Finance Minister vows to amend Land Act; promises non-aggressive tax policy

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that India will amend tough land acquisition and bring tax reforms to boost investments and kick start the domestic economic growth. Highlighting importance of business friendly regulations in the country, Arun Jaitley stated that there is a need to change tough land acquisition law to speed up the process of buying land for industrial use, a contentious issue in India which has long delayed projects. Finance Minister also promised a reasonable, non-aggressive and rational tax policy to make India a hub of low-cost manufacturing. On the insurance sector, Jaitley expressed hope that the long-pending Insurance Amendment Bill, that seeks to raise FDI in the sector from existing 26 percent to 49 percent, will get Parliament nod in the upcoming Winter Session. Regarding the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jaitley stressed that the government is in the final stages of talks with states on the issue, hinting that amendments to GST may be introduced in the Winter session of Parliament. On ambitious divestment programme in public sector banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley emphasized that the government is planning to bring down its stake in public sector banks to 52 percent so that a large amount of capital, almost close to Rs 3 lakh crore, can be introduced into banks.

Crude oil futures trade lower on MCX

Crude oil futures traded lower on MCX as speculators reduced exposures amidst a weak trend in Asian trade. Moreover, ample crude supplies coupled with sluggish demand from Asia also influenced the commodity prices. The contract for November delivery was trading Rs 4857.00, down by 0.08% or Rs 4.00 from its previous closing of Rs 4861.00. The open interest of the contract stood at 15935.00 lots. The contract for December delivery was trading at Rs 4885.00, down by 0.02% or Rs 1.00 from its previous closing of Rs 4886.00. The open interest of the contract stood at 2230.00 lots on MCX.

Castor seed futures trade lower on profit booking

Castor seed futures traded lower on NCDEX on the back of weakening trend in spot market advised speculators to book-profit at existing higher levels. Further, heavy ready stocks position on regular supply from growing regions against slackness in demand in physical markets too supported the downside.

The contract for November delivery was trading at Rs 4695.00, down by 0.21% or Rs 10.00 from its previous closing of Rs 4705.00. The open interest of the contract stood at 53590.00 lots.

The contract for December delivery was trading at Rs 4802.00, down by 0.19% or Rs 9.00 from its previous closing of Rs 4811.00. The open interest of the contract stood at 324980.00 lots on NCDEX.

Reliance MF introduces Fixed Horizon Fund XXVII- Series 11

Reliance Mutual Fund has launched the New Fund Offer (NFO) of Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund XXVII- Series 11, a close ended income scheme. The NFO opens for subscription on Nov 10, 2014 and closes on Nov 12, 2014.  No entry load or exit load will be applicable for the scheme. The minimum subscription amount is Rs 5,000 & thereafter multiples of 1 during NFO.

The scheme’s performance will be benchmarked against Crisil Composite Bond Fund Index and its fund manager is Amit Tripathi.

The investment objective of the scheme is to generate returns and growth of capital by investing in a diversified portfolio of the following securities maturing on or before the date of maturity of the scheme with the objective of limiting interest rate volatility-Central and State Government securities and other fixed income/ debt securities.

Cabinet expansion will improve focus on economy: CII

As Prime Minister expanded Cabinet to speed up economic reforms, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has stated that the ministry-expansion will help improve the focus on economic recovery. The CII president Ajay Shriram has asserted that at a time when the economy is recovering, it is important to fast-track policies to strengthen the growth and the latest government move of induction of new ministers will streamline governance and bring in new ideas for the economic reforms process. The CII President further stated that business sentiment in the country is picking up since the new government took over. Further, ministerial expansion will support faster decision-making, efficient administration and faster clearances to ensure new investments. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 9 added 21 new ministers to speed up economic reforms. The strength of the Union Council of Ministers goes up from 45 to 66 of which, 27 including the Prime Minister are of Cabinet rank, 13 Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 26 Ministers of State. Indian economic had been struggling with slowdown over the past two fiscal and its growth stayed below 5% for the second fiscal in a row at 4.7% during FY14. The factors like high interest rate and stubborn inflation, low investments and slow execution of infrastructure projects have impacted country’s economy growth.  However, the economy has shown signs of nascent recovery and expanded at its fastest pace in more than two years by 5.7% during Q1FY15 as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in same quarter last year.

Hindustan Motors offers VRS to all its employees

Hindustan Motors has offered VRS to all its employees. The VRS notice was pasted on the gates of the company’s Uttarpara unit by the management, which said all workers would be paid their statutory dues plus and additional amount of Rs 1 lakh each. The VRS scheme would be applicable from November 9 till November 20, both days inclusive. The Uttarpara unit of Hindustan Motors (HM) has employed about 2,300 odd workers. HM, which shot to limelight by manufacturing the iconic Ambassador car at its Uttarpara unit, faced troubled fortunes with declining sales of the vehicle over the years owing to onset of competition from Japanese and Korean auto makers. Hindustan Motors is India’s pioneering automobile manufacturing company manufactures passenger cars, Multi Utility Vehicles and RTV. It also manufactures passenger cars in the mid size premium segment (Mitsubishi Lancer, Lancer Select, and Lancer Cedia) and has brought the Sports Utility Vehicle (Mitsubishi Pajero) into the Indian market, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors of Japan.

