Gold futures rise on global cues

Gold futures rise on global cues

Sep 16,2014   02:18 Hrs IST

Gold futures traded up on MCX as speculators indulged in building up fresh positions amid a firming trend overseas before the US Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting today. The contract for October delivery was trading at Rs 27042.00, up by 0.16% or Rs 43.00 from its previous closing of Rs 26999.00. The open interest of the contract stood at 26999.00 lots. The contract for December delivery was trading at Rs 27239.00, up by 0.09% or Rs 24.00 from its previous closing of Rs 27215.00. The open interest of the contract stood at 5200.00 lots on MCX

Kotak Mahindra Bank gets CCI’s nod to buy 15% stake in MCX

Kotak Mahindra Bank gets CCI’s nod to buy 15% stake in MCX

Sep 16,2014   09:59 Hrs IST

Kotak Mahindra Bank has received Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) approval for its proposed Rs 459 crore deal to acquire 15 per cent stake in commodity bourse MCX. According to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) the proposed deal is not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. On July 20, this year, Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies India (FTIL) had announced that it has signed an agreement to sell 15 per cent stake in MCX to Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs 459 crore. As mandatory, Kotak had approached CCI for its approval on August 1, 2014. Kotak Mahindra Bank is engaged in commercial banking, stock broking, mutual funds, life insurance and investment banking. The bank has an international presence through its subsidiaries with offices in London, New York, Dubai, Mauritius, San Francisco and Singapore that specialize in providing services to overseas investors seeking to invest into India.

Wipro gains on entering into global alliance partnership with Chesapeake

Wipro gains on entering into global alliance partnership with Chesapeake

Sep 16,2014   09:57 Hrs IST

Wipro is currently trading at Rs 574.75, up by 6.95 points or 1.22% from its previous closing of Rs. 567.80 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 568.60 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 574.85 and Rs. 568.60 respectively. So far 21418 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 610.50 on 26-Feb-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 447.00 on 16-Sep-2013. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 594.00 and Rs. 563.10 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 140113.65 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 73.44 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 13.36 % and 11.26 % respectively. Wipro, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company and Chesapeake System Solutions Inc. (Chesapeake), a premier provider of financial software solutions, have entered into a global alliance partnership. The company will offer Chesapeake’s suite of financial software solutions that encompass Reconciliation Management and Balance Sheet Integrity (T-Recs Enterprise), Treasury & Cash Management and Bank Payment Management (SmartTreasury and SmartAnalysis) as both a cloud-based ASP service and as an in-house licenced software platform. These solutions will enable the finance controller organization to reduce the manual efforts involved in Balance Sheet Reconciliations substantially, thereby bringing efficiency and reduction in cost to the finance function. Wipro is a leading provider of analytics and information management solutions - enabling customers to derive actionable business insights from data to drive growth, enhance cost management and strengthen risk management.

LIC Nomura MF introduces Capital Protection Oriented Fund Series 5 (38 Months)

LIC Nomura MF introduces Capital Protection Oriented Fund Series 5 (38 Months)

Sep 16,2014   09:06 Hrs IST

LIC Nomura Mutual Fund has launched the New Fund Offer (NFO) of LIC Nomura Capital Protection Oriented Fund Series 5 (38 Months), a close ended income scheme. The NFO opens for subscription on Sep 16, 2014 and closes on Sep 24, 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 MIP Blended Index and its fund managers are Kunal Jain and Sachin Relekar. The investment objective of the scheme is to achieve capital protection by investing in fixed income securities maturing on or before the tenure of the scheme and seeks capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity related instruments.

