Jaiprakash Associates to sell 74% stake in cement manufacturing unit in Bokaro to Dalmia Cement

Jaiprakash Associates has inked an agreement to sell its 74 per cent stake in a cement manufacturing unit in Bokaro to Dalmia Cement (Bharat) for around Rs 1,150 crore. It will help the company to cut the Rs 60,000 crore debts on its books. The company is planning to trim the debt by Rs 15,000 crore by March end.

Jaypee Group is the country’s third largest cement maker. Swiss major Holcim owns majority stake in both ACC and Ambuja Cement with a combined capacity of around 52 mtpa in India.

Indian rupee surges to seven and half months high

Indian rupee continuing its jubilation made another strong start, surging to its seven and half months high on Tuesday morning. The domestic currency has gained momentum tracking broad global losses in the dollar and as foreign investors continued to buy into the Indian equities. Though, the local share markets have today made a somber start on weak global cues, the rupee strengthened with dollar selling by exporters. In global markets, euro held gains versus most of its major counterparts before European Central Bank President Mario Draghi speaks today.

The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 60.50, stronger by 28 paise from its previous close of 60.78 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 60.60 and 60.50 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 60.70 and for Euro stood at 83.80 on March 24, 2014. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 59.26, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 100.1053. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai. 

Date	1US$	1GBP
March 24, 2014	60.70	100.1053
March 21, 2014	61.04	100.8061

(RBI-Reference rate)

See better sales in Mar; will launch Ciaz in Q2FY15

After the success of Celerio,  Maruti is ready with yet another launch, the mid-sized Sedan Ciaz. The company will be launching it in Q2FY15. Celerio has done phenomenally well even during the slowdown. The car has 30,000 bookings. And with March being a traditionally a good month, the company expects to better its February sales numbers.

Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer-marketing & sales, Maruti Suzuki says that the launch of Ciaz doesn’t mean that the customers are phasing out the SX4 sedan but is instead a move to strengthen the company’s portfolio. On the success of the Celerio, Pareek says, “These automatic variants have taken the market by storm. So we are now working on increasing our capacity for Celerio production.” Pareek adds that capacity isn’t as much an issue as the supply to the vendor and the company is now actively working towards improving the same. “I am expecting much stronger sales in March as this is the time when we see new customers in the form of corporates, government, companies’ B2B businesses,” adds Pareek optimistically.

P-Notes investment increases to 3-month high at Rs 1.73 lakh crore in February 2014

Foreign investments into Indian markets through Participatory Notes (P-Notes), surged  to its highest level in three months at around Rs 1.73 lakh crore in February, as compared to Rs 1.63 lakh crore in the previous month.

Investments into Indian markets (equity, debt and derivatives) via P-Notes have been rising over the past few months mainly on hopes of a stable government after general election starting next month. Further, the macro-economic factors like moderation in India’s current account deficit as well as easing inflation can also be attributed for increase in foreign investments in the country.Investment through P-Notes have been accounting for around 15-20 percent of the total FII holdings in India since 2009. Earlier, in 2008, P-Notes used to account for more than 50 percent of the total FII investments but their share has fallen after SEBI tightened the disclosure norms and other regulations for P-Notes investments.

During February 2014, FIIs, the key drivers of Indian markets, have pumped in around Rs 1,400 crore in the Indian equity market and Rs 11,337 crore in the debt market. Increasing foreign investment in the country has also brought stability in the rupee value against the dollar.