Asian Paints Q1 FY14 PAT at Rs. 275cr down 4.5%

Asian Paints today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended June 30,2013.

Consolidated Results: Q1-FY14: For the quarter ended June 30, 2013, net profit of the group is Rs. 275.2 crores as compared to Rs. 288.4 crores in the previous corresponding quarter. Income from operations has risen by 11.6 % to Rs. 2841.1 crores from Rs. 2546.1 crores. PBDIT for the group has increased by 4% to Rs. 464.7 crores from Rs. 446.6 crores. Profit before Tax is Rs. 423.9 crores as compared to Rs. 426.2 crores in the previous corresponding quarter.

Standalone Results: Q1-FY14; For the quarter ended June 30, 2013, nnt Profit on a standalone basis increased by 3.4 % to Rs. 283.9 crores from Rs. 274.6 crores. Income from operations increased by 12.9 % to Rs. 2319.7 crores from Rs. 2054.0 crores. PBDIT for the quarter increased by 3,6 % to Rs. 419.2 crores from Rs. 404.8 crores. Profit before tax has increased by 4.8 % to Rs. 413.6 crores from Rs. 394.8 crores.

'The decorative paints business in India did well considerins the challenging and uncertain macro environment. Paints Volume grew in double digits. Raw material prices were by and large stable with a softening bias, but were affected by the Depreciation of Rupee" said K.B.S. Anand, Managing Director & CEO, Asian Paints Ltd.

"Industrial paints segment continues to be affected by the economic slowdown. Automotive coatings growth was subdued due to lower demand in the auto sector. International Business registered good growth. Middle East and Asia have done well even though some countries continued to be affected by political events and macro economic uncertainty" he added,

Sensex trading flat; L&T declines

At 2:38 PM (IST), 30-share BSE Sensex is 27 points up at 20,177. It had hit a high of 20,265.

The 50-share NSE index CNX Nifty is trading 8.35 points higher at 6,037. It had hit a high of 6,064.

BSE Mid-cap is 17 points up at 6,010, whereas BSE Small-cap is 4 points down at 5,702.

Some positive buying was observed in Bankex, Auto, IT, TECk, Metal, FMCG and Realty on BSE, while Capital Goods, Oil & Gas, Power, Consumer Durables, PSU and Healthcare were the major losers.

HDFC, M&M, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Coal India, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Sterlite and Hero MotoCorp are up, whereas L&T, BHEL, ONGC, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Lab, RIL, Gail, NTPC and Maruti Suzukiare losing sheen.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) declined 6.62% to Rs. 910. The company disappointed the street on every parameter with the first quarter (April-June) net profit falling higher-than-expected 12.5% year-on-year to Rs. 7.56 billion.

During the period under review, total income increased to Rs. 130.28 billion from Rs. 125.63 billion.

Reliance Industries is weak too (1.32% down) on the back of April-June quarter earnings. On Friday after market hours, RIL reported a third consecutive increase in quarterly profit, even as revenue from gas sales fell and output continued to decline.

RIL posted net profit of Rs. 53.52 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 as compared to Rs. 45.03 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Asian Paints, which is trading 0.66% down at Rs. 5,130, is set to announce its first quarter (April-June) results today.

Wockhardt sinks around 9% on the BSE as the pharma major said it has received a warning letter from US health regulator over its facility at Waluj in Maharashtra not meeting manufacturing norms.

The company had earlier in May announced that the US Food and Drug Administration had issued an import alert on its Waluj facility, which makes injectables and solid dosages.

Suspecting manipulation in currency derivatives trade by certain brokers and traders, Sebi has asked the exchanges to enhance their surveillance for any unauthorised trading being done through benami entities.

Sebi will conduct an auction on Monday for the grant of investment limits to foreign investors in government debt securities. At the auction to be held on the National Stock Exchange, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) would be able to bid for investment limits of Rs. 236.61 billion in government bonds.

Foreign institutional investors(FIIs) bought shares worth Rs. 2.52 billion, while domestic institutional investors were net sellers worth Rs. 2.29 billion on Friday as per the provisional data from NSE.

The RBI on 20 July 2013 said that India’s foreign exchange reserves increased $21.1 million to $280.19 billion. The total forex reserves had decreased $4.48 billion to $280.16 billion in the previous reporting week.

The partially convertible rupee is trading firm at 59.55 against dollar.