Tata Motors, Wipro and L&T to see some action today

Tata Motors, Wipro and L&T to see some action today

Sep 16,2014   08:50 Hrs IST

Tata Motors has reported a 9.7 percent decline in global sales to 73,524 units in August. The company had sold 81,457 units in the same month last year. In the passenger vehicles category, the global sales last month were at 42,988 units, as against 43,474 units in August 2013, down 1.11 percent. Sales of luxury brand Jaguar Land Rover rose 2.44 percent to 31,650 units in August, compared to 30,895 units in the same month last year. Sales of commercial vehicles declined 19.6 per cent in August to 30,536 units from 37,983 units a year ago. Wipro Arabia, a subsidiary of Wipro, has entered into a strategic partnership with Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the largest power utility company in West Asia. As part of this deal, Wipro will rollout the plant maintenance and project system functionality of SAP ERP application for SEC’s distribution business across Saudi Arabia, touching five million customers. With this implementation, the power utility company will have an integrated system that offers centralized and standardized processes across its plants. This will help ensure uptime of distribution networks, expense controls and effective utilization of assets. L&T Construction, the construction arm of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has won new orders aggregating worth Rs 2050 crore across various business segments in August and September 2014. Under Power Transmission & Distribution Business, the company has bagged international and domestic orders worth Rs 1213 crore. Larsen a Toubro Saudi Arabia LLC, a fully owned subsidiary of L&T, has bagged a major international order from the National Grid, Saudi Arabia (a subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company) for the construction of an Extra High Voltage Double Circuit Transmission Line with a route length of 192 km. Under the Buildings & Factories Business, the company has bagged orders worth Rs 775 crore which consist of two new orders and a few additional orders from on-going jobs. The Jharkhand government has shut five bauxite mines of Hindalco Industries, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. This follows a report by the Shah commission on illegal mining, which had alleged such mining was causing widespread damage to the environment and losses to the exchequer. Earlier, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on Hindalco’s Mahan mine in the coal block allocations case. The action against Hindalco follows similar moves by the Jharkhand government against Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Tata Steel. Jharkhand earlier ordered the closure of 12 iron ore mines and a few manganese mines in that state. These include SAIL’s mines in Budhaburu, Durgaiburu, and Kiriburu-Meghahatuburu and Tata Steel’s Noamundi mine. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has tied up with Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) to provide attractive retail finance for the latter’s two-wheeler customers. With this MoU, two-wheeler customers can now buy a Honda two-wheeler at the industry’s lowest finance rate of 12.25 percent (with daily reducing interest). The loan amount could be up to 90 percent of the two-wheeler value and the extended repayment tenure could be up to five years. Currently, PNB has a network of over 6,000 branches and about 7,000 Automated Teller Machines (ATM). The country’s largest natural gas distributor GAIL (India) will soon invite expression of interest (EoI) for developing its LNG (liquefied gas terminal) proposed at Paradeep. The project - floating storage re-gasification unit - will have an initial capacity of four million tonne per annum (mtpa) in the first phase, reaching a peak capacity of 4.8 mtpa, with a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic metres. The first phase of the project is expected to go on stream by 2017. While Pradeep Port Trust would invest Rs 650 crore on breakwater and dredging, GAIL would invest the residual Rs 2,458 crore. In the second phase, an additional four mtpa capacity will be added (peak capacity- 4.8 mtpa), raising the terminal’s overall capacity to 8-10 mtpa. The engineering and manufacturing major, Bharat Heavy Electricals(BHEL) will develop a 20 Mw solar power plant at Manamunda industrial estate in Boudh district. BHEL is currently engaged in the design, engineering, manufacture, construction, testing, commissioning and servicing of a wide range of products, systems and services for the core sector companies in the field of power, transmission, transportation, renewable energy, oil and natural gas and defence. The solar plant at Manamunda will be set up over 100 acres of land entailing an investment of about Rs 150 crore. Kotak Mahindra Bank’s proposed Rs 459 crore deal to acquire 15 percent stake in commodity bourse MCX got the approval of fair trade regulator CCI, making the financial sector conglomerate a major player in exchange business. According to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) the proposed deal is not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. On July 20, this year, Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies India (FTIL) had announced that it has signed an agreement to sell 15 percent stake in MCX to Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs 459 crore. India’s largest soaps and detergent maker Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has begun talks with private equity fund Everstone Capital for a possible equity joint venture for its Modern Foods division which makes bread and rusks under the Modern brand. The move by the private equity fund, which jointly owns the India franchise of the American Hamburger restaurant chain Burger King, is to drive synergy from Modern Foods for the quick-service restaurant chain. Last year, Everstone Capital, that manages more than $1 billion in India focused PE fund, won the India franchise Burger King as part of its plan to invest in the Indian consumption space. JSW Steel is close to acquiring Italy’s Lucchini assets for less than $100 million marking his first foray into the challenging European steel market. JSW Steel has put in a binding bid for three re-rolling mills of insolvent Lucchini. The rolling mills will be used to add value to the steel produced by JSW Steel in India while the steelmaking facility at Lucchini will be shut down in the meantime. Lucchini, which went bust in 2012 amid falling steel prices and economic recession, will be soon coming out of bankruptcy. JSW Steel will be taking on no debt or past liabilities of the company. The plan is to start making steel later on from newer technology.

