Suzlon Q3 Loss Rs 390 crores, massive losses on restorationof broken blades

Scrip code: 532667 Company Name: Suzlon Energy Ltd
Date Begin: 01 Oct 08 Date End: 31 Dec 08
 

3. Exceptional items referred to above include the following:

a. The Company has treated the Zero Coupon Convertible Bonds as monetary liability and accordingly restated the liability based on the exchange rate prevailing as at the end of the respective quarter. The amount of restatement for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2008 aggregated Rs.91.75 crores and Rs.434.50 crores respectively.

b. WTG / Blade restoration & retrofit costs are arising out of events like blade failures in Overseas Markets and disruption of WTGs in Dhule and, including their consequential generation / availability provisions. These amounts aggregate Rs.233.13 crores (Rs.18.74 crores) for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 and Rs.307.36 crores (Rs.84.20 crores) for the nine months ended December 31, 2008 and Rs.266.61 crores (Rs.Nil) for the year ended March 31, 2008. During the quarter ended December 31, 2008, the Company has made an additional provision of approximately Rs.171 crores (USD 35 Million) towards its blade retrofit program. This is in addition to Rs.122 crores (USD 30.34 Million) which the Company had provided during the year ended March 31, 2008.

c. Mark-to-market losses are in respect of foreign exchange forward / option contracts. The amounts for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2008 aggregated Rs.111.40 crores and Rs.202.03 crores respectively. These losses reflect the position as at the period end.

4. On June 11, 2007 and October 10, 2007, the Company made an issue of USD 300 Million (Rs.1,223.70 crores) and USD 200 Million (Rs.786.20 crores) Zero Coupon Convertible Bonds due 2012, respectively convertible into equity shares. The initial conversion price is fixed at Rs 359.68 per share and Rs.371.55 per share respectively (Face Value of Rs.2 per share) and the same is subject to adjustment in certain circumstances.

5. The Company has not provided for the proportionate premium on redemption of Zero Coupon Convertible Bonds, due 2012, since the Company believes that the same is contingent in nature. The proportionate premium for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2008 is approximately Rs.61.46 crores (Rs.Nil) and Rs.273.09 crores (Rs.63.08 crores) respectively. The auditors have without qualifying their opinion, given a matter of emphasis on non-provision of the proportionate premium in their limited review report for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2008. This item does not have any impact on the profit / (loss) for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2008.

6. On January 26, 2009, AE-Rotor Holding B.V. ("AERH"), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company has sold 67,010,421 shares (10% equity) in Hansen Transmissions International NV ("Hansen") to funds managed by Ecofin Limited ("Ecofin"), a London based specialized investment firm. Following this disposal, the Suzlon Group has a voting and economic interest in Hansen of approximately 61.28%.

7. Pursuant to an agreement dated December 15, 2008 with the Martifer Group to acquire its 22.4% stake in Repower, in three tranches, by payment of Euro 65 Million in December 2008, Euro 30 Million in April, 2009 and the final tranche of Euro 175 Million in May 2009, the Company, through its subsidiary has paid first tranche of Euro 65 Million in December 2008, thereby increasing its holding in REpower to 73.71% as on December 31, 2008.

8. The Company has provided for Rs.83.45 crores (Rs.Nil) being liquidated damages, in terms of a contractual obligation with a customer of its subsidiary. This amount has been included under the caption "other costs" in the results for the quarter and nine-months ended December 31, 2008.

9. The Company has raised Rs.300 crores in December 2008 from The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) vide an issue of 12.5% Secured Redeemable Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs). These NCDs are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.

10. A fire occurred in the scrap yard of Pondicherry unit of the Company, on December 11, 2008, causing a temporary disruption of production. There has been no loss to assets and life. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

11. In terms of the approval of the shareholders, the Company has sub-divided the face value of the equity shares of Rs.10 each into face value of Rs.2 each with effect from January 28, 2008. Accordingly, the basic and diluted earning per share and number of shares disclosed above have been computed for all the periods based on the revised face value of Rs.2 each.

12. The Company has fully utilized QIP proceeds and the utilization was in line with the objects of the issue as stated in the placement document.

13. The Company is in the business of "Wind Turbine Generator (WTG)" and accordingly has only one reporting segment , in terms of Accounting Standard 17 - "Segment Reporting" as notified by the Companies (Accounting Standard) Rules 2006.

14. During the quarter ended December 31, 2008, the Company has issued and allotted 45,000 equity shares of Rs.2 each at an exercise price of Rs.51 per equity share on October 4, 2008 in terms of employee stock option plan - 2005.

15. The figures stated above, have been reclassified wherever necessary to confirm with the classification in the financial statements for the quarter / nine months ended December 31, 2008.

Tulsi R Tanti
Chairman & Managing Director

Safe Harbor Statement:

Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints.
 
Nothing in this article is, or should be construed as, investment advice.

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HDFC announces introduction of HDFC FLEXINDEX Plan

HDFC Mutual Fund has introduced HDFC FLEXINDEX Plan under its debt /
liquid schemes.

The introduced plan will provide a facility to unit holders under the
debt / liquid schemes of the HDFC Mutual Fund (Source Schemes) to
automatically transfer a portion of their investment into equity
schemes of HDFC Mutual Fund (Target Schemes) on the trigger dates
occurring during the period of 1 year from the date of registration.

Unit holders of the Source Scheme(s) have to set triggers based on the
index reaching or crossing of a closing level, as specified by the
unit holder. The plan offers Flexible Investment option and Fixed
Investment option. Under Flexible installment option minimum of 10%
and in multiples of 1% thereafter is to be indicated against each
index level trigger and under Fixed Installment option, a fixed
installment of 25% against each Index level trigger is to be
indicated.

The move will be effective from February 25, 2009.

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Mutual fund assets up Rs39,833 crore in January

The mutual fund industry saw an overall increase in assets under
management of 9.4 per cent, or Rs39,833 crore, in January, with 22 of
the 35 fund houses reporting growth in average AUM.

The total AUM of the country's 35 mutual fund houses have risen to
Rs4,60,949 crore at the end of January, according to the data of the
Association of Mutual Funds in India.

The gains were led by significant growth in debt funds, according to
the fund evaluation and risk solutions provider Crisil FundServices.

Reliance Mutual Fund, the country's largest fund house, saw its AUM
rise Rs5,960 crore in January to Rs76,168 core. HDFC MF remained the
second big fund house with an addition of Rs4,663 crore in its AUM at
Rs51,421 crore as of end-January.


ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund toppled state-run UTI MF as the third
largest fund house of the country with an AUM of Rs47,515.51 crore,
after adding Rs5,638 crore in a month.

While Reliance MF and ICICI Pru MF recorded maximum growth in asset in
absolute terms, LIC MF and IDFC MF were at the top in terms of rate-of-
growth.

"In terms of rate of growth, reflected in month-on-month growth
percentage of average assets, LIC MF and IDFC MF were the leaders,
registering 30 per cent and 29 per cent growth in average AUM
respectively, between December 2008 and January 2009," Crisil said in
report.

January 2009 also witnessed a 110 per cent increase in cash levels
with MFs at Rs42,930 crore from Rs20,415 crore in December 2008.

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Govt set to revive subsidy scheme for shipbuilding cos

Govt set to revive subsidy scheme for shipbuilding cos

Nirbhay Kumar & Subhash Narayan
NEW DELHI

THE government is all set to revive the subsidy scheme for
shipbuilding companies such as ABG Shipyard, Bharati Shipyard,
Hindustan Shipyard and Pipavav Shipyard, where a part of the cost of
manufacturing the ship is reimbursed at the point of sale.
The finance ministry has also agreed to release the pending subsidy
amount to shipbuilding companies under the scheme, which lapsed on
August 15, 2007, amounting to nearly Rs 5,000 crore, a government
official said. Shipbuilding companies in the private sector got very
little subsidy under the scheme, added the source.
The finance ministry's in-principle approval has, however, come
with riders. It will now not be an open-ended scheme and the subsidy
component would be worked out on the basis of latest projections of
global orders that the home-grown shipbuilding companies are expected
to generate.
"The finance ministry has given its concurrence on the proposed
subsidy, albeit with some conditions. They have asked us not to keep
the scheme open-ended, which means that there will be no further
extension to the scheme. Following this, we are reviewing the earlier
proposal and are in the process of finalising a fresh scheme," a
government official, who did not wish to be named, told ET.
According to an industry estimate, the domestic shipyards currently
have an order book of Rs 22,000 crore compared with an order of just
Rs 816 crore in 2002. In a bid to promote the domestic shipbuilding
industry, the government has extended the subsidy scheme to private
shipbuilding companies. Earlier, only stateowned companies were
eligible for the subsidy. As per the scheme, the government provided a
30% subsidy on all ship sales to foreign companies and ocean-going
vessels of more than 80 m in length sold in the local market.
Following the expiry of the earlier scheme, the shipping ministry
proposed an extension of the scheme for another 10 years. The finance
ministry, however, turned down the proposal saying that the
shipbuilding industry had come of age and was in the position of stand
on its own. The finance ministry finally agreed to extend the scheme
with riders.

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Indian Software Industry Looks for Silver Lining in Cloud of Recession

International IT sector attention was last week focused on Indian
software industry apex body Nasscom's annual India Leadership Forum,
held on 11-13 February 2009 in Mumbai, to ascertain the extent to
which global economic turbulence has affected India's hitherto robust
software services exports sector.

