RBI also needs to look at growth, FM says ahead of policy

A day ahead of RBI's monetary policy review, finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the mandate of a central bank is not only to ensure price stability but also to promote growth and generate employment.
Stating he did not expect any hike in interest rates by the commercial banks, the minister said they had enough funds to meet credit demands and that the onus of coming up with large investment projects rests with the industry.
"All over the world thinking in changing. The mandate of a central bank must not only be price stability. The mandate of central bank must be seen as part of larger mandate which includes price stability, growth and maximising employment," he said.

Sensex falls for 4th day, banks hit ahead of RBI meet

The BSE Sensex fell for a fourth consecutive session on Monday to its lowest in more than two weeks as Hindustan Unilever dropped after brokerage downgrades, while interest rate-sensitive stocks fell ahead of the RBI's policy review.

Hindustan Unilever fell for a second consecutive session on Monday after J.P. Morgan and Macquarie downgrade their ratings, citing the prospect of slowing revenue.

Lenders including HDFC Bank and State Bank of India extended falls on uncertainty ahead of Reserve Bank of India's policy review on Tuesday.

The BSE Sensex provisionally fell 0.86 per cent to 19,578, the lowest close since July 11. The index has fallen 3.6 per cent over the last four sessions until Monday.

The Nifty closed down 0.93 per cent at 5,831.65 points.

Wipro shares jump on smart Q1 results, revenue guidance

Wipro shares jumped over 9 per cent in early trade on Monday after the IT major reported an 11 per cent rise in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30 and said it was upbeat about demand for its outsourcing services.

The country's third-largest software exporter had on Friday reported a net profit of Rs 1,623.3 crore for the April-June period, up 10.7 per cent from Rs 1,466 crore in the same period a year ago, on the back of an increase in large contracts.

The Azim Premji-led company also said it was upbeat about demand for its outsourcing services.

Wipro, which does not give annual forecasts, said it expects revenue from the IT services business to increase 2 to 3.9 per cent to $1.62-1.65 billion in the July-September quarter.

Cheering the smart quarterly numbers which were declared post market hours on Friday, shares of Wipro opened the day on a positive note, jumped over 9 per cent to Rs 417.50 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. At 1.46 pm, the scrip was trading 5.09 per cent higher at Rs 402.30.

At the same time, shares of the company were trading 5.38 per cent higher at Rs 402.50 on the National Stock Exchange.

"Wipro's Q1 result was broadly in-line with estimates," said Vivek Mahajan, Head of Research, Aditya Birla Money.

Tracking gains in the stock, Wipro's market capitalisation rose Rs 5,051 crore to Rs 99,377 crore.

Sensex down 129 points; FMCG, PSU stocks major laggards

The Sensex and the Nifty were trading down by about 0.6 per cent in the mid-session on Monday on fresh selling by funds and retail investors ahead of RBI monetary policy review tomorrow amid bearish global cues.

At 1.37 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 129.17 points (0.65 per cent) at 19,619.02 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 45.05 points (0.77 per cent) at 5,841.15.

Among BSE sectoral indices, FMCG, PSU, metal and banking fell the most and were down 2.66 per cent, 1.46 per cent, 1.29 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, IT, TECk and auto sector stocks remained investors' favourite and were up 0.89 per cent, 0.43 per cent and 0.27 per cent, respectively.

Among 30-share Sensex, Wipro, Jindal Steel, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp were the top five gainers, while the top five losers were HUL, Hindalco, Sterlite, Coal India and ITC.

European stocks advanced for the first time in three days as companies from Danone to Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc reported results.

Stoxx 50 was up 12.64 points or 0.46 per cent at 2,754.60, FTSE 100 rose 39.73 points or 0.61 per cent to 6,594.52 and DAX climbed 63.94 points or 0.78 per cent to 8,308.85.

Asian stocks fell, with the regional benchmark declining for a fourth day, ahead of a speech by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and monetary policy reviews from the US to Europe this week.

Nikkei slumped 468.85 points or 3.32 per cent to 13,661.10, Hang Seng shed 110.01 points or 0.5 per cent to 21,858.90 and S&P/ASX 200 was up 4.3 points or 0.09 per cent at 5,046.33.

The Federal Open Market Committee is meeting on July 30-31, with reports this week expected to show economic growth weakened in the second quarter few jobs were added this month.

The European Central Bank and Bank of England are also meeting this week, after both signalled earlier this month that they will keep the interest rates low.

Vijaya Bank Q1 net up 18.9% to Rs 132 crore

Lower provisioning and rise in net interest income behind rise in net profit
Vijaya Bank, the Bangalore-based public sector lender, on Monday reported 18.9% rise in net profit to Rs 132 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2013 compared to Rs 111 crore reported in the corresponding period last year.

The total income for the period went up by 16.3% to Rs 2,699 crore as against Rs 2,320 crore in the year ago period. The operating profit also recorded a rise of 27.4% to Rs 330 crore as compared to Rs 259 crore in the first quarter of last fiscal.

The rise in net profit was on account of a lower provisioning and rise in net interest income. The net interest income registered a marginal rise of 5.6% to Rs 481 crore compared to Rs 455 crore in the year ago quarter. The Bank has made a provisioning of Rs 89 crore as against Rs 130 crore in the year ago period, showing a decline of 31.5%.

The Bank's capital adequacy ratio under Basel-III stood at 10.58%. Its return on assets (annualised) remained flat at 0.48% compared to 0.46% in the year ago period.

