Indian economy likely to grow by 4.6 percent in current financial year: IMF

As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Indian economy is likely to grow at 4.6 percent in current financial year and the growth may improve to 5.4 percent by 2014-15. Presenting a sanguine picture of India's economic outlook, the IMF, in its World Economic Outlook update, has noted that growth in India has picked up after a favourable monsoon season and a higher export growth and is expected to grow further on strong structural policies supporting investment. Indian economic growth is likely to be at 6.4 percent in 2015-16, it added.

At present, Indian economy is struggling with all macro-economic indicators deteriorated. During April-September’ 2013-14, economic growth slipped to 4.6 percent from 5.3 percent in the same period last fiscal. Meanwhile, in the previous fiscal, India's economy slowed to a decade low of 5 percent owing to the global slowdown and domestic factors, like high interest rates. Further, India’s annual industrial (IIP) output growth contracted by 0.2% during the period April-November’ 2013-14 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Referring to the global economy’s growth, IMF reported that global activity strengthened during the second half of 2013 and is expected to improve further in 2014-15, largely on account of recovery in the advanced economies. IMF has projected global growth at around 3.7 percent in 2014 and 3.9 percent in 2015.

Ashok Leyland reports net loss of Rs 167.20 crore in Q3FY14

Ashok Leyland has reported results for third quarter ended December 31, 2013.

The Company reported net loss of Rs 167.20 crore for the quarter as compared to net profit of Rs 74.14 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income of the company has decreased by 18.66% at Rs 1968.62 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 2420.46 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012.

Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja Group flagship company in India, is engaged in the manufacturing of commercial vehicles and related components. The company’s products include buses, trucks, engines, defense and special vehicles.

Finolex Cables gains on receiving advance purchase order of over Rs 200 crore

Finolex Cables has been awarded an advance purchase order of over Rs 200 crore for Metal Free Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) of the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) backbone project. The project is targeted at providing connectivity to over 250000 Gram-panchayats across the Country for better e-governance, e-health services, and educational services to the people of India.

Finolex Cables is part of the diversified Finolex Group. The company manufactures wide range of  cables such as PVC insulated electrical cables, Flameguard - FRLS cables, auto and battery cables, PVC winding wires, jelly-filled telephone cables, LAN cables, switchboard cables. It is India's largest and leading manufacturer of electrical and telecommunication cables.

IDBI Bank’s JNIBF wins ISO 9001: 2008 Certification

IDBI Bank’s - Apex Training Institution - Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Banking and Finance (JNIBF), has been awarded the coveted International Certification ISO 9001:2008 for its training programmes. The bank received the Certificate at a function held at Hyderabad on January 20, 2014. This award further demonstrates the bank’s commitment to quality standards in all areas of its operation, including training to its Human Resources.

With this, JNIBF has achieved a rare distinction and joined the select band of Training Institutions who enjoy this accreditation. Recognized in more than 150 countries across the globe, ISO 9001:2008 Standards places a strong emphasis on Customer Satisfaction, Management Responsibility, Continual Improvement and Organisational Performance Measurement.

IDBI Bank is the youngest, new generation public sector universal bank that rides on a cutting edge Core Banking Information Technology platform. This enables the Bank to offer personalized banking and financial solutions to its clients through its 1,217 branches and 2,101 ATMs.

Colgate Palmolive (India) reports marginal rise in Q3 net profit

Colgate Palmolive (India) has reported results for third quarter ended December 31, 2013.

The company has reported 1.60% rise in its net profit at Rs 112.83 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 111.05 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income from operations of the company has increased by 14.06% at Rs 907.35 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 795.51 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012.

Colgate Palmolive (India) has trusted brands for dental care, personal care, home care and professional oral care. The company is the fastest growing and one of the oldest companies catering to the personal care products.

Cabinet may consider raising subsidized LPG cylinder quota this week

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has underscored that the Cabinet is likely to consider hiking the quota of subsidized cooking gas cylinders to 12 from 9 per household this week. The move follows Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi request for a higher LPG cap in All India Congress Committee session last week,

Moily pointed that 89.2% of the 15 crore LPG consumers use up to 9 cylinders in a year and only 10% have to buy the additional requirement at the market price and further, if the quota gets increased, about 97 percent of the LPG consumers would be covered by subsidized LPG.

Increasing the limit to 12 cylinders per household for a year would result in an additional fuel subsidy burden of Rs 3,300-4,000 crore. The government already incurs about Rs 46,000 crore per annum as LPG subsidy. The government, back in September 2012, capped the supply of subsidized domestic LPG cylinders to 6 per household annually and later raised the same to 9 in January 2013.

Mayaram panel suggests splitting overseas inflows into FPI and FDI

In a major revamp of foreign investment regime, overseas inflows is likely to be divided into two categories-Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)-with a minimum composite cap of 49%. The proposal of the draft recommendations by the Arvind Mayaram panel has recommended an aggregate automatic limit of 24 per cent of FPI, which may be raised up to the extent of FDI permitted under the automatic route. As per the proposal, an investor will have option to invest either as FPI or FDI, but not both.

