Mumbai, January 10: Investors’ stock market wealth has plunged by nearly Rs 5,00,000 crore in five straight days of trading, as the market continued its downslide today with a 468-point plunge in the benchmark Sensex.
Barring the first day of trading on January 3, markets have recorded a loss on all days so far in the New Year with the Sensex losing 1,337 points in five consecutive trading sessions.
New Delhi, January 10: For their ability to reach out to people who cannot read and for those who want to multitask in modern day busy lifestyle, audiobooks in India are slowly getting popular, though the industry is still in its infancy.
Audiobooks have been popular among children but now famous books and novels are being converted into this format for adults too.
Kolkata, January 10: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that India is reverting to pre-crisis growth level of 9 per cent although high inflation and surge in capital flows continue to remain matters of concern.
Pointing out that economy recorded a growth rate of 8.9 per cent during the first half of the current fiscal, he said, it “takes us back on the high growth path that the economy was traversing on in the years prior to the crisis. The concern on inflation remains”.
Mukherjee was speaking at the 2nd International Finance Conference at IIM here.
Mumbai, January 10: The rupee marginally rose by one paise to Rs 45.37 a dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange today, propelled by gains made by Asian currencies against the greenback.
Forex dealers said dollar’s weakness in the Asian markets helped the rise of rupee, but weak opening on the stock market capped its gains.
The rupee had declined by 13 paise to its three-week low at Rs 45.38/39 a dollar in the previous session on Friday, following a steep fall in equity markets amid capital outflows.
Mumbai, January 10: A benchmark index of the Indian equities market Monday was ruling weak amid negative cues from other major Asian markets.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,714.42 points, was ruling at 19,487.06 points, down 204.75 points or 1.04 percent from its previous close at 19,691.81 points.
It had fallen over 221 points to 19,470.23 in early trade.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was trading at 5,841.95 points, down 1.06 percent or 62.65 points.
Mumbai, January 10: The BSE benchmark Sensex opened 221 points down today, as funds and retail investors continued selling on fears of another hike in key interest rates by the RBI to reign in inflation.
The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange that tumbled 868 points in the previous four sessions, slid by another 221.58 points today to 19,470.23 level at the opening trade, with all the sectoral indices trading in red.
In a similar fashion, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 71.70 points to 5,832.90 points.
Hyderabad, January 08: The private sector has not had the courage to invest in defence-related research and development and hence the area has become the responsibility of public sector undertakings, Chhattisgarh governor Shekhar Dutt has said and called for greater participation of private players in the country’s defence sector which will help them later reap the benefits of catering to the global defence industry.
Hyderabad, January 08: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Vallabhaneni Vamsi, who has been at loggerheads with the outgoing Vijayawada police commissioner P S R Anjaneyulu, approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) complaining that he felt a threat against his life from him and asked for additional security.
Vamsi in his petition, said that Anjaneyulu had allegedly denied him gunmen earlier despite the High Court directing him to provide security. He alleged that over a period of time, Anjaneyulu developed a grudge against Vamsi.
New Delhi, January 08: State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender, today said it is ready to facilitate payments for Iranian crude oil but is awaiting notification of a bank that is not under the US sanctions which can receive payments.
“Payments are not being routed (currently) because there is no arrangement (to receive money at Iranian end). Iranians have to line up a bank,” SBI Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive for International Banking Pratip Chaudhuri said on the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharti conference here.
New Delhi, January 08: Retail prices of onions declined by Rs 5-10 per kg to Rs 60 in metros across the country after the Income Tax department conducted raids on Friday on onion traders to check hoarding of onion stock.
The maximum fall in retail prices was seen in Chennai, where the rates declined by Rs 10 to Rs 50/kg today from Rs 65/kg on Thursday. Similarly, prices dipped by Rs 5 to Rs 60/kg in both Delhi and Mumbai.
However, prices rose marginally to Rs 60/kg in Kolkata, according to reports from these centres.
New Delhi, January 07: The Centre today decided to compensate agriculture cooperatives, NAFED and NCCF, by up to 30% of the losses they suffer by selling onion at Rs35/kg in Delhi.
The two agencies are selling onion at subsidised price at stores run by them and Kendriya Bhandar.
While the staple vegetable is being sold at Rs35/kg, a new price will be fixed after January 15.
This price will be 20% less than the market price, NAFED managing director Sanjeev Chopra said.
Kolkata, January 07: Consumer durables firm Panasonic India plans a foray into business solutions venture in the country by the next year, a top company official said here Friday.
The company, which is a market leader in the sector in countries like Japan and Malaysia, was looking into all aspects to firm up its plans.
“We are planning to enter into business solutions venture in India. We are in the process of analysing all aspects,” said Yuji Tsuda, company general manager here.
Pathankot, January 07: An Air India flight from New Delhi to Pathankot today failed to land at the airport here due poor visibility and returned back to the capital, airport officials said.
“An Air India plane carrying passengers could not land at the local airport here due to poor visibility because of heavy fog,” Pathankot Civil Airport Authority GM R Baghela said.
