COIMBATORE, Dec 2: The NIIT, a reputed institution providing IT education, has come out with a special package to make the country’s elected leaders computer literates as part of the World Computer Literacy Day today......more

IFIs closely monitoring
Enron Corporation’s
development

MUMBAI, Dec 2: Indian Financial Institutions (IFIs), closely monitoring the development of Enron Corporation, promoter of Dabhol Power Company (DPC), have asserted that there would not be much impact on Indian lenders’ exposure in the 2184 mw project at Guhagar in Ratnagiri district......more

Inflation climbs to 2.53 pc

NEW DELHI, Dec 2: A sharp rise in vegetables and fruits prices pushed up inflation by another 0.06 per....more

NEW DELHI, Dec 2: Positive attitude is a "key attribute" a majority of the employers (73.3 per cent) are looking for in the job....more

Precious metal prices
move up moderately

MUMBAI, Dec 2: Precious metal prices moved up moderately on the commencement of marriage session......more

Call rate ruled soft
around bank rate

MUMBAI, Dec 2: The interbank call money rate stayed soft and range-bound between 6.40-6.60 per cent on........more

Defensive scrips help
market continue rally

MUMBAI, Dec 2: The rally at the bourses here continued during the week mainly due to value buying at the....more

IFIs closely monitoring Enron Corporation’s development

MUMBAI, Dec 2: Indian Financial Institutions (IFIs), closely monitoring the development of Enron Corporation, promoter of Dabhol Power Company (DPC), have asserted that there would not be much impact on Indian lenders’ exposure in the 2184 mw project at Guhagar in Ratnagiri district.

Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) officials told UNI here that Dynegy’s pull out from the proposed merger with Enron Corporation would not affect the Indian lenders because, DPC’s ‘assets’ would remain in India and as IDBI had taken the charge of DPC to resolve the issue of its survival.

When asked about the bankruptcy of Enron, they said there is a legal procedure, which depends upon the type of obligations made against the company.

IFIs exposure in Dabhol project is IDBI’s Rs 2,121 crore, ICICI’s Rs 1473 crore, SBI’s Rs 1749 crore, Canara Bank’s Rs 407 crore and IFCI’s Rs 254 crore. The enron corporation holds 65 per cent, Hachtel and General Electric hold ten per cent while Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) holds 15 per cent in the project.

Indian energy giants Tata Power and Brihanmumbai Suburban Electric Supply (BSEs) have shown interest in buying Enron equity and have also signed a confidential agreement with IDBI before proceeding for "due diligence". IDBI is playing a vital role in negotiations, which have reached an "interesting" stage, sources said.

However, sources declined to divulge about the third party interested in buying enron equity. "We have decided not to disclose details about the third party at this juncture," they said.

However, an energy analyst told UNI that Enron’s financial crunch would severely affect DPC, as for the last six months the DPC plant had been non-operational, after its sole consumer, MSEB, stopped drawing power. "So long DPC was drawing finances from Enron, but now, if money does not come from there, how is DPC going to function," he asked.

Indian bidders would take advantage of the situation and would bargain hard to bring down the price of Enron equity, the analyst said, adding that it was now very difficult for Enron to get the deal at their offer price.

Tata and BSEs are both commercial organisations and would not bid higher for a non-operational plant and if the deal was stuck at lower prices, how would the IFIs recover their investment, he questioned.

Meanwhile, DPC officials declined to comment on the subject as rapid developments are taking place at their headquarters.

Further delay to resolve the DPC issue could increase Enron’s losses but Dynegy’s pull-out from the proposed merger with Enron may delay the final decision by another few months, analysts felt. (UNI)

Inflation climbs to 2.53 pc

NEW DELHI, Dec 2: A sharp rise in vegetables and fruits prices pushed up inflation by another 0.06 per cent to 2.53 per cent for the week ended November 17 as compared to 7.48period of the previous year.