Nikkei closed 68 points up at 14,658, while Hang Seng ended 54 points up at 21,416.

The RBI wants to curb unregulated non-banking financial services as part of the its efforts to head off situations in which depositors could lose their money.

The central bank has also allowed loans to new ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) to be regarded as secured debt even though the site and the plant will be owned by distribution utilities, not the winning bidder, according to a media report.

UCB files cases against Ranbaxy, Aurobindo, Glenmark, others

UCB, a global biopharma company, alongwith others has filed separate cases against as many as 15 drug makers, including India's Ranbaxy, Aurobindo, Zydus, Sun Pharma, Glenmark and Alembic Pharmaceuticals for allegedly infringing its patented drug Vimpat.

According to a petition filed by UCB, Inc, UCB Pharma GMBH, Research Corporation Technologies, Inc and Harris FRC Corporation the patent its drug Lacosamide Tablets, 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg and 200 mg would expire on March 17, 2022.

The patent infringement petition was filed in the US District Court for the district of Delaware.

For the 12 months ending March 31, 2013, Vimpat had US sales of approximately $338 million, according to IMS Health.

The drug is approved as an adjunctive therapy to treat partial-onset seizures of people diagnosed with epilepsy aged 17 years and older.

According to petitioners, the patent which belonged to RCT, granted the licence to Harris.

Harris in turn sub-licensed the patent to Schwarg which was acquired by UCB SA along with rights on Lacosamide.

The licence agreement between Harris and Schwarg was restated and amended for all countries of the world by and among Harris, UCB Pharma GMBH and UCB Sa.

"Aurobindo Ltd submitted its ANDA to the FDA for the purpose of obtaining approval to engage in the commercial manufacture, use, offer to sale sale and or import of Aurobindo Ltd's AMNDA products before expiration of the 551 patent.

"By filing it ANDA under... Before the expiration of the 551 patent Aurobindo Ltd has committed an act of infringement," the petitioners alleged in case of Aurobindo.

Reacting to the petition, Mylan in a statement said it believes it is one of the first companies to have filed a substantially complete ANDA containing a Paragraph IV certification for this product and expects to be eligible for 180 days of marketing exclusivity upon final FDA approval.

Glenmark while confirming the petition against it, in a statement said, "If Glenmark is successful in its challenge of the patent, it will garner 180-day exclusivity for its products."

The petitioners requested the court to issue a permanent injunction and enjoining the respondents from engaging in the commercial manufacture, use offer to sell or import until the expiration of the patent or any later date of exclusivity to which the petitioners are entitled.

The patent infringement petition was filed against Aurobindo Pharma Ltd, Accord Healthcare Inc, Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Apotex Corp, Breckenridge Pharmaceutical Inc, Glenmark Generics , Hetero USA Inc Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Petitions were also filed against Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, Sandoz Inc, ScieGen Pharmaceuticals Inc, Sun Pharma, Watson Laboratories Inc and Zydus Pharmaceuticals. 

Tata Power to set up 28.8-MW solar plant in Maharashtra

Country's largest private electricity producer Tata Power today said it is developing a 28.8 MW photovoltaic-based solar project in Maharashtra.

The power producer's wholly-owned subsidiary Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL) is developing the plant in Satara district of Maharashtra.

"The power generated will be evacuated through Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Ltd's network. The company has the major purchase orders for EPC in place and intends to commission the entire project capacity by December 2013," Tata Power said in a statement.

The company has an installed solar power generation capacity of more than 30 MW. This includes 25 MW project at Mithapur, Gujarat, and a 3 MW plant at Mulshi, Maharashtra.

It aims to add 50 MW solar power capacity every year.

"Tata Power is committed to generating 20-25% of its total generation capacity from clean energy sources, and it is proud to be developing one of the largest solar projects in the country," Tata Power MD Anil Sardana said.

At present, four of its renewable projects are registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) programme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

L&T Q1 net down 12% at Rs 756 crore

Larsen & Tubro today reported a net profit of Rs 756 crore in the first quarter of FY14. The company's profit has declined 12% since the same period last year when it posted profit of Rs 864 crore.

The company's net sales stood at Rs 12,555 crore in the same period.

The contruction and engineering company's order inflow in the quarter was at Rs 25,159 crore, improving 28%. Order book as on June 30 stood at Rs 1.65 lakh crore.

