Business

New York, July 18: Citigroup and Bank of America Friday reported billions of dollars in second-quarter profits, matching a flow of positive earnings from other US banks this week despite being heavily dependent on government loans for survival.

But both banks also warned of still-high credit risks amid the ongoing financial crisis, and their surprising profits were mostly due to one-time asset sales that won’t be repeated.

Citigroup announced a net income of $3 billion – $4.3 billion before dividend payments – after six quarters of falling ever further into the red.

Mumbai, July 17: Ashish Balakrishnan’s dream came true and then almost turned into a nightmare Friday evening. He now owns a Nano car but has lost its keys.

At a gala ceremony Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata handed over the keys of the second Nano car to the 29-year-old bachelor who then said: “There are three things in life which one cherishes – to own a house, buy a car and start a family. For me, the second dream is coming through.”

And then he lost the keys.

Tata Motors will hand over a duplicate set to Balakrishnan Saturday. His cousin will drive out the car.

New Delhi, July 17: The government Friday said it has fined private carrier Kingfisher Airlines Rs.26.46 crore for delay in remittance of tax deducted at source (TDS).

Minister of State for Finance S.S. Palanimanickam, in response to a question, told the Lok Sabha that besides Kingfisher, Spicejet and MDLR Airlines also have not remitted TDS collected on time.

But, he said, it was not clear if any fine had been imposed on Spicejet and MDLR.

Chicago, July 17: Aircraft maker Boeing has said it would build four telecommunication satellites for Intelsat Ltd, a leading provider of fixed satellite services.

The contract is the first order for Boeing’s 702B satellite series. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

“The 702B, an evolution of the Boeing 702 satellite, offers satellite operators a spacecraft that operates in the medium-level power ranges,” a Boeing statement said yesterday.

Mumbai, July 17: Ahead of the quarterly review of its annual monetary policy, the Reserve Bank today said that it would ensure a benign and stable interest rate regime to safeguard the common man’s interest and ensure adequate liquidity in the system.

“The RBI’s effort is to ensure a benign and stable interest rate regime … it is for ensuring adequate liquidity in the system. We are trying to keep interest rates benign,” Reserve Bank Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty told reporters here.

Washington, July 17: Though the complete recovery of the recession-hit technology sector still appears to be a distant thought, as is the overall uptick in demand from corporate technology purchasers; the second-quarter results posted by International Business Machines Corp (IBM) show that the company’s 12 percent increase in net income to $3.1 billion beat the earnings-per-share estimates of analysts by almost 10%.

Kolkata, July 17:The country’s largest lead acid battery maker, Exide Industries, will invest around Rs.100 crore in 2009-10 on augmenting its capacity by 15 percent, a top company official said here Friday.

“The investment will go into our plants in Haldia and Hosur and 50 percent of the money will be spent on increasing our industrial battery output,” Exide managing director T.V. Ramanathan told reporters on the sidelines the company’s annual general meeting.

New Delhi, July 17:Telecom czar Sunil Mittal has said that Bharti Airtel’s proposed USD 23 billion transaction with South African telecom major MTN is a “well thought out” deal.

The planned deal with MTN is expected to create an entity with more than 200 million subscribers.

“MTN is a well thought out deal and has been in the works in some sense for a long time,” Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group CEO Sunil Mittal, said in an interview to Forbes India magazine.

Bharti Airtel is part of the diversified group Bharti Enterprises.

New Delhi, July 17: Five years after his promise to build a people’s car, Ratan Tata will hand over the key of his dream project–the Nano- to its first customer on Friday.

From the birth of the dream in 2003, to its launch in 2008 and finally its delivery in 2009, the Nano’s journey has been anything but smooth.

The car, first showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo last year, was at the centre of much controversy as its proposed plant site in West Bengal became a rallying point for Mamata Banerjee and her party to gain political mileage.

New Delhi, July 17: Mukesh Ambani-led RIL on Friday said it would not be possible to supply gas to Anil Ambani group firm RNRL without the government’s nod and requested the Supreme Court not to restrain it from selling gas to others.

Accusing RNRL of taking contradictory stands in an attempt to mislead Supreme Court, RIL said in its affidavit that the interim relief sought by the other party on gas sale be rejected as it did not have any plants capable of receiving the fuel.

New Delhi, july 17: The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki today said it has launched CNG kit for its highest selling small car Alto in the national capital region, priced at Rs 43,545.

“The Maruti-authorised CNG kits will be available across variants of brand new Maruti Suzuki Alto at dealerships in only Delhi and NCR from June 17 onwards,” the company said in a statement.

The retrofitted CNG Altos would come with a 12-kg tank, which would accommodate 7-7.5 kg of Compressed Natural Gas, it added.

Mumbai, July 17: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday rose over 211 points in opening trade on increased capital inflows by funds on the back of encouraging quarterly results by domestic blue-chip companies and firming trends overseas.

The 30-share index rose 211.53 points, or 1.48 per cent at 14,461.78 points riding on rally in auto, PSUs and realty sector stocks. Yesterday, it closed marginally down by 2.99 points.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved up by 65.00 points to 4,296.40 points.