The verdict? While attendance and sponsorship was visibly thinner than
at last year's show (unconfirmed estimates put both at about 20
percent lower), and the mood far from euphoric, it's pretty evident
that the Indian IT sector is resolute in its goal of ensuring that the
heartening 16 percent growth of software and services exports
estimated for FY 2008-09 will be maintained in the year ahead.
There is no doubt though that the current economic scenario is being
recognized as truly challenging by an industry habituated to growing
at 30 percent or better, prompting even the usually restrained co-
founder and chairman of Infosys Technologies, N R Narayana Murthy to
dub it "the mother of all recessions."
As the figures and the forecast by Nasscom revealed, the overall
Indian IT-BPO industry (including hardware) is estimated to aggregate
revenues of $71.1 billion for FY 2009 (ended March 31), accounting for
a sizeable 5.8 percent of gross domestic product of the country.
Analysts believe that India's fundamental advantages – low cost and
quality (which Egidio Zarrella, KPMG's global partner in charge of IT
Advisory, described as the "two big punches") – will help India keep
its competitive long-term advantage even in these recessionary times.
That said, the mood was grim yet determined, reflected in the titles
of some of the discussion topics: "Hard Times: Slow economy, sales
slump – Will it get worse? Will you survive?"; "Market Spiral:
Bottoming Out?"; "Making the most of a crisis"; and, "Balancing the
troughs to scale the peaks". Every industry captain that we spoke to
stressed on the need to enhance operational efficiency, improve
employee utilization rates and enter new markets. Engaged to explain
the changing dynamics of an increasingly volatile world, was an
impressive speaker roster comprising global thought leaders such as
management guru C K Prahalad (professor of strategy at University of
Michigan), Shashi Tharoor (former United Nations Under Secretary
General), Rosabeth Moss Kanter, (specialist in leadership and
innovation at Harvard Business School) and Pankaj Ghemawat (professor
for global strategy at IESE).
While there are still no clear answers or silver bullets, most
industry leaders expressed confidence and optimism that the industry
would emerge stronger coming out of this recession. The tone for the
Nasscom summit was set by John Chambers, chairman and CEO at Cisco
Systems, who said that this recession was an opportunity to reinvent,
and prepare for the inevitable upturn. "You will never create a great
company until you face a near-death experience," said Chambers, as he
spoke of his company's learning from past downturns, and how Cisco
used every such downturn as an opportunity to differentiate and
increase market share.
The need to reinvent and grow stronger was echoed by every Indian
industry leader, as they discussed ways to beat the slowdown. Vineet
Nayar, CEO at remote infrastructure management leader HCL
Technologies, spoke of "having to eat somebody else's lunch" in order
to gain market share, while Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani
advocated a strategy of helping clients to extract more out of their
existing IT investments as applicable regardless of market
conditions.

Lessons from the slowdown
Current conditions also offer a great opportunity to get closer to the
customer and build great relationships, as most clients of the IT
majors are in trouble themselves, and are looking for ideas that will
help them improve their market share. Denny McGuire, chairman emeritus
of US research firm TPI, articulated this premise as he spoke of the
need for transforming 'transactions' in the form of projects to
'relationships' that are focused on creating long-term value for the
client.
During the course of the three-day summit, there were several thought-
provoking observations that perhaps call for deeper introspection. Jim
Champy, chairman of Perot Systems, spoke of the need for simplifying
the huge complexity that is an integral part of every IT
implementation today. Champy cautioned that some industry players
could become extinct unless they revisit their business models, and
focus anew on systems and applications that are simple to understand
and implement. In this context, India Inc can learn from the immense
success of companies such as Google, which have built the brand from
ground up by understanding the needs and behavior of the consumer, and
are now leveraging this knowledge in the enterprise market. After all,
every enterprise has a consumer, who needs a system that is quick and
economical to understand, implement and maintain.
With the downturn overseas, the Indian IT services sector is beginning
to look more seriously at domestic clients. But this is no bed of
roses. Alok Kumar, senior vice president for IT at large Indian
conglomerate Reliance Industries, opined that the needs of Indian
enterprises were poorly understood by the Indian IT service providers,
thus slowing uptake. Kumar spoke of the need for IT services majors to
evolve different India-pricing models and demonstrate more
flexibility. "Due to the rigid policies of most IT service providers,
Reliance is now increasingly considering and using open source
technologies. If IT service providers keep at this path, their
business is bound to come down drastically in the Indian market,"
cautioned Kumar. Outgoing Nasscom chairman Ganesh Natarajan responded
that the Indian IT services sector is cognizant of this gap, and in
fact needs to evolve a separate strategy not only for India but also
for other emerging markets including Brazil, Russia and China.
Moving beyond Satyam
Nasscom and the Indian software industry are well aware of the damage
caused to "Brand India" by the recent financial fraud unearthed at
Satyam Computer Services. The issue was alluded to repeatedly at the
conference, and officials were keen to categorize it as a one-off
aberration rather than an indication of systemic problems with
corporate governance in India. In concrete terms, Nasscom announced
the formation of a corporate governance and ethics committee, to be
chaired by Murthy of Infosys. The committee aims to sharpen the
existing code of ethics, values and corporate code of conduct for
industry and emphasize existing regulations and practices on corporate
governance, an official statement said. It will also develop and
create awareness of best practices to be followed by the board, audit
committees and independent directors of organizations.
With consistently rapid growth rates over the last eight years, the
Indian software industry has rarely had time to sit back, introspect
and weed out inefficiencies. The current slowdown is thus also being
viewed as an opportunity to re-evaluate existing models, and gauge
whether the linear growth model is still the right way to measure
growth and profitability.
Clearly, apart from the usual diversification strategies and touting
the 'move up the value chain' mantra, the Indian software industry
seems eager to formulate new strategies that will help it emerge
stronger and more profitable when global spending on IT gets back on
track.

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India's fiscal deficit would shoot to about 7.8 per cent not 6 percent

 India's fiscal deficit would shoot to about 7.8 per cent if off-budget items like bonds issued to oil companies are included, said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 16 projected a fiscal deficit of 6 per cent, without including the off-budget items.
"The Budget shows that the number is going to be 6 per cent as a fiscal deficit and this does not include about 1.7 per cent, which is the bonds etc, which are not counted," Ahluwalia said in in interview to Karan Thapar on the CNBC TV 18 show - India Tonight.
"This year, that is 2008-09, we started off with fiscal deficit which we thought should be 2.5 per cent and then another half a per cent for pay commission to be 3 per cent," he said.
Commenting on the government not coming out with populist Budget, Ahluwalia said, "Announcing sops in the Interim Budget was not an established parliamentary practice."
The government has been reacting to that crisis through multiple channels and since September upto the second stimulus a lot of action has been taken and fed into the budget, he said
 
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10 Indian idustries do well in reccession

In the current global economic slowdown, every sector of business is
being affected and is witnessing a hard time. But IKON Marketing
Consultants reports that in India there are few sectors which will
grow in this adverse situation..

AS EVERY business sector is affected by present global crisis and
everybody is talking of slow down in business, still in India there
are few sectors which will grow in this adverse situation. Lets have a
look.
1. Food

No one can survive without basic food material like milk, vegetables
and drinking water. Food processing companies will not be affected
much and rather will earn profits by increasing the prices. These are
the basic needs which we as a common man can not produce by our self.

According to Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI), the food
processing industry in India was seeing growth even as the world was
facing economic recession. According to the minister, the industry is
presently growing at 14 per cent against six to seven per cent growth
in 2003–04.The Indian food market is estimated at over US$ 182 billion
and accounts for about two thirds of the total Indian retail market.
Further, the retail food sector in India is likely to grow from around
US$ 70 billion in 2008 to US$ 150 billion by 2025

2. Railway

As the aviation sector has been affect much badly and resulting in
sharp rise in the air ticket rates the frequent travellers will prefer
railways to cut the cost of travelling and this will result in
increased traffic in railways and long queues at railway booking
counters. The freight traffic of Indian Railways has continued to grow
in the last few months, albeit at slow pace, indicating only marginal
impact of the global recession on the Indian economy.

The railways registered 13.87 per cent growth in revenue to Rs
57,863.90 crore in the first nine months ended December 31, 2008.
While total earnings from freight increased by 14.53 per cent at Rs
39,085.22 crore during the period, passenger revenue earnings were up
11.81 per cent at Rs 16,242.44 crore. The railways have enhanced
freight revenue by increasing its axle loading, improving customer
services and adopting an innovative pricing strategy.

3. PSU Banks

As seen in the private sector much of the job cuts due to global
slowdown, its the public sector undertaking (PSU) banks which gained
much confidence due to job safety and security. More and more people
are likely to turn towards government institutions, particularly banks
in the quest for safety and security.

A report "Opportunities in Indian Banking Sector", by market research
company, RNCOS, forecasts that the Indian banking sector will grow at
a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 23.3 per cent
till 2011.

4. Education

As education is considered as the basic necessity and in India it is
seen as a long term investment by parents and with respect to the
demand still there is a huge supply gap. The craze to study in foreign
university among the Indian youth still alive which will prompt
foreign education institute to target India provided vast young
population willing to join. We will see more and more foreign
educational institutions coming up in India in recent coming years.

Huge government as well as private investment is likely to flow into
the Indian educational system. D E Shaw, a US$ 36 billion, global
private equity firm is planning to invest around US$ 200 million in
the Indian education sector.

5. Telecom

People will not stop to communicate with each other due to global
crises rather it has been seen that it will increase much particularly
with mobile communication. With cheap cell phones available in the
Indian market and cheaper call rates, the sector has become the
necessity and primary need of everyday life.

Telecom sector, according to industry estimates, year 2008 started
with a subscriber base of 228 million and will likely to end with a
subscriber base of 332 million – a full century. The telecom industry
expects to add at least another 90 million subscribers in 2009 despite
of recession. The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the
fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the
second largest telecom market globally by 2010.

6. IT

Recent news shown that Indian IT sector will grow 30 to 40 per cent
next year. And on the other side to survive in current slowdown,
industries have to decrease the cost and for that they will resort to
customised IT solutions which will further boost up the software
solution demand.

India is fast becoming a hot destination for outsourced e-publishing
work. As per a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the
industry is growing at an annual rate of 35 per cent and India's
outsourcing opportunities in the value-added and core services such as
copy editing, project management, indexing, media services and content
deployment will help make the publishing BPO industry worth US$ 1.46
billion by 2010.

7. Health care

India in case of health care facilities still lakes the adequate
supply. In health care sector also there is huge gap between demand
and supply at all the levels of society. Still there are so many urban
areas were you could hardly find any multi specialty hospital. And in
case of metros the market sentiments itself created a need of
psychological consultation.

Healthcare, which is a US$ 35 billion industry in India, is expected
to reach over US$ 75 billion by 2012 and US$ 150 billion by 2017. The
healthcare industry is interestingly poised as it strives to emerge as
a global hub due to the distinct advantages it enjoys in clinical
excellence and low costs.

8. Luxury products

The high and affluent class of society will not be affected much by
this global crises even if their worth is reduced significantly. They
will not change their lifestyle and will not stop spending on
luxurious goods. So luxurious product market will not be affected and
in fact to maintain the lifestyle those affluent will spend more for
it. Luxury car makers are pouring in to woo the nouveau riche (Audi,
BMW are the most recent entrants).

9. M&A & Marketing Consultants

As in the current business slow down survival will be the main focus,
the marketing and management consultants will be called for to reduce
the costs and to show the ways to survive and stay in market. Others
may join hands to fight with this situation together will call for the
Marketing & M&A consultants. In a booming market there are growth
strategies and M&A opportunities to advise on. When businesses are
cutting back, consultancies will be right there to help clients decide
where to wield the axe.

According to Ministry of Commerce and Industry's estimation, the
current size of consulting industry in India is about Rs 10000 crores
including exports and is expected to grow further at a CAGR of
aproximately 25 per cent in next few years.

10.
Media and Entertainment

In current bad times, where people are losing jobs and getting enough
time to watch TV, they will seek entertainment at home and hence
advertising revenues will increase for the commercial channels. Also
businesses like production of religious texts and religious materials,
religious channels will do well. The TRP of religious channels will
increase compare to the other entertaining/commercial channels.

