TVS Motor Company reports 7% growth in Q2 net profit

TVS Motor Company has reported results for second quarter ended September 30, 2014. The company has posted a rise of 6.72% in its net profit at Rs 94.81 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014 as compared to Rs 88.84 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income has increased by 34.85% at Rs 2691.71 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 1996.07 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013. TVS Motor Company is the flagship of the $7 billion Indian conglomerate, TVS Group which recently celebrated one hundred years in the automotive business in India.

Call rates edge higher on Reporting Friday

Interbank call rates were trading higher at 8.00%/8.05% against Thursday’s close of 7.70%/7.80%, above the repo level on last trading session of reporting cycle, due to good demand from borrowing banks amid tight liquidity in the banking system. The banks via Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) borrowed Rs 14307 crore through three days repo auction on November 14, 2014, while banks via LAF facility borrowed Rs 15688 crore through repo window and parked Rs 6818 crore through reverse repo auction on November 13, 2014. The overnight borrowing rates touched a high and low of 8.25% and 7.80% respectively. According to the Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), the weighted average rate (WAR) in the call money market was at 8.03% on Friday and total volume stood at Rs 53453.89 crore, so far. As per CCIL data, WAR in the CBLO (Collateralized Borrowing and Lending Obligation) market was at 7.87% on Thursday and total volume stood at Rs 36177.00 crore, so far. The indicative call rates which closed 7.70%/7.80% on Thursday were contributions made from Andhra Bank, AXIS Bank, Bank of America, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, J P Morgan Chase, Citibank N.A., Corporation Bank, Credit Agricole Bank, Indusind Bank, ICICI Bank, ICICI Securities, IDBI Bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Punjab National Bank, RBS, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, so far.

Cardamom futures edge lower on higher arrivals

Cardamom futures edged lower on MCX as speculators trimmed their positions amid higher arrivals from producing belts in the spot market. Besides, lower demand in the spot market too added pressure on cardamom prices.

The contract for November delivery was trading at Rs 740.20/Kg, down by 2.99% or Rs 22.80 from its previous closing of Rs 763.00/Kg. The open interest of the contract stood at 57 lots.

The contract for December delivery was trading at Rs 866.40/Kg, down by 1.20% or Rs 10.50 from its previous closing of Rs 876.90/Kg. The open interest of the contract stood at 1208 lots on MCX.

India, US resolve food security row to end WTO impasse

Moving closer to end the log jam at WTO over the signing of Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), India and the US successfully resolved their differences on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes. According to the agreement, the US will support India's proposal at WTO that 'peace clause', crucial for uninterrupted implementation of India's food security programme, should continue indefinitely till a permanent solution is found. The agreement will enable India to continue procurement and stocking of foodgrain for distribution to poor under its food security programme without attracting any kind of action from WTO members even if it breaches the 10 per cent subsidy cap as prescribed by the multilateral trade body. The agreement comes two days ahead of the G-20 Summit in Australia, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders including the US President Barack Obama. WTO related matters are likely to come up during discussion between world leaders. Earlier, in July 2014, India had made it clear to WTO that it would not agree to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) unless there is a permanent solution on safeguards to run food security programmes. The WTO’s Ministerial Conference at Bali last December had provided for only a four-year “peace clause” during which no member country would be legally barred from implementing food security programmes even if the farm subsidies breached the caps imposed by the original Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). India had, however, rejected the temporary peace clause and insisted on its right to provide unlimited subsidies until a “permanent solution” to the issue was found. This stance attracted strong criticism, especially from developed countries including the US, the EU and Australia.

Govt hikes excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre to boost revenues

In order for boosting revenues and contain budget borrowing, the government has raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre. While the duty on branded petrol excise was hiked to Rs 3.85/litre from Rs 2.35/litre, that on unbranded petrol was hiked to Rs 2.70/litre from Rs 1.20/litre. Additionally, excise duty for branded diesel was raised to Rs 5.25/litre from Rs 3.75/litre and that of unbranded diesel was hiked to Rs 2.96/litre from Rs 1.46/litre. This development doesn’t come as much of a surprise as reports earlier only had hinted that government was contemplating this move in order to ensure that the benefit of recent sharp decline in international oil prices, should not be limited to customers in the form of price cut in fuel prices, but also to the exchequer. The hike in excise duty is expected to mop up additional revenue of about Rs 14,000 crore to the exchequer. International oil prices have fallen nearly 25% in the past five months, in step with a global commodities decline. The country's average crude import cost, as measured by the Indian crude basket has fallen to $80.87 per barrel (Rs 4,970) on November 7 from $108.05 per barrel (Rs 6,331) on May 26, the day the Narendra Modi government assumed office. Notably, this development comes a little ahead of fortnightly review of the oil marketing companies, Indian Oil Corp (IOC ), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) on Saturday. However, this hike is not expected to burden consumers as oil companies plan to adjust the excise hike with a reduction in retail rates that was due this weekend. So far, there has been a cut of about Rs 8-9 per litre in petrol and Rs 6 in diesel prices from its peak. Petrol price was last cut by Rs 2.41 a litre on November 1. On the same day, diesel rates were reduced by Rs 2.25 per litre.

