State Bank of India partners with PayPal

The partnership will enable SBI Debit cardholders to use PayPal when buying products from overseas websites and allow SBI’s Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) customers to gain access to PayPal’s secure payment solutions. 

State Bank of India, country’s premier Bank and PayPal, the world’s leading open digital payments company, today entered into a strategic partnership to promote cross border trade and facilitate payments for SBI and PayPal users both in India and abroad.
 
The partnership will enable SBI Debit cardholders to use PayPal when buying products from overseas websites and allow SBI’s Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) customers to gain access to PayPal’s secure payment solutions. We would also collaborate on providing innovative financial solutions to the merchants who are using PayPal services.
 
The announcement reiterates the importance of India as a strategic market for PayPal. In addition to having a strong engineering workforce based out of India, PayPal also has a very robust and growing cross border business in the country. The partnership will help PayPal work closely with SBI to make it easy for Indian exporters and consumers gain access to a global audience. One of the key aspects of the partnership is the impetus that will be provided to eGovernance projects of the Government of India.
 
B. Sriram, Managing Director, SBI said “SBI has been bringing value to its customers by providing them innovative financial solutions. SBI is very pleased to have this tie-up as it provides a perfect opportunity to both of us to collaborate and offer a wide gamut of customized financial solutions to merchants across the board. This would bring new opportunities for our SME customer base.”   
 
Speaking at the event, Vikram Narayan, Managing Director and Country Manager (India), PayPal said, “It is an honour for PayPal to partner with the State Bank of India (SBI) which is India’s largest bank. We foresee exciting times ahead as the economy is poised to pick up and support Indian citizens and, businesses to evolve through global transactions. We understand the Government’s focus on the MSME and believe PayPal has a strong role to play in the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Collaborating with us gives SBI’s customers global access to businesses and consumers alike.”
 
Key highlights of the partnership include:

• Helping SBI Debit Cardholders buy from global merchants using PayPal: PayPal and State Bank of India will work together to provide SBI debit cardholders additional options for international spending. The partnership will enrich customer experience and provide them safe and secure payments method through PayPal for buying goods from international merchants who offer PayPal as a payment option. 
• Helping Indian merchants gain a global audience: PayPal and SBI will work closely to offer PayPal’s payments solutions to SBI’s MSME customers who can reach PayPal’s 165 million active accounts globally. We would also work on providing innovative financial solutions to the merchants who are using PayPal services.
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• PayPal and SBI will also create a joint coordination committee to grow and implement this strategic partnership. 

Block deal on Infosys; stock down

Around 2 lakh shares were traded in a single block at Rs. 2,048.95 on the NSE.

Shares of Infosys Ltd were trading lower at Rs. 2,043 on BSE today. Around 2 lakh shares were traded in a single block at Rs. 2,048.95 on the NSE.

The stock opened at Rs. 2,049 as against the previous close of Rs. 2,047 on NSE. It has hit a high of Rs. 2,062 and a low of Rs. 2,040 on NSE today.

Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 13.61 lk shares on NSE.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is down 31 points at 8,392. 

Top corporate news of the day - May 21, 2015

Reliance Industries' Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited plans to provide advanced 4G voice calling using VoLTE, a technology to offer high quality voice calls over its 4G network and high speed internet services via FTTx. 

Reliance Industries' Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited plans to provide advanced 4G voice calling using VoLTE, a technology to offer high quality voice calls over its 4G network and high speed internet services via FTTx.

In a bid to grab business in the digital commerce space, State Bank of India has been aggressively collaborating with on-line retailers such as Amazon and Snapdeal, and is ramping up card products and payments solutions businesses towards this end.

Jaiprakash Associates is in talks with UltraTech Cement to sell its 2.2mn tonne capacity cement at Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. The plant is 74:26 joint venture between Jaypee Group and SAIL. 

Writing instrument maker Camlin Fine Sciences plans to set up a new facility at Dahej Special Economic Zone for manufacturing 9,000 tonnes per annum of hydroquinone and 6,000 tonnes per annum of vanillin at an estimated investment of Rs1.85bn. 

In a bid to augment its cloud platform and technology operations, Snapdeal is planning to double the strength of technology team to 2,000 by the year-end and has appointed Gaurav Gupta as Vice President Engineering. 

