to urban bodies and the rest to local. The total
expenditure of state has been projected at Rs 33,600.84 crore
involving revenue expenditure of Rs 28,482.64 crore and capital
expenditure of Rs 5,118.20 crore.The total expenditure for
2010-11 sees a jump of Rs 2,004.73 crore over expenditure of
2009-10. The annual impact of pay increase for 2010-11 stands at
Rs 2,600 crore while arrears and pension bill work out at Rs
1,570 crore.The Budget announced a state annual plan of Rs
10,500 crore for 2010-11, marking just Rs 100 crore increase
over annual plan of Rs 10,400 crore of 2009-10. In addition to
it, state will get funds to the tune of Rs 1,363.58 crore from
centrally sponsored schemes, which will make total plan of Rs
11,863.58 crore. Out of the annual plan, Rs 6,377.41 crore is
allocated to the education sector, Rs 4,642.71 crore to power
while Rs 1,073.62 crore to agriculture sector.
Companies
set to hire 10 lakh in ’10-11
Chennai, Mar
10:
It’s official. Jobs are back. The organised sector in India is
set to create close to a million new jobs in 2010-2011,
according to a Ma Foi Employment Trends Survey. However, hiring
intentions of employers are not really loud and clear in the
immediate future. Most of them are cautious for the next four
months but optimistic about the new financial year. The focus is
on smaller cities like Ahmedabad and Pune. Among the metros,
Chennai is leading, followed by Bangalore and Kolkata. Mumbai
and Delhi are yet to recover fully from the impact of the
slowdown. The survey was conducted earlier this year among 1,000
companies across 11 industry segments in India — banking,
financial services and insurance (BFSI), education, energy,
health, hospitality & travel, IT, ITeS, real estate &
construction, trade, transport and manufacturing. The survey
asked these companies on their hiring plans over the next three
months and over the next year. “There seems to be a cautious
approach by employers. They want to see if the recovery trends
are sustainable since most of their revenue models are based on
western economy and in the US and across Europe there are still
conflicting signals. So while medium to long term plans look
robust, no one wants to get caught on wrong foot,” said E Balaji,
CEO of Ma Foi Management Consultants.
Balaji is bullish about the employment growth in
pharma, healthcare and manufacturing sector (which is expected
to generate 68,000 jobs). “In the BFSI sector, where we expect
46,000 new jobs, bulk of them will be generated by PSU banks,”
he said. “In the IT\BPO sector, growth will be muted in the near
term. Consequently, retail too is likely to lie low for
sometime, since those in the IT\BPO sector are their biggest
spenders and this time around, these lot of people are likely to
be more cautious about their spending habits.” However, the IT
industry is likely to generate 97,000 jobs. Incidentally, only a
couple of days ago, Infosys said the IT industry will create 3
lakh jobs over the next 12 months.
Healthcare is on top of the list expecting to generate
2,95,000 jobs, followed by the hospitality sector (1,37,000).
Real estate follows closely with 1,36,000 new jobs.
Investors
richer by Rs 34L cr in a year
Mumbai, Mar
10:
The stock market witnessed a lacklustre trend on Tuesday, the
one-year anniversary of the current rally, with the BSE sensex
ending 50 points lower at 17,053 and turnover taking a dip.
However, a look back at the rally of the last one year shows
that while the BSE sensex has more than doubled from its March
9, 2009 level of 8,160, the investors are now richer by over Rs
34.3 lakh crore with BSE’s current market capitalisation now at
Rs 60.7 lakh crore. The turnaround, to a large extent, is
attributed to buying by foreign funds which pumped in nearly
$21.3 billion into the stock market through direct secondary
market buying, IPOs, QIPs and other routes. Domestic
institutions, however, have taken out funds from the market,
worth about Rs 5,400 crore. The latest Budget, presented on
February 26 this year, has provided further impetus to long-term
FIIs to buy in the Indian market, institutional dealers said.
