Oil slips to 2-month low below $108 on slack US demand.

Oil fell to a two-month low under $108 a barrel on Thursday, extending its longest losing streak in four years, pressured by weak gasoline demand in the United States and the prospect of rising supply from Libya. 

Data showed an increase in US gasoline inventories last week, indicating demand was not as strong as expected during the peak summer driving season. 

Brent crude fell 31 cents to $107.97 a barrel by 0837 GMT, down for a ninth straight session and matching a similar losing run in May 2010. It hit a low of $107.76 earlier in the day, the weakest price since May 9. 

US crude was down for a tenth session at $101.78 a barrel, 51 cents below Wednesday's close. The front-month price is set to post its longest stretch of losses since July 1984. 

A steeper fall in West Texas Intermediate has widened its spread versus Brent to more than $6 a barrel after touching the narrowest in nearly a month on Wednesday. 

Concerns over supply disruptions in Iraq have eased as exports from southern Basra continued amid an Islamist insurgency. 

Prices of fizzy drinks, flavoured water, juices and energy drinks to increase by Rs Rs 2-10

Prices of fizzy drinks, flavoured water, juices and energy drinks will increase by about 5 per cent, say officials of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

The prices will go up by anywhere between Rs 2-10, specially on bigger PET packs.

"We will keep prices of the entry-level bottles of 200-ml and 1-litre bottles intact, but prices of bigger bottles of 1.5-litre and 2-litre will go up," said an official at Coca-Cola.


This comes at a time when soft drink firms have been pushing low price points to drive consumption in a slowing economy, and could set back volume growth, said another official at one of the beverage firms.

Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have reported single-digit volume growth over the past four quarters.

Government to set up 15,000 km gas pipelines in public-private-partnership mode.

The government will set up 15,000 km of additional gas transport infrastructure under the public-private-partnership mode, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in Parliament on Thursday. 

India has an existing gas pipeline network of 15,000 km and there is a necessity to add an additional 15,000 km which will be developed in the PPP mode, Jaitley said in his budget speech for the year 2014-15. 

The enhanced grid will promote usage of gas, both domestic and imported, reducing dependence on one source of energy, he said. 

The finance minister also said the government will accelerate exploitation from coal bed methane reserves and evaluate old and closed wells to maximise production. 

ITC up 1.5% even though FM hikes excise duty on cigarettes.

Earlier, Credit Suisse had said if the rise in excise duty is within 20 percent, then ITC is likely to deliver 16-20 percent earnings growth, and the stock will make up its underperformance to other consumer stocks.

Shares of  ITC are up 1 percent on Thursday as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has hiked excise duty on cigarettes by 11-72 percent. The hike seems to have already been factored in by investors, as health minister had earlier demanded for a 100 percent hike excise duty on cigarettes. However, most brokerages were positive that excise duty hike on cigarettes was unlikely. Earlier, Credit Suisse had said if the rise in excise duty is within 20 percent, then ITC is likely to deliver 16-20 percent earnings growth, and the stock will make up its underperformance to other consumer stocks. At 13:07 hrs ITC was quoting at Rs 344.70, up Rs 3.30, or 0.97 percent on the BSE.

Gujarat Pipavav up 2% on proposal of 16 new port projects.

Finance Minister in his budget has raised Composite cap of FDI in defence to 49%.

Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company is currently trading at Rs 65.50, up by 2.15 points or 3.39% from its previous closing of Rs. 63.35 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 64.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 66.50 and Rs. 61.25 respectively. So far 891360 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 73.90 on 06-Jun-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 30.55 on 04-Feb-2014.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 71.40 and Rs. 63.35 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 4862.64 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 44.52 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 17.27 % and 38.21 % respectively.

Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company is engaged in defence, offshore, marine and engineering sectors. The company has two units, one special economic zone (SEZ) unit spread over around 95 hectares of land and another export oriented unit (EOU) spread over around 103.92 hectares of land.

Moser Baer up 5% on news of ultra mega solar power projects

Power stocks especiallty renewable energy producers like Moser Baer, Indowind Energy and Orient Green Power Company surged 5 percent each after the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting the General Budget 2014-15 in Parliament on Thursday, announced several initiatives for strengthening power sector.

Power stocks especiallty renewable energy producers like Moser Baer  ,  Indowind Energy  and  Orient Green Power Company  surged 5 percent each after the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting the General Budget 2014-15 in Parliament on Thursday, announced several initiatives for strengthening power sector. He says he has proposed to take up ultra mega solar power projects in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Laddakh in J&K. "A sum of Rs 500 crore is allocated for this purpose," he adds. He also allocated a sum of Rs 400 crore for launching a scheme for solar power driven agricultural pump sets and water pumping stations. "An additional amount of Rs 100 core is set aside for the development of 1 MW solar parks on the banks of canals," he says, addding implementation of Green Energy Corridor Projects will be accelerated in this financial year to facilitate evacuation of renewable energy across the country. 