The week also witnessed increase in the price of eggs on account of winter in the northern part of the country, even as prices dipped for many of the non-food articles and manufactured products including coconut oil, ghee and cement. The index was 2.47 per cent in the previous week.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI), however, stood firm at the previous week’s level of 162 and the index was lower at 158 a year ago period.

The final WPI stood marginally lower at 161.8 in the week ended September 22, as against the provisional level of 161.9, while the final inflation rate was lower at 4.79 per cent as compared to provisional figure of 4.86 per cent.

The All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) rose by three points to 468 in October, 2001, while the point-to-point inflation fell by 0.50 per cent to 4.23 per cent as against 4.73 per cent in the previous month.

Primary articles and manufactured products became cheaper by 0.1 per cent respectively, while the fuel items remained unchanged.

The index for primary articles’ group fell to 168.1 from 168.2 mainly due to cheaper non-food articles, even as food articles became costlier. The index was 161.9 in the previous year period.

Food articles’ group index rose by 0.2 per cent to 177.5 from 177.2 as prices rose for vegetables (three per cent), fruits (two per cent), ragi, masur, eggs and fish-marine (two per cent each) and condiments and spices (one per cent).

Prices, however, dipped for fish-inland (five per cent), jowar and bajra (four per cent each), mutton (two per cent) and rice, maize, barley, moong and urad (one per cent each).

The index for non-food articles’ group fell by 0.8 per cent to 148.3 from 149.5 on account of cheaper sunflower (10 per cent), groundnut seed and linseed (two per cent each) and mesta, rape, mustard seed and castor seed (one per cent each).

But prices rose for kardi seed (seven per cent), niger seed (four per cent), raw silk, copra and tobacco (two per cent each) and fodder (one per cent).

Fuel, power, light and lubricants’ group index was firm at the previous week’s level of 231.6 and the index was 220.9 a year ago period. In the previous week, the index moved up substantially due to surge in diesel price.

The index for manufactured products’ group fell to 144.3 from 144.4 due to fall in the prices of food products, paper, textiles, chemicals and non-metallic mineral products. The index was 142.6 in the previous year. (PTI)

Positive attitude, not management skills,
matters in job market

NEW DELHI, Dec 2:

Positive attitude is a "key attribute" a majority of the employers (73.3 per cent) are looking for in the job seekers, while management skills have a weightage of not more than ten per cent, according to a latest survey.

The survey, conducted among business and industry to gauge their expectations from academia, also revealed that inter-personal skills (43.3 per cent) and a continuous learning ability (40 per cent) were important factors in the job market.

The survey was conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for providing inputs to the academia, particularly higher technical and management education institutions.

The respondents did not assign much relative importance to some of the more contemporary attributes such as change management skills (3.3 per cent) and sensitivity to knowledge management (6.7 per cent).

As regards technical factors, 67.7 per cent of the respondents felt that while recruiting young executives, companies look for knowledge and understanding of the functional area. A sizeable 36.7 per cent of the respondents felt that a formal degree or diploma and exposure to specific industry were desirable attributes.

Responses were mixed with regard to the capability of the indian higher education system to meet global challenges. While 57 per cent of the respondents felt that Indian academic institutions were not geared up to meet the challenges and implicitly referred to stagnating education system in the country, 43 per cent felt otherwise.

This may indicate that though a handful of premier institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) continue to offer world class education, the rest of it need upgradation in keeping with global trends.

The factors considered by the respondents as an impediment to the development of technical and management education in India appear to be qualitative rather than constraints of resources.

Over 43 per cent of the respondents felt that academic institutions were not aligned to ground realities and 40 per cent felt there were lacunae in course and curriculum development.

Among other shortcomings, 30 per cent of the respondents cited that the institutions lacked vision and awareness of global developments.

Strangely, resource factors such as quality and availability of infrastructure and inadequate access to education were considered relatively less important. Less than 10 per cent of the respondents cited these factors as inhibiting Indian academic institutions from reaching global standards.