Other income reported today was Rs 472.6 crore versus Rs 608 crore in the same period last year. The company's EBITDA margin was at 8.5%.

Reacting to the result, the company's scrip was trading at Rs 914.6 per share, down 6.16% from previous close at 1408 hours.

The company said it will continue to focus on West Asia, Africa, South Asian markets. It also said that EBITDA margins had shrunk due to industry pressures and they will not be revising its FY14 guidance.

However, the company said, it continues to see concerns in the power sector.

Sensex maintains momentum; Reliance, ONGC, BHEL top losers

The market continue to trade near day's high with the Nifty holding the 6050 level in afternoon trade on buying in technology, banks and auto stocks, but the selling in oil & gas stocks capped the upside.

The BSE Sensex is up 87.45 points at 20237.30, and the Nifty is up 24.95 points at 6054.15.

State-run capital goods major BHEL plunged nearly 5 percent. Motilal Oswal expects the company to report 42.6 percent degrowth year-on-year (down 83.4 percent sequentially) in net profit at Rs 528.4 crore in first quarter. Net sales may fall 9.3 percent Y-o-Y (down 59.9 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 7552.2 crore during the quarter, Motilal Oswal adds.

ONGC shares lost 2.5 percent while Reliance Industries and GAIL sliped 1.5 percent each.

Dr Reddy's Labs and Tata Steel are other losers that fell 1.2 percent each.

Meanwhile, Bank Nifty jumped over 110 points as country's largest private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 1.2 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Housing finance major HDFC extended gains to over 3 percent and even healthcare company Sun Pharma gained nearly 3 percent.

Reliance Telecom Ltd moves SC against summoning Anil, Tina Ambani as witness

Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) today moved the Supreme Court challenging trial court's order summoning Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani and his wife Tina Ambani as prosecution witnesses in 2G spectrum allocation scam case. A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, before whom the matter was mentioned for an urgent hearing, agreed to hear the case and posted it for July 24 before an "appropriate bench". RTL, facing trial in the case, moved the Supreme Court against the trial court's order as the apex court had earlier restrained all other courts, including high court, from entertaining any plea arising out of 2G scam case.

The trial court had on July 19 allowed CBI's plea that the testimony of Anil Ambani and Tina Ambani may throw light on alleged investment of over Rs 990 crore by his group companies in Swan Telecom, facing trial in the case along with its promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka. It had said CBI's plea to summon Anil Ambani, Tina and 11 others as prosecution witnesses was essential fo arriving at a just decision in the case.

Testimony of Anil and Tina is required to prove the facts "pertaining to incorporation of shell companies as some of the witnesses examined earlier have not been able to do so," it had said. The court had dismissed the contentions of the counsel for the accused persons that CBI's plea "suffers from the vice of delay" saying the process of examination of prosecution witnesses is still underway.

RADAG's Group company RTL is an accused in the case. Three top Reliance ADAG executives-- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair-- are also facing trial in the case. The agency had alleged RTL used Swan Telecom, an ineligible firm, as its front company to get 2G licenses and the costly radio waves.

Gold rises to 1-month high on weaker US dollar

Gold jumped to its highest level in a month on Monday on technical buying after the US dollar slipped against other currencies, but the precious metal is still down more than 20 per cent this year.

Bullion's appeal against inflation has been dented by expectations the US Federal Reserve will eventually pare back its bond purchase programme. The Fed's three quantitative easing schemes have boosted gold and other commodities.

Gold hit a high of $1,317.30 an ounce, its highest since June 20, and stood at $1,314.64 by 0341 GMT, up $18.90 The metal is more than $600 below a lifetime high struck in 2011.

"It broke through a key technical level, which is $1,300. That level has been tested a few times in the last one and half a week. It's a lot of technical buying and high frequency trading," said Joyce Liu, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

"I don't think fundamentals have changed. I think gold prices are still more prone to the downside. Ben Bernanke's speech last week seems to show the market should be prepared for a reduction in bond buying," said Liu, referring to Fed chairman.

Although cash gold still gained support from bullion futures on Tokyo Commodity Exchange, outflows from SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were likely to cap gains.

The most active June 2014 gold contract on TOCOM rose as high as 4,247 yen a gram, its highest since June 20, because of an initial drop in the yen and gains in the Nikkei.