Indian gold futures rise over 2 per cent post budget with import duty unchanged

The Budget came as a disappointment for gold lovers, who had widely anticipated a cut in the import duty of 10%. The domestic gold market, which priced in a cut of 2% in duty rate, witnessed a sharp jump of 1.66% in the futures rate to Rs 28,070 per 10 gm. 

On the flip side, jewellers like Vijay Jain or Orra believe that people who had held back from purchases expecting a duty cut would now come back to the market. However, Sandeep Kulhalli, vice president retail and marketing, Tansihq, one of the country's most well-known brand, said demand in July and August typically tended to be lacklustre and one would have to wait and see how prices and demand picked up thereafter. 

Stocks of PSU banks down over 4% after Budget 2014 announcement

 Shares of public sector banks declined by as much as 4.3 per cent after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the lenders would require Rs 2.40 lakh crore capital by 2018 to meet global Basel III norms. 

SBI was trading 2 per cent lower, while Indian Bank dropped 4.31 per cent on the BSE. 

Proposing to provide greater autonomy to public sector banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said these lenders would require Rs 2.40 lakh crore capital by 2018 to meet global Basel III norms. 

"To be in line with the Basel III norms, there is requirement to infuse Rs 2.40 lakh crore as equity by 2018 in our banks (public sector banks). To meet this huge capital requirement, we need to raise additional resources to fill this obligation," he said in the Budget speech in Parliament. 

Suzlon Bondholders across four series approve FCCB restructuring proposal

The Company has also received the approval of the Corporate Debt Restructuring Empowered Group for the restructuring proposal

With reference to the earlier letters dated May 03, 2014 and June 17, 2014. Suzlon Energy Ltd has announced that the meetings of the holders of the respective series of Existing Bonds were held on July 09, 2014. Pursuant to the consent solicitation by the Company in relation to the Existing Bonds and the consent solicitation memorandum and information memorandum each dated June 17, 2014, the Company has announced to the holders of the Existing Bonds that the proposed restructuring of the Existing Bonds, including the terms and conditions of the new foreign currency convertible bonds (the "Restructured Bonds") has been approved by the holders of the Existing Bonds in their respective meetings. The Company has also received the approval of the Corporate Debt Restructuring Empowered Group for the restructuring proposal and the approval of the Reserve Bank of India, subject to specified conditions.

Indian Hotels Co finalises rights issue of compulsorily convertible debentures

Record Date for the issue of CCDs is 21 July 2014

Indian Hotels Co announced that the Rights Issue Committee - 2014, has on 09 July 2014, finalised the following terms and conditions of the compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs) to be issued in the Rights Issue as set out below: 1. Record Date for the issue of CCDs: 21 July 2014. 2. Issue Schedule: - Issue opening date: 04 August 2014; - Issue closing date: 20 August 2014; - Last date for receipt of the split application form: 11 August 2014. The Issue period may be extended by the Committee subject to the Issue period not exceeding thirty calendar days. 3. Letter of Offer: The draft of the Letter of Offer to be filed with SEBI and the stock exchanges has been approved.

Tata Teleservices & DoCoMo to split, setting stage for negotiations over valuation

Japan's NTT DoCoMo has decided to exit Tata TeleservicesBSE -0.67 % by selling its 26.5% stake in its telecom joint venture with the Tata Group through a pre-agreed put option, setting the stage for protracted negotiations over valuation as the Indian conglomerate is likely to renegotiate the sum it has to pay to buy back the shares. The agreement was signed between the two companies in 2008-09. 

Under the terms of the agreement, the Tata Group needs to ensure that its partner in the lossmaking joint venture gets the higher of either half the investment it made — which amounts to Rs 7,250 crore — or the stake's fair market price in case the company fails to perform at a certain level. NTT DoCoMo had issued a notice to the Tatas three days ago, exercising its option to get a refund of Rs 7,250 crore by returning its 26% in Tata Teleservices before the deadline on July 9.

Confirming the development, Tata Sons spokesman Debasis Ray said in an email: "The formal communication has now been received from NTT DoCoMo to that effect." However, the Tata Group, which has applied for RBI approval to pay NTT DoCoMo as per the put option, expects regulatory hurdles. A central bank rule says put options must be exercised based on prevailing return on equity at the time the option is exercised, which could play spoilsport for DoCoMo's exit plan. 

Since Tata Tele has been making losses and its net worth is negative, this clause could mean DoCoMo might not get the price it is looking for. RBI, in its latest monetary policy in May, had indicated that it was examining a mechanism linking such options to a fair market value, but it is yet to implement that decision. 

DoCoMo had purchased its Tata Tele stake in instalments in 2009 and 2011 for $2.7 billion, at a time the telecom sector was the poster child of India's fast-growing economy. 

Indian rupee opens higher at 59.70 a dollar.

The Indian rupee opened higher by 5 paise to 59.70 a dollar on Thursday compared to previous day's closing value of 59.75 a dollar.

The Indian rupee opened higher at 59.70 a dollar on Thursday, up 5 paise compared to previous day's closing value of 59.75 a dollar. The currency market will closely watch today's Union Budget to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.