Business

The rupee gained 43 paise to trade at 54.88 against the US dollar in early trade Tuesday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange as the American currency weakened against euro and other currencies overseas.

Dollar selling by exporters and banks, amid a higher opening in the domestic equity market also supported the rupee, dealers said.

Euro rose against the US dollar overseas after the International Monetary Fund said it was releasing 1.48 billion euros (USD 1.82 billion) in new funds to troubled Portugal.

Sahara Force India has brought home some good performances in the last few events and team principal Vijay Mallya feels with a bit of luck his drivers can finish at the podium.

“It’s satisfying to see that we are consistent top ten performers. We need that little bit of extra luck to get on the podium,” Mallya said.

–Agencies

With global recovery weakening further, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has marginally reduced India’s growth projections from 6.8 percent to 6.1 percent for 2012 and from 7.2 percent to 6.5 percent in 2013.

In the past three months, the global recovery, which was not strong to start with, has shown signs of further weakness, the 188-nation global financial monitor said Monday releasing three July updates on global financial health.

India’s headline inflation fell to a five-month low of 7.25 percent in June as compared to 7.55 percent in the previous month, but general food prices remained stubbornly high, giving little relief to the common people and economic policy makers, the government data showed Monday.

With food prices pushing up and overall inflation remaining much above the comfort zone, the Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to cut interest rates when it reviews the monetary policy at the end of this month.

The total number of local companies registered in Hong Kong reached 997,750 at the end of June, Xinhua reported.

The figure was up 41,358 from the number at the end of 2011, according to statistics released by the Companies Registry.

The number of companies registered in the first half of 2012 was 72,427. It represented an increase of 2.97 percent from the 70,338 registered in the second half of 2011.

The recent spurt in the rupee is likely to curb the upside movement of gold at about Rs 29,400 per 10 grams level this week as it firmed up in the global markets due to the weakening of the US dollar.

The rupee strengthened last week against the greenback following heavy dollar selling by exporters, putting a lid on the rising gold price in the domestic market, Commtrendz Research director Gnanasekar Thiagarajan said.

Going ahead, gold is without direction and now that the rupee is appreciating, gold is likely to be caught in a range of Rs 29,000 to Rs 29,700 per 10 grams, he said.

India’s foreign exchange reserves (forex) plunged by $336.5 million to $287.62 billion in the week ended July 6, data from India’s central bank showed.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) did not provide any reasons for the decline, but it is understood the central bank has sold dollars from the reserves to curb the slide in the value of rupee.

Leading American businesses on the US East coast have greatly appreciated Indian state of Gujarat’s business-friendly approach to economic development and are upbeat about investment opportunities in the state.

An outpouring of support from US business community came at two events in New York and Washington hosted by the US India Business Council (USIBC), the official ‘Partner Organisation’ to the Vibrant Gujarat 2013 Summit, to meet a high-level 17-member delegation of government officials and business leaders from the state.

A section of debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines’ pilots Saturday went on strike over non-payment of salaries and other dues for the past five months, leading to the cancellation of 40 flights across its network, an airline official said.

Twelve flights from New Delhi, six from Mumbai and three flights from Bangalore have been cancelled apart from many other flights from Chennai, Chandigarh, Dehradun and Dharamshala among others.

Several flights of Kingfisher were cancelled today due to a strike by pilots to protest non-payment of wages for almost five months.

Three flights from Mumbai and several across the airline’s entire network were cancelled. 25 flight cancellations were reported from Delhi alone – 11 arrivals and 14 departures.

Within a fortnight of the Finance Ministry issuing draft guidelines on GAAR, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday set up a committee to prepare fresh norms on the controversial tax provision to bring “greater clarity” and prepare a roadmap by September 30 for its implementation.

The four-member committee, to be headed by ICRIER chief and taxation expert Parthasarathi Shome, will submit its report after consulting and taking feedback from stakeholders.

The Chinese subsidiary of the Indian IT bellwether Infosys Ltd has been ranked among t e top 10 global service providers in China by the council for international investment promotion.

“The recognition is a testimony of our commitment to the IT industry in China. We continue to invest and expand our footprint in the region where we are focused on delivering growth to our local and global clients through diversified portfolio of offerings, including transformation, innovation and operation requirements,” Infosys China chief executive Rangarajan Vellamore said in a statement Friday.

finnish mobile handsets maker Nokia Friday said it had appointed P. Balaji as vice president and managing director for the India area.

“In this role, Balaji will be responsible for growing Nokia’s mobile phones and smart devices business in India while providing strategic direction and operational focus, the company said in a statement.

