Business

Mumbai, June 27: Indian equities markets, which were trading in volatile conditions for the most part of the week, finished on a high on Friday, thanks to the strong global cues. A key index moved up 242 points from its previous weekly close.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) rose 1.67 percent or 242.75 points over the previous Friday’s close and ended trade at 14,764.64 points.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) followed the Sensex, gaining 1.4 percent from its last close to end at 4,376 points.

London, June 27: Jaguar Land Rover has lost £281m in the 10 months to March, helping its parent company, Tata Motors, to its first loss in eight years and prompting it to warn there could be further job losses at its British subsidiary.

The Indian group, which paid £1.15bn for JLR in March 2008, recorded an annual loss of 15.1 billion rupees (£189m), compared with 21.7 billion rupees profit in the previous year, as the global automotive industry has been devastated by recession.

Mumbai, June 27: Slumping demand drove Tata Motors into its first annual loss in eight years and India’s top vehicle maker warned of more job cuts and plant shutdowns at the loss-making Jaguar and Land Rover unit.

The firm, which controls 60 percent of the world’s fifth-biggest truck and bus market, said it was readying for major belt-tightening, including deferring capital expenditure wherever possible to keep a tight rein on costs.

New Delhi, June 26: Cash-strapped and over-staffed carrier, the state-owned, Air India on Tuesday introduced a voluntary leave without pay scheme for its more than 30,000 employees to cut its annual wage bill of Rs 3,000 crore. The carrier has nearly 10,000 excess employees and another 20,000 on contracts.

Mumbai, June 25: Tata Steel Ltd, the world’s sixth-largest steel maker, on Thursday said 2,045 jobs in European operations were at risk due to a fall in steel demand in Europe and America.

It said in a statement its Corus unit was opening consultations on the jobs, which are at its facilities in the UK, Netherlands and Scotland.

Tata Steel, which earlier reported a lower-than-expected consolidated net profit for the year to March, said it had strong liquidity and no material repayment or refinancing in the next 12 months.

Melbourne, June 25: Oil rose above $69 a barrel on Thursday after Nigeria’s main militant group shut down one of Royal Dutch Shell’s pipeline junction points, heightening concerns about supplies from the region.

U.S. crude futures for August gained 74 cents to $69.41 a barrel by 1210 GMT. London Brent crude rose 88 cents to $69.21.

Chandigarh, June 25: Bharti Airtel and South Africa’s MTN, which are in exclusive merger talks till the end of July, will still take up to four months for regulatory and other approvals, Citigroup said.

Bharti and MTN last month revived talks to create a major emerging market telecoms group, a year after previous talks broke down over who would control a merged entity.

Mumbai, June 25: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, today announced a 50 basis point cut in its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) to 11.75 per cent.

The cut would be effective from Monday, the bank said. With this, SBI has lowered its BPLR by 200 basis points since November 2008, when the Reserve Bank of India signalled a soft interest rate regime.

New Delhi, June 25: India’s wholesale prices fell less than expected in mid-June from a year earlier, marking a build-up in price pressures as the economy picks up and the effect of past sharp falls in energy prices wears off.

The wholesale price index fell 1.14 percent in the 12 months to June 13, compared with analysts’ median forecast of a 1.69 percent drop and the previous week’s 1.61 percent decline, government data showed on Thursday.

Hyderabad, June 24: Reliance Communications has launched a unique international calling card for the US and Canada ‘ICC 799’ which brings down calling rates to these countries to as low as Rs 1.99 per minute.

The card is available for both CDMA and GSM subscribers. On an e-recharge of Rs 799, the card offers a talk time of more than 350 minutes for calls to the US and Canada with a validity of 30 days.

This card adds an exciting variety to the wide bouquet of offerings in the International Calling Card portfolio, a press release here today said.

—–Agencies

New Delhi, June 25: In a first of its kind effort, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom), is all set to come up with 35 new live streaming channels to its GSM subscribers.

The private sector telecom company is already offering 13 news and other TV channels to its CDMA network.

For this purpose, RCom has tied-up with Hyderabad-based Apalya Technologies.

The services are branded as MimobiTV.

Confirming the development, Krishna Durbha, Head (VAS) RCom said, “We are in advanced talks with Apalya. The tie-up would help us increase the width of the usage.”

Chandigarh, June 24: In the wake of increasing cases of fraud and cheating, Chandigarh Police Wednesday urged bank officials to install CCTV cameras in their branches.
At a meeting with over 50 senior officials of private and nationalised banks, police officials suggested various measures to prevent frauds and robberies.

The bank officials were told to coordinate with other banks so that they can verify details of their common clients.

They were also told that customers should be made aware of the growing menace of hacking that is quite common in e-banking.

–IANS–

New Delhi, June 24: The government will spend Rs.1,100 crore (Rs.11 billion) annually till 2012 to provide subsidies and upgrade technology to the textile sector, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran said here Wednesday.
The Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), which was launched to improve competitiveness and overall long term viability of the industry, has been extended till March 31, 2012.