US gold rose 1.69 per cent to $1,314.80 an ounce.

The euro edged up, but the yen briefly slipped after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was given a solid platform to continue his aggressive push to reflate the world's third biggest economy.

Physical buyers were mostly absent on Monday, but dealers in Hong Kong said supply of gold bars and coins had tightened after a drop in prices to a near three-year low around $1,180 in late June ignited buying.

"We heard some gold refiners in Switzerland will close in August for the summer holidays. They have stopped taking orders. There's technical buying. Maybe we are looking for the price to go up to $1,325," said a dealer in Hong Kong.

"Gold prices in Shanghai are still at premiums, so it also suggests there's a little buying there."

Gold prices in Shanghai were around $21 higher than cash gold

In other precious metals, silver tracked gold higher, platinum rose to its highest since June 19, while sister metal palladium jumped to its strongest in nearly six weeks.

Hedge funds and money managers raised their bullish bets in gold and silver futures and options in the week to July 16, while they trimmed net shorts in copper, a report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.

Scrapped plants signal weak Asia steel industry

ArcelorMittal (Ba1 negative) said on 17 July that it is dropping its plan to build a steel plant in eastern India with an annual production capacity of 12 million tonnes, according to news reports. The announcement came two days after news reports that POSCO (Baa1 negative) is cancelling its plan to build a $5.3 billion steel plant in India capable of producing 6 million tonnes per annum. Both companies attributed the cancellations to deteriorating market conditions in the steel industry, along with project-specific issues such as delays in land acquisitions and uncertainties over iron-ore supply.

Slowing economic growth in China, which is Asia’s largest consumer and producer of steel, has reduced demand for steel over the past two to three years. Excess supply has pushed steel prices and steel producers’ profits to historical lows. Steelmakers’ net profit margins have also contracted and their debt leverage has increased as a result of weak cash flow generation. They are now more cautious about capital expenditures and need to ensure they have an adequate cash cushion.

We downgraded the ratings or changed the outlook to negative for three of the seven Asian steel companies we rate over the past 12 months1, including POSCO, because their credit metrics have weakened alongside demand.

The project cancellations also indicate that the long-term sales and earnings prospects for new steel plants have become less favorable than in the past. Both ArcelorMittal and POSCO began study on their new plants when steel demand was increasing by more than 10% per annum in Asia. The benefits of building an efficient steel have diminished because utilization rates will likely be low given the weak demand, and companies’ interest burdens will increase if they use debt to fund the projects.

We expect the operating environment will remain challenging for steel companies over the next 12 months given slowing GDP growth in China - it declined to 7.5% in the second quarter; the decrease in China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) to 50.1 in June, which reflects limited expansion in the country’s manufacturing sector; and continued overcapacity.

The plant cancellations will have limited impact on the credit quality of our rated Asian companies including POSCO. For POSCO, we have not assumed the $5.3 billion capital expenditure for its Indian project in our rating given its delay in land acquisitions. Nevertheless, the exit will allow POSCO to focus more on its cost savings.

Kalindee Rail : Updates on intimation of issue price for the proposed preferential allotment

With reference to the earlier announcement dated July 19, 2013 regarding intimation of issue price for the proposed preferential allotment, Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) Ltd has now informed BSE that the preferential issue price as the intimation made on July 19, 2013 has a typographical error. The revised announcement should be read as follows:

"Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company, in its meeting held on July 13, 2013 had approved the issuance of 41,10,400 equity shares of the Company of a face value of Rs. 10 each representing approximately 24.90% of the post issue issued, subscribed and paid up equity share capital of the Company to Texmaco Rail & Engineering Limited ("Texmaco"), on a preferential allotment basis at a price which shall be Rs. 65 per equity share or such higher price determined in accordance with the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009 (“ICDR Regulations”). Subsequently, the notice and explanatory statement dated July 13, 2013 was dispatched to the shareholders of the Company requesting them to vote by postal ballot on the special resolution in relation to the aforementioned preferential allotment to Texmaco.

In terms of Chapter VII of the ICDR Regulations, the ‘Relevant Date’ for the purpose of calculating the ‘Floor Price’ for the aforementioned preferential allotment was July 18, 2013 (being 30 days prior to the declaration of results of the postal ballot i.e. August 17, 2013 which is deemed to be the date of the general meeting of the shareholders for the purposes of calculating the ‘Relevant Date’).