Govt may extend excise duty concessions to auto sector beyond December

Govt may extend excise duty concessions to auto sector beyond December Sep 12,2014   10:16 Hrs IST In a move which would provide further relief to the auto-makers, the government is mulling at the proposal for extending excise duty concessions to the automobile sector beyond December. Further, towards this development, the Heavy Industry Ministry is likely to send a proposal to Finance Ministry regarding extension of excise duty concession till March 31, 2015. The extension of duty concession would enable continuation of excise duty on small cars, scooters, motorcycles and commercial vehicles at the current level of 8% from 12% previously and would enable factory gate duty on SUVs at the reduced rate of 24% as against 30%. Meanwhile, the duty on large cars will continue at 24% compared with 27% earlier, while the duty on mid-sized cars will stand at 20% from 24%. The government to help the industry tide over sluggish sales had cut excise duty on cars, SUVs and two-wheelers as well as consumer durables in the Interim Budget in February. While, in the cheer for automobile and consumer durable sectors, the government in June this year extended the excise duty concessions which were earlier valid till June 30 by six months to December 31. However, it then also announced that capital goods and consumer durables will continue to attract a lower duty of 10% as against the pre-budget rate of 12%. Most carmakers had passed on the benefit of excise duty reduction to customers by cutting prices on account of sluggish sales of the industry, which were already impacted by soaring prices of fuel. Automobile sales in India fell for the second consecutive year in 2013-14 and were 4.65% lower at 1786,899 units. In 2012-13, car sales fell 6.69%, the first drop in a decade. In a separate development, Heavy Industries Ministry is contemplating over a policy of mandatory recalls, which will do away with the current system of voluntary recalls by auto companies.

Sep 12,2014   10:16 Hrs IST

In a move which would provide further relief to the auto-makers, the government is mulling at the proposal for extending excise duty concessions to the automobile sector beyond December. Further, towards this development, the Heavy Industry Ministry is likely to send a proposal to Finance Ministry regarding extension of excise duty concession till March 31, 2015. The extension of duty concession would enable continuation of excise duty on small cars, scooters, motorcycles and commercial vehicles at the current level of 8% from 12% previously and would enable factory gate duty on SUVs at the reduced rate of 24% as against 30%. Meanwhile, the duty on large cars will continue at 24% compared with 27% earlier, while the duty on mid-sized cars will stand at 20% from 24%. The government to help the industry tide over sluggish sales had cut excise duty on cars, SUVs and two-wheelers as well as consumer durables in the Interim Budget in February. While, in the cheer for automobile and consumer durable sectors, the government in June this year extended the excise duty concessions which were earlier valid till June 30 by six months to December 31. However, it then also announced that capital goods and consumer durables will continue to attract a lower duty of 10% as against the pre-budget rate of 12%. Most carmakers had passed on the benefit of excise duty reduction to customers by cutting prices on account of sluggish sales of the industry, which were already impacted by soaring prices of fuel. Automobile sales in India fell for the second consecutive year in 2013-14 and were 4.65% lower at 1786,899 units. In 2012-13, car sales fell 6.69%, the first drop in a decade. In a separate development, Heavy Industries Ministry is contemplating over a policy of mandatory recalls, which will do away with the current system of voluntary recalls by auto companies.

Gayatri Projects bags order worth Rs 158.92 crore from NHAI

Gayatri Projects bags order worth Rs 158.92 crore from NHAI

Sep 12,2014   11:00 Hrs IST

Gayatri Projects has bagged order worth Rs 158.92 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The order is for improvement and augmentation of Thanjavur-Pudukottai section 2 laning with paved Shoulders from km 0.00 to km 55.228 (Existing Chainage from km 0.00 to 56.460) (Total design length 55.228 km) of NH-226 in the state of Tamil Nadu under NHDP-IV on EPC Mode. Gayatri Projects, an ISO 9001-2000 company, is one of the fastest growing construction companies in India executing major civil works including construction of concrete/masonry dams, earthen dams, national highways, bridges, canals, aqueducts, airports, ports, etc.

