Gold futures edge lower as US equities strengthen

Gold futures edged lower on Tuesday on the back of gains in Wall Street stocks and also outflows from physical gold funds pointed to weak investment appetite. Investors preferred to stay with the more volatile equity assets on some mixed economic data from the US, although indicative of the underlying strength of the economy. Gold futures for June delivery settled down $7.40 at $1,281.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. While spot gold fell 0.5 percent at $1,282.49 an ounce.

TCS bags ‘2014 Community Corps Corporate Champion’ award

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, has been honored as the 2014 Community Corps Corporate Champion by Lumity, a Chicago-based non-profit organization that helps charity organizations fulfill their mission through technology, financial support services, and trainings. The software major was recognized for its myriad programs to improve the quality and accessibility of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education in North America, and its multi-year partnership with Lumity in support of the organization’s goals. Tata Consultancy Services 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.

PVP Ventures executes participation agreement with Football Sports Development

PVP Ventures has executed participation agreement with Football Sports Development (an SPV formed by IMG Reliance; Star India and All India Football Federation). With the execution of this agreement, now PVP Ventures has become eligible to own a football team and participate in the football league being organized by Football Sports Development. The first season of the Indian Super League (ISL) may commence in the month of September, 2014.

PVP Ventures is currently engaged in different business activities. Initially the major areas of operations of PVP Ventures included purchasing, acquiring and leasing of land, buildings, structures and properties to develop the same into townships, markets, residential, industrial or commercial complexes.

RIL ties-up ECA facility of up to $550 million co-financed by JBIC and Japanese banks backed by NEXI

Reliance Industries (RIL) has tied up Export Credit Agency (ECA) facility of up to $550 million co-financed by JBIC and a group of other Japanese banks backed by NEXI to part finance the proposed expansion of its petrochemical plants and setting up new gasification plant and refinery off-gas cracker over the next two to three years. This is the company’s eighth ECA facility for the largest capital expenditure program it has undertaken.

This is the first time that JBIC is extending credit to RIL. JBIC will provide direct financing of up to $330 million and Japanese banks, supported by a 95% NEXI insurance cover, will finance up to $220 million. The participating banks include The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, and three regional Japanese banks namely The Gunma Bank, The Hachijuni Bank, and The Chiba Bank. This facility will have a door-to-door tenor of twelve years and will be used to finance contracts for imports of goods & services signed with more than 20 Japanese suppliers, including some SMEs and MMEs.

With this facility, NEXI has established a new insurance program that extends support to Japanese regional banks’ for financing such overseas projects. In addition to the aforesaid six Japanese banks, some more banks (Japanese regional banks) are expected to participate through a partial assignment of the contractual rights and obligations of NEXI covered portion.

M&M’s arm receives Rs 200 crore PE investment from Kedaara Capital

Mahindra Logistics (MLL), a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), has received an investment of Rs 200 crore for a significant minority stake from Kedaara Capital. This is Kedaara Capital’s maiden investment and is an endorsement of the long term growth potential of the Indian logistics sector. 

Mahindra Logistics is India’s leading Third Party Logistics (3PL) service provider. Over the past four years, MLL has grown rapidly by diversifying its industry segment focus, developing an integrated supply chain services portfolio, and unique people transport solutions.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is the flagship company of the Mahindra Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India. Amongst the various business interests of its parent group, the company is mainly involved in the automobile manufacturing. It is one of the leading auto companies of India.

Tech Mahindra to implement MOVES for New Hampshire’s Division of Motor Vehicles

Tech Mahindra, a specialist provider of connected solutions to the connected world, has been chosen by New Hampshire’s Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to implement its Motor Vehicle Enterprise System (MOVES), a configurable Microsoft Dynamics CRM-based solution. The solution will replace and modernize New Hampshire DMV’s existing legacy system.

The new DMV solution for New Hampshire, based on MOVES, will digitally manage all Driver Licenses, Financials, Financial Responsibility, Hearings, Inventory, Dealers, and Inspection Stations. This is a multi-million deal, and the system will be implemented over a span of 22 months.

Tech Mahindra worked closely with Microsoft in developing the Dynamics CRM-based MOVES solution. This flexible and highly configurable solution, specially designed for Motor Vehicle agencies, will allow the DMV to provide superior customer service, compliance checks, performance measures, and fraud prevention mechanisms. MOVES is built on the premise that in today’s world, business process areas are highly interdependent and individuals interact with the DMV jurisdictions in more than one role and using more than one channel of access.

TCS wins prestigious Association of Management Consulting Firms award

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, has won the prestigious Internal Initiative award at the recent Association of Management Consulting Firms’ (AMCF) 2014 Spotlight Awards, for its project entitled, ‘Consulting in a Global Network Delivery Model - A paradigm shift’.

The third annual Spotlight Awards honor specific consulting teams for excellence and value in management consulting, and their work in helping clients thrive amidst changing and challenging markets across the business landscape.