SBI surges on reporting 31% growth in Q2 consolidated net profit

State Bank of India (SBI) is currently trading at Rs. 2769.70, up by 50.55 points or 1.86% from its previous closing of Rs. 2719.15 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 2730.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 2789.50 and Rs. 2721.40 respectively. So far 353015 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 2833.85 on 26-May-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 1455.95 on 14-Feb-2014. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 2789.50 and Rs. 2695.90 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 205031.37 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 58.60% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 31.25% and 8.03% respectively. State Bank of India has registered 30.54% jump in its net profit at Rs 3100.41 crore for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 2375.01 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income of the bank has increased 12.46% at Rs 41833.36 crore for Q2FY15 as compared Rs 37199.92 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year. On consolidated basis, the bank’s net profit after taxes and minority interest for the quarter under review registered 30.95% growth at Rs 4023.84 crore against Rs 3072.77 crore in the September quarter of previous fiscal. The bank’s total income has increased by 15.02% at Rs 61098.67 crore for the quarter from Rs 53118.63 crore in the similar quarter of previous year.

Rupee trades weak on renewed dollar demand on Friday

Indian rupee, after making a negative start, continued to trade weak against dollar on Friday on renewed dollar demand from banks and importers amidst mixed regional counterparts. Additionally, prevailing caution ahead of the release of October Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data weighed on the sentiment. However, positive local equities limited further slide of Indian currency.  In the global market, dollar held near 7-year high versus the yen as investors continued to monitor whether Japan's leader would call an election and delay a sales tax hike. The partially convertible currency is currently trading at 61.64, weaker by 12 paise from its previous close of 61.52 on Wednesday. The currency touched a high and low of 61.65 and 61.60 respectively. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) reference rate for the dollar stood at 61.55 and for Euro stood at 76.61 on November 13, 2014. While, the RBI’s reference rate for the Yen stood at 53.18, the reference rate for the Great Britain Pound (GBP) stood at 97.0984. The reference rates are based on 12 noon rates of a few select banks in Mumbai. Date 1US$ 1GBP November 13, 2014 61.55 97.0984 November 12, 2014 61.47 97.9230 (RBI-Reference Rate)

Allahabad Bank gains on plans of raising up to Rs 500 crore through Private Placement

Allahabad Bank is currently trading at Rs. 119.00, up by 0.85 points or 0.72 % from its previous closing of Rs. 118.15 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 118.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 120.05 and Rs. 116.75 respectively. So far 90772 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 150.00 on 11-Jun-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 72.45 on 17-Feb-2014. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 122.90 and Rs. 113.70 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 6489.02 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 58.90 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 26.97 % and 14.12 % respectively. Allahabad Bank is planning to raise BASEL III compliant Tier II Bonds aggregating up to Rs 500.00 crore through Private Placement in one or more trenches during the current FY 2014-15. The bank has registered 48.71% fall in its net profit at Rs 141.44 crore for second quarter ended September 30, 2014 under review as compared to Rs 275.81 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. However, total income of the bank has increased 2.14% at Rs 5416.63 crore for Q2FY15 as compared Rs 5303.06 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) increased to 5.36% in the July-September quarter as against 4.94% in the same quarter previous year, while net NPAs stood to 3.54%.

DLF gains on reporting 9% rise in Q2 consolidated net profit

DLF is currently trading at Rs 140.00, up by 1.10 points or 0.79% from its previous closing of Rs 138.90 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 141.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs 143.00 and Rs 139.85 respectively. So far 479901 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A ' stock of face value Rs 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs 242.80 on 09-Jun-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs 100.00 on 16-Oct-2014. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs 141.40 and Rs 129.80 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs 25044.99 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 74.91% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 20.27% and 4.82% respectively. DLF has registered 165.86% rise in its net profit at Rs 220.74 crore for second quarter ended September 30, 2014 as compared to Rs 83.03 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income of the company has increased 14.64% at Rs 1005.91 crore for Q2FY15 as compared Rs 877.44 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year. On the consolidated basis, the company’s net profit surged 9.01% to Rs 109.06 crore for the Q2 FY15 as compared to Rs 100.05 crore in Q2 FY14. However, the total income decreased by 4% to Rs 2135.59 crore in the quarter under review as compared to Rs 2224.61 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year.

Apollo Hospitals diversifies into exclusive diabetes management

Apollo Hospitals Group has diversified into exclusive diabetes management with a new entity called Apollo Sugar. In this regard, the company will establish a network of 50 Apollo Sugar Clinics by January 2015.