According to a report published by the Federation of Indian Chambers
of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Indian M&E industry is expected
to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent to
reach US$ 23.81 billion by 2012. According to the PWC report, the
television industry was worth US$ 5. 48 billion in 2007, recording a
growth of 18 per cent over 2006. It is further likely to grow by 22
per cent over the next five years and be worth US$ 12. 34 billion by
2012.

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Tax benifts of insaurance schemes

The average life span of an individual has increased in India due to better health conditions, awareness about one's well being and improved

 
medical facilities. At the same time, the medical costs of treatment and surgery have increased a lot. Therefore, medical insurance makes complete sense, especially where majority of the family members are dependent on one or two earning members, as is generally the case in an average Indian household.

It is a well-known fact that one can save tax up to Rs 1 lakh u/s 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Likewise, payment made for medical insurance u/s 80D of the Act can also help save tax.

As per section 80D of the Act, a deduction can be claimed by an individual in respect of the medical insurance premium paid up to Rs 15,000 for himself and his spouse and dependent children. Additionally, he can also claim deduction for the medical insurance premium up to Rs 15,000 for his parent(s). Further, the aforesaid deductions are increased up to Rs 20,000 in case the premium is paid for senior citizen (65 years or more).

Computation of benefit

Let us understand the above with the help of an example. Ashish has taken two insurance policies, one for himself, spouse and dependent children and the other one for his dependent parents who are senior citizens. He pays an annual premium of Rs 12,000 & Rs 25,000, respectively, for these two policies. Now, let's determine the amount of exemption available to Ashish u/s 80D for each insurance policy separately.

In the first case, he will be eligible to claim a deduction of only up to Rs 12,000 i.e. amount of premium actually paid subject to a maximum of Rs 15,000. In the second case, where he has taken a policy for his parents, he would be eligible to claim a deduction towards the premium paid for Rs 20,000, which is the maximum limit. In total, he would be able to claim deduction of up to Rs 32,000 (i.e. Rs 12,000 + Rs 20,000) in respect of both the policies.

It is important to note that the medical insurance premium should not be paid by cash, to avail the tax benefit.

Dependent with a disability

Further, in case an individual incurs expenses on medical treatment of a dependent with a disability, then he can claim a deduction up to Rs 50,000 / Rs 75,000, subject to the disability of the dependent u/s 80DD of the Act.

Few specified diseases

An individual can claim a deduction up to Rs 40,000 (Rs 60,000 in case of senior citizens) u/s 80 DDB for expenses incurred on treatment of certain prescribed diseases or ailments, subject to fulfillment of conditions prescribed under the Act.

An integral part of overall investment planning

Medical insurance these days is becoming a necessity and one should look at it as an essential investment for the well being of self and family.

These days, many insurance companies provide cashless medical claim facility wherein an individual can get the treatment done in specified hospitals without any payment. The payment for the treatment is made directly to the hospital by the insurance company, subject to the terms and conditions of the medical insurance policy.

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Investors of gold ETFs have pocketed over 9% gain in last seven days.

AHMEDABAD: At a time when equity and mutual fund investors are licking their wounds, investors of goldbacked exchange traded funds (ETFs) are
laughing all the way to the banks, thanks to rising gold prices.

As the gold is resuming its secular trends, investors of gold ETFs have pocketed over 9% gain in last seven days. Prices of five listed gold ETFs have gone up anywhere between 7.85 per cent to 9.84 per cent in the last seven days. The equity and mutual fund investors have witnessed an erosion of their wealth by 4.75 per cent as the benchmark equity index Sensex has tanked from 9465 points to 9015 points during the same period between February 12 and 18.

Gold prices have staged an upward journey since the last week of October 2008 as the worries over global economy deepened. If one takes into account the time frame of last four months, gold ETFs have given as high as 34 per cent return to investors.

"Wealth of gold ETFs investors has been increasing due to rising price of underlined gold in the global market . The current crisis in the global market has forced investors and large funds to shift their asset to gold for wealth preservation," said Sandesh Kirkire, chief executive officer of Kotak Mutual Fund.

Gold ETFs are passively managed mutual fund schemes under which investors can buy and sell gold on the exchange. As the gold is traded and the physical form of gold for each unit traded is backed by the custodian , investors need not worry about storage of their gold units.

The combined holding of gold by all these domestic ETFs are around five tonne and asset under management (AUM) of these funds has been rising with spurting gold prices. The combined gold holding of the world's top five ETFs has crossed 1,300 tonne.

SPDR Gold Share Fund, the world's largest ETF, has added its gold holding by 100 tonne in just a week's time. The total gold holding of SPDR now stands at 985 tonne.

As rupee is depreciating against dollar, the returns from the investments in the yellow metal have gone up in the last one year. This is attracting more and more investors to invest in the precious metal. ETF is a good option for investing in this precious metal.


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Us jobless claims

US Jobless claims: Act:627k, PPI: Act:+0.8% m positive to Bullion.
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Inflation Comes @12.10%

INFLATION COMES @12.10% VS 12.34%

IIP Data

IIP DATA - Is On Sep 12 : Index of Industrial Production for July, by CSO.

9-Sept-08 Headlines

Headlines for the day

Corporate News Headline
BEML bagged a contract worth Rs. 310 mn from Railway Board for design, manufacturing, supply, and commissioning of two rakes consisting of 18 units of stainless steel AC EMU coaches. (BS)
Pratibha Industries secured an order worth Rs. 447.5 mn for design and construction of 11.5 km water supply project from Delhi Jal Board. (BS)
Ashok Leyland and Nissan signed an agreement with the state government for setting up a manufacturing facility here to roll out 1.90 lakh light-range vehicles. (BS)

Economic and Political Headline
The RBI has decided to increase the cap on advance remittances up to USD 500,000 without a bank guarantee, against the previous limit of USD 100,000 towards the import of services. (ET)
The Foreign banks are expecting that new RBI governor, Mr. D Subbarao would give them more leeway in picking up stakes in local private sector banks next year. (ET)
In its most dramatic market intervention in years, the US government seized two of the nation´s largest financial companies, taking direct responsibility for firms that provide funding for around three-quarters of new home mortgages. (WSJ)

Aviva Life to expand network, aiming for higher marketshare

Aviva Life to expand network, aiming for higher marketshare
In a bid to enhance its footprint in the country, Aviva Life Insurance India plans to add around 60 more branches by next year, taking its network strength to 280, a top official of the company said.
"We will be increasing our branch strength to 280 from the current 219 by the next calender year which would help us to enhance our presence in the country," Aviva India Managing Director and CEO Bert Paterson said. The company was aiming to up its marketshare and having a bigger all-India presence would help it in its endeavour, Paterson said.
In the current year, the company has already launched around six new products, he said adding that a few more products were in the pipeline which would be launched after obtaining regulatory approvals.

"We have already lined up some new products for launch in the market. We have applied to the IRDA and are now awaiting its approval," Paterson said.
"Till date, we have recorded a growth of over 53 per cent and are aiming for an aggressive growth this year," he said.
The company would concentrate on its core business of life insurance and has no short-term or mid-term plan to enter the general insurance segment, he said.
"In India, general insurance is unprofitable. Besides, competition is intense and hence we have no immediate plans to enter the general insurance business," he said.
Within the Asia-Pacific region, India contributes 40 per cent to the group's overall revenue in retail life insurance, he said. The company's most profitable product in the country was Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPS) which contributes over 95 per cent to the total revenue, he said.

TPAs eye tier-2 cities to catch with insurance market growth

TPAs eye tier-2 cities to catch with insurance market growth
Seeking to catch up with the accelerating growth in number of lives being covered by health insurance policies, TPAs are now eyeing the tier-two cities where industry is seeing most of its new business gains.
The third party administrators (TPAs) are organisations specialising in processing insurance claims for various entities and are normally contracted by health insurance firms and companies self-insuring its employees.

TPAs currently have an average service network of about 10 to 15 branches in the country, most of which are in state capitals. In contrast, the general insurance companies, which control nearly entire health insurance product
portfolio, are present in an average of 400 locations.
This huge disparity requires TPAs to aggressively expand their operations to meet the needs of the burgeoning health insurance market, industry experts believe.
Besides, implementation of various government-sponsored health insurance schemes such as RSBY (Rashtriya Swashthya Bima Yojana) demand enhancement of service administration capabilities from TPAs.
One of the major TPA players, MediAssist, is planning a major expansion in its tier-two cities, both in terms of
number of centres and employees, and is also looking to service various government-sponsored health insurance schemes.
"As Indian health insurance sector grows, a pan-India network with locally empowered offices is essential for a TPA to meet the dynamic requirements of customers in terms of servicing capabilities, reach and an efficient provider network," a source close to MediAssist said.
"Our Tier-II operations will place us in a distinctive position to provide comfort to the insurers, hospitals and the insuring public managed by us," he added.

Reliance MF SIPs cross 1 million mark

Reliance MF SIPs cross 1 million mark
Reliance Mutual Fund, the nation's leading mutual fund in terms of assets under management, on Thursday claimed to have crossed the one-million mark in sales of their systematic investment plans (SIPs).
"This is the first time for any mutual fund in India to have crossed this milestone in such a short span of time," said Vikrant Gugnani, CEO, Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd.
Citing the reasons, he said, "Customers' need-based flexible investment offerings and quality service have helped us win customer confidence across the country. Systematic investment plans are simple and easy even for aam aadmi as one can start with a small amount as low as Rs 100 per month. SIPs are helping in getting first-time investors in the market and growing the overall reach of mutual funds."
Recently, Reliance Mutual Fund launched an enhanced version of the existing SIP – SIP + Insure, which gives investors insurance cover up to 360 times of the monthly investment. This added benefit is given to the investor at no extra cost.

Bharti AXA launches equity fund

Bharti AXA launches equity fund
Bharti AXA Investment Managers on Thursday launched their Equity Fund christened as Bharti AXA Equity Fund.
The new fund offer commenced on September 4 and will close on October 1. The open ended equity growth fund is benchmarked to S&P CNX Nifty Index Fund Index.
The fund seeks to generate long term capital appreciation from a diversified portfolio of predominantly equity and equity-related securities including equity derivatives.
65 – 100 per cent of assets will be allocated in equity and equity related securities while debt & money market securities/instruments will constitute 0 – 35 per cent. Investments in derivative instruments shall not exceed 50 per cent of net assets of the portfolio. No investments will be made in securitized debt.
The issue price for the scheme is Rs. 10 per unit plus applicable load during NFO period. An investor can begin investment with a minimum investment Rs. 5,000 for retail and eco plan and Rs. 5 crore for institutional plan.