Titan Company gains on commissioning Stainless Steel Case Plant at Coimbatore

Titan Company gains on commissioning Stainless Steel Case Plant at Coimbatore

Sep 12,2014   09:26 Hrs IST

Titan Company is currently trading at Rs. 387.50, up by 5.45 points or 1.43% from its previous closing of Rs. 382.05 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 382.10 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 387.60 and Rs. 382.10 respectively. So far 4,972 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 1 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 397.80 on 09-Sep-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 203.00 on 30-Jan-2014. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 397.80 and Rs. 376.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 34,401.00 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 53.05% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 24.35% and 22.59% respectively. Titan Company’s Watch Division has commissioned brand new Stainless Steel Case manufacturing facility which is located at Cochin Frontier Road, Coimbatore in state of Tamil Nadu. This plant has been set up with technical assistance from SEIKO EPSON, Japan to manufacture high-end Stainless Steel Cases meeting global standards of quality with an investment in excess of Rs 75 crore. The initial capacity of the facility is 1 million cases / annum scalable to 2 million / annum and an employment potential of 250 people. Titan Company is an Indian designer and manufacturer of watches, jewellery, precision engineering components and other accessories including sunglasses, wallets, bags and belts.

Tata Power firms up on subsidiary winning significant DCR order under JNNSM phase-2

Tata Power firms up on subsidiary winning significant DCR order under JNNSM phase-2

Sep 10,2014   10:11 Hrs IST

Tata Power Company is currently trading at Rs. 89.65, up by 1.15 points or 1.30 % from its previous closing of Rs. 88.50 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs. 88.30 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 89.70 and Rs. 88.00 respectively. So far 75752 shares were traded on the counter. The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Re. 1 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 115.25 on 09-Jun-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 68.76 on 10-Sep-2013. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 90.65 and Rs. 87.35 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 23935.93 crore. The promoters holding in the company stood at 33.04 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 51.55 % and 15.24 % respectively. Tata Power’s 100% subsidiary - Tata Power Solar (TPS), one of the pioneering solar manufacturers in the world, has won a significant DCR order under JNNSM phase-2 batch-1. The company will supply the entire module requirement for the 10 MW project to be built by Palimarwar Solar Project in Rajasthan. The said project belongs to the L N BANGUR Group and is held under its renewable energy arm, LNB Renewable Energy. The 45,000 modules needed for the project will be manufactured at TPS’ state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Bangalore. Tata Power is India’s largest integrated power company with a significant international presence. The Company has an installed generation capacity of 8521 MW in India and a presence in all the segments of the power sector viz. Generation (thermal, hydro, solar and wind), Transmission, Distribution and Trading.