With regard to curriculum development, 86.7 per cent of respondents felt that students of higher education needed exposure to real life work places. Over 43 per cent also felt that higher education curriculum has to include a closer industry-institute interface.

This stresses the importance of a collaborative approach between academia and industry that may be the biggest stumbling block creating mismatches between what industry wants and what the academic institutions produce. (UNI)

Precious metal prices move up moderately

MUMBAI, Dec 2: Precious metal prices moved up moderately on the commencement of marriage session and shortage of ready stock coupled with weak overseas advices at the Bombay bullion market in week ended on December one.

The market resumed at the beginning of the week, with buying interest in view of the forthcoming marriage session. During the next two-days however, prices of both white and yellow metals declined marginally in the absence of buyers. However, after the "Tulsi Vivah" (Tulsi marriage) prices recovered marginally on the beginning of marriage session.

While standard mint prices moved up by Rs 15 to Rs 4560 (Rs 4545) per ten gm, gold biscuit zoomed up by Rs 300 to Rs 53,400 (Rs 53,100) per ten tola. Silver .999 (per kg) rose by Rs 130 to Rs 7220 (Rs 7090). Sugar: Excepting a marginal gain in small grade, other sugar prices declined moderately on slack demand from consumers and off festival session coupled with good arrival of festival stocks in the sugar wholesale market at the week ended, yesterday.

Throughout the week range-bound trading was witnessed, there was not much fluctuation in the prices due to slack demand for the commodity, dealers said.

Small grade (per quintal) moved by Rs 3 to Rs 1410-1448 (Rs 1417-1445), medium grade declined by Rs 15 to Rs 1450—1510, nakka-small drifted lower by Rs 20 to Rs 1390-1405 and medium grade decreased by Rs 19 to Rs 1428-1471.

Metals Both ferrous as well as non-ferrous metals prices shot-up on renewed demand from industrial consumers coupled with shortage of ready stock in the Bombay metal exchange on week ended on December one.

Metal prices moved up gradually on cotinuous demand from industrial houses on rise in the international metal prices at London metal exchanges due to non-availability of stocks, leading traders said.

Copper heavy increased by Rs 300 to Rs 11350, copper utensil by Rs 250 to Rs 10300, aluminum utensils rose by Rs 150 to Rs 7300 and copper wire bars by Rs 350 to Rs 12500. However, tin slab prices declined by Re one to Rs 301. Cotton Despite good rabi production, cotton prices moved up further on demand from clothing mills during the week in the East India cotton exchange.

The Bangladesh (new) increased by Rs 225 to Rs 4049, V-797 rose by Rs 85 to Rs 3431, LRA by Rs 112 to Rs 3993, DCH-32 quoted at Rs 7311, 26 mm (new) at Rs 3993 and MCU-5 (new ) at Rs 7311.

However, there was no trading in the future cotton market, traders said. Oilseeds and oils

A mixed trend was observed in edible oil prices, while other commodities declined on slack demand on the Bombay oilseeds and oils exchange during the last week.

The groundnut oil price rose by Rs 4 to Rs 346 per kg, whereas RBD palmolein prices down by Rs 6 to Rs 292, soyabean REF by Re one to Rs 293, soyabean crude eased by Rs 5 to Rs 275 and sunflower crude by Rs one to Rs 400, traders said. (UNI)

Call rate ruled soft around bank rate

MUMBAI, Dec 2: The interbank call money rate stayed soft and range-bound between 6.40-6.60 per cent on abundant liuidity in the system during the second week of the reporting fortnight ended November 29.

Call rates opened at 6.50-6.70, witnessed little movement and were confined in a tight range of 6-40.6.60 per cent for most part of the week. Despite the open market operation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which absorbed about Rs 6,500 crore from the system, the liquidity continued to be ample. The demand for funds remained thin as most banks have surplus funds. Lending banks, saddled with excess funds, continued to park their funds in RBI repos and government securities market, pushing gilt prices up sharply.

