Crude oil prices edged up after seesawing Tuesday as US service sector data came in supportive, but weak European data deepened demand concerns.
The Institute for Supply Management reported that US non-manufacturing index registered 53.7 percent in May, 0.2 percentage point higher than the 53.5 percent in April.
It was the 29th straight month of expansion, offering supports to crude markets, Xinhua reported.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Tuesday announced removal of foreclosure charges/prepayment penalty on home loans with floating interest rates.
In a notification, the central bank said that it had been observed that home loan borrowers across the board resented foreclosure charges levied by banks on prepayment of home loans.
“This is especially since banks were found to be hesitant in passing on the benefits of lower interest rates to the existing borrowers in a falling interest rate scenario,” the RBI said.
Industry lobby, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Tuesday mooted a 10-point agenda, including an early introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), to revive economic growth through reforms and governance.
The CII national council, which met here, asked the government to act fast to avoid conditions getting worse and change the perception of the economy, which it said is one of the contributors to the depreciation of the rupee.
It said introduction of the GST would be the biggest fiscal stimulus which can improve GDP growth by one and half percentage points.
The Indian rupee, which hit a record low of 56.52 against the dollar last week, is likely to stabilise soon at around the current range, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Tuesday.
“This is a transition phase. The rupee will stabilise soon at around the current level,” Sharma told reporters after announcing the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14 here.
Sharma said volatility in rupee was a matter of concern as it had adversely impacted India’s economic growth and foreign trade. He said: “It has adverse impact on the economy.”
The government Tuesday set a target of increasing exports by 20 percent in 2012-13 and announced a series of measures including interest subsidy and market diversification programmes to boost foreign trade.
In the annual supplement to the foreign trade policy, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced extension of interest subsidy scheme by one year till March 31, 2013 for labour intensive sectors.
US stocks ended mixed Monday after major indexes suffered severe sell-off in the previous session.
When the market closed, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 17.11 points, or 0.14 percent, at 12,101.46, Xinhua reported.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 added 0.14 points, or 0.01 percent, to 1,278.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 12.53 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,760.01.
Widespread opposition notwithstanding, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan has strongly favoured an immediate increase in prices of diesel and cooking gas to contain government expenditure.
“It (increase in prices of diesel and LPG) should be done, as early as possible…We need to take action…. howsoever unpleasant it may be,” he said in an interview on a leading news channel.
Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) has reported a growth of 21.59 per cent in sales at 36,746 units in May as compared to 30,222 units in the same month a year-ago.
The company has received a “good response” from the market for all its products, including the newly launched Hayate, a mass segment motorcycle, said Mr Atul Gupta, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, SMIPL.
He said the growing customer satisfaction has led to “positive word-of-mouth” in the market and the company will continue to give “the best to its customers”.
—Uni
The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China’s non-manufacturing sector, a key economic indicator, dropped 0.9 percentage points to 55.2 percent in May.
The figure fell for a second consecutive month as the non-manufacturing sector growth slowed, according to China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) Sunday.
A PMI reading above 50 percent indicates expansion from the previous month, while readings below this mark indicate a contraction.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp Saturday said it will reduce petrol price by Rs.2.02 a litre, including state levies, in Delhi from midnight Saturday.
Petrol became dearer by Rs.7.54 a litre in the capital after a rate revision May 23.
—IANS
Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Friday held talks about philanthropy and its impact on society with some of India’s top businessmen in Bangalore.
Mr Gates shared his thoughts on philanthropy with industry stalwarts like Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, Infosys Chairman Emeritus Narayana Murthy, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata and Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others, industry sources said.
Petrol prices may be cut by about Rs 1.75 a litre early next week as oil companies skipped the regular date for revision in rates.
State-owned oil firms, which as per practice revise rates of petrol on 1st and 16th of every month based on average oil price in the previous fortnight, decided to “wait and watch” the situation for a couple of more days before cutting prices, industry sources said.
Petrol prices were last week raised by a steep Rs 7.54 a litre and softening in international oil rates had given them a huge scope for rollbacking a part of this.
State-owned oil companies on Thursday cut jet fuel prices by 2 percent, the fourth straight reduction in rates since April.
The price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, in Delhi was reduced by Rs 1,376.81 per kl, or 2 percent, to Rs 65,670.14 per kl with effect from midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp, making the announcement on behalf of the industry, said.
The reduction comes on back of Rs 753.8 per kl cut in rates in three previous fortnights.
Even after today’s reduction, ATF prices are still not at level before the steep increases effected in March and early April.