Biocon, Lanco Infratech and Tata Steel to see some action today

Biocon, Lanco Infratech and Tata Steel to see some action today

Sep 10,2014   08:51 Hrs IST

Drug maker Biocon has acquired GE Capital’s entire 7.69 percent stake in its research services subsidiary Syngene International for Rs 215.38 crore. The company, which had sold the stake to GE on October 31, 2012 for Rs 125 crore, has paid almost double to buy back this stake. Biocon Research, a wholly owned subsidiary of Biocon, has entered into an agreement with GE Equity International Mauritius, a subsidiary of GE Capital Corporation to purchase the latter’s investment in Biocon’s research services subsidiary, Syngene International for an agreed consideration of Rs 215.38 crore. Syngene offers integrated drug discovery and development services with capabilities in medicinal chemistry, biology, in vivo pharmacology and toxicology. Tata Steel expects to commence work on its ferro-alloys plant at Gopalpur in south Odisha by March 2015, which is also the timeline for commissioning of its three million tonne steel capacity at Kalinganagar where the company is putting up a six mtpa steel plant. Tata Steel is the anchor tenant for the Gopalpur Special Economic Zone (SEZ) spread on an area of 2,952 acres. It had earlier announced to set up a 50,000 tonne per annum ferrochrome plant and one 400,000 tpa rebar mill over an area of 400 acres of land there. The steel firm had committed an investment of Rs 1,000 crore on these two projects which would initially create employment for 1,000 people. While the ferroalloys plant will cost Rs 200-250 crore, the rebar mill will entail an investment of Rs 750 to Rs 800 crore. Lanco Infratech is planning to sell 3,000 Mw of capacity to raise Rs 5,000 crore. The funds raised will be used to reduce the company’s debt, currently about Rs 35,000 crore. Last month, the company had sold a 1,200-Mw thermal plant in Udupi to Adani Power for Rs 6,000 crore. The company had stepped into the power sector in 2000. By 2011-12, its generating capacity stood at 1,000 Mw; for that year, it posted a profit of Rs 740 crore. For 2013-14, it incurred a loss of Rs 671 crore, despite increasing capacity fivefold to 4,732 Mw. In December 2013, the company had opted for corporate debt restructuring of Rs 7,000 crore. Real estate firm Anant Raj has reduced debt by 6 percent to Rs. 1,403 crore last fiscal and is considering to sell some of its hotel properties and land parcels to further cut the borrowings. The company has also invested about Rs 1,000 crore in last three years to purchase 270 acre land, mostly in Gurgaon. The company was able to reduce its debt by Rs 90.98 crore and the total debt for the year 2013-14 is Rs 1,403.14 crore against Rs. 1,494.12 crore last year. The company owns 14-15 prime land parcels for hotel development, of which 4 are already under operations. Apollo Hospitals Enterprises has tied up with the US-based AliveCor, Inc. to provide mobile Electrocardiogram (ECG) devices to patients suffering from arrhythmias. The hear-monitor device, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), would be sold to patients for Rs 12,000 to keep a tab on their heartbeat. The device is smart phone-enabled and compatible with global standards. It can wirelessly record, display, store and transfer hear rate and single channel electrocardiogram to a doctor remotely located. Drug maker Wockhardt’s manufacturing facility in Chikalthana, near Aurangabad in Maharashtra, was inspected earlier this week by the British drug regulator, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The facility, banned from the American market, is currently under tight scrutiny of the UK regulator. The assessment by British drug regulator includes an ongoing programme of manufacturing site inspections and written updates from the company. Last October, MHRA, one of the prominent international health regulators, withdrew its quality certification to the Chikalthana unit. This was after it identified manufacturing deficiencies in the plant during a site inspection. Tata Motors’ British-based arm Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) has unveiled the Jaguar XE, the smallest member of its family, in an event held at London’s Earls Court. Due to go on sale in 2015, with the S model at the top of the range, the rear-drive, aluminium-intensive Jaguar XE is the first model developed from Jaguar Land Rover’s new modular vehicle architecture. The XE S is fitted with a 3.0-litre V6 engine that generates 340PS and 450Nm of torque. The Jaguar XE has an eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shift controls, giving the driver immediate access to the vehicle’s reserves of power. The XE is also the lightest, stiffest and most aerodynamic Jaguar saloon ever built. It is also the first Jaguar to be equipped with electric power steering. Bajaj Auto has launched the KTM RC series of super sports motorcycles RSC 390 and RC 200 in Pune. The RC 200 will cost Rs 1.60 lakh, while the RC 390 is priced at Rs 2.05 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The current price is just introductory and it may increase the prices later. Both the models are being manufactured at Bajaj Auto’s Chakan Plant. The RC 390 will compete with Honda CBR250R and Kawasaki Ninja 300. Chakan plant is producing 45,000 KTM bikes across KTM’s six models per year and expects to ramp-up the production to 65,000 units by end of this year.  It may increase the capacity up to 100,000 units in the next four years. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Origo Commodities India, a post-harvest solutions and warehouse management services company, to provide financing via warehouse receipts issued by the latter. This will cater to the needs of the country’s small and medium enterprises as well as farmers. Financing will be provided against pledge of agricultural commodities. The MoU had been signed on a pan-India basis, with a focus on the Southern region, to help the bank expand its reach. The partners expect to dole out Rs 500 crore in the current year under the MoU. Origo has presence in 16 states and manages about Rs 8,500 crore in agri-commodity assets.