Top corporate news of the day - January 23, 2015

SpiceJet opened flight bookings beyond March 29 till October 24 this year, though the troubled low-cost carrier refrained from offering any deep discounts, pricing its tickets at par with key rivals IndiGo and Go Air.
 
Mumbai-based Tata Motors has priced its new-age hatchback Bolt attractively at Rs 4.65 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) for the petrol version.
 
Kolkata-based Emami Ltd has made its third acquisition in six months by buying a controlling stake (66.67%) in Fravin Pty Ltd, an Australian organic personal care products maker.Emami did not diclose the size of the deal, but said that the acquisition would give it a foothold in the natural and organic personal care market, pegged globally at nearly Rs470bn.
 
At a time when apparel manufacturers are struggling due to weak demand, Ashapura Intimates Fashion (AIFL) plans to set up 100 retail stores in the next two years.
 
Planning to increase its market share in cars, Indian automotive major Tata Motors said it will launch two car models each year until 2020.

Top economic news of the day - January 23, 2015

Ahead of Budget 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said more fuel subsidy reforms were on the anvil to cut the Centre's fiscal deficit.


The Centre might take up changes to the Industrial Disputes Act on the lines of what the Rajasthan government recently did, sources said.


ECB will pump EUR60 bn per month till September 2016 towards its fiscal stimulus measures.


The committee constituted by the government on how to reform the Food Corporation of India (FCI) - it gave its report this week - suggested limiting foodgrain distribution under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to 40% as against the current norm of 67%, thus, saving the exchequer around Rs300bn per year.

TCS features as leader in Capital Markets specific AO services by Everest Group

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been ranked as a ‘Leader’ and ‘Star Performer’ in Capital Markets specific Application Outsourcing (AO) services for the third straight year by Everest Group in its report ‘Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix for Capital Markets AO Service Providers’ December 2014. The Everest Group analyzed the capabilities of 23 leading AO service providers specific to the global capital markets sector. These providers were mapped to Everest Group PEAK Matrix which is a composite index of a range of distinct metrics related to each providers capability and market success. The report also recognized TCS for its ongoing commitment to domain investment, project scale and scope, delivery footprint and overall buyer satisfaction. In addition, the firm was recognized for its tremendous achievements in raising their operating margin by more than two percent and growing revenues in the Business Financial Services Group by more than 15 percent in FY14. TCS is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPO, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services.

SEBI relaxes de-listing guidelines; scraps mandatory participation clause

Making a raft of changes to regulations, the market regulator SEBI also has relaxed de-listing guidelines and scrapped mandatory participation of 25% demat shareholders. However, tweaking of norms come with certain riders. As per the conditions laid down by SEBI, the acquirer or the investment banker will have to prove that all shareholders were contacted in the manner prescribed. Apart from easing de-listing norms, Sebi’s board has also approved rules on issue of partly paid shares. In case of partly paid shares issued through Rights Issue, a minimum 25% of the issue price will have to be paid up-front. The balance consideration is required to be paid within 12 months, if the issue size is less than Rs 500 crore and in case the issue size is above Rs 500 crore, issuer can decide on the period of payment. Besides, that market watchdog also has approved amendments to Issue and Listing of Debt Securities guidelines, and has enabled re-issuance of corporate debt securities, which would enable illiquid corporate bonds to be reissued and increase liquidity in the market. It has permitted enabling ‘Call & Put Options’ that will help issuer or investor to have flexibility in redemption of debt securities. Lastly, it has allotted 18 months to listed companies of regional stock exchanges to switch to nation-wide stock exchanges.

Govt can save Rs 30,000 cr food subsidy by reducing coverage of beneficiaries to 40%: Panel

A high level panel has suggested that government's food subsidy bill can come down by over Rs 30,000 crore a year by reducing coverage of beneficiaries to 40 percent under the food law and outsourcing major work of Food Corporation of India (FCI)  to state governments and private players. The eight member panel, headed by Shanta Kumar, has submitted its report on restructuring FCI to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The panel has recommended direct cash transfer of Rs 3,000 per person a year as food subsidy and Rs 7,000 per hectare as farm input subsidy besides revising minimum support price (MSP) policy with more focus on pulses and oilseeds. It also suggested revising the National Food Security Act, which the UPA government had rolled out in 2013 as the coverage of beneficiaries is higher and not targeted well. Further, the panel has suggested giving cash transfer in 52 cities having 1 million or more population in two years and also asked the government to give deficit states the option of either supplying grain or cash transfer. The committee is of the view that lowering the coverage of beneficiaries under the food law to 40 percent, from 67 percent, to cover more BPL families and increase the quantity of foodgrains supply to 7 kg per person from the existing 5 kg. On restructuring the FCI, the panel suggested that despite FCI is in operation for last 50 years, only 6% of the nine crore farmers are getting the MSP and most poor people are not receiving subsidised grain under PDS due to leakages of upto 40-60 percent. Therefore, there is need to restructure the corporation. Finance Ministry had allocated Rs 1.15 lakh crore for food subsidy this year, of which Rs 92,000 crore is for FCI.

HDFC MF introduces CPO-III-1173D January 2015

HDFC Mutual Fund has launched the New Fund Offer (NFO) of HDFC CPO - III - 1173D January 2015, a close ended income scheme. The NFO opens for subscription on Jan 23, 2015 and closes on Feb 06, 2015.  No entry load or exit load will be applicable for the scheme. The minimum subscription amount is Rs 5000 and in multiples of Re. 1 thereafter. The investment objective of the scheme is to generate returns by investing in a portfolio of debt and money market securities which mature on or before the date of maturity of the Scheme. The Scheme also seeks to invest a portion of the portfolio in equity and equity related instruments to achieve capital appreciation.