Forex reserves stood at $315.910 billion for the week ended October 31, 2014

According to the latest press release from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s forex reserves increased by $1732.20 million to $315.910 billion during the week ended October 31, 2014. The increase in valuation of Foreign Currency Assets in the IMF pulled the forex kitty higher during the reporting week. Valuation of foreign currency assets increased by $2033.70 million in the week and stood at $290.365 billion, while the value of gold in the reserves decreased by 275.00 million to $19.738 billion during the week. SDRs’ (Special Drawing Rights) valuation decreased by $19.50 million and stood at $4.270 billion in the week. This valuation is inclusive of SDR 3,082.5 million (equivalent to $4,883 million) allocated under general allocation and SDR 214.6 million (equivalent to $340 million) allocated under special allocation by International Monetary Fund (IMF) done on August 28, 2009 and September 9, 2009, respectively. The country’s reserve position in the IMF further witnessed a drop of $7.00 million during the week ended October 31, 2014 to $1.535 billion. Reserve position in the IMF, i.e., Reserve Tranche Position (RTP) which was shown as a memo item from May 23, 2003 to March 26, 2004 has been included in the reserves from the week ended April 2, 2004 in keeping with the international best practice.

BNR Udyog’s promoter hikes stake in the company

BNR Udyog’s - one of the promoter - Sunita Rathi has hiked her stake in the company with purchased of 5,000 equity shares. Sunita Rathi has purchased the shares of the company on November 03, 2014 from the market.

BNR Udyog was incorporated on November 29, 1994, to carry on the business of Stockbroking, Under writing, Merchant Banking and other Financial Activities.

Recent fall in inflation does not mean decline is permanent: RBI Dy Governor HR Khan

Pouring cold water on hopes of rate cut in upcoming monetary policy, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s deputy governor, HR Khan  highlighted that recent decline in inflation did not mean the decline was permanent. He also emphasized that though decline in crude oil prices and other commodities were beneficial to Indian economy, but policy makers just could not jump their guns until they were convinced the trend was firmly established. Moreover, Khan also attributed to geo-political issues and tepid global recovery as reasons enough for RBI’s cautious approach and underscored that India’s Apex Bank just could-not be an outlier, particularly, in terms of inflation from among the BRIC countries. Further, the deputy governor also added that Inflation had long way to go and that structural issue like input costs, wage burden, food prices, protein-driven inflation, and rural areas were witnessing wider inflation pressures. In two encouraging developments which fuelled the hopes that lower interest rates cycle could begin in December, India’s Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) eased at an all time low level since the launch of the new series of Consumer Price Index in 2012, at 6.46% in September as compared to 7.80% in August, helped by the lower prices of food and fuel. Meanwhile, easing at 33-month low, India's main inflation gauge, based on monthly WPI had stood at 2.78% for the month of September as compared to 3.74% in the previous month and 7.05% during the corresponding month of the previous year. So far, Governor Raghuram Rajan has kept the benchmark repo rate at 8% after three increases since taking over in September 2013.

Gold futures edge lower on Monday

Gold futures edged lower on Monday on expectations that US borrowing costs will increase, and as assets in the largest exchange-traded product backed by the metal extended declines. Further, softer-than-expected US jobs report also supported the downside. Gold futures for December delivery edged down 0.25 percent at $1,174.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. While spot gold fell as much as 0.9 percent to $1,168.10 an ounce.

Vadilal Industries to set up agro-based processing unit in HP

Vadilal Industries has proposed to set up an agro-based processing unit in state of Himachal Pradesh. The company has already got three facilities in the country. The unit will be for agro products for both veggies and potatoes and both canned and otherwise in lower belts of Himachal.

Vadilal Industries is engaged in manufacturing and selling of ice-creams under the Vadilal brand. It has combined ice cream manufacturing capacity of 106,080 kilolitres per annum at its units in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Pundhra (Gujarat) and Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh). Its processed food manufacturing unit in Dharampur (Gujarat) has capacity of 32,500 tonnes per annum.

CRISIL assigns ratings to bank facilities of Suprajit Engineering

Credit rating agency, CRISIL has assigned ‘AA-/Stable’ and ‘A1+’ ratings for the long-term and short-term facilities of Suprajit Engineering. This rating is one notch higher for the long-term bank facilities as compared to rating assigned by ICRA and India rating.

Suprajit Engineering is committed to being a world class organization, supplying cables and components to overseas and domestic customers in automobile and non-automobile sectors.