Further the Company has informed that, the ‘Floor Price’ for the purposes of the preferential allotment to Texmaco, computed in accordance with the provisions of the ICDR Regulations, has been determined to be Rs. 65.13.

Accordingly, the issue price of 41,10,400 equity shares to be allotted on preferential basis to Texmaco has been fixed at Rs. 65.13 per equity share, subject to the special resolution being passed by the shareholders of the Company through postal ballot."

General insurers to monitor accidents on highways

General insurance companies are planning to launch a new project to track fatal accidents on major highways and provide instant medical support to the victims, according to a media report.

The need for such a project comes from the fact that road accidents claim one life almost every four minutes in India. The first project will be introduced on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada expressway, after approvals from the Andhra Pradesh Government, the report added.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and general insurers have set aside Rs. 90 million for mapping the number of accidents in the region. The project will be carried out in collaboration with GMR Infrastructure and ‘108’ ambulance services for two years.

Ashok Leyland bets big on defence

Hinduja Group's flagship company Ashok Leyland Ltd has said that it is betting big on defence business from the domestic market and overseas. The company has said that it has bid for five defence tenders and in one of the tenders along with L&T (Larsen and Toubro Ltd) the company is in L1.
V Sumantran, vice chairman, Ashok Leyland said that the company is part of five defence tenders and with Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) it the L1 (lowest number 1) in one tender with new Super Stallion platform. The company also participated in few tenders with five different global players for different applications. Sumantran refused to disclose the size of the tender.

 He said that the project is long term and is intended for testing ready in 2017. Volumes are going to appear after 2020.
Ashok Leyland, the largest private sector supplier for defence, has also come up with new Super Stallion with 350-360 HP compared to earlier Stallion vehicle, which had 200-300 HP.
He added, so far mostly the company was depend on the Stallion platform and now decided to with another platform Super Stallion, which is significantly bigger platform 6X6, 8X8.

“This will fulfill the role played by Tatra models and these vehicles helped us to get entry into this,” said Sumantran. The company also said it would look at exporting Super Stallion platform.

 He also said the company is a partner or part of a consortium or sub-system provider for 150mm mounted gun system on a truck. It may be noted, Ashok Leyland joined hands with French major Panhard General Defence to develop COLT 4x4 light tactical armoured vehicle.

 Company's defence business in 2012-13 was impacted due to cutbacks by the Government. The company Completely Built Unit (CBU) sales Dom in fiscal 2013 was 325 as compared to 352 and VFJ Kits (nos) + MPV kits was at 2463 units as compared to 2981 units. Exports rose to 22 units from 18. The company attributed slow procurement by VFJ and government cut backs for the drop.


While CVs form a majority of its revenues almost 88% in 2012-13, the company also makes defence kits, spare parts and engines for industrial and marine applications.

Central Bank of India trades higher on the bourses

Central Bank of India is currently trading at Rs. 63.80, up by 0.65 points or 1.03% from its previous closing of Rs. 63.15 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 63.15 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 63.90 and Rs. 62.65 respectively. So far 11136 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 95.60 on 09-Jan-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 59.75 on 25-Jun-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 64.45 and Rs. 60.30 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 6664.40 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 85.31% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 9.21% and 5.48% respectively.

Public-sector bank, Central Bank of India has inaugurated a branch located at Bharat Diamond Bourse, BKC in Mumbai, which will cater to the banking needs of Diamond Merchants. The Chairman & Managing Director of the bank inaugurated the branch in a grand function attended by most of the top diamond merchants from Bharat Diamond Bourse and top officials of the bank.

Central Bank of India has been serving more than 3,50,00,000 account holders through its 4,118 branches, 6 extension counters, 29 Satellite offices, 1,970 ATMs and 2,413 ultra small branches (USBs).