Further, the individual investment limit under the FPI, which will comprise Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), has been proposed up to 10 percent of the paid up capital in a listed company and the limit up to 10% would be treated as FDI. However, for the companies which are not listed, FPI limit would be deemed as FDI and separate guidelines would be issued for investments by non-resident Indians. In its other suggestion the panel has said that portfolio investment by a single investor should not exceed 10 per cent in the initial public offering (IPO), or follow-on public offering (FPO), of a listed or to be listed company.

The government has set up a four member committee under Economic Affairs Secretary Mayaram to define FDI and FII and remove the ambiguity between the two terms. The Committee is expected to finalize its report by end of this month. Further, the recommendations, suggested by the committee will be applicable with prospective effect and hence will not impact the existing investments.

M&M’s business unit MFCS inaugurates second workshop in Bengaluru

Mahindra & Mahindra’s (M&M) business unit - Mahindra First Choice Services (MFCS) multi-brand certified used car company, has launched its second workshop in Bengaluru with unique features at Yeshwantpur on January 21, 2014.  With this, MFCS now operates 26 workshops across the country. The company recently also achieved the milestone of having serviced 150,000 multi-brand cars.

With a combination of company owned and Franchisee operations, MFCS plans to become one of the top three car service providers in the country by 2018.

Mahindra First Choice Services (MFCS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra, is a chain of multi brand car workshops across major cities in India like Bangalore, Nasik, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Vapi, Nellore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Ludhiana and Delhi NCR. The company aims to offer a world class car servicing experience in India at value for money prices.

Thermax reports 13% fall in Q3 net profit

Thermax has reported results for third quarter ended December 31, 2013.

The company has reported 12.79% fall in its net profit at Rs 66.64 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 76.36 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income from operation of the company has decreased by 2.12% at Rs 1036.68 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 1059.20 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012.

Thermax, a leading energy and environment solutions provider is one of the few companies in the world that offers integrated innovative solutions in the areas of heating, cooling, power, water and waste management, air pollution control and chemicals.

Markets to get a cautious start on mixed global cues

The Indian markets recovering from the intraday lows, managed a close of modest gains in last session despite some weak earnings announcement. Today, the start is likely to be cautious tailing the mixed cues of the global markets. Traders will be reacting and analyzing the report of Urjit Patel committee, appointed to examine the current monetary policy framework of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has suggested that inflation should be the nominal anchor as far as the policy framework is concerned. The committee has suggested that the RBI should adopt the new CPI (consumer price index) as the measure of the nominal anchor for policy communication and the target for inflation should be set at 4 percent with a band of +/- 2 percent around it. Traders will also be cautious with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook update, where it has said that India is likely to clock an economic growth rate of 4.6 percent this financial year and the expansion may improve to 5.4 percent in 2014-15. Markets will also be buzzing with Economic Affairs Secretary  Arvind Mayaram committee’s report suggesting that all individual foreign investments of up to 10 percent of paid-up equity in a listed company be classified as foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and those above this limit be considered foreign direct investment (FDI).

There will be lots of result announcements too; Biocon, Dabur India, HDFC, L&T, KPIT Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra Finance, Raymond and Zee Entertainment are among the many to announce their numbers.

The US markets coming out of a long weekend made a mixed closing on Tuesday and traders seemed reluctant to make any significant moves lacking any major economic data. The Asian markets have mostly made a positive start though some of the indices are marginally in red too. Meanwhile, the Chinese benchmark money-market rate fell for a second day and interest-rate swaps declined.

Back home, after showcasing a strong performance in last session, Indian equity benchmarks witnessed a bit of consolidation on Tuesday with frontline gauges cornering modest gains by the end of trade. The optimism that was evident in morning trade fizzled out completely during the mid and the session turned choppy, as after Monday’s rally, markets remained cautious and the key indices gyrated in a very tight range throughout the day’s trade. Nevertheless, markets which dipped into red terrain in afternoon deals managed to end positive, comfortably above their crucial 6,300 (Nifty) and 21,200 (Sensex) bastions, supported by rally in rate sensitive counters viz. Banking, Realty and Auto amid renewed expectations that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will maintain status quo on interest rates when it meets to review its monetary policy on January 28. Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian equity indices ending in the green, firm opening in European markets too supported the sentiments. Back home, sentiments remained upbeat on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 384.89 crore on January 20, 2014. Some support also came in after Indian rupee firmed up against the US dollar in early trades and was up at Rs 61.58 per dollar at the time of equity markets closing as compared with the previous close of Rs 61.62 per dollar.  Additionally, stocks related to textile sector like, Arvind, Alok Industries, Vardhman Textile, Trident etc. edged higher, as the government is setting up a $60 billion target for the next financial year, up by over 30% from the current financial year. However, some disappointment came in from corporate earning front with private sector lender -- Kotak Mahindra Bank -- upsetting street with its third quarter earnings. The bank’s standalone net profit fell 6% year-on-year to Rs 340 crore and net interest income grew nearly 11 percent to Rs 912.7 crore, the stocks of the bank plunged by 3%. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 46.07 points or 0.22%, to settle at 21251.12, while the CNX Nifty added 9.85 points or 0.16% to settle at 6,313.80.