Meanwhile, the company has struck a partnership with the French multinational, Sanofi to set up facilities across the country to tackle the non-communicable disease. In India, an estimated 65 million people are diabetic and another 77.2 million people diagnosed as being pre-diabetic.

Apollo Hospitals is the leading private sector healthcare provider in Asia and owns and manages a network of speciality hospitals and clinics, a chain of Pharmacy retail outlets across the country, and provides Consultancy Services for commissioning and managing the Speciality Hospitals.

CARE revises rating assigned to bank facilities of Alok Industries

Credit rating agency, Credit Analysis & Research (CARE) has revised the rating assigned to the long term facilities of Alok Industries to ‘BBB-‘. Alok Industries evolved from a small trading business into India’s largest integrated textiles player. It is present across various verticals of the textile value chain - from yarn manufacturing to garmenting.

Idea Cellular gains on adding 18.50 lakh new mobile subscribers in October

Idea Cellular is currently trading at Rs. 163.15, up by 0.45 points or 0.28% from its previous closing of Rs. 162.70 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 163.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 164.15 and Rs. 163.00 respectively. So far 2,676 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 183.65 on 10-Dec-2013 and a 52 week low of Rs. 125.10 on 28-Feb-2014. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 170.05 and Rs. 161.20 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 58,682.00 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 42.28% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 28.88% and 28.84% respectively. Idea Cellular, one of the biggest cellular carrier of the country, has added 18.50 lakh new mobile subscribers in October, 2014. Following the addition, the company’s total subscriber count stood at 14.54 crore. The country’s third-largest operator has a market share of 19.07%. Idea Cellular, an AV Birla group company, provides Global System for Mobile communications (GSM)-based wireless service at the pan-India level, it is present in all 22 telecom circles.

UTI Mutual Fund files offer document for Capital Protection Oriented Scheme - Series V

UTI Mutual Fund has filed offer document with SEBI to launch a Close-ended Capital Protection Oriented Income Fund as 'UTI Capital Protection Oriented Scheme - Series V'. The New Fund Offer price is Rs 10 per unit. Entry and exit load charges will be nil for the scheme. The scheme offers growth and dividend option and seeks to collect a Minimum Target Amount of Rs 20 crore. The scheme will be benchmarked against scheme CRISIL MIP Blended Index. The minimum application amount is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Re 1 thereafter. The investment objective of the scheme is to endeavor to protect the capital by investing in high quality fixed income securities as the primary objective and generate capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity related instruments as secondary objective.

US markets closed up; Dow posts 25th record high close this year

The US markets closed higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average despite gyrating between gains and losses ended the session at a fresh record high - recording its 25th record closing high this year. On the economy front, the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week posted the biggest increase in two months, but initial claims are still exceedingly low amid an uptick in hiring and relatively few layoffs. Initial jobless claims rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 290,000 in the seven days ended November 8. Weekly claims have hovered below 300,000 for nine straight weeks, a feat last accomplished at the end of an Internet-fueled economic boom in 2000. The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, climbed by 6,000 and stood at 285,000. The four-week average reduces seasonal volatility in the weekly data and is seen as a more accurate barometer of labor-market trends. Companies are ramping up their hiring, and more workers are willing to quit that point to continued improvement in the jobs market. The job-openings level actually got worse in September - falling to 4.74 million from 4.85 million. But the details of the job-openings report were nearly universally positive. And the job-openings level in September was the second highest in 13 years. Besides, the federal government’s budget gap widened in October, but the higher figure was a result of calendar shifts and not a worsening fiscal picture. In October, the deficit was $122 billion, an increase of $31 billion, or 34%, from the same month a year ago. The October deficit would have been $84 billion, or $6 billion lower than the October 2013 shortfall of $91 billion, if not for calendar adjustments. The federal government’s budget year runs from October through September. The government finished fiscal 2014 with a budget deficit of $483 billion, the lowest of Barack Obama’s presidency. Meanwhile, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley stated that unemployment is too high and inflation that’s too low means it’s still premature to raise US interest rates. He added that US rates should rise sometime next year, if all goes well, but noted that the shift in policy will trigger market turbulence, especially within emerging-market countries. Dudley stated that US growth is unlikely to disappoint as various headwinds have subsided, such as lack of credit availability and excess housing. He continued that with still-high level of unemployment, there could be a benefit to letting the economy run slightly hot for awhile in order to get those people working again. Dow Jones Industrial Average added 40.59 points or 0.23 percent to 17,652.79, Nasdaq was up by 5.00 points or 0.11 percent to 4,680.14 while, S&P 500 ended higher by 1.08 points or 0.05 percent to 2,039.33.  The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Thursday; ICICI Bank was down 0.65%, Tata Motors was down 0.38% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 0.20%. On the other hand, Infosys was up 0.81% and HDFC Bank was up 0.26%.