Tata Consultancy Services 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.

Speciality Restaurants opens ‘Sigree Global Grill’ restaurant at Bengaluru

Speciality Restaurants has opened a ‘Sigree Global Grill’ restaurant located at Service Road, 2nd Block, HRBR Layout, Kammanahalli, Bengaluru.

Speciality Restaurants focuses on providing the guests an affordable fine dining experience with quality food and service in a modern ambience. The company’s restaurants consist of different restaurant concepts and are located across India, particularly in the western region. Its flagship brand is Mainland China which serves Chinese cuisine in a standalone fine dining setting.

US markets gain; S&P 500 marks longest rally in 2014

The US markets closed higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 extending its winning streak to sixth day, the longest streak of gains since September 2013. On the economy front, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that home prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in February, and were up 6.9% from the year-ago period. In January, prices rose a downwardly revised 0.4% compared with the initial estimate of a 0.5% gain. Separately, the sales pace of existing homes ticked down in March to the slowest rate since July 2012, showing weakness in the early spring sales season, though underlying trends signal a firming in market fundamentals. The National Association of Realtors reported that the annual sales pace of existing homes declined 0.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual 4.59 million. Meanwhile, John Williams, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, stated that Federal Reserve policy is on the right track and efforts to try to spur faster growth might be counterproductive. Williams predicted that unemployment rate will keep falling and hit 5.5% by the end of 2015. Over the same period, inflation should move higher and come close to the Fed’s 2% target. Williams enlightened that trying to achieve these goals of full employment and price stability any sooner would take policy actions that might have more negative effects, such as possibly contributing to risks with financial stability. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 65.12 points or 0.40 percent, to 16,514.37, the Nasdaq Composite was up by 39.91 points or 0.97 percent, to 4,161.46, while the S&P 500 gained 7.66 points or 0.41 percent, to close at 1,879.55. The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Tuesday; Wipro was down by 0.5%, Infosys was down 0.40% and ICICI Bank was down 0.20%. On the other hand, Tata Motors was up 0.50% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.20%.

Markets to get a cautious start on F&O expiry day

The Indian markets turned into a consolidation mood in last session and some choppiness too was witnessed. Today, the start of the F&O expiry session is likely to be flat-to-cautious and trade is likely to turn volatile in latter trade, as the expiry is expected to be at higher levels than the present. There will be some buzz in the India Inc and the banking sector, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred companies from repaying domestic loans through funds raised through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) from foreign branches of Indian banks. It has also asked the banks to put restrictions on their foreign branches in terms of giving guarantees to offshore joint ventures/subsidiaries of Indian companies to avail of foreign currency loans to repay rupee credit. There will be some cautiousness in the oil & gas sector after Oil Ministry reported that India’s fuel demand rose by its slowest pace in almost 12 years, by a meager 0.7 percent to 158.197 million tons in 2013-14. India had recorded a 6 percent growth in fuel consumption in 2012-13 to 157.057 million tons. Today, there will be lots of important result announcements to keep the markets buzzing. Cairn India, Indiabulls Real Estate, L&T Finance Holdings, M&M Finance, SKF India, Ultratech Cements and Yes Bank are among many to announce their numbers. The US markets ended higher, continuing their gaining streak for yet another day on the back of some positive corporate earnings and some M&A news. Also, there was report of a smaller than expected drop in existing home sales in the month of March. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start, though the Chinese market has pared the gains after preliminary manufacturing data signaled persisting weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. Back home, after clocking record levels in previous session, Indian equity indices went through consolidation on Tuesday as investors remained on sidelines on the penultimate day of F&O expiry. Benchmark indices moved in a narrow range for the major part of the day with bouts of volatility witnessed during the trade. Earlier, markets made a positive start as election euphoria played its part with international credit rating agency Crisil saying that a stable government post-elections is likely to help the country grow at an average of 6.5 percent for the next five years. However, Crisil said it is not the election results which impact the economy, except in improving sentiment, but policies formulated by the new government that will boost growth. Some support also came on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 212.85 crore on April 21, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. However, sentiments turned down-beat after Indian rupee fell to its weakest level against the dollar since March 21 weighed down by heavy greenback demand from importers, particularly oil firms, as well as weaker regional currencies. On the global front, merger and acquisition (M&A) talk in the pharmaceutical sector lifted European shares and Asian markets shut shop mostly in the green. Back home, metal stock lost its sheen on profit-booking. Nearly one-and-a-half years after it banned mining in Goa, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed mining in the state, but with an annual cap of 20 million tonnes of iron ore extraction. Tyre shares dropped after tyre major MRF declared weak Q2 result. The company reported a fall of 18.87% in its net profit at Rs 170.87 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 as compared to Rs 210.61 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Finally, the BSE Sensex ended lower by 6.46 points or 0.03%, to 22758.37, while the CNX Nifty was down by 2.30 points or 0.03% to 6,815.35.