The scheme comes with three unique features – quarterly dividend plan, eco plan and daily systematic investment plan. Under each of these plans, the options available are growth, bonus and regular dividend and quarterly dividend plan – offering dividend re-investment and dividend pay-out facilities.
Quarterly dividend enables investors to earn regular income without having to monitor the investment and redeem any units. Eco plan is offered to investors to receive all communications by e-mail instead of physical mode like courier/post. This option is available to all investors for a maximum investment of up to Rs.2 lakhs per transaction. The expense ratio of the eco plan will be reduced by 0.25% p.a. in comparison to the regular plan.
For the first time in the Indian Mutual Fund Industry, Bharti AXA Equity Fund offers investors the option of a daily SIP. Interestingly, investors can also opt for a daily systematic transfer plan by investing a lump sum in Bharti AXA Liquid Fund and transferring a specified amount to Bharti AXA Equity Fund on a daily basis. Minimum instalment for daily SIP/STP is Rs.300 and in multiples of Rs.100 thereafter. The minimum investment instalment amount for the monthly SIP/STP is Rs.1, 000.
"The markets have seen downside for quite a while now and we believe that there is enough opportunity available in the market at attractive valuations. A long-term investment bet in a core fund at this point will be a good proposition for retail investors," said Prateek Agarwal, head – equity, Bharti AXA AM

ICICI Lombard to offer product for natural calamities

ICICI Lombard to offer product for natural calamities
Private insurer ICICI Lombard has said that it is in the process of developing a product for natural calamities like the floods in Bihar.

"For the situations like Bihar floods, we will soon be offering catastrophe products. We are in the process of developing the same," Pranav Prashad, Head-Rural Vertical, ICICI Lombard said on Sunday.
He said for the farmers, "we do offer products like Weather Insurance, Cattle Insurance and Health Insurance". These policies cover a certain amount of financial losses suffered by the subscriber.
On the market size of the rural insurance sector and the share of ICICI Lombard, Prashad said, "We are pioneers in offering insurance products for the rural masses in India. This is part of the company's focus of financial inclusion and reaching out to the socio-economically challenged as well as those located in the remote areas of the country."
He further said general insurance contributes only 0.6 per cent of the country's GDP. "This effectively means that the benefits of insurance services are yet to reach the majority of the country's population. As India's leading private sector general insurance company, our effort is to raise its GDP contribution to over 1 per cent".

Rs 1200 crore shopping mall project planned

Rs 1200 crore shopping mall project planned
The UAE based Emke Group is setting up India's 'biggest' shopping mall, including a 300 room hotel, at a Rs 1200 crore investment at Kochi which is expected to be ready by 2010, a top company official said on Monday.
The Lulu International Shopping Mall will be spread over 17 acres of land at nearby Edapally with a built ip area of 20 lakh square feet, Yusuffali MA, Managing Director of the Shopping mall and Managing Director of the Emke group told a press meet here.
Depending on the success of the project, similar malls would be planned in other states as well, he said.
Describing it as a ''dream project'', he said the plan is not only to build just a shopping mall but a landmark destination for both residents and tourists alike. The facilities, brands, services, architecture, amentities would be comparable to the best in the world, he said.
The mall will have parking space for more than 3000 vehicles.
The project is being built as per the best international specifications by world renowned consultants W S Atkins of UK and will house over 300 national and international brands of fashion, jewellery, electronics, life style, home furnishing, furniture and accessories, book shops and footwear. Seven theatre multiplex, family amusement centre with bowling alley, six restaurants, a 50,000 square feet food court with 18 outlets and coffee shops are also being planned.
The project also includes a 300 room five star hotel and a commercial tower exclusively for the Airlines and Aviation sector.An agreement has already been signed with the world renowned Marriot Hotels for the management of the five star hotel. This is the first of its kind speciality commercial space in the region and is sure to complement the tremendous growth taking place in this sector, he said.

Citi fights bid to cap credit card interest

Citi fights bid to cap credit card interest
All credit card users should make a mental note of a case that has come up before the Supreme Court. The verdict the apex court gives will decide the interest consumers have to pay on card outstandings.
Citibank NA has moved the Supreme Court, challenging an order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, which restrained the bank from charging an interest rate of over 30 per cent a year to credit card holders who fail to make full payment on the due date.
A bench comprising Justice BN Agrawal and Justice GS Singhvi on Friday said that the matter will be heard on September 8. The court refused to hear the plea of the bank on an urgent basis.
The matter, which relates to a balancing of consumer protection and regulatory powers, assumes importance given the fierce growth of credit card use, overspending and delinquency in recent years. Notably, similar issues had resulted in new legislations in advanced markets.

In an appeal filed through counsel RS Suri, Citibank said that such capping of rates of interest on credit card payment was contrary to RBI policy. The US-based bank pointed out that the central bank in its circular of July 23, 2008 had said that banks prescribe their respective ceiling rate of interest in respect of small-value personal loans and this would apply to credit card dues as well. RBI had clearly stated that banks were free to determine rates of interest on non-priority sector personal loans without reference to the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) and regardless of the size of loan.
"The imposition of an upper cap of interest to a degree turned non-priority sector lending to priority sector lending," said Citibank. Further, "the commission failed to appreciate that the market in India is still at a developing stage and the risk of default is relatively high, and legal remedy has its own costs. An emerging market like India also has a high cost of acquisition and a high cost of servicing an account as compared to other mature markets," said Citibank.
It may be mentioned that in markets like the US, there are legislations like the Truth in Lending Act — which requires banks to state upfront all charges on the product — primarily to enable the consumer to shop around for the best deal. In the UK, the Fair Trade Commission, formed under the Consumer Credit Act, ensures that there is a fair deal between the consumer and the bank.

Banks argue that credit card is a transnational product and the level of interaction between the bank and customer is intensive, for which the bank engages a large workforce to facilitate customer services. For example, Citibank receives 700,000 calls per month on its helplines, in addition to about 65,000 emails and 15,000 letters per month from card holders, said the appeal.

The appellant bank also picked holes in the Commission order, which had said that the penal interest can be charged only once for one period of dafault and shall not be capitalised.
"The interest accrues on the aggregate of the outstanding due amounts for the period for which it remains due and no penal interest is levied. Capitalisation of interest connotates utilisation of the principal amount of the loan towards the payment of interest which is not the scenario that applies to credit card dues. In case of credit-card dues, credit availed of and the entire amount remaining overdue is liable to the payment of interest," said the bank.
The Commission's findings that charging of interest with monthly rates as unfair trade practice was also arbitrary, said Citibank.
"The Commission has no jurisdiction to hold that the charging by banks of interest at monthly rests was an unfair trade practice given that credit card dues are unsecured and of indeterminate tenor, and the levying of interest at monthly rests is in any event harmonious with the monthly billing and payment cycles. When the billing and payment cycles are monthly, it is also of no benefit to the credit card user to pay accredited interest at rests that are not synchronized with the billing and payment cycles," said Citibank. On July 7, 2008, the Commission had passed the order following a complaint by a credit card holder.

LIC may launch credit card next month

LIC may launch credit card next month
Life Insurance Corp (LIC) may launch its credit card in October, according to its Senior Divisional Manager Bhausaheb Gujar.
LIC is in the process of finalising the partner and in all probablity it would be introduced next month, he said told reporters here.
The insurance giant is also in the process of completing formalities for accepting its premium through credit cards, Gujar said.
LIC has already roped in Corporation bank and Axis Bank for accepting premiums from those holding accounts there.

StanChart unveils single card for debit, credit transactions

StanChart unveils single card for debit, credit transactions
Customers who until now had to keep two separate cards — credit and debit card in their wallets — can now manage with a single card. Standard Chartered has launched a new card which will provide the customer the choice of the same plastic as a credit card or a debit card. Other banks are also looking at similar products. There are close to 27 million credit cards and 110 million debit cards now. Most banks have been pushing debit cards to their customers by converting their ATM cards to debit cards.
In the case of StanChart, the technology of using the card as a debit or credit cards doesn't rest on the card. It works on the back-end technology of the bank. A customer while applying for the new card — '1Money' — will have to choose an option between a debit and credit card which would be the default option. After every transaction, the customer will get an SMS which would ask the customer whether he wants to use the debit or the credit card option. The customer can do the switch in a 24-hour time frame. If the customer doesn't choose the option, the transaction will be done on the default option of the card.
Internationally, the bank has launched a card, whereby a chip is embedded in the card and when the customer swipes, will give the option of a debit or a credit card. However, such a product cannot be launched in the country as the electronic data capture (EDC), terminals have not been enabled, according to Sai Narain CDK, head consumer transaction banking andstrategic initiatives, StanChart.
In the initial phase, the bank is offering the product only by invitation to its premium customers. Currently, StanChart has 1.3-million credit card customers and close to a million debit card customers. In the recent past, the bank has been concentrating on higher-end of the credit card segment. According to StanChart GM (credit cards and personal loans) RL Prasad, the delinquency in credit cards has been maintained at close to 8% for the past couple of years as against an industry average of 12-14%.

Indians not getting loans in Malaysia: Business lobby

Indians not getting loans in Malaysia: Business lobby
A business lobby of Malaysian Indians has claimed that the government financing agency Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) has not given loans to any of the 200 people, it had recommended for micro-financing after conducting a nationwide survey this year.
"We sent the list to AIM but to date, none of the candidates had received loans," said Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA) president P. Sivakumar.

Sivakumar said AIM, which was set up to help all Malaysians, should reveal how much it had disbursed to poor Indians over the last six months.
"It should be transparent by releasing the list. We want to know why AIM is not giving poor Indians a chance to benefit from its micro-financing services," he said.
The report had stated that AIM had helped 190,000 so far, disbursing RM2.6 bn in micro-financing to members, nearly all of whom were women.
Sivakumar suggested AIM set up a special board with representatives from Indian non-governmental organisations to help channel funds.
Meanwhile, AIM consultant for the Indian community, M. Sivalingam, said MIBA should send its complaints to the chairman of the AIM board.
He said AIM would entertain requests from any group or individual who required loans.