New Delhi, July 17: Vijay Mallaya-owned Kingfisher Airlines owes state-run oil companies over Rs 950 crore in unpaid fuel bills while financial crisis-hit NACIL has cleared almost two-thirds of its outstanding.

Kingfisher Airlines owned Rs 1,030.08 crore in unpaid bills for buying jet fuel from Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum on December 31, 2008. It stood at Rs 950.46 crore as on May 31, 2009, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

Hong Kong, July 17: Asian stocks traded mostly higher for a fourth day Friday as better-than-expected earnings in the U.S. continued to buoy recovery hopes, but Indonesian markets were shaken by deadly bomb blasts at hotels in the country’s capital.

Indonesia’s shares initially tumbled more than 2 percent after a pair of powerful explosions killed nine and wounded at least 50 people at the upscale Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakarta. The country’s currency, the rupiah, dropped almost 1 percent against the dollar.

Mumbai, July 17: SBI Capital Markets, the investment banking subsidiary of State Bank of India, today said that S Vishvanathan has assumed charge as its Managing Director & CEO.

Vishvanathan has overall charge of the company’s business operations, strategy and marketing, including activities supported by the company’s principal global offices, a press release issued here said.

Mumbai, July 17: Engineering and construction company ‘Larsen and Toubro’ in the end of 3rd week on 30th June 09 achieve a pure profit of 1,598.20 crores rupees which is three times more than the last year profit.

Company has freshly reported the Bombay stock exchange. As last year the net profit up till this date were 502.20 crores rupees.

In the last year profit of company were 6,941.87 crores rupees which have increased to 7,408.29 crores rupees.

—Agencies

New Delhi, July 17: Five years after his promise to build a people’s car, Ratan Tata will hand over the key of his dream project–the Nano- to its first customer on Friday.

From the birth of the dream in 2003, to its launch in 2008 and finally its delivery in 2009, the Nano’s journey has been anything but smooth.

The car, first showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo last year, was at the centre of much controversy as its proposed plant site in West Bengal became a rallying point for Mamata Banerjee and her party to gain political mileage.

San Francisco, July 17: Web search giant Google reported a 19-percent increase in profits as cost cutting made up for a decline in online ad spending due to the recession.

Profits rose 19 per cent to $1.48 billion from $1.25 billion a year ago. Revenue rose just 2.9 percent, down from 6.2-percent growth in the first quarter. Excluding sales passed on to partner sites, second-quarter revenue rose to $4.07 billion from $3.9 billion.

“Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn,” chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

–IANS–

New York, July 17: Major US stock indices climbed Thursday for the fourth straight session amid hopes that the US recession will come to an end later this year.

Stocks rallied late in the trading day after a noted US economist, Nouriel Roubini, made some of his most optimistic comments yet on the state of the US economy, according to Bloomberg News.

Roubini, a professor at New York University, said the 19-month US recession would end later this year, revising his personal forecast for a turnaround in early 2010.

New York, July 17: Major US stock indices climbed Thursday for the fourth straight session amid hopes that the US recession will come to an end later this year.

Stocks rallied late in the trading day after a noted US economist, Nouriel Roubini, made some of his most optimistic comments yet on the state of the US economy, according to Bloomberg News.

Roubini, a professor at New York University, said the 19-month US recession would end later this year, revising his personal forecast for a turnaround in early 2010.

San Francisco, July 17: Web search giant Google reported a 19-percent increase in profits as cost cutting made up for a decline in online ad spending due to the recession.

Profits rose 19 per cent to $1.48 billion from $1.25 billion a year ago. Revenue rose just 2.9 percent, down from 6.2-percent growth in the first quarter. Excluding sales passed on to partner sites, second-quarter revenue rose to $4.07 billion from $3.9 billion.

“Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn,” chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

Washington, July 16: Microsoft’s chief operating officer says the software maker is planning to open retail stores “right next door to Apple” in the fall.

The executive, Kevin Turner, also says Microsoft is “in the game for the long-term” and has hired a retail team.

Microsoft brought on a 25-year Wal-Mart veteran in February to lead the effort, but has said little since. Turner was speaking to a gathering of technology partner companies in New Orleans.

Microsoft and Apple have been sparring for years.

New Delhi, July 16: Driven by higher prices of fuel items like petrol and diesel, inflation rose marginally to (-)1.21 per cent for the week ended July 4 against (-)1.55 per cent in the previous week.

At the same time, prices of food articles like cereals, pulses, spices, and fruit and vegetables also remained firm.

The wholesale price index during the corresponding week a year ago was as high as 12.19 per cent.

Beijing, July 16: China’s economy grew 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2009, the government has said, putting it on track to hit the stated goal of eight per cent growth for the year.

The year-on-year growth was well up from the 6.1 per cent registered in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The second quarter gross domestic product growth, built on the back of a $586bn government stimulus package, makes China the best-performing major economy in the world at the moment.

Mumbai, July 16: After growing at a breakneck pace, hydrocarbon consumption in India will see its first drop in many years in 2009, London-based market research firm Datamonitor said.
Total oil and gas consumption in the country, which has grown by an average of 4.5% in the last four years to 1.29 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2009, will decline 6.3% this year, said the firm.