Beryl Drugs inks pact with MPPHSCL for supply of the medicines

Beryl Drugs has entered into an agreement with the Madhya Pradesh Public Health Services Procurement Corporation (MPPHSCL), Bhopal (M.P.) for supply of the medicines manufactured by the company to the tune of Rs 11.80 crore, which will boost up the company’s turnover by 60% to 65%.

Further, the company has expanded its production capacity from 1.20 crores bottles per year to 2.00 crore bottles per year to fulfill the present and the future requirements of the company.

The company is into manufacturing and marketing of branded, generic pharmaceutical formulations. The company is one of leading manufacturer of I.V.fluids and small volume injectables.

OMC’s losses on subsidized sale of domestic cooking gas, LPG widen by 14% in April-Dec period

Albeit the multi-year low global crude oil prices and the government’s attempts to plug leakages, the losses incurred by oil marketing companies (OMCs) on subsidized sale of domestic cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have risen by 14% to Rs 34,941 crore in the first nine months of the current financial year. This rise could be attributed to subsidy diversion from household to commercial consumption apart from the increased cap of 12 cylinders per household on subsidized consumption. The under-recoveries on subsidised sales of the other two petroleum products -kerosene and diesel have declined. However,  overall, under-recoveries on the three products during the April-December 2014 period were down 33% to Rs 67,091 crore from Rs 1,00,632 crore in the year-ago period, according to the latest petroleum ministry data. OMCs’ losses on diesel sales dropped by 77% to Rs 10,935 crore during April-December 2014 from Rs 47,655 crore in the corresponding year-ago period owing to the slump in global crude prices, and the price deregulation of the automobile fuel that came into effect on October 18, 2014. Meanwhile, under-recoveries on kerosene slumped by 5.1% to Rs 21,216 crore in the April-December 2014 period on the back of stagnant domestic prices and declining crude rates, which slid to a six-year low of less than $44 a barrel on a supply glut, made worse by the slump in demand in European and Asian economies. Notably, the government has budgeted for a petroleum subsidy of Rs 65,000 crore in the current financial year, however, petroleum ministry expects overall under-recoveries to be Rs 77,000 crore for the full year, which in turn would pull down petroleum subsidy to Rs 38,000 crore in 2014-15 against Rs 85,000 crore in the previous financial year, assuming government shares 50% of the burden.

CCEA gives flexibility to state government to fix PDS sugar price

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given an approval to give flexibility to state governments to set retail price of PDS sugar that has been kept unchanged at Rs 13.50 per kg since 2002. The state governments will now have the flexibility to fix the retail price of sugar, either lower or higher than the existing rate, and bear the cost accordingly. The Centre would continue to give the sugar subsidy for state purchases at Rs 18.50 per kg. The state governments have been asked to buy sugar from the open market after decontrol of the sugar sector in April 2013, in order to meet the demand under the public distribution system (PDS). The Centre has been subsidizing such state purchases up to Rs 32 per kg.

IPCA Laboratories gets USFDA import alert for Ratlam plant: Report

IPCA Laboratories has reportedly got US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) import alert for Ratlam plant in Madhya Pradesh due to violations of standard production practices. FDA had issued Form 483 to Ratlam API in mid 2014. In form 483s, FDA pointed out data integrity issues at Ratlam plant. Ratlam is the only USFDA approved API plant and thus US revenues will get impacted following the alert. Ipca Laboratories is engaged in manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulations. It operates in 110 countries and its export accounts for 50% of the company’s income. Worldwide the company is one of the largest suppliers of APIs and intermediates. The company holds leadership position in Anti-malarial and Rheumatoid Arthritis area.

SpiceJet receives Civil Aviation approval for transfer of ownership

Spicejet has received the approval of the Competent Authority, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India for the ‘Scheme of Reconstruction and Revival for the takeover of ownership, management and control of SpiceJet’ by Ajay Singh in accordance with the application made by the company.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) lifted restrictions on SpiceJet allowing it to accept advance bookings beyond March 28, 2015. The regulator had earlier restricted the airline to take advance bookings only up to 31 March on account of disruption of operations in SpiceJet.

Nifty above 8,800 levels

At 10:32AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 29,208 up 202 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,810 up 48 points. 

The BSE Mid-cap Index and BSE Small-cap Index was trading up at 1%. 

Auto, Consumer Durables, Power, banking, capital goods, FMCG, Oil and gas, healthcare metal, realty indices are the gainers. 

HDFC, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, L&T, Bharti Airtel are among the gainers, whereas GAIL, ONGC are losing sheen on BSE. 

World markets are witnessing a good run. 

Dow Jones is up 1.48% while S&P 500 gained 1.53%. 

Nasdaq raced close to 2%. Asian markets are higher. 

Japan's Nikkei is up 1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng has gained over a percent while China's Shanghai index is up around half a percent. 

Sebi said the requirement of mandatorily purchasing at least 25% shares of public shareholders would be relaxed subject to certain conditions HCL Tech expects a drastic change in its employee structure over the next couple of years as automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other disruptive technologies increasingly make low-level engineers doing repetitive manual tasks redundant, says a report. 

Tata Motors launched the Bolt, a premium hatchback that the nation's largest automobile manufacturer by revenue hopes would play a key part in driving it back to the path of high growth. 

Finance Minister , Arun Jaitley said that it is expecting India's economic growth significantly better next year.Jaitley added that India's real economic growth potential is over 9%.

Finance Minister said that it is expecting India's economic growth significantly better next year.We hope to get GST Bill passed in next Parliament session, says FM.