Besides building and consolidating Nokia’s market presence, Balaji will focus on energizing the Nokia brand, driving partnerships and strategic alliances and developing the capabilities of the Nokia organization in India.

Country’s largest software firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday reported a 37.39 percent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,317.68 crore for the first three months of this financial year.

The company’s revenues rose 37.71 percent to Rs 14,868.71 crore in the first quarter of 2012-13 from Rs 10,797.02 crore in the year-ago period, TCS said in a filing to BSE.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,414.76 crore for the same quarter of the previous fiscal (2011-12).

Pulled down by contraction in the capital goods and mining sectors, industrial production recorded a dismal growth of 2.4 percent in May – slightly better than (-)0.9 percent in April – and may prompt the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates to boost growth.

“The IIP numbers remain weak but are better than previous month. Such growth rates, however, are not acceptable,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said while commenting on the industrial production data.

Diesel prices may be hiked after Presidential elections on July 19 as the Government plans to take bold measures to rein in run-away fiscal deficit.

“Price increase is inevitable. But date and time, nobody can say,” a top Oil Ministry source said.

Diesel prices have not been raised since June 25 last year, and state-owned oil firms sell the fuel at a loss of Rs 10.33 a litre.

“It (price increase) is on the radar for sometime now,” the source, said refusing to say when the diesel rates would be increased.

The Enforcement Directorate has questioned former Telecom Minister A Raja in connection with its money laundering probe in the 2G spectrum case.

This is the first time that the ED has questioned Raja in the case.

During questioning, ED investigators grilled Raja on various issues related to spectrum allocation under his ministership and also about his personal finances, sources said.

Raja, according to sources, was also questioned about his Ministry associates and their role in the grant of telecom licences.

Infosys Technologies Ltd Thursday lowered its revenue guidance for this fiscal (2012-13) in dollar earnings as its year-on-year (YoY) growth is projected to be less than it was expected in April.

In a regulatory filing, the IT bellwether said revenue for FY 2013 would grow 5 percent YoY to $7.34 billion as against $7.6 billion projected at the beginning of this fiscal, with 9 percent YoY growth as per the International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued notices to the central government, Bharti Walmart Pvt Ltd and Bharti Retail Ltd on a plea alleging that the firms were illegally carrying out retail trading in multi-brand sector.

The petition by scientist and green activist Vandana Shiva alleged that the retail giants were carrying out trade in violation of the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Anil Kumar sought a response from the companies.

The country’s largest mortgage lender HDFC on Monday reported an 18.6 per cent rise in net income to Rs. 1,002 crore over the year ago period on the back of a healthy growth in advances.

“Our net profit rose to Rs. 1,001.9 crore for the June quarter compared to Rs. 844.53 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income increased to Rs. 4,942.31 crore from Rs. 3,821.6 crore during the year ago quarter,” HDFC chairman Deepak S Parekh told the shareholders at the annual general meeting here this afternoon.

Private carrier Jet Airways plans to set up a marketing services firm and launch an aviation training academy, with a total investment of Rs one crore.

The proposal is, however, subjected to regulatory approvals, including those from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the Reserve Bank of India, Jet Airways said in a notice to its share holders ahead of the company annual general meeting scheduled early next month.

–PTi

Looking forward to a mutually beneficial relationship, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Wednesday invited Indian investments, especially in education, healthcare and power sectors in the city state.

“We are in the process of setting up a board of investment to help potential investors in executing the projects,” Lee said, addressing a joint business meeting organised by industry chambers Assocham, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here.

In a bid to straighten things out in troubled national carrier Air India, the government has appointed Nasir Ali, an official who is heading a panel dealing with human resource issues, as the new joint managing director.

Ali is the second administrative official who has been posted in the airline by the civil aviation ministry after appointing Rohit Nandan as the chairman and managing director last year.

The rupee recovered marginally by 9 paise at 55.83 against the US dollar in early trade Tuesday on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on dollar selling by banks and exporters.

Forex dealers said a higher opening in the stock market also helped the local unit to recover after four sessions of losses. However, strong dollar overseas against euro on disappointing US jobs growth figures capped rupee’s gains.

The rupee had lost a hefty 50 paise to close at 55.92 against the dollar yesterday’s on persistent dollar demand.

Prices of LED (light-emitting diode) television sets in the UAE have been falling, even though sales figures of these TVs are higher than LCD and Plasma devices.

Several stores media contacted said recent sales figure reflect much higher sales for LED and Smart TVs, however, this is due to a serious drop in prices.

One can now buy a 32” LED TV for as little as Dh999.

At Emax three different models of Benq, Touchmate and Nikai were priced at Dh999.