Steel Strips Wheels has entered the North American market by securing an order worth US$4.5mn to supply 175,000 wheels to Canada's passenger car aftermarket. 

Manali Petrochemicals will invest Rs1bn to increase its polyol production capacity from the current 50,000 tonnes per annum to 1,50,000 tpa. 

The UK-based payment processing giant Worldpay has partnered with IndusInd Bank to offer acquiring services in India. 

Countering DLF's claim that it was being singled out for CCI's action, a top official of the fair trade regulator said the realty giant was the only major player in Gurgaon and only a dominant player can abuse the market. 

Reliance Industries plans to raise Rs100bn through a privately placed non-convertible debenture issue to fund its ongoing capital expenditure. 

Honeywell and Tata Power Delhi Distribution announced that they have successfully implemented the first ever automated demand response project for commercial and industrial facilities in India.

Tech Mahindra has announced it will build an intelligent electric vehicle charging system to assist in Ontario's clean energy plans. The project, sponsored by the ministry of energy and funded in part through the Ontario Smart Grid Fund initiative, will analyse the effects of electric vehicle charging on transformers by creating a real-time transformer monitoring and analytics solution. 

Make in India! Hyundai to consider for third factory in India

The decision to built the new plant by either Hyundai Motor or its comrade Kia Motor Corp is yet to be decided. 

PM Narendra Modi's tour to China has emerged as a positive deal for Indian automobile sector. Hyundai Motor Group, the fifth largest automaker in the world, is considering to establish a third factory in India.

Hyundai's chairman, Chung Mong-koo after its meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stated that a new factory in India was under examination. The decision to built the new plant by either Hyundai Motor or its comrade Kia Motor Corp is yet to be decided.

The auto group already has various car plant in progress in India. Hyundai which is only second to Maruti Suzuki in India has two factory set up in Chennai, with a collaborate annual capabilities of 680,000 vehicles.

States like Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are already in an intense competition to grasp in the opportunity of Hyundai's expansion plan, which was delayed for sometime now.

The meeting between Hyundai's chairman Chung Mong-koo and PM Narendra Modi nearly continued for half an hour where Chung gave assurity to develop a new factory in India. 

Volatility alone may not spook rate cut

The RBI re-iterated its focus on managing inflation and inflation expectations. With the inflation target of 6 percent by January 2016 well within reach, the RBI guided for maintaining accommodative monetary policy stance and future policy actions to be data dependent. 

Over the last few weeks, a few key variables namely USD-INR rate, crude oil price and US Treasury (UST) (10 year yield) registered an adverse movement. As a result, some market participants are expecting that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may hold back interest rate action on June 02, 2015.
 

Overview
 
To begin with, let’s go back to the RBI‘s last policy announcement on April 02, 2015:
 
The RBI re-iterated its focus on managing inflation and inflation expectations. With the inflation target of 6 percent by January 2016 well within reach, the RBI guided for maintaining accommodative monetary policy stance and future policy actions to be data dependent. The RBI is also closely watching at some of the following events to trigger action.
 
Transmission by banks of RBI’s front loaded rates reduction in January and February 2015 into their lending rates
 
In-spite of clear indication by the RBI in its post policy press conference asking banks to bring down lending rates in the system citing 50 bps repo rate cut, we have seen only a handful of banks obliging by reducing their base rates by 10-25 bps. However we expect lending rates to come down with a lag as banks will take time to re-price high cost deposits to lower levels and thereby making room for cut in base rates. Easing of liquidity in the next one and a half months may help this movement.
 
Development in sectorial prices, especially food, though the RBI will look through both seasonal as well as base effect
 
Latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation eased to 4.87 percent for the month of April 2015 against 5.17% in the previous month and food price inflation particularly declined to 5.4 percent against 6.3 percent despite of unseasonal rains in the month of February and March 2015. The decline in inflation can be marginally attributed to positive base. However, prices of protein rich food items have also declined. The inflationary pressures were seen only in pulses signifying nil to marginal damage by rains. This possibly is achieved through supply side management by the government.
 
Progress on repurposing of public spend from poorly targeted subsidies
 
Reduction in fertiliser subsidy through new urea policy, direct cash transfers of LPG and kerosene subsidy and decontrolling of diesel prices entirely are the few steps taken in this direction.
 