“The government will invest Rs.1,100 crore in TUFS,” Maran told reporters while releasing the ministry’s 100-day agenda.

New Delhi, June 24: PM Manmohan Singh is ready to extend full support to the ailing national carrier Air India on the condition that it cuts its cost and restructures its organisation, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Wednesday.

“The Prime Minister was sympathetic. But he has asked to plan out the strategy, cost cuts, judicious use of resources and restructuring of Air India,” Patel said.

Amidst speculation over the bailout package to Air India, Patel said the government supported the national carrier but refused to divulge the amount of bailout.

Bangalore, June 24: Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) will invest an additional Rs.8 billion ($165 million) in its Indian joint venture with the Kirloskar group to expand capacity of its Bangalore plant and roll out a small car for the domestic market, Karnataka Industry Minister Murugesh R. Nirani said Wednesday.

New Delhi, June 24: The government, which is grappling with a ballooning fiscal deficit and looking for ways to kick start the economy, may well have to deal with the dual spectre of soaring food prices and higher cost of running public programmes if the rain gods play truant.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country’s rainfall during June 1-17 was 45 per cent below normal due to a lull in the southwest monsoon.

Mumbai, June 24: The BSE Sensex erased an early fall and climbed 0.7 percent on Wednesday as investors covered their short positions ahead of the monthly derivatives expiry, but the market undertone was weak due to a delay in monsoon.

Larsen & Toubro, which lost nearly a tenth of its value in the last two weeks, led the gains on speculation the engineering and construction firm would benefit from expected higher spending on infrastructure.

New Delhi, June 23: India’s flagship carrier Air India, which is struggling to cope with a cash crunch, will ask for a Rs.10,000-crore (about $2 billion)
bailout package from the central government, a senior official said.

Airline officials, who discussed the airline’s financial problems with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Tuesday night, will meet top government officials again seeking help.

The minister arrived here on Tuesday after attending the Paris air show.

Mumbai, June 23: Housing Development Finance Corp, India’s top mortgage firm, will cut lending rates if its cost of funds come down, its chairman said on Tuesday.

“We will review our lending rates if cost of funds come down. If cost of funds come down we will pass it on to our customers,” Deepak Parekh said on the sidelines of an industry conference.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has urged banks to follow the central bank in cutting rates to boost lending and lift a slowing economy.

—Agencies

Hyderabad, June 23: Mahindra Satyam Ltd has seen almost no customer attrition since mid-April, new chief executive C. P. Gurnani said on Tuesday.

The company will also announce its reorganisation within 48 hours, he said.

Outsourcer Satyam Computer Services rebranded itself as “Mahindra Satyam,” as part of efforts to recover from India’s worst corporate fraud.

Tech Mahindra, 31 percent-owned by Britain’s BT Group, won an auction in April for a controlling stake in Satyam.

—Agencies

Mumbai, June 23: Tata Motors, makers of the much delayed Nano small car, Tuesday said it has completed random selection of the first 100,000 applicants who would buy the vehicle in the first phase and that delivery will begin next month.

‘Tata Motors once again places on record its gratitude to the people of India for according such a warm welcome to the Tata Nano, as also to all its preferred financiers, dealers and partner companies for their stupendous effort in helping the company launch the Tata Nano,’ the company said in a statement.

New Delhi, June 23: Assessees whose tax is deducted at source will have to wait for some time this year before filing returns as they will be required to quote a new number in the form.

The new number, Unique Transaction Number (UTN), has been made mandatory because there are some lacunae like individuals having more than one permanent account number (PAN), sources said.

The income-tax department has asked individual assessees whose tax is deducted or collected at source to quote the UTN.

Mumbai, June 23: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today plunged by over 309 points in opening trade on heavy selling by funds, tracking a weak global trend.

The 30-share index, which had lost over 195 points yesterday, fell further by 309.27 points at 14,016.95.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty tumbled by 92 points at 4,143.25 in opening trade as heavy-weight stocks like Reliance Industries and Infosys recorded heavy losses.

Marketmen said a steep fall in the global stock markets, led by Hong Kong, mainly influenced the trading sentiments here.

Mumbai, June 23: Dolphin Offshore Enterprises India Ltd has notified that it has received an order worth Rs 106 crore from M/s. Instrumentation Ltd for Structural Modification work at unmanned platforms in MH for deployment of Modular rig on turn key basis.

The contract, which is scheduled to commence shortly, is expected to be completed by May 2011. Last month, the company bagged an order worth $18.45 million from Leighton India for hire of charter vessel DP/DSV.

New Delhi, June 22: State-owned home loan lender Housing and Urban Development Corp (HUDCO) has lowered interest rates by up to 125 basis points.

The new rates, which will come into force Tuesday, will bring down rates from 9.5 percent to 8.5 percent for home loans taken by widows and people from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) categories, a government statement said.

Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja had earlier called for more focused approach on social housing and affordable housing, the release said.