The percentage of net non-performing assets (NPA) dipped to 1.45% in June quarter this year compared to 1.67% in June quarter last fiscal.

Reliance Power's 45 MW Wind Power Capacity at Vashpet, Maharashtra Commences Operations

Reliance Power's 45 MW Wind power capacity, in Vashpet, which is located in one of the fastest developing wind zone in Maharashtra had commenced operations. The wind project consists of 18 nos of Wind Turbine Generators having 2.5 MW of rated capacity each. The Wind Turbine Generator is based on superior German technology and is the largest turbine to be certified and installed in India on all parameters.

The power from Vashpet project would be sold to Reliance Infrastructure for distribution to Mumbai in line with regulated tariff structure of Maharashtra. The project has been set up with an investment of over Rs 300 cr. The project is already registered as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project with UNFCCC and is expected to earn -1.6 million carbon credits during its operations phase.

Reliance power is already operating a 40 MW Solar PV project in Rajasthan and with the commissioning of the 45 MW Wind Power capacity, its operating renewable capacity has doubled to 85 MW. In addition, the Reliance group already has another -100 MW of wind power capacity. Reliance Power is also executing country's largest 100 MW Solar CSP power project at Rajasthan which is set to be completed in the current year.

L&T Construction Wins Rs. 8250 Cr Riyadh Metro Project

Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) subsidiary L&T Construction’s Heavy Civil Infrastructure Business has secured an order worth $1403 million from the ArRiyadh Development Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the design, construction and commissioning of a metro project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The company has secured the order as a joint venture partner of ArRiyadh New Mobility Consortium. The total value of order is $5941.93 million. The consortium comprises Larsen Et Toubro, Ansaldo STS, Italy, Bombardier Transportation, UK, Impregito S.p.A, Italy and Nesma Et Partners- Saudi Arabia.

The project is to be implemented during a period of four years, which will be preceded by eight months to prepare the detailed designs and to carry out the enabling works, the coordination for utilities diversion and the site preparation works, and followed by months for system demonstration, trial runs and project handing over. The scope involves design, construction and commissioning of Line 3 (41 km of Driverless Train Operation) to carry approximately 5000 passengers per hour per direction.

The contract includes construction of bridges, tunnels, elevated a underground stations, depots, roads, systems for CCTV and public announcements, SCADA with allied systems, etc. This project would be the first of its kind in the Kingdom.

The rail systems will be undertaken by AnsaLdo STS and rolling stock by Bombardier Transportation. The entire infrastructure facilities together with electromechanical and plumbing systems will be executed by the integrated joint venture comprising AT, Innpregilo and Nesma.

The Consortium’s design engineering will be by Hyder an Idom and the Project Management will be done by Worley Parsons. This order was won against stiff global competition. It aligns well with L&T’s expansion plans in the international arena.

Near term pressure on Dish TV

Could see downgrades on poor June quarter performance
Dish TV stock continues to be under pressure falling a further 3% on the back of a disappointing performance in the June quarter. The stock shed over 8% on Friday. Analysts are likely to rework their estimates given June quarter numbers which were below expectations both on the operating profits level as well as on the bottom line where then company posted higher losses.

While higher content/programming costs as well as advertising expenses saw its EBITDA fall 22%, margins tanked nearly 900 bps at 21%. Given a large chunk of its costs on the satellite, transponder and maintenance as well as debt is dollar denominated, the sharp depreciation of the rupee only added to its woes. All this translated to higher losses for the company. While the bottomline was down 6% over the year ago period, it was down sharply by 30% to Rs 30 crore sequentially.

The company on its part says that the focus now is squarely on improving its profitability and with that in mind it has increased its tariffs both on the set top box as well as subscription fee. While subscription fee was hiked earlier in the quarter, set top box costs were increased this month. The company is looking at adding better quality subscribers and keep churn rates low. Given that new users are subsidised, higher entry costs and lower churn rates help cut the losses.

Some of these initiatives are paying off with free cash flows jumping 120% on a sequential basis to Rs 48 crore. With higher internal cash flows as well as cash at hand, the company is planning to reducing its debt by Rs 750 crore in the current fiscal through internal accruals.

Petronet LNG all set to commission 5 mtpa LNG terminal at Kochi

Petronet LNG is all set to commission 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Kochi in Mid August. The company is also planning to set up a third LNG terminal at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh, with five MTPA capacity.

At present, the company imports 7.5 million tonnes of LNG annually from RasGas and is in discussions to import more after it expands its Dahej LNG terminal in Gujarat. Further, the company is currently increasing Dahej’s capacity from 10 MTPA to 15 MTPA, and expects the expansion to be completed by December 2015.

Petronet LNG is one of the leading players in oil and natural gas industry space. It has India’s first and largest LNG supply terminal located at Dahej.

IDBI Bank launches eSBTR for on-line payment of Stamp Duties, Registration fees

IDBI Bank in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra has launched the Electronic Secured Bank Treasury Receipt (eSBTR) Project for on-line payment of Stamp Duties & Registration fees. The eSBTR system was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Maharashtra at IDBI Bank, Mumbai, on July 26, 2013.

eSBTR system would provide various benefits such as Single window payment of Stamp Duty and Registration Fee; On-line payment (no more queues and waiting in Bank Branches and adhering to Stamp Hours, Payment facility available on 24 x 7 x 365 basis) Payment without any ceiling, Ease of operation and convenience, etc.

The customer can log onto the website of the authorized bank, click the link for payment of stamp duty/Registration Fees, entering the necessary details and paying the duty through the internet banking account.