Reduction in pipeline of stalled investments
 
Push for smart cities, new road projects, exit policy for completed projects, effort to improve ease of doing business and clean Ganga projects are expected to re-ignite stalled investments in the economy and provide impetus for new investments.
 
Signs of normalisation of US monetary policy, though India is anticipated to be better buffered against volatility
 
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept policy unchanged at its April 2015 meeting and continued its guidance of policy rate decisions to be data dependent. The  economic data presents a mixed bag and we expect first rate hike by Federal Reserve not happening before September 2015 policy, giving India enough room to continue with easing monetary stance.
 
Thus, there is progress on most of the counts, though small as the intervening time gap is not large.
 
Further, we have looked at levels of INR, UST and crude oil on the previous policy announcement days in March and April 2015.
 
The variables have hardly witnessed any major change between this period. The INR has moved down by about ~3 percent, whereas crude oil dropped to USD 54 per barrel in April 2015 but currently is trading at USD 65 levels. The UST also rallied in April 2015 and has reverted to higher levels.
 
However, we feel that the movement is within a range and has been quite muted.
 
Conclusion:
 
We think the RBI may closely look at the progress on the five counts as listed above, which points at a stronger case for interest rate cut during its second bi-monthly policy meet in June. Moreover, the key variable levels have not moved quite widely, so the case for interest rate cut may not be spooked by volatility. 

ABG Shipyard stock slumps 18%

The company has clarified that they are working within the framework of Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) Scheme and our principal repayment of loans are yet to start. 

Shares of ABG Shipyard were lower by 18% to Rs. 140.

The stock has hit a high of Rs. 173 and a low of Rs. 137.

The company has clarified that they are working within the framework of Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) Scheme and our principal repayment of loans are yet to start. Therefore, the news article in 'Economic Times’ may be their views.

The Exchange had sought clarification from ABG Shipyard Ltd with respect to news appearing in The Economic Times on May 15, 2015 titled "ABG Defaults on Restructured Loan."

Tata Steel evaluates organic and inorganic growth opportunities

The Board and Management of Tata Steel are committed to making disclosures at the appropriate time.

With reference to the news appeared ET NOW dated May 19, 2015 captioned "Tata steel in talk to buy visa steel", Tata Steel Ltd has Clarified to BSE as under :

"Tata Steel as part of its business strategy regularly evaluates organic and inorganic growth opportunities across various segments of its operations.

The Board and Management of Tata Steel are committed to making disclosures at the appropriate time. The Company has robust disclosure principles and follows a policy of not commenting on market speculation.

In the instant matter, we clarify that currently there has been no event that requires a disclosure under Clause 36 of the listing agreement."

Top Economy news of the day- May 21, 2015

The finance ministry constituted a high-level committee of three members to look into the applicability of Minimum Alternate Tax on Foreign Institutional Investors before April 2015.

The finance ministry constituted a high-level committee of three members to look into the applicability of Minimum Alternate Tax on Foreign Institutional Investors before April 2015.

Indian economy is expected to expand at 8.5-9% over 10-15 year time frame once the structural issues hampering growth are addressed by the government, Finance Secretary said.

Finance Minister said inflation will not be a significant challenge though there is a possibility of below average monsoon and food prices getting impacted. 

IRB Infra surges on winning new order from NHAI

IRB Infrastructure is trading higher on the BSE on receiving Agra-Etawah Bypass project from NHAI for Rs. 2,650 crore.

IRB Infrastructure is trading higher on the BSE on receiving Agra-Etawah Bypass project from NHAI for Rs. 2,650 crore.

The stock opened with a gain of 1.7 percent at Rs. 246 and so far, has jumped 2.5 percent at Rs. 248.

Now, the stock is up 2 percent at Rs. 247, with trades of around 58,000 shares on the BSE counter, as against two-week daily average volume of 238,000 shares.

Meanwhile, the Sensex has gained 29 points at 27,866.

Markets volatile in early trade

The BSE Mid-cap Index is trading up 0.20% at 10,672, whereas BSE Small-cap Index is trading up 0.34% at 11,245. 

Following yesterday’s rally, the market has started the day on a positive note - with the BSE Sensex higher by 48 points at 27,885 and the NSE Nifty added 11 points at 8,434.

Soon, the key benchmark indices slipped a wee-bit into red and touched a low of 27,806 and 8,409, respectively.