OnMobile closes Deal Livewire Mobile acquisition

OnMobile Global Limited, a global leader in telecom Value Added Services (VAS), announced today that its acquisition of Livewire Mobile has closed. Livewire Mobile’s comprehensive portfolio of mobile music, RBT and gaming solutions and its marquee client base including: Sprint, metroPCS, US Cellular and Cricket, will combine with OnMobile’s prestigious American customer base including AT&T, T-Mobile and Rogers to establish a footprint at six of the top ten mobile operators in North America.
The new combined entity presents a single source solution for integrated Value Added Services that will cater to high value subscriber segments, including youth and upwardly mobile professionals. 
“Global mobile operators have struggled to monetize mobile data beyond core data plans, partly due to aggressive competition from OTT players over the last several years,” said Harry Wang, lead mobile analyst from international market research firm Parks Associates. “The mobile VAS market represents an attractive opportunity for operators, but they must find an efficient means to aggregate, package, distribute, and manage these content and services in order to create a differentiated user experience.” Wang continued, “Managed service partners, such as OnMobile, could provide this expertise more efficiently.”
David Fondots, VP, Head of North and Latin America, who will head up the combined entity operations said: “As operators invest in LTE migrations to address the exponential growth of mobile data consumption, it is critical to offer solutions that not only acquire, but retain high value subscribers. With embedded device solutions conveniently tied to Operators’ billing services, OnMobile will now be able to provide consumers with personalized value added service bundles and pricing that cannot be matched by OTT players and other siloed services”.
“RBT, Music and gaming are some of the fastest growing mobile market sectors.  Our ability to leverage extensive content provider relationships and proven expertise in mobile application marketing, give OnMobile a distinct advantage to deliver sticky content solutions that allow operators an opportunity to regain a stake in the value chain, acquire new subscribers, and monetize their LTE investment”.

About OnMobile :
OnMobile Global Limited is already one of the largest B2B digital Value Added Service providers globally, providing mobile entertainment services for top Telecom operators in Asia, Africa and Europe.  OnMobile has unparalleled experience with the world’s largest mobile providers creating new programs that successfully leverage Value Added Services such as RBT, Music and Gaming’s consumer appeal to create new subscriber acquisition programs tied to data and core services. 

Need Rs 2.3 lakh crore to meet Basel-III norms: SBI

The nation's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) needs Rs 2,30,000 crore in additional capital to meet the stringent Basel III requirements till 2018, a top official has said.

 "We need about Rs 2,30,000 crore of additional capital for Basel III up to 2018. Out of this, Rs 1,50,000 crore is of tier I and the rest Rs 80,000 in tier II capital," SBI managing director and chief financial officer Diwakar Gupta told PTI here in an interaction.

 Gupta, who is retiring after nearly four decades at SBI towards the end of the month, further said the requirement is for a five-year period. The bank is comfortable on the capital front at present and also expressed confidence that the lender will be able to manage this huge amount, he added.

 According to the Reserve Bank (RBI), the banking system will collectively require Rs 5,00,000 crore to implement the Basel-III capital needs. Basel-III is the newer international standard of capital allocation devised and adopted following the 2008 financial crisis.

 The Basel III measures lay a lot of emphasis on increasing the buffers, which can help in times of difficulty and avoid the stress spilling over to other markets in the highly interconnected financial system.

 The Reserve Bank introduced the Basel III capital regulations for banks effective this fiscal year. The capital requirements will be phased over a period, up to March 2018, nine months ahead of the Basel Committee phase-in.

 According to experts, some of the required money will come through internal accruals aqnd some part will have to be raised from the market.

 Gupta said for SBI, it is important to time the capital raising appropriately, as other banks will also be looking to raise capital.

 "When the whole banking industry will need money, we need to time our capital raising accordingly. Therefore, the sooner we go to the market, the better it is," he said.

 Gupta, however, expressed reservations if this is the right time to do so, citing highly volatile capital markets.

 For this fiscal, the bank can collect upwards of Rs 20,000 crore, which will include infusion from the government, from the market as well as from internal accruals.

 The government is likely to infuse Rs 4,000 crore into the bank this fiscal out of the Rs 14,000 crore planned towards recapitalising the nationalised banks this fiscal.

 Gupta said the government owns a little over 62% in the bank and that there is a scope for getting it down to up to 58% levels for the additional capital raising.

 SBI, whose capital adequacy stood at 12.92% as of March 2013, had received an infusion of Rs 7,900 crore from the government last fiscal.

Rupee slips to 59.46 after positive start

The Indian rupee weakened after a positive start on Monday signalling the many steps the central bank and the government have taken to stem the slide in the currency have failed to create a decisive impact on the currency.

The partially convertible rupee traded at 59.46 as of 09.10 a.m. against Friday's close at 59.35. It had pulled back to 59.31 in early trades. The central bank will sell Rs. 23,660 crore worth of government debt limit to overseas investors on Monday. If successful, the inflows may provide short term support to the currency.