Sesa Sterlite, Reliance Infra and Gail India to see some action today

India’s Sesa Sterlite would invest $782 million over a three-year period in southern Africa to tap the region’s large undeveloped deposits of the metal and offset a fall in production volume from its mine in Ireland. The company would spend about $630 million to develop an open-pit zinc mine and associated infrastructure at Gamsberg, South Africa. The balance will be used to convert the refinery at the Skorpion mine in Namibia to enable to it to refine zinc concentrates from Gamsberg into special high grade metal. The output from Gamsberg, where first ore is likely to be produced in 2017-18, along with the up-gradation of the refinery in Namibia will help the company make up for loss of volume resulting from the end of life of the Lisheen mine in Ireland. Reliance Infrastructure has announced the cancellation of Mumbai’s Metro Line 2 project citing non-fulfilment of certain obligations by the Maharashtra government. Mumbai Metro Transport wherein Reliance Infrastructure holds 48% of the equity and government of Maharashtra have terminated the concession agreement for the Mumbai Metro Line 2 Project (Charkop -Bandra-Mankhurd corridor). The project was awarded by the Maharashtra government to Reliance Infrastructure-led consortium in August 2009 through international competitive bidding. The estimated cost of the project was about Rs 12,000 crore. Both parties agreed to terminate the concession agreement at no cost or claim to either party. State run natural gas company GAIL (India), along with state gas companies of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan has set up a company that will build, own and operate 1,800-kilometer of gas pipeline across Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI). The company has been incorporated as a Special Purpose Vehicle in the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency. It would be responsible for finance, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the TAPI pipeline. The TAPI pipeline will export up to 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India over 30 years. The pipeline is expected to carry 90 mmscmd gas, of which India and Pakistan would get 38 mmscmd each. Software major Infosys is in the race to acquire CIMPA, the engineering services unit of Airbus, making it potentially the first acquisition after Vishal Sikka took charge as CEO over three months back. The deal will help Infosys deepen its presence in the engineering services space, a segment that currently contributes to less than 5% of its revenues. France-based CIMPA works in the area of product lifecycle management has 940 employees and had sales of 100 million euros in 2012. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) has registered a loss of Rs 951.47 crore during the second quarter of 2014-15 fiscal against a profit of Rs 235.77 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The company posted loss due to higher fuel consumption on account of stabilization of newly added units and also higher inventory loss. It also recorded lower physical performance during the period. Throughput of the refinery came down by 6 percent during the quarter. It achieved a throughput of 3.47 million tonnes (3.69 million tonnes) during Q2 of 2014-15. The company attributed the decrease in throughput to plant upsets while commissioning of new units, resulting in non-availability of secondary processing units. Royal Enfield Motors, the maker of iconic Bullet, has decided to set up a second project in the Oragadam manufacturing corridor, near Chennai. The company, which is a part of Eicher Motors, has acquired a 50 acre plot at a cost of Rs 57 crore at Vallam Vadakal near Chennai (where Yamaha is also setting up its factory) to set up a brand new plant. The upcoming unit will be its third factory in Chennai, and second one at the Oragadam industrial belt. Royal Enfield is ramping up the production capacity from 3 lakh units (Thiruvottiyur + Oragadam) to 4 lakh units in 2015 and 6 lakh units in the subsequent year. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has deferred a planned shutdown of key units at its Koyali refinery in western Gujarat state to March-April 2015 from around October this year to capitalize on sliding crude prices. IOC, the country’s biggest refiner, had initially planned maintenance shutdowns of a cooling tower, the fluid catalytic cracker and other facilities at Koyali in September-October. State-run IOC had already cut throughput at five refineries in September after heavy rains curbed demand for diesel in northern and eastern regions of the country. The maintenance shutdown in March-April means most of the five crude units at Koyali, which has a refining capacity of 274,000 barrels per day (bpd), will not operate for 10-30 days. RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group flagship firm, CESC, will commission its Haldia power plant on November 26. To be inaugurated by the West Bengal Chief Minsiter, Mamata Banerjee, the Rs 4,600 crore project will have a 600 MW capacity. The second phase will be operational over the next 4 to months. The plant will cater to CESC’s own consumers in Kolkata and the suburbs. Realty major DLF disclosed another proceeding by SEBI against the company, even as it has challenged the regulator’s order in a case related to violation of IPO disclosure norms. DLF has already made its submissions to SEBI and hearings have concluded with regard to a show-cause notice issued to it by the capital markets watchdog in August 2013. DLF and its six top executives, including chairman and main promoter K P Singh, were found to have indulged in active and deliberate suppression of material information at the time of its IPO in 2007. Within days of SEBI order, India’s largest realty firm had approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) which has granted an interim relief.