ONGC, Coal India and Jet Airways to see some action today

Upstream oil regulator DGH has approved commerciality of the oil and gas discoveries in the northern area of state-owned ONGC’s prolific KG-D5 block in Bay of Bengal. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has so far made 11 oil and gas discoveries in the Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 which sits next to Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 area. The discoveries in KG-D5 are divided into northern and southern areas, with the former having a total of 10 finds and the later the ultra-deep UD-1 discovery. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the technical advisory arm of the Oil Ministry on upstream oil and gas exploration and production issues, has approved the Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) of Cluster-II. The board of Coal India (CIL) has cleared a long-pending proposal of the national miner to set up a 1,600 MW pithead power plant in Odisha. The board has approved the detailed project report for the (2X 800) facility entailing an investment of Rs 11,000 crore. Nearly 800 acres at the coal-rich Sundergarh district has been earmarked for the project. The land was originally acquired for coal mining. Once the detailed project report (DPR) is cleared, the company will ask the Centre’s permission for land-use change. The company’s board has also approved five new mining projects. However, two large projects such as Garjanbahal (13 mt) in Odisha and Pelnma (15 mt) in Chhattishgarh will take years to start production. Garjanbahal is linked to the 52-km Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega rail link that will take at least two years to become operational. Pelnma is linked to the Bhupdeopur-Raigarh-Mand (180 km) line. Construction of the project is yet to begin. Clearing last of its regulatory hurdles, Jet Airways’ commercial alliance with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, including a Rs 2,060-crore stake sale, has received approval from the Competition Commission of Singapore. While giving its long-pending clearance, Singapore’s fair trade watchdog has ruled that the alliance by its nature has potential to adversely impact competition in the country, but on the balance the efficiencies from the deal outweighs the anti-competitive effect. The deal, which involved purchase of a 24 percent stake in Naresh Goyal-led Jet for about Rs 2,060 crore by Etihad along with other tie-ups, went through turbulent times for months after being announced. TVS Motor Company is planning to set up an engine manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh on an investment of Rs 150 crore. The additional proposed investment will take company’s total investments in the state to around Rs 270 crore. The company has applied to the Himachal Pradesh government for 50 acres of land in the state. TVS current turnover from its existing plant in Himachal Pradesh is Rs 900 crore and it manufactures TVS Star City, TVS Sport, TVS Jupiter and Moped. Though the plant has a production capacity of six lakh units, it produces three lakh units and caters to north and central India markets. Ashok Leyland has appointed a merchant banker to look for buyers for its two foreign subsidiaries - Albonair GmbH, the German arm which works on reducing vehicle emissions, and Czech Republic-based Avia. This is part of company’s plans to sell its non-core assets. The company for the first time in the last six quarters has made an operating profit and is targeting one-third of its revenue from exports in the next three years. The company’s debt level was down to Rs 4,323 crore in September from Rs 4,700 crore in March 2014. Major portion of proceedings from the QIP was used to repay the debt and also the non-core assets proceeds were also used for the same purpose. Having sold off its stake in MCX and IEX, the software company Financial Technologies India (FTIL) will exit from the exchange-related business completely once it finds a suitor for Odin. The company has decided to spin off its automated trading software Odin (Open Dealer Integrated Network) into a separate business unit before eventually selling it. FTIL plans to appoint an investment banker to scout for a majority strategic partner in the new business unit. The software, believed to be used by 70 percent of dealers across trading platforms, facilitates auto-execution of trades based on a particular strategy. With close to one million licencees, Odin is used in over 600 cities and villages. The delay in getting the Centre’s assistance has not deterred FACT in forging ahead with new projects for revenue generation. With an emphasis on agro-related product exports, the fertilizer company is on the verge of establishing a container freight station with assistance from Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda). The project investment will be to the tune of Rs 38 crore, of which 90 percent will be funded by Apeda. FACT’s stake will be only 10 percent plus the land, for which it has earmarked 25 acres in Udyogamandal at Kochi. The proposal, which has been cleared by the board, is now under the consideration of the Union Agriculture Ministry. Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has launched ‘One Touch Internet’, to allow first-time users to discover the power of Internet on phone. ‘One Touch Internet’ is a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) portal designed with a simple, secure and intuitive interface that is aimed to simplify Internet services for non-data users. With this, the company plans to increase its mobile data business from the prepaid segment. As of now, around 90% of the customers are on pre-paid plans and only a small per cent of the overall pre-paid base uses mobile data services. The C K Birla owned Hindustan Motors, which was put under suspension of work since May 24 this year, has offered VRS to all its employees. The VRS notice was pasted on the gates of the company’s Uttarpara unit by the management, which said all workers would be paid their statutory dues plus and additional amount of Rs 1 lakh each. The VRS scheme would be applicable from November 9 till November 20, both days inclusive. The Uttarpara unit of Hindustan Motors (HM) employed about 2,300 odd workers. HM, which shot to limelight by manufacturing the iconic Ambassador car at its Uttarpara unit, faced troubled fortunes with declining sales of the vehicle over the years owing to onset of competition from Japanese and Korean auto makers.