The rupee gained 0.3 per cent last week, marking its second consecutive weekly gain, even as traders said the Reserve Bank of India's measures to raise short-term interest rates to support the rupee unveiled late on Monday have not yet had a meaningful impact.

Concerns have risen about the success of the steps after the government cancelled a treasury bill sale and the central bank had to reject most bids at a special bond sale as investors demanded higher yields.

Bond yields had posted their worst week in four-and-a-half years with yields rising 40 basis points, roiled by the RBI's steps.

RIL to merge with Reliance Energy with Co

Reliance Industries Ltd has announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on July 19, 2013, has approved a scheme of arrangement for amalgamation of Reliance Energy Generation and Distribution Limited (REGDL), a wholly-owned unlisted subsidiary company, with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).

Further the Company has informed that, no new shares of RIL will be issued by the transferee company upon the Scheme becoming effective as the entire paid-up equity share capital of REGDL is held by RIL.

Federal Bank drops after poor Q1 outcome

The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 19 July 2013.
Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 25.01 points or 0.12% at 20,124.84.
On BSE, 3,692 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 84,144 shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 372.80 and a low of Rs 362.30 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 361.50 on 18 July 2013. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 550.75 on 2 January 2013.
The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 19 July 2013, declining 13.72% compared with the Sensex's 4.7% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 15.64% as against Sensex's 5.96% gain.
The mid-cap private sector bank has equity capital of Rs 171.06 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
Federal Bank's ratio of net non-performing assets (NPAs) to net advances stood at 0.91% as on 30 June 2013, as against 0.98% as on 31 March 2013 and 0.62% as on 30 June 2012. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 3.51% as on 30 June 2013, as against 3.44% as on 31 March 2013 and 3.6% as on 30 June 2012.
Federal Bank's provisions and contingencies jumped 290.41% to Rs 245.10 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012.
The bank's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) as per Basel II norms stood at 15% as on 30 June 2013, as against 14.73% as on 31 March 2013 and 15.45% as on 30 June 2012. CAR as per Basel III norms stood at 14.27% as on 30 June 2013.

RIL may invest $5.1 bn in US shale gas business

Reliance Industries LTD is planning to invest $5.1 bn (Rs 30,290 crore) in the next three years in its US shale gas business, according to reports.
The company acquired shale gas assets in the US in 2010 for $3.45 billion and has invested $5.7 bn in shale gas joint ventures till June 2013.
The company posted an 84% rise in revenue from its shale gas venture in the US on rising production.
Reliance Industries Ltd could however boost the sentiment as the oil and gas major posted a 19% jump in net profit at Rs 5,352 crore on back of stronger margins in its core oil refining and petrochem businesses.

CPI for agricultural & rural labourers up 12.65% in June

According to a Press Note issued by the Labour Bureau, Govt. of India, Ministry of Labour & Employment The All-India Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers (Base: 1986-87=100) for June, 2013 increased by 10 points each to stand at 729 ( Seven hundred and twenty nine) points for Agricultural Labourers and 730 points (Seven hundred and thirty) for Rural Labourers.

The rise/fall in index varied from State to State. In case of Agricultural Labourers, it recorded an increase which varied between 1 to 18 points in 18 States and a decrease of 1 & 4 points in 2 State. Karnataka with 808 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 566 points stood at the bottom.

In case of Rural Labourers, it recorded an increase between 1 to 18 points in 18 States and a decrease of 4 points in 1 State. It however remained stationery in 1 State. Karnataka with 804 points topped the index table whereas Tripura States with the index level of 597 points stood at the bottom.

Andhra Pradesh State registered the maximum increase of 18 points each for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers mainly due to increase in the prices of rice, ragi, pulses, meat goat, fish fresh, milk, chillies green/dry, ginger, mixed spices, vegetables & fruits and gur. On the other hand, Meghalaya State registered the maximum decline of 4 points each for CPI-AL and CPI-RL due to decrease in the prices of rice and chillies green.

Point to point rate of inflation based on the CPI-AL and CPI-RL increased from 12.70% and 12.50% in May, 2013 to 12.85% and 12.65% in June, 2013. Inflation based on food index of CPI-AL and CPI-RL are 13.97% and 13.92 % respectively during June, 2013.