Kreata Global, an IT company headquartered at Kerala’s Kochi Infopark campus, has been selected as a Facebook preferred marketing developer (PMD), said an infopark official.
The PMD programme aims to better represent the various technologies in the Facebook ecosystem and to recognise companies that develop holistic solutions.
Kreata is just the second Indian company to be picked for the programme. It has qualified for the PMD badge in the apps category for building socially enabled integrations.
India’s economic growth slumped to 5.3 percent in January-March quarter, the slowest in nine years, due to poor performance of manufacturing and farm sectors, official data showed Thursday.
For the whole of 2011-12 financial year, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth slumped to 6.5 percent. This is the slowest pace of expansion in the country’s economy since 2002-03, when it had registered a growth of just 4 percent.
The cabinet Thursday approved a new telecom policy that seeks to do away with roaming charges throughout the country and simplifies the licencing policy, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said Thursday.
“Affordability of the consumers is the core of our policy,” Sibal told reporters after a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Sibal said the new policy aims at free roaming facility throughout the country.
–IANs
The strike by pilots of national carrier Air India continued for the 24th day Thursday, pushing up the airline’s losses to more than Rs.330 crore.
“We have lost nearly Rs.330 crore on account of ticket cancellation, unused labour and bulk of Boeing 777 fleet being grounded,” an Air India official told IANS.
“We expect to stabilise our operations and cut the losses to less than Rs.5 crore a day from June 2,” he added.
Providing comfort to worried foreign investors, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said the Income Tax Department will not reopen cases where assessment proceedings had been finalised before April 1, 2012.
Both the precious metals, gold and silver tumbled on the bullion market today on heavy selling by stockists, triggered a weak trend in overseas markets.
While gold dropped by Rs 180 to Rs 29,470 per 10 gm, silver lost Rs 850 to Rs 53,900 per kg on poor demand at prevailing higher levels, driven by weak global trend.
Sentiment turned bearish after gold in international markets dropped to one week-low as concern that the debt crisis in Europe was escalating strengthened the dollar as a safe haven.
The government Tuesday announced restructuring a debt of Rs.35,000 crore of textile firms on a case-to-case basis in a bid to revive the debt-stressed industry.
The decision to provide debt relief to the textiles sector was taken during a meeting of Textiles and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee here.
After the meeting Sharma said in a statement that the debt restructuring package would be considered on a case-to-case basis by individual banks.
Air India, which is operating a curtailed global flight schedule due to the pilots’ strike, is likely to reopen international bookings and firm up a fresh operating schedule by this weekend with the help of 130 executive pilots.
The airline said the three-week agitation by over 200 pilots has seen a drop in the number of its international passengers by about 3,000 and that its financial loss had gone up to over Rs 320 crore for this period.
The Delhi budget on Monday slashed VAT on the hiked price of petrol but slapped it on transport fuel CNG while beedis, unmanufactured tobacco, sarees, plastic cups and glasses would become costlier with fresh levies on them.
Petrol will be cheaper by Rs 1.26 and will now cost Rs 71.92 a litre after the cut which had risen to Rs 73.18 after last week’s hike. The CNG price will see an increase of Rs 1.77 from Rs 35.45 per kg which may trigger demand for hike in bus, taxi and auto fares besides having an impact on transportation cost of goods.
India’s largest state-run bank, State Bank of India (SBI), plans to float a $1-billion (Rs.5,500 crore) debt bond issue by August to raise funds from the market, a top official said Monday.
“We are planning to come out with a medium-term debt bond issue during the next three months to the tune of $1 billion as in the past, though we have not finalised the exact amount to be raised not as capital but debt,” SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhury told reporters on the margins of a function here.
The executive director (ED) of Canara Bank Monday opened 105 ultra-small branches of Canara Bank and 100 ultra small branches of Shreyas Gramin Bank at a function here.
“These branches have been opened in remote un-banked rural areas of the country, where no banking facilities are available. These branches will connect these remote villages and provide basic banking facilities to 6 lakh rural people of the country,” said Archana Bhargava, the Canara Bank ED.
Days after raising petrol price by a steep Rs 7.54 a litre, nation’s largest oil firm Indian Oil Corp (IOC) hinted at a Rs 1.25-1.50 per litre cut in rates later this week.
“We will certainly pass on any decline in international oil price to consumers,” IOC Chairman R S Butola told reporters here.
Oil companies revise petrol prices on 1st and 16th of every month on the basis of average international oil price and the foreign exchange rate in the previous fortnight.