IDBI plans to sell home fin arm

IDBI plans to sell home fin arm
IDBI Bank is planning to sell its Pune-based wholly-owned subsidiary, IDBI Homefinance (IHFL), according to a person familiar with the development. A proposal to sell the home finance subsidiary is expected to be taken up by the board of IDBI Bank shortly, the source said. The book value of IHFL at the end of March 2007 was Rs 290 crore. Market watchers say the book value would have increased slightly now. The proposed sale is likely to have been prompted by a view that a separate subsidiary is not required for mortgage lending when the same business is also undertaken at IDBI Bank.
IHFL was previously Tata Home Finance. The name of the mortgage lender was changed as it was acquired by IDBI Bank in September 2003.
IHFL's home loan portfolio as on March 31, 2008 was Rs 2,710 crore, up Rs 563 crore from a year earlier. The mortgage lender, which has 18 branches in major cities, had reported a net profit of Rs 30 crore for 2007-08.
IDBI bank is likely to give the mandate to IDBI Capital Market Services for finding a suitor. When contacted, a senior official of IDBI Bank said, "We are examining various options. We have still not made up our mind."
Recently, Melwyn Rego who was heading IHFL was transferred back to the bank's domestic resources development (DRD) department. MH Kulkarni has now taken over as the MD & CEO of IHFL.
Interestingly, Tata Capital, the latest entrant in the home loan segment,will be shortly filing its application with the National Housing Board to start its housing finance business.

Home A-Loan? It’s a party out there

Home A-Loan? It’s a party out there
Even rising inflation has failed to defer the great Indian middle-class’ aspirations of buying their dream home. Surprising it may seem, but despite the slowdown in the economy, the home loan segment is alive and kicking with possibilities.
According to industry estimates, the home loan market witnessed an average growth of 20-25% in August, thanks to small-ticket buying. And with festive season around the corner, housing finance companies are gearing up to meet an increased demand as they expect real estate developers to dole out huge discounts to lure first-time buyers.
Banks across the board confirmed that they have witnessed a considerable increase in the number of queries from people seeking home loans. “These are typically the ones who are looking to buy residential property in the festive season. They have already been assured by real estate developers of a good discount, and are making now sure that they get their documents ready in time,†a senior banker explaining the phenomenon said.
It should be mentioned that the Reserve Bank of India hiked the cash reserve ratio (CRR) from 8.75% to 9% in the first week of August. Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC, the country’s largest housing finance company, believes that with the great Indian middle-class kicking in, home loan market should be able to weather the storms of a slowing economy. “We has seen a growth of 22% in the home loan segment in August, vis-à -vis the year-ago period. People are waiting for monsoons to get over. Already, there’s been an increase in the number of queries for home loans. We expect the market to pick up significantly in October when festivities begin,†Parkekh told SundayET. Mr Parkekh’s optimism is visible in growth numbers. For the April-July period, HDFC saw a 28% growth in the home loan segment. The company’s average loan size this year has been Rs 15 lakh and 95% of the borrowers were salaried employees.
Says Rohtas Goel, CMD of Omaxe Group: “The hike in repo and CRR rate has impacted the demand in the residential market. But this does not change the fact that people need homes and opportunities to invest. It only results in people buying smaller homes in less-preferred locations, which is what’s happening now.â€

RNA to redevelop large Chembur housing colony

RNA to redevelop large Chembur housing colony
Mumbai-based property developer RNA has bagged a Rs 1,000-crore project to redevelop Subhash Nagar Colony, one of the oldest and biggest settlements in Chembur. The project involves reconstruction of 57 buildings built by the Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority in 1950. The colony is spread over 40 acres and each building has 36 flats.
On completion of the project, tenants will be rehoused in flats admeasuring 320 sq ft, with 65 sq ft of open space. RNA has already begun work on the project and has given transit accommodation to tenants in five buildings.
Learning Center- http://learning.investorline.co.in/
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Redevelopment of the city's old buildings is a big business opportunity as the government is encouraging realtors with tax incentives and higher floor space index. The city has some 16,000 buildings that qualify for redevelopment.
Under the redevelopment scheme, old and dilapidated buildings are knocked down to construct taller residential buildings and create more space for commercial activities, thereby boosting returns on investment.
"To support development of this scale, the company has undertaken extensive infrastructure enhancement, like setting up drainage and sewerage systems, underground water lines, recreation grounds, playgrounds and internal roads," RNA vice president Manoj John said.
He claimed that the tenants need not pay maintenance costs as the company has taken care of it. "We have opened a fixed deposit account, which generates substantial monthly interest. This amount is big enough to take care of maintenance and other costs that normally are borne by the society," Mr John said.
Over the past 10 years, RNA has developed 15.5 million sq ft. It now has as much as 12 million sq ft under development across residential, commercial and SEZ sectors.

Headlines for the day 4-Sept-08

Headlines for the day

Corporate News Headline
NMDC would invest about Rs. 120 bn to set up an integrated steel plant in Chhattisgarh with an annual capacity of 3 MT. (BS)
Tata Motors was looking for alternate options to manufacture its small car Nano from the company´s other plants and work at Singur has been suspended. (ET)
BHEL is planning to set up a greenfield project for manufacturing locomotives. (BS)

Economic and Political Headline
After the launch of currency futures in the country, the market regulator SEBI has said that it is mulling introduction of Rupee- Yen and Rupee-Euro futures. (BS)
Belying fears of an economic slowdown, the direct tax collections have gone up by 38.3% in the first five months of the current fiscal at Rs. 844.09 bn, compared to Rs. 610.30 bn in a year-ago period. (ET)
The orders for manufactured goods in the US increased 1.3% in July, following a revised 2.1% increase in June, and a barometer of capital spending by businesses surged. (WSJ)

U.S. Productivity (Q2) & Jobless claims

U.S. Productivity (Q2): Act 4.3 ; Exp3.50; Prior2.20 (-ve)
U.S. Jobless claims: Act 444; Exp425; Prior425 (+Ve)
Negative for Precious metals…Productivity is important

Gail India Ltd

Gail India Ltd has informed BSE that for issuance of one bonus share for two equity shares held, the 'Record Date', has been fixed for October 07, 2008. The proposal has also been approved by the Shareholders in their meeting held on September 04, 2008

European Central Bank kept prime lending rate unchanged at 4.25%

European Central Bank kept prime lending rate unchanged at 4.25%

Commodity trade near 5-month low

Commodity trade near 5-month low, oil leads the pack

GAIL appoves Bonus Shares 1:2 basis

GAIL appoves Bonus Shares 1:2 basis

Bank of England kept rate unchanged at 5.0%

Bank of England kept rate unchanged at 5.0%

what are different types of debt instruments?

While searching for investment products which is aimed at capital protection and fixed returns, we turn our attention to various debt products available for investment. Let us go through some of them which is not very familiar with the normal investor community.You can see the following categories in the portfolio of almost all debt mutual funds.

1. Central Govt Securities - These are the most safest debt investment that one can make. They don have any default in payments.Even in case of bad situations, the government can print currency and payback the investment to the investors.

2. State Govt Securities - These are provided by respective state government and are less liquid compared to central govt securities. It has a higher yield than central govt securities and it may default on payment but in history it has never happened.

3. Public sector bonds - These are issued by public sector undertakings who borrow funds from the markets in terms of bonds.

4. Domestic Financial Institutaion bonds - These are provided by financial institutions like IDBI,ICICI and these are unsecured bonds.

5. Corporate Debentures - Private sector companies raise fund from investors through corporate debentures.

6. Commercial Paper - Private companies meet short term(1-6 months) fund requirements through commercial paper.

7. Certificates of Deposit - These are issued by banks and financial institutions.

Apart from these , there are other common products such as kisan vikas patra(money doubles in 8 years 7 months),NSC,Post office Deposits,Senior citizen scheme in post office,GOI bonds,PPF and Bank FDs.

All those trading in Resurgere -New Scrip listed in NSE-Warning!!

Dear All,

This scrip seems to be a killer scrip. Delivery volumes are abysmal at 2-3% and the traded volumes in both the exchanges are above 2crores share on an average.I am told that this issue bombed in the IPO and subscription was less than 10% and it got closed simply by someone bailing out and the moves of the scrip shows that what was not subscribed is being palmed off at an exorbitant price. I don't really know why SEBI or NSE or BSE(Of KGN Fame!!) are sitting quiet watching the price manipulation in its most blatant format?! Only aftre the horses have bolted they will come in to close the doors it seems to me.

I only request all readers to be discerning and not get sucked into the frenzy and then regret losing money. Though I called correctly on both the days with correct stoplosses for buy as well as sell positions I am really afraid of such shares reminding me of a share called Rupangi Impex.

Better guard yourself- I see no more than the delivery days of Thursday and Friday(Auction Day) for this share to be active.

NSE has very recently seen shares such as Firstwin,Gwalior Chem,Vishal Info,VinCards(restructured) killing a lot of people. My advicw will be unless a share trades for sa decent period of time - say 30-45 days- any one to speculate is only suicidal. I have been told that many clients had put in Preopen Mkt "SELL" orders on Resurgere on Monday-What is the basis?? I am stunned by such ill informed trading pattern.

Another issue had been Ranbaxy in which a lot of people took positions in Sep longs. Looks like the down period for Ranbaxy may be coming to an end with the Open Offer being over. Lets hope things return to normalcy at least hereafter!!

How to calculate your cash flow statement?

Lets us now get to know how to improve your net worth. One of the tool that can be used to improve your net worth is your cash flow statement.

Cashflow statement is nothing but a measure of how much money is coming in and how much money is being spent by you.Lets start creating your cashflow statement by doing the following steps.

1. List down all your incomes. Identify all your source of incomes like monthly income,dividends,rental income and other sources.List down the monthly income and also list down the annual estimate of your income from each source.

2.List down all your expenses which may include credit card payments,rent/emi,grocery expenses,children's fees.

3. Calculate your cash flow by

Cashflow = Income - Expenses

After arriving at your cash flow, check if the cashflow is positive or negative. Lets see how to read/analyse cashflow statement.

4. Cashflow analysis

a) Look out ways to increase your income. Check if your hobby or your skill set can generate a significant income.

b) Check if you could reduce your expenses. Classify the expenses as necessary and unessential ones. Try to reduce the unessential expenses if possible.

c) Try to reduce your debt component and try to reduce taxes by investing in tax instruments.

Cashflow is directly proportional to the net worth and hence start creating your monthly cash flow statement and track them regularly to increase your net worth which would in term let you give you leeway for investments.

NEWS:- ECB, BoE expected to leave interest rates steady

NEWS:- ECB, BoE expected to leave interest rates steady

inflation will be 12.2

inflation will be 12.2

Oil And Stocks: The "Correlation" Breaks Down? When oil goes down, do stocks go really go up?

Oil And Stocks: The "Correlation" Breaks Down?
When oil goes down, do stocks go really go up?

September 2 was the first day of trading after the long Labor Day weekend, and the DJIA opened with a sharp gap up.

That same morning, crude oil started the day with a sharp drop.

So what, you ask? Isn't that how it's supposed to be – when oil goes down, stocks go up? Market analysts repeat this "rule of thumb" every day, in print and on TV – so it must be true.

They do, indeed. But does saying it make it so? Consider this:

"Most pundits were talking mainly about oil this morning [Sept. 2], which was extremely volatile. They tried to explain the strongly higher stock market open by the fact that oil prices were down big. By the end of today's session very few market observers talked about oil and stocks together.