The passengers who had to board the same plan on its journey back to New Delhi via Ludhiana were also left stranded due to non-arrival of the flight.
–Agencies
Shimla, January 07: In a bid to ensure that teachers were available throughout the academic session in tribal and hard areas, the state government today announced for them a new transfer policy that retained the clause of normal stay for three years, except in case of unacceptable conduct.
However, the minimum stay in rural, tribal, difficult and hard areas on first posting would be five years.
According to the policy, the first posting should preferably be in tribal/hard areas of the concerned district.
Hyderabad, January 07: The Committee after taking into consideration all the facts, the views of all the stakeholders and after examination and analysis of all the related issues pertaining to public employment, has come to the following conclusions:
1. Public employment constitutes a very small percentage of the working population and an even smaller percentage of the total population of the state;
Mumbai, January 07: Air India today approved a proposal to induct on lease eight Boeing aircraft to augment the fleet strength of its wholly-owned subsidiary Air India Express.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Air India Board here this evening.
Of the eight Boeing B 737-800 planes, four would be taken on long-term dry lease and the remaining would be wet-leased for six months, airline sources said.
The sources said wet-leasing was being done to meet the shortage of pilots and cabin crew the no-frill carrier was facing now.
New Delhi, January 07: The Justice B N Srikrishna Committee report doesn’t find much evidence of economic disparities between Telangana and other regions in AP. In its report on regional economic development, the committee found regional variations in the economic development of AP despite 50 plus years of policy protected planning and execution.
According to the report, the rate of growth in the development parameters is found to be robust both in Telangana (even after excluding Hyderabad) and coastal Andhra.
Hyderabad, January 07: It was business as usual for the five-member team from Germany staying at Taj Banjara when news of Srikrishna Committee’s recommendations were beamed on TV channels here on Thursday. The team, during their visit to Hyderabad last December, had witnessed agitations demanding a separate State, which affected their IT counterpart’s (DQ Entertainment) operations.
New Delhi, January 07: India”s crude oil import from Iran are stuck after State Bank of India (SBI) refused to facilitate payments for the imports due to the Reserve Bank”s move to abolish a regional payment mechanism.
Sources said SBI is wary that it might be hit by the US sanctions for facilitating payments for Iranian imports.
“One cargo of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and one cargo of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) is stuck in the absence of a letter of credit from SBI,” a source close to the development said.
The government’s efforts to boost onion supply today suffered a setback with Pakistan banning exports of the commodity via Wagah border which pushed prices up by Rs 5-10 a kg, even as competition watchdog Competition Commission of India ordered a probe into possible cartels among traders.
As 300 India-bound trucks carrying 3,000 tonnes of onion had reached the Wagah border near Amritsar, Pakistan’s Commerce Ministry imposed a ban on movement through land route.
Neyveli, January 07:The public sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) has signed an agreement with Karnataka government to share 400 MW of power from the proposed Sirkali Thermal Power Project (STPP), according to a press release by Deputy General Manager Public Relations, NLC, Mr Sridhar here today.
He said the MOU was signed by the NLC and Karnataka government officials in the presence of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Karnataka Power Minister Shobha Karandlaje in Bangalore.
Mumbai, January 06: A mixed trend was seen in metals today, traders at the Bombay Metal Exchange (BME) said. In ferrous metals, copper utensils and brass utensils slashed by Rs 500 and Rs 300 per quintal respectively due to sustained selling pressure from stockists.
Brass cuttings too became cheaper by Rs 100 per quintal on lower buying support from stockists, traders said. In non-ferrous metals, copper wire bars went down by Rs 500 per quintal on persistent offloading by stock holders.
New Delhi, January 06: Indian corporate lobby groups today said the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy has become an ineffective tool for taming food inflation, which has recorded nearly a year’s high of 18.32 per cent.
“Food prices have once again gone up and this shows that monetary policy has become an ineffective tool for containing food inflation,” Ficci Secretary General Amit Mitra said.
Chandigarh, January 06: Retail prices of onion are set to move further upward by Rs 5 to 7 per kg in Punjab following the ban imposed by Pakistan on onion exports to India via the Wagah-Attari land route, vegetable traders said today.
“Definitely, there is a going to be pressure on retail rates of onions after the ban imposed on export (of onions) by Pakistan… From tomorrow onward, prices will move up by Rs 5 to 7 a kg,” Amritsar-based vegetable trader Rajdeep Uppal told PTI today.
New Delhi, January 06: Soaring onion and other vegetables’ prices led to a sharp rise in inflation at 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, a development that may prompt the Reserve Bank to tighten monetary policy to check further escalation in commodity costs.
Food inflation jumped up by 3.88 percentage points from 14.44 per cent recorded in the previous reporting week, and edged closer to the high level of 19.90 per cent, last witnessed a year ago.
The rise in food inflation has been mainly on account of 58.58 per cent rise in prices of vegetables in the wholesale market.