The extreme pessimism a year earlier made way for hope
when Manmohan Singh swept to power, about two-and-half months
after the early March low last year. For the first time ever, on
May 18, 2009, markets were closed for the day after just two
minutes of trading as sensex hit the second upper circuit to end
with a gain of 2,100 points. With Pranab Mukherjee back at the
helm in North Block, markets rose further on hopes of better
management of economy by a group of highly qualified minds that
included Montek Singh, C Rangarajan and D Subba Rao. Since
Mukherjee’s Budget in July 2009, sensex has gained 21.4%. In
between, it had also scaled a new year high of 17,790 on January
6 this year. Since the March 2009 lows, 29 of the 30 sensex
stocks have also given positive returns. Tata Motors tops the
chart with a rise about 450% from its multi-year low of Rs 139
on March 12 last year.
Samsung,
Panasonic start selling 3-D TVs this week
New York,
Mar 10:
Samsung and Panasonic will start selling 3-D TVs in US stores
this week, inaugurating what TV makers hope is the era of 3-D
viewing in the living room. Samsung Electronics Co. announced
Tuesday that it is selling two 3-D sets. Combined with the
required glasses and a 3-D Blu-ray player, the prices start at
about $3,000 for a 46-inch (116-centimeter) screen. Panasonic
Corp. has said it will sell its first 3-D set Wednesday. The
push into the living room comes as moviegoers have shown
considerable enthusiasm for the latest wave of 3-D fare in the
theater. This weekend, “Alice in Wonderland” grossed an
estimated $116.2 million at the box office, beating the
first-weekend receipts of “Avatar,” the winter’s 3-D
blockbuster. Although it’s clear that 3-D sets for the home will
appeal to technology and home-theater enthusiasts, it remains to
be seen if the TVs will entice regular consumers to spend $500
or more above the price of a comparably sized standard TV and
Blu-ray player. The 3-D effect requires viewers to wear
relatively bulky glasses that need to be recharged occasionally.
They’re not like the cheap throwaways that have been used in
theaters since the 1950s. When you’re wearing these 3-D TV
glasses, room lights and computer screens may look like they’re
flickering, making it difficult to combine 3-D viewing with
other household activities. And for now, there isn’t much to
watch in 3-D. Samsung is including a 3-D copy of “Monsters vs.
Aliens” on Blu-ray discs with its packages, in a deal with the
studio, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. Its CEO, Jeffrey
Katzenberg, said that it would convert its “Shrek” movies to 3-D
for Samsung TV buyers later this year.
“We continue to see this amazing level of enthusiasm
and excitement for 3-D. The rate of adoption for this into the
cinema has been a rocket ship these last couple of months,’’
Katzenberg said. Eventually, sports and other programming that
will benefit from a more immersive experience should be offered
in 3-D. ESPN has said it will start a channel that will
broadcast live events using the technology, starting with FIFA
World Cup soccer in June. Samsung, the world’s largest maker of
TVs, has high hopes for 3-D. Tim Baxter, the head of the
company’s U.S. electronics division, said he expects 3-D to be
in 3 million to 4 million of the 35 million TV sets that all
manufacturers will sell in the U.S. this year. Sony Corp. said
Tuesday it will start selling its 3-D televisions in June. It
hopes that 10 percent of the TVs it aims to sell in the next
fiscal year will be 3-D units. Both Sony and Panasonic appear to
be positioning their 3-D sets at a higher premium than Samsung.
Panasonic hasn’t yet revealed what its sets will cost, but it’s
using only high-end plasma screens, for maximum image quality.
And rather than selling 3-D sets broadly, it’s going only
through Best Buy Inc.’s Magnolia Home Theater stores. Samsung’s
two new sets will be followed by another 13 3-D capable models
in the next two months. Soon, 3-D packages with plasma sets will
be available for about $2,000, Baxter said.The TVs going on sale
this week aren’t the very first ones that are 3-D capable. A few
years ago, Mitsubishi Corp., started selling 3-D rear-projection
sets.
Govt has no immediate plans to sell stake in IOC, ONGC
New Delhi,
Mar 10 (PTI):
The government has no immediate plans to sell stake in
state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Indian Oil Corp
(IOC), Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said today. Both ONGC
and IOC had opposed follow-on public offers (FPOs) as ambiguous
fuel pricing was affecting their valuations. “There is no
serious consideration (on ONGC and IOC FPOs) at this juncture,”
he told reporters here. The Disinvestment Department had in
December sought oil ministry’’s comments on “public offerings
from the government’’s shareholding” in ONGC and IOC. |