"The reason: both ended today's market session DOWN, once again showing that the supposed negative correlation between the two asset classes is ephemeral (see Stocks and Oil chart on p.6 of the September Elliott Wave Financial Forecast). If these trends continue, pretty soon pundits will be trying to make the case that lower oil is BEARISH for stock prices. Just wait."

– Elliott Wave International, Short Term Update, Tuesday, September 2, 2008, 4:30 PM Eastern.

"Just wait," indeed. If oil drops below $100 (a scenario EWI's Energy Specialty Service considers highly probable), can you imagine news headline like these, for example?

"Stocks Fall As Continued Declines In Crude Indicate Slowing Consumer Demand"

Or,

"Shares of Energy Companies Drag Stocks Down"

Resurgere Mines & Minerals India Limited final bid detail

Resurgere Mines & Minerals India Limited final bid detail
Published 8/13/2008 9:23:00 AM - IPO News


Hi Friends,
Resurgere Mines & Minerals India Limited IPO oversubscribed by 1.16 times. Non Institutional category oversubscribed around 2.4129 times while Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) quota subscribed 1.3401 times.
Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) category oversubscribed 0.3967 times and Employees category oversubscribed 1.0004 times.
Resurgere Mines & Minerals India Limited - Bid details
Sr.No.CategoryNo.of shares offered/reservedNo. of shares bid forNo. of times of total meant for the category
1Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs)252000033771201.3401
1(a)Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) 2914360
1(b)Domestic Financial Institutions(Banks/ Financial Institutions(FIs)/ Insurance Companies) 360
1(c)Mutual Funds 12400
1(d)Others 450000
2Non Institutional Investors42000010134002.4129
2(a)Corporates 831800
2(b)Individuals (Other than RIIs) 177920
2(c)Others 3680
3Retail Individual Investors (RIIs)12600004998000.3967
3(a)Cut Off 409480
3(b)Price Bids 90320
4Employee Reservation2500002501001.0004
4(a)Cut Off 100
4(b)Price Bids 250000

NEW LISTING:: AUSTRAL COKE & PROJECTS LTD

NEW LISTING:: AUSTRAL COKE & PROJECTS LTD

Brand Bengal stands to lose Rs 80,000cr

Source-TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: If the Tatas go, they will take with them almost everything that matters to Brand Bengal. Image and the big bucks. The first entity doesn't carry a price tag but the second one does: a whopping Rs 80,000 crore in investments.
The immediate loss will be over Rs 5,000 crore, including the investments on the ancillary units in Singur. The list would also include tier-II vendors, who will have no reason to be here once Ratan Tata moves out.
What's more, the Tata brands like Tata Realty Infrastructure, Tata Metaliks and Maithon Power Limited might also take flight, amounting to a loss of at least Rs 10,000 crore. Besides, there are other bigtime investors who are already jittery. Bharat Forge, which had decided to invest big time in Bengal largely because of the Nano plant in Singur, is now in two minds.
The company would have brought in Rs 6,500 crore. This top-of-the-line forging company had signed an MoU with the government earlier this year. Ever since trouble erupted in Singur, their response to the state industries department is: We'll get back.
Brand Bengal had attracted investment announcements of Rs 1,27,302 crore since the third quarter of the last financial year. But this target is now a distant dream.
In case of a Tata pullout, there will be a question mark on the investment from nonferrous metal major Vedanta Group. That will be another Rs 16,000 crore gone.
Then, there are steel majors who would have implemented their projects this year, but are apprehensive now. All these steel majors, including Adhunik (Rs 5,000 crore), Shyam Steel (Rs 8,000 crore), Jay Balaji (Rs 16,500 crore), Bhushan Steel (Rs 4,000 crore), Abhijit Group (Rs 8,000 crore) may not be all that keen to invest.
''None of these steel majors will stay on, once the Tatas go,'' an industries department official said. ''These investments had come after sheer hard work. We had also roped in other automobile majors. Two months ago, they were ready to start work. Now, they are saying they would rather wait and watch,'' he added.

Europe Negetive

Europe opens negative, FTSE closed, CAC (-37, 4363), DAX (-22, 6319). Asia closes positive, HangSeng (+712, 21104), Nikkei (+213, 12878). (1.50 p.m.)

Q1 GDP expection 7.7%

india to announce Q1 GDP on 29th august, mkt expectation 7.7%

SEBI Board To Meet Next Week To Review FII Regulations

SEBI Board To Meet Next Week To Review FII Regulations. Norms Relating To P-Notes May Be Revisited. SEBI Chief, Sections Of Board Want Review Of Norms For P-Notes KYC Norms For FIIs May Be On The Cards.Sec Lending & Borrowing Mech To Also Be Discussed.

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT BY IRDA

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT BY IRDA: Insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has announced fresh investment guidelines that seek to create a level playing field between private players and LIC (Life Insurance Corporation). The biggest impact of these guidelines will be on LIC. Earlier LIC was allowed to hold up to 30% of stake in any company but now it may be able hold only up to 10%. It may have to dilute stake in companies where holding is more than 10%. LIC currently holds more than 10% in companies such as Ranbaxy, Mahindra, L&T

Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins bronze

Wrestler Sushil Kumar claimed India's second medal at the Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images] when he won the bronze in the 66kg Freestyle event on Wednesday.

Kumar beat Kazakhstan's Leonid Spiridonov 3:1, with scores of 2-1, 0-1, 1-0 in the three rounds.

Spiridonov had finished fourth in the 66kg weight class in Athens, while Kumar took 14th place.

This is the first time since 1952 Helsinki Olympics that India has won two medals in a single Olympics.

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the last Indian wrestler to win a medal, when he won bronze in 1952.

Earlier, Abhinav Bindra [Images] gave India its first individual Olympics gold medal when he won the 10 metre Air Rifle event.

Sushil Kumar, who had a bye in the first round, lost to Ukraine's Andry Stadnik 1-8 in the pre-quarter-finals on technical points.

But, despite the defeat and because of the bye, he got to fight the United States' Dough Schwab in a repechage bout, which he won 3-1 and earned the right to meet Albert Batyrov of Belarus next.

The Indian won this round too 3-1 to make it to the bronze medal round, where he beat Spiridonov.

Ramazan Shahin of Turkey took the gold, defeating Stadnik, Sushil Kumar's conqueror in the pre-quarter-finals.

In the gold medal bout, Stadnik took the first period 2-2 by scoring the last point. Shahin then clawed back to take the next 2-1. The deciding period was 2-2 after the first two minutes, but Shahin scored the last point and thus won the bout.

This is the first gold medal won by Turkey at the Beijing Games' wrestling tournament.

Men's 66kg freestyle first and second repechage round results:

Second repechage round: Sushil Kumar (India) beat Albert Batyrov (Belarus) 3-1
Geandry Garzon (Cuba) beat Mehdi Taghavi (Iran) 3-1

First repechage round Sushil Kumar (India) beat Doug Schwab (US) 3-1

Source : rediff.com

Beijing Olympics 2008 - India Won Bronze

Beijing Olympics 2008 - India Won Bronze
India won 2nd (second) medal of Beijing Olympics 2008

In wrestling Indian Sushil Kumar Won Bronze
in 66kg Freestyle

This is 1st time, India ever won 2 medals in single Olympic

Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins bronze

Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins bronze

Sushil Kumar gave India it's second medal at the Beijing Olympics as he won the bronze in the Men's Freestyle 66kg bout against Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan.

Wrestling india win bronzeeeeeeeeee

Wrestling india win bronzeeeeeeeeee

In wrestling Sushil Kumar won bronze

India Win Bronze!!!

CHEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSS FRIENDS ... FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY OF OLYMPICS INDIA WON 2 MEDALS .. ABHINAV WITH GOLD IN SHOOTING AND SUSHIL WITH BRONZE IN WRESTLING REAL PARTY TIME ... SAY TO MEDIA DONT GIVE ANY MORE HYPE TO SANIA MIRZA

Inflation Hits 13-yrs High

Inflation 12.44% for week ended 2-Aug-08

Inflation Hits 13-yrs High

if u see inflation its due to food ....rasing interest rate wont solve the problem as fopod prices have no correlation with interest rates

INFLATION AT 12.44% V/S 12.01% FOR WEEK ENDED AUG 2

INFLATION AT 12.44% V/S 12.01% FOR WEEK ENDED AUG 2

Inflation likely to touch 13-14% by October, says ABN Amro chief

"Inflation is likely to touch the 13-14 per cent mark by October, but it may soften after that," ABN Amro Bank's India chief Meera Sanyal told reporters in Mumbai on August 12.
Sanyal also said there has been a slight increase in increase in delinquencies in the credit card and personal loan portfolios of banks and attributed it to higher interest rates.
On corporate growth, Sanyal said that in the medium-term, there may be some slowdown, "but in the longer-term, it will remain robust."
She said that despite a slowing down in crude prices, inflation in the country was likely to touch the 13-14 per cent mark by October. "But inflation should come down post-October," she added.
Given the good monsoon expectations, there are already signs of food prices coming down, she said.
On ABN Amro Bank's rebranding into RBS, Sanyal said that the bank was in constant discussions with the Reserve Bank on the matter. "We are in constant touch with the RBI (on the rebranding issue)," she said. The entire process may take up to the middle of next year, she said.

Inflation may touch 13%; growth to slip to 7.7%: Rangarajan

There will be no respite from rising prices in the immediate run, with PM's Economic Advisory Council on Wednesday suggesting that inflation may touch 13 per cent while the GDP growth rate is expected to slide to 7.7 per cent from 9 per cent recorded last year.
"For some more time inflation can increase. It could touch 13 per cent, but by December it will start declining and is likely to moderate to 8-9 per cent by March 2009," said outgoing chairman of the PMEAC C Rangarajan while releasing the Economic Outlook for 2008-09.
Approving the Reserve Bank of India's [Get Quote] tight monetary policy to contain inflation, which has touched the 13-year-high mark of 12 per cent, Rangajaran said, "It (inflation) could be brought down to 8-9 per cent by March 2009 through coordinated policy action."
Inflation, the silent killer: Complete Coverage
As regards the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy, Rangarajan, who is also a former RBI Governor, said: "The tight monetary stance needs to be maintained till the pace of inflation comes down."
Justifying the 7.7 per cent economic growth projection for 2008-09, Rangarajan said, "There is a slowdown in agriculture, industry and services and the global environment is not very conducive to growth. This will affect Indian economy as well."
The agriculture production is likely to grow at a lower pace of 2 per cent in the current year as against the 4.5 per cent in last fiscal, he said adding industrial output is expected to decelerate to 7.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent and services to 9.6 per cent against 10.8 per cent in 2007-08.
The new chairman of the PMEAC, Suresh Tendulkar said 7.7 per cent economic growth rate will not be "unrespectable and would be second highest growth rate by any country."
Another PMEAC member G K Chadha said, 7.7 per cent growth rate would be "very respectable. . . one should not forget that there are business cycles and growth cannot move only in one direction."
Rangarajan attributed the slowing down of the economic growth to factors like rising oil and food prices in international market and global slowdown triggered by sub-prime crisis in the United States.
Adverse global environment, he added, will have implications for the current account deficit which is expected to rise sharply to 3.2 per cent from 1.5 per cent in 2007-08.
Pointing out that the surge in inflation was mostly on account of surging global commodity prices, the EAC said there were serious fiscal risks arising from growing off-budget liabilities, which had been estimated at 5 per cent of GDP.
"Implementation of the rural employment guarantee programme and Sixth Pay Commission's report, we think, will take total deficit to 5 per cent. This is very large fiscal deficit", Rangarajan said.
The PMEAC further said that while the fiscal deficit targets would not be met, the revenue deficit would persist.
The government has already referred the issues concerning accounting of off-budget subsidies to the 13th Finance Commission, he said adding "as long as they are small there is no problem. . . but today off-budget liabilities because of oil bonds and other factors have become significant."