The 30-shares and the 50-shares indices, however, rebounded into green and touched a high at 27,898 and 8,438, respectively.

The BSE Sensex is now quoted at 27,824 - down 13 points and the BSE Nifty is quoted at 8,414 - down 10 points.

The broader market is also trading in line with the CNX Nifty index, the Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.2 percent each at 13,093 and 5,532, respectively.

Among sectors, the CNX Realty index has advanced nearly a percent at 202. The PSU Bank, IT, Energy and Infra indices are the other gainers.

On the other hand, the Metal index has declined 0.5 percent at 2,419 and the FMCG index is marginally down at 20,204.

In the Nifty space - Axis Bank and Coal India are the major gainers - up 2 percent each at Rs. 569 and Rs. 368, respectively.

Dr.Reddy's, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Larsen & Toubro have also gained nearly a percent each.

On the losing side, Tata Steel has plunged 4 percent at Rs. 347. Cipla has dropped a percent at 681.

Gail India has shed almost a percent at Rs. 391. Bharti Airtel, BPCL, Ambuja Cement, Bajaj Auto and Vedanta are the other losers - down 0.5 percent each.

Tata Steel stock down 5% post Q4 results

The Group has posted a net profit after taxes, minority interest and share of profit / (loss) of associates of Rs. (56742.90) million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 as compared to net profit of Rs. 10358.70 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. 

Shares of Tata Steel were lower by 5% at Rs. 344 after the company posted Q4 results.

The stock has hit a high of Rs. 351 and a low of Rs. 344.

The Group has posted a net profit after taxes, minority interest and share of profit / (loss) of associates of Rs. (56742.90) million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 as compared to net profit of Rs. 10358.70 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. 

Total Income has decreased from Rs. 425397.50 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 to Rs. 338055.90 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015.

Rupee opens at 63.73 against US dollar

The local unit hit a low of 63.73 and a high of 63.83 against the US dollar.

The rupee today opened at 63.73 against the US dollar. The local unit hit a low of 63.73 and a high of 63.83 against the US dollar.

Yesterday, the rupee closed at 63.82 against the US dollar.

The FIIs were net buyers of Rs. 1.23 billion in the cash segment on Wednesday.

The domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of Rs. 1.03 billion, as per the provisional figures released by the NSE. 

Nifty above 8,400 levels

The BSE Mid-cap Index is trading up 0.20% at 10,672, whereas BSE Small-cap Index is trading up 0.34% at 11,245. 

At 9:24 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 27,894 up 56 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,434 up 10 points.

The BSE Mid-cap Index is trading up 0.20% at 10,672, whereas BSE Small-cap Index is trading up 0.34% at 11,245.

Some buying activity is seen in auto, banking, consumer durable, capital goods, IT and metal sectors, while fmcg sector is showing weakness on BSE.

Coal India, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Infosys are among the gainers, whereas Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, GAIL, Cipla and Hero Motocorp are losing sheen on BSE.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets ministers today to take stock of 1-year performance of NDA government, there is reason to cheer overall for investors. Global Funds, Asia-Pacific Funds and Emerging Market Funds are overweight on India by 120 to 500 basis points (bps) compared with their benchmark indices, says a report. In fact, this is the highest weight these global funds have accorded to any emerging market in the past 20 years, a report adds.

On Wednesday, IT stocks brought in some life to the market. Among the results today include Bajaj Auto, ZEE Entertainment, CESC, Indiabulls Real Estate and  Voltas. Global investors will keep an eye on PMI of various countries including the Eurozone, Bank of Japan’s monetary policy; UK retail sales and US jobless claims, existing home sales. The rupee could see some weakness and the dollar is firming up against global currencies.

RIL could be in focus on reports that finance ministry would verify antecedents of 22 foreign lenders to RIL-operated KGD6, says a report. Man Infra could gain attention again on reports that it may sell its realty project shares to Dilip Sanghvi.

Ultratech Cement Ltd is planning to acquire JP's Bhilai Plant at Enterprise value of Rs. 2,100-2,200 Crore.The debt of JP Group's Bhilai Cement Plant stands at Rs. 558 Crore, says a report

Alkem Labs reportedly said that it will file DRHP by July. The company plans to Complete IPO process by November-December, according to report.