RBI repos continued to get good response and the central bank mopped about Rs 12,040 crore during the four day-week.

Call money market remained closed on Friday on account of the ‘Gurunanak Jayanti’ and hence the reporting fortnight ended on Thursday.

Government securities markets continued its bullish and security prices maintained their rally during the week, given the abundant liquidity. Though the uncertainty over the cut-off price of the auction created volatility in the market and briefly halted the upswing on wednesday, it again surged after market players felt the cut-off rate attractive.

Further, the auction outflows have not had any impact on the liquidity as there were good inflows as well on account of redemption and coupon payment. Gilt prices extended their gains by Rs 1.50-2.50 during the week.

RBI’s Open Market Operation (OMO) auction of the three securities received over subscription and sailed through successfully on Wednesday.

The 11.50 per cent Government stocks 2011 auction received 135 bids for an aggregate amount of Rs 3,530 crore, out of which 82 bids for the notified amount of Rs 2,500 crore were accepted. The cut-off price was Rs 124.65 (ytm 7.8842 per cent).

At the 10.18 per cent Government stock 2026 auction, total 85 bids for Rs 2,992 crore were received, out of which 30 bids for the notified amount of Rs 2,000 crore were accepted at a cut-off price of Rs 117.55 (ytm 8.4723 per cent).

The 11.43 per cent, 2015 paper received 161 bids for Rs 4,438 crore, out of which 47 bids for the notified amount of Rs 2,000 crore were received at a cut-off price of Rs 125.25 (ytm 8.3037 per cent). (UNI)

Defensive scrips help market continue rally

MUMBAI, Dec 2: The rally at the bourses here continued during the week mainly due to value buying at the defensive and select old economy counters albeit, with some sign of price consolidation in the market valuation. The cement, automobile and pharmaceutical scrips remained in limelight while technology counters witnessed profit selling, said traders.

Mirroring the trend, the 30-stock benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index-sensex gained 37.36 points to 3287.56 compared with 3250.20 of last Friday’s close. The S P CNX nifty of the NSE ended higher by 8.00 points to 1067.00 as against 1059.0 of last week’ close.

Meanwhile, in the US market, the NASDAQ index rose 1.4 percent and the Dow Jones composite index lost 1.1 percent. November marked the strongest month for the market as NASDAQ surged 14.2 percent and the dow rose 8.6 percent.

According to a broker with Motilal Oswal Securities, investors are hopeful about the sustainability of the rally but its pace has led to profit-booking at higher levels. Investors are also churning their portfolio in favour of relatively defensive scrips.

Shares of Zee Telefilm gained smartly in the week on news that the company would sell part of its stake to a foreign firm. Share prices rose by Rs 11.70 to Rs 128.85. Sharers of IPCL were also up on hopes that Government would soon invite bids for selling 24 per cent stake in the company.

The rise in the market indices has been despite net sales by foreign institutional investors and mutual funds. Foreign funds sold equity worth Rs 63.20 crore and mutual funds was net sellers in equities at Rs 141.07 crore.

Cement shares were up on hopes of a price rise while, automobile shares gained as the market has been expecting revival in the sector, a broker said. Majority of the technology scrips shed on selling pressure as NIIT and Satyam Comp lost while, Wipro Ltd and Infosys gained marginally.

Among drug shares Ranbaxy Lab, Cadila Health and Aurbindo Pharma gained by Rs 48.00, Rs 5.30 and Rs 12.45 respectively while Dr Reddy lost. Cement scrips like ACC and Gujarat Ambuja were also up. Auto shares Ashok Leylend, Bajaj Auto and TELCO gained.

There is an upside resistence at current level and without a strong positive trigger the rally would take some time to cross the present resistence level, said a broker. One of the positive outcomes of the introduction of stock future has been the revival of speculative interest in the market. (UNI)

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