Inflation has shot up to 12.44 per cent!

Inflation has shot up to 12.44 per cent!

Despite the government's efforts to control prices, inflation continues to rise and is now at its highest in over thirteen years, as prices of pulses, spices, eggs, fish and meat among other things continued to rise.
The government on Thursday put the inflation for the week ended August 2 at 12.44 per cent, a rise of 0.43 per cent increase over that recorded in the previous week, even as the finance ministry said that the rate of price rise was "stable" on a week-on-week basis and that the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations will not affect inflation further.
As per the data released today, prices of most of food articles went up, although some items like fruits showed downward trend, said official figures released.
In its statement, the ministry said out of a total 98 primary articles, prices of 18 have declined as compared to the previous week.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said at a meeting of Congress spokespersons that government was open to bringing more commodities under the futures trading ban. Eight farm commodities, including rice and wheat, are already banned for the purpose of forward trading.
Meanwhile, prices of iron and steel remained unchanged but cement prices marginally increased. For the corresponding week, inflation stood at 4.70 per cent a year ago.

Source - rediff.com

Inflation 12.33%

INDIA INFLATION COMES @ 12.44 % VS 12.01 %

Wise words from Chandrakant Sampat

Dear Investors
Wise words from an experienced investor. I always value people who have seen it all over 50 years, their perspective is polished and they can catch long term patterns that endure.....Nowadays people only follow Shankar Sharma technical outlook rather than looking at hardcore investors
Chandrakant Sampat, Stock Investor - "Social awareness lacking"
He quit his family business in 1955 and started investing in the stockmarket. Today, at 80, he is one of the oldest investors in Indian equities. He shares his views on investing...
How have the markets changed in the last 43 years that you have been an investor?

Markets are totally different now. I went to the market in 1955. Earlier, the Controller of Capital Issues decided the price at which a public issue could be priced. Secondly, it was compulsory for any foreign company to get into India to offer at least a portion of its total issue to the public. It was very economical to go to the market then. All you needed was a cheque book and a slip book and, most importantly, merchant bankers did not have a say on what the price of a public issue would be.
In 1979, Hindustan Lever [Get Quote] went public. The shares were offered at Rs 16 each and the total distribution of dividend was Rs 32 crore - that was Rs 2 per share. This means that we were offered a share at 11 or 12 per cent yield. Today, the index yield is 0.85. The only question then was how do you choose which company to invest in.
This was great not only for the Indian shareholders but also for the Indian society. Institutions like LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) could afford to build a substantial amount of corpus on their retirement funds. Think of Reliance Power now.
Rupees ten became Rs 450 in six months and the public bid at Rs 900. For a company that will go into production in 2016. If this instrument lies on the balance sheet of institutions that provide retirement funds and pension money, can they ever make up the loss? The capital market has lost its social awareness.
Has your stock selection process changed over the years?
No, it has not. I have a four-fold process of stock selection. First of all, it must be a business that I am able to understand. If it is an industry that I have no idea about, then I will not look at the company. Secondly, it should have zero or very little debt. Third, it must be earning 30 per cent on the capital employed. And it should be available at a price-earning ratio of 13-14 times the current year's earning. Ideally, it should be at 3.5-4 per cent yield.
There are very few such opportunities left, but whenever they come, I like to participate.
Are you optimistic about the future of the Indian capital markets?
I cannot say I am. Machiavelli said that if the law permits anyone to do anything they want, society will be destroyed. This capital market permits anyone to do anything. The result of this freedom will destroy this society. I am 80, I am not worried. But what about younger people? What will happen when you retire?
Today, mutual fund managers are rewarded on the basis of their performance and not on the basis of value. This triggers them to chase momentum and not value. Chasing momentum is nothing but gambling. You must remember that a history of good dividends is more valuable than how quickly the share price has gone up in the last few months.
There are no profits, there are only accrued costs not incurred. I don't have any accrued cost not incurred. Younger people have tremendous accrued cost not incurred. Are you saving enough to take care of this? If you are not, you are not getting any remuneration, you are losing, and so is society.
What is your advice to today's retail investors?
The big issue today is inflation. In my view, frugality can beat all inflation. I still don't own a car, I don't have a mobile. Ours is now an economy based on waste. If you change that, other factors will correct themselves. I am now only 30 per cent in equity, the remaining is in liquid instruments.
Happy InvestingPadmanabhanWealthbull-A Value Investing Theme & Team

Nestle India: A Future In Milk-Motilal Oswal

Nestle India’s 1HCY08 performance reaffirms our strong belief in the company’s growth potential. Its business strategy is in line with the parent's and we believe that its focus on innovation and renovation would help it to maintain leadership. Maggi noodles enabled 19.3% domestic volume growth in 1HCY08 Nestle has reported robust volume growth of 19.3% in domestic business in 1HCY08. Volumes of Prepared Dishes (noodles and culinary products) have grown 30% while Chocolate & Confectionary volumes have grown 20%. Dairy Products volumes have increased 10% while domestic Beverages volumes have grown in single digits. The company has been able to hold its leadership position in infant foods, noodles, ketchup, white chocolates, wafers, and coffee. Contribution of new products has grown 5x since CY03 Nestlé’s renewed focus on innovation and renovation has resulted in a 5x increase in sales of products/variants launched in the last three years. The company has entered functional foods and has launched NIDO (milk powder for children above two years), Milkmaid Funshake (flavored milk in five variants), MILO Smartplus (Rs88/500gm), Nesvita Multigrain breakfast cereal and Nesvita Pro Heart milk (with omega-3). It aims to achieve product differentiation based on cutting-edge research and speed of innovation which should ensure sustained competitive advantage and healthy profit margins. Management confident of maintaining margins Nestlé’s gross margins for 1HCY08 were flat despite a sharp run-up in input costs (prices of oils, green coffee, milk solids and wheat have increased by 23.5%, 21.7%, 10% and 5.4%, respectively). 9-10% increase in finished goods prices, 60bp gains from Pantnagar facility and sourcing advantages in liquid milk have enabled 60bp margin expansion in 1HCY08. The management is confident of maintaining margins. Best placed to tap processed foods opportunity; maintain Buy The management foresees huge growth potential, as consumers are indulging in choice-driven consumption for the first time and are more willing to experiment. Nutrition and wellness are becoming more relevant to top-end consumers; this should fuel the demand for functional foods. Nestle is well placed to tap incremental demand from the low end segment (MRP less than Rs10/SKU), which has grown at a CAGR of 20% since CY03. We believe that Nestle India's goals and strategies are in sync with the parent which will enable faster technology and new product knowhow transfer, making it best play in the processed food sector in India. The stock trades at 28.2x CY08E EPS of Rs59.6 and 22.2x CY09E EPS of Rs75.9. We maintain Buy with a target price of Rs1,900 – an upside of 13%.
Safe Harbor Statement:
Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints. Nothing in this article is, or should be construed as, investment advice.

Old Pine, Traxis and Helios Bet On India

Lone Pine Capital LLC, run by Stephen Mandel, and Traxis Partners LLC are among56 overseas funds that registered to buy shares in India in July, the most in six months, betting on a recovery in stocks. Helios Capital Management Pte and StonewaterCapital LLC also won approval from the nation's regulator, nine months after authorities forced hedge funds to register.

India's stock market recovered its $1 trillion in market value last month, helped by the biggest drop in commodity prices in 28 years. The new funds may help reverserecord sales of stocks by overseas investors that led to the biggest first-half slump in the Sensitive Index since its 1979 creation.
``India is one of the bigger beneficiaries of commodity and oil weakness as money flows from commodity-producer countries to consumers,'' said Samir Arora, who oversees $1billion at Helios Capital Management in Singapore and received regulatory approvalon July 21. ``Foreign institutional-investor selling has normally marked a bottom, it will be the same again.''
Investments in emerging markets including India may help revive returns in the $1.9 trillion hedge fund industry that's heading for its worst year in two decades after bets on U.S.financial stocks backfired. Banks and brokerages have written down $493 billion and raised $353 billion in capital since the start of 2007 as the U.S. subprime-mortgage market collapsed.Halted TradingProposals by the regulator in October to curb offshore investment vehicles used by hedge funds triggered a panic among investors that halted trading on Mumbai exchangesfor an hour and wiped out $100 billion of value in a day.
The funds were ordered to register in India to buy stocks, or given 18 months to sell their holdings. The tighter rules helped spark a sell-off of shares by investors based outside India, which have sold $6.4 billion of equities this year. Last year, global investors bought a record$17.2 billion of stocks, according to the regulator.
Caxton Associates LLC, an $11 billion fund started by Bruce Kovner, and Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC are among 293 funds approved to buy shares in India this year, according the regulator's Web site. That's 20 percent of all registrations since the market was opened to foreign investment 15 years ago, according to calculations by Bloomberg News.
Middle East investors including the Brunei Investment Agency, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Qatar Insurance Co. can also buy equities in India for the first time as they seek greater returns on their oil earnings. The Gulf Cooperation Council states, whichtogether pump about one-fifth of the world's crude, earn more than $1.2 billion a day from oil sales.The following table is a list of funds registered with the Securities & Exchange Board of India since January 2008

Goldman gives the shove to Sesa Goa, Blackstone knocks off Zee News

13/8/2008
500295
SESA GOA LTD
GOLDMAN SACHS INVESTMENTS MAURITIUS I LTD
S
374000
175.42
12/8/2008
500295
SESA GOA LTD
GOLDMAN SACHS INVESTMENTS MAURITIUS I LTD
S
281282
178.04
13/8/2008
532794
ZEE NEWS
BLACKSTONE ASIA ADVISORS LLC AC THE INDIA FUND INC
S
2020000
40.17
Safe Harbor Statement:
Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints.

Nothing in this article is, or should be construed as, investment advice.

Aug 13 2008: FIIs Sock Bombay Just Before The Independence Day

FII trading activity on NSE and BSE on Capital Market SegmentThe following is combined FII trading data across NSE and BSE collated on the basis of trades executed by FIIs on 13-Aug-2008.
FII trading activity on NSE and BSE in Capital Market Segment(In Rs. Crores)
Category
Date
Buy Value
Sell Value
Net Value
FII
13-Aug-2008
1712.37
2627.95
-915.58
Safe Harbor Statement:
Some forward looking statements on projections, estimates, expectations & outlook are included to enable a better comprehension of the Company prospects. Actual results may, however, differ materially from those stated on account of factors such as changes in government regulations, tax regimes, economic developments within India and the countries within which the Company conducts its business, exchange rate and interest rate movements, impact of competing products and their pricing, product demand and supply constraints.

Nothing in this article is, or should be construed as, investment advice.

Tesco broadcasts global ambitions with move to supply Indian stores

Tesco is to supply thousands of India's smallest shopkeepers withsuper-market products after Britain's biggest retailer revealed plansfor its first foray into one of the world's fastest-growingeconomies.
Tesco ended months of speculation yesterday by announcing plans toopen a wholesale cash-and-carry business in India and to work withTata to develop the Indian conglomerate's hypermarket chain.
Tesco's first cash-and-carry will open in Bombay at the end of nextyear and the group will spend an initial £60 million on the ventureover the next two years. Tata will pay Tesco an undisclosed fee forthe supermarket giant's advice and expertise as it rolls itshypermarket chain - Star Bazaar - across India.
Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, said: “This is anotherexciting development for Tesco. It complements our entries into Chinaand the United States, giving us access to another of the mostimportant economies in the world.”
Tesco has been eyeing India for the past decade. Talks with BhartiEnterprises over a potential joint venture in the country broke downtwo years ago. Under Indian law, foreign retailers must partner Indianrivals when setting up a store network, but they can retain 100 percent control of a wholesale business.
Tesco's decision to launch a cash-and-carry chain means that itsinitial success will depend on the type of small shopkeepers that havebeen squeezed out in Britain by the unrelenting march of thesupermarket.
India's £185 billion grocery sector is still dominated by 12 millionkiranas, mom-and-pop-style family-owned shops, which are protected bythe country's strict legislation on foreign direct investment.
Modern hypermarket formats have only a 4 per cent share of the marketbut their sales are growing at about 30 per cent a year as the rapidgrowth of the Indian economy fuels greater wealth among the middleclasses. Tata operates four Star Bazaar hyper-markets but plans toincrease the number to 50 over the next five years.
Phil Clarke, Tesco's international and IT director, said he wasconfident that the company's Indian venture would be a success. “Themarket is so underdeveloped and growing so fast that it has got a hugepotential for a business like Tesco that focuses on customers,” hesaid.
“The kirana stores will judge us, not by what we say, but what we do,and hopefully they will become loyal customers of ours. We will getout there, give them prices they don't expect and quality they cannotbelieve.”
Tesco will supply a range of fresh produce and non-food items,including clothing and electricals, through the cash-and-carryoutlets. Some will bear the Tesco label.
Mr Clarke said there were no plans to stock ready-made meals,including curries. He said that it could take 18 months for the firstsignificant revenues to flow, but did not think this would place Tescoat too much of a disadvantage to Wal-Mart, which struck a deal withBharti a year ago.
He added: “We have handed the advantage to Wal-Mart. It would havebeen nice to have been there before, but you cannot have everything.”
The TimesOnline

India Eco: Major Slowdown in Investment Cycle Ahead

Investment cycle peaked in F2008:
Based on the trend in fundraising activity, it appears this capex could have increased to 37% of GDP in F2008 from 35.9% in F2007. The key driver of this improvement is the sharp pick up in private corporate sector investments to 16.1% of GDP in F2008 from the bottom of 5.2% in F2001.

Clear signs of slowdown over the last few months:
A number of indicators show that investments growth has decelerated over the last six months. Capital goods output growth has slowed to 6.8% during the three months ending June 2008, from the peak of 24.2% for the three months ending October 2007. Similarly, the trend for aggregate corporate fund raising has also suffered over the last six months.

Macro environment remains challenging:
We believe the combined impact of slowing domestic consumption, higher domestic cost of capital and reduced capital access from international capital markets will result in further major slowdown in investment cycle over the next 12 months.

Recovery unlikely until 2010:
We believe that even if some banks start to cut lending rates in the next six months, the overall borrowing costs will remain high until last quarter of 2009. Similarly, we do not see a quick revival in capital inflows over the next 18 months. We expect the aggregate investment to GDP ratio will decline to 32% in F2010 from 37% in F2008.

Repeat of mid-1990s cycle?
In the 1990s, the private corporate capex to GDP ratio increased to a peak of 10.4% in F1996 from 6.1% in F1994, but later declined gradually to 5.2% in F2001. We believe the current macro economic trend has many similarities to the 1990s cycle, but the duration of the down cycle will depend on the global macro environment particularly for emerging markets.

Hotels to hike tariffs from September by 50%

MUMBAI: Come September and major hotels across cities like New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad will hike tariffs by 10-50%. Thanks to a steady tourist inflow, most hotels have decided to go ahead with a rate revision next month when their financial year begins. According to government estimates, foreign tourist arrivals rose 7.4% in July over the last year. With domestic tourism also generating good business, industry feels that major hotels are trying to cash in on the supply-demand mismatch. "Occupany rates have gone up since last September and is expected to continue this year.

SEBI & Brokers

Brokers will be levying SEBI Fees @ 0.0002% on the value of sale and purchase of securities in NSE CM and F&O segments with effect from August 18

NMDC Ltd

State-run Indian mining firm NMDC Ltd will sign an agreement next week with global miner Rio Tinto to buy mineral assets, the Indian Express newspaper said on Wednesday. The firms are likely to sign a deal on Aug. 18 to float a joint venture to buy mines within the country and abroad, the newspaper said. NMDC and Rio Tinto would jointly acquire, explore and develop mineral properties, Rana Som, chairman and managing director of NMDC, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. NMDC has been increasingly looking to foreign markets to secure raw material reserves, the paper said. With no fresh allocation of iron ore mines within the country, NMDC has signed a joint venture agreement with India's Spice Energy and was close to clinch a deal to acquire mines in mineral-ric

Tata Steel

corus realises $600 million improvement in internal performance, positive for tata steel

Japan's economy

Japan's economy contracted 0.6% in the second quarter, reinforcing views that the world's No.2 economy has slipped into recession after its longest postwar expansion. Japan Wholesale Inflation Jumps to 7.1%

The board of market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India will review the regulatory framework governing participatory notes (PNs), at its meeting today, 13 August 2008. There are expectations that Sebi may relax some of restrictions on PNs that were introduced in October 2007. At that time, Sebi had proposed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and their sub-accounts cannot issue or renew PNs with underlying as derivatives with immediate effect. They had to unwind their current position within 18 months. The capital market regulator

39 items have been added in FNO from 21st Aug

39 items have been added in FNO from 21st Aug:
ABG SHIPYARD LTD AKRUTI ASIANPAINT BALAJITELE CONCOR COREPROTEC DCHL DISHTV EVERONN FSL GSPL GTLINFRA GVKPIL HCL-INSYS IBREALEST ICSA KLGSYSTEL KSOILS MIC MINDTREE MLL MONNETISPA MRF NBVENTURES NOIDATOLL OPTOCIRCUI ORBITCORP PRISMCEM PTC RIIL SINTEX SREINTFIN THERMAX TORNTPOWER TV-18 UCOBANK UTVSOF VOLTAMP WALCHANNAG (mkt info)

CLSA: Chinese Steel Mfg capacity at 400 mn tonnes per annum is ten times the size of India. Most Steel plants around Beijing have been closed for the past 45 days to clear Air around the City for Olympics. Post Olympics most of this excess Steel will no longer be needed, so plants hv to be kept closed or Steel dumped in Global markets...

SEBI can't control CNBC...something cooking there...

SEBI can't control CNBC......something cooking there...

pls pass that message - include my name if u wish and my ID - this is simply the lowest form of
journalism and the wilful rape and pillage of Indian traders and investors - --- do at least this much - SEBI wake up or Quit your job Mr. Bhavecnbc reporting infra numbers as iip numbers falsely some shorter massively stuck - 10 lakh NF was sold on that IIP news - now there are massive discussions on how to get out of this?

where the hell is SEBI

where the hell is SEBI - raghav bahl should be arrested for this false dissemination of information on CNBC - SEBi are you awake or deep in slumber

CNBC

CNBC (cartoon network for business community) foooling all again

Clarification: IIP June numbers yet to be announced

Clarification: IIP June numbers yet to be announced
Correction: Growth in six key infra industries at 3.4% realyy chor cnbc create paniccc

Infrastructure output Figure

Infrastructure output Figure : 5.02 Vs 3.4 (yoy)

IIP data 3.4%

IIP data 3.4%

Fin Min sources say: Govt Unlikely To Relax Norms For P-notes In Near TermTo Notify New Non-govt PF Invst Norms In 2-3 Days, To Introduce Pension Bill In Monsoon Session Of Parl

Credit Suies=While we upgraded our weighting on India only last week, client feedback indicates that we were late in upgrading India. The concern among clients was that the SENSEX was already up 15% (now up 19%) from its low of 16 July, when we upgraded and the last three bear rallies in the SENSEX averaged only 13)
● However, we believe this SENSEX rally could be longer than the last three bear rallies, as it is the only rally that started with a historical P/E that was at its historical average, the only rally with India trading at a discount to the region, and the only rally with cumulative net foreign selling in the previous 12 months.
● The three previous bear rallies started with India’s historical P/E ranging from 18.8-21.1x while this rally started from 16.1x. The three previous ra

CLSA India: The Rate Sensitives Are Back In The Fray (Christopher Wood) Banks, Real Estate and Construction, the building blocks of the Indian Economy would now be favoured over cyclicals like Steel. Interestingly those very sectors which brought Bombay down will help the resurgence.-Oil likely to drift to $ 100 per barrel -USD/Euro cross to move to 1.20-1.25-US Fed Funds rate will be further cut to 1 per cent.-Sell Commodity and Cyclicals, especially Steel. -Australia/New Zealand will be sold off-Within Asia Taiwan weightings cut by 1 per cent, Korea further underweighted by 1 per cent and Thailand holdings brought down to 0.-Indian holdings continue to be in and favour interest rate sensitives.