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aviation-moving towards globalisation NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Indian civil aviation industry saw a major policy shift towards globalisation this year with Government detailing.....more NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Both the precious metals lost shine at the local bullion market keeping pace with the weak overseas advices and increased arrivals during the week ended December 26. Increased arrivals of ...more Rupee remains rock MUMBAI,
Dec 27:
The rupee remained rock steady against the US
greenback during the week ended December 24 at a quiet
Interbank Foreign Exchange .. more NEW
DELHI, Dec 27:
Wheat desi slipped, while pulses traded mixed at the
local grains market during the week ended December 26.
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Inflation rate
witnesses steep fall by 0.63 pc NEW DELHI, Dec
27: Maintaining
its downward trend for the fifth consecutive week, the
inflation rate witnessed its second steepest fall in the
current fiscal year by 0.63 per cent to touch 7.01 per
cent on December 12, mainly....more |
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Indian aviation-moving towards globalisation NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Indian civil aviation industry saw a major policy shift towards globalisation this year with Government detailing guidelines for foreign participation in the domestic air sector, creating separate boards for the two national airlines by sacking their joint board and aiming at launching divestment process for them within a year. While private carriers were allowed to operate on domestic routes earlier this decade, the domestic air transport policy issued this July primarily provided for foreign equity participation of upto 40 per cent and investment by Non-Resident Indians or Overseas Corporate Bodies upto 100 per cent. In line with this, Civil Aviation Ministry announced that disinvestment process in Air India (AI), Indian Airlines (IA), Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd and AI Subsidiary - Hotel Corporation of India - would be launched within a year. It also decided to find a strategic partner for the international carrier through global bidding. Soon after the joint AI-IA board suggested setting up a holding company to synergise their operations, the Government sacked this board on December 11 and set up two separate boards to expedite the divestment process. It also appointed new chief executives to AI and IA on the same night and four days later changed the chief of IA subsidiary alliance AI. Denying that the dissolution of the joint board was a midnight massacre, Union Minister Ananth Kumar described it as restructuring. He said what we wanted was to expedite the divestment process. Kumar also expressed unhappiness over the decision to set up the holding company saying it would have put a spoke into the disinvestment process and (the decision) was not in good commercial sense. The minister justified the sacking of the joint board saying merger of the two when both were making losses would have hit the turnaround strategy. Another major development was Government’s decision to dismantle administrative price mechanism for Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) by next five years and reduce it by 20 per cent this year, which deferred from state to state, had been referred to the sales tax rationalisation committee for its imposition at a minimum uniform rate. The Civil Aviation Ministry had to face a major embarrassment when TATA industries withdrew their proposal in September to start a domestic carrier with the participation of Singapore Airlines. However, the TATAs and Karnataka Government were still working on the viability of the Bangalore International Airport project. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Both the precious metals lost shine at the local bullion market keeping pace with the weak overseas advices and increased arrivals during the week ended December 26. Increased arrivals of precious metals through NRI channel kept the price in the domestic market at subdued levels. Overseas advices moved in a very narrow range and mostly supplies outstripped demand as some foreign central banks have given indications to offload some of their reserves. Silver, did not lag behind and shed little weight on tight demand from industrial users. Gold shopping festival in the capital opened on a lukewarm note and the real impact for demand would be known only after a couple of days. Gold, standard and ornaments, declined by Rs 85 at Rs 4,235 and Rs 4,085 while bittur slipped by Rs 90 at Rs 4,220 per ten gm as compared to last week’s closing price range. Sovereign, however, lost Rs 25 at the buyers’ end in the absence of wedding season demand and settled at Rs 3700/3750 per eight gm. Silver .999 was down by Rs 25 at Rs 7370 per kg while weekly delivery prices slipped by Rs 20 at Rs 7,375 per kg as against last week’s price level. Silver coins declined by Rs 200 per 100 pieces at both levels at Rs 10,400 for buyers and Rs 10,500 sellers as against last week’s closing price range. (UNI) |
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Rupee remains rock steady against US greenback MUMBAI, Dec 27: The rupee remained rock steady against the US greenback during the week ended December 24 at a quiet Interbank Foreign Exchange (FOREX) market. The rupee opened marginally lower at Rs 42.55/56 on Monday, more or less remained steady during the week and moved in a very narrow range. It eased to the week’s low of Rs 42.5550/5650 on Monday and rose to the high of Rs 42.52/53 in Tuesday before closing steady at Rs 42.53/54, the previous week’s closing level. The air strike against Iraq by US and UK and its suspension failed to cause any substantial pressure on the rupee, which remained stable, dealers said adding that the market remained dull and witnessed lower activities during the week. According to credence release, the rupee is expected to remain stable in the near term though the pressure in the longer term is likely to continue. The temporary liquidity crunch in the money market would also not provide enough leverage to banks to become aggressive in the FOREX markets. Forward premiums also witnessed little movement and closed the week steady. Nominal activity took place in the forward dollar during the week, dealers said, adding that the importers were not in a hurry as the rupee continued to be stable. The sixth month and annualised premiums ended nearly steady at 7.49 and 8.20 per cent. In the domestic money market, the call rates ruled above 9 per cent level during the week and closed at 9.05-9.50 per cent as the liquidity tightening continued in the market due to outflow of advance tax and announcement of State Government loans on December 28. In the cross currency, the rupee appreciated marginally against pound sterling, Deutsche Mark and Japanese Yen. Rupee ended the week at Rs 71.27 for pound sterling, Rs 25.36 for DM and Rs 36.67 for Yen. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Wheat desi slipped, while pulses traded mixed at the local grains market during the week ended December 26. Wheat desi subdued on increased arrival from producing centres, while dara after moving marginally up and down closed the week at previous closing range as demand by roller flour millers matched supplies. In pulses, gram, gram dal and arhar were traded higher on tight inventories while masoor and dal arhar suffered a setback on mounting inventories and lack of matching demand. Urad and moong did not witness any change as demand matched supplies. In coarse grains, only jowar recovered ground on buying support, other grains remained stagnant. Wheat desi was down by Rs 50 at the higher level at Rs 700/1050 per quintal as against last week’s prices. In coarse grains, jowar gained Rs 50 at the higher level at Rs 400/750 per quintal as compared to previous week’s trend. In pulses, gram gained Rs 25 at the higher level at Rs 1350/1425, gram dal improved by Rs 25 at the higher level at Rs 1550/1650, arhar went up by Rs 75 at the higher level at Rs 2000/2300 while dal arhar declined by Rs 500 at the higher level at Rs 2800/3500 and masoor lost Rs 100 at the higher level at Rs 1525/1600 per quintal as against last week’s closing price range. Rice remained stagnant for want of support. (UNI) |
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Inflation rate witnesses steep fall by 0.63 pc NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Maintaining its downward trend for the fifth consecutive week, the inflation rate witnessed its second steepest fall in the current fiscal year by 0.63 per cent to touch 7.01 per cent on December 12, mainly due to decline in prices of vegetables and essential commodities. It was 7.64 per cent in the preceding week. The sharpest drop in the fiscal year was recorded on September 5 when it plummeted by 0.69 per cent to 8.09 per cent from 8,78 per cent in the previous week. The recent drop in the inflation rate was caused by the decline in the prices of fruits, vegetables, sunflower and gur. But bajra, raw silk, copra, soyabean, rice bran oil, coconut oil, benzene, cement, ceiling fans, transformers and fluorescent tubes became costlier during the week under review. However, it was a slightly above the four per cent mark at 4.31 per cent during the corresponding week last year (December 13). The vegetables prices has once again fell considerably after showing an upward trend in the previous week. The decline in the prices of essential commodities and edible oils does not mean that the prices has slumped drastically but it only shows that the price rise of these commodities had been eased to some extent. Since November 7, the inflation rate had receded by 1.84 per cent. On November 28, it fell below the eight per cent mark after a gap of five weeks to 7.85 per cent. It had been coming down ever since it touched a three year high of 8.85 per cent on November 7. This is because the essential commodities became somewhat cheaper. The inflation rate never crossed the double digit barrier for 194 weeks since April One, 1995. It surpassed the old record of 1993 when it stood at single digits for 52 weeks in a row. The recent price reducing measures by the Government had helped to some extent in controlling the runaway inflation rate. In the recent past, the inflation rate has been galloping at a rapid pace mainly due to price rise of onions. The bad crop due to inclement weather was also responsible for this price rise. The ban of mustard oil sale had given filip to the inflation rate rise. The inflation rate based consumer price index for industrial workers was more than double that of inflation rate based on WPI. Was reining in double digits for successive six months at 18.63 per centin October. The prices at the retail level is much more than the wholesale prices. The inflation rate based on CPI-IW crossed the double digits on May this year when it touched 10.51 per cent. For the fifth successive week, the official Wholesale Price Index for all commodities (base 1981-82) registered a 0.2 per cent fall to 357.1 on December 12 as against 357.9 in the previous week. The drop in the index was mainly due to slump in the indices of food articles and food products. The final Wholesale Price Index for all commodities (base 1981-82) stood at 358.8 on October 17 as against the provisional index of 358.4. The inflation rate based on final index worked out to 8.10 per cent in contrast to 7.98 per cent based on provisional index. With fruits and vegetables becoming cheaper by three per cent, maize, masur, condiments and spices prices fell by two per cent each, arhar, urad, poultry chicken and tea prices down by one per cent each, the index for food articles, under the primary articles group, dropped sharply by one per cent to 460.2 from 464.9. But bajra prices shot up by three per cent, jowar and barley prices went up by one per cent each. The index for non-food articles rose by 0.1 per cent to 387.2 from 387 because raw silk and copra became costlier by five per cent each, soyabean prices up by four per cent and raw cotton prices up by one per cent. But sunflower became cheaper by four per cent, rape seed, mustard seed and gingelly seed prices fell by two per cent each, and fodder prices declined by one per cent. Due to a sharp five per cent fall in the gur prices, the index for food products, under the manufactured products group, slumped by 0.5 per cent to 342.5 from 344.1. But rice bran oil prices zoomed by seven per cent, coconut oil prices up by five per cent, gingelly oil and solvent extracted groundnut oil declined by one per cent. A four per cent hike in prices of benzene made the index for chemical and chemical products go up marginally to 280.9 from 280.8. But castor oil and linseed oil prices dipped by one per cent each. A four per cent rise in the cement prices pulled up the index for non-metallic mineral products steeply by 1.1 per cent to 367.9 from 363.8. The index for machinery and machine tools rose 0.3 per cent to 306.8 from 305.8 because ceiling fans prices jumped by eight per cent, transformers and fluorescent tubes prices went up by three per cent each. The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged at its previous week’s level of 382.1. Other indicies that remained static were minerals, beverages, tobacco and tobacco products, textiles, wood and wood products, paper and paper products, leather and leather products, rubber and plastic products, basic metals, alloys and metal products, transport equipment and parts and other miscellaneous manufacturing industries. (UNI) |
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Mixed to losing trend in oils market NEW DELHI, Dec 27: A mixed to losing trend prevailed at the local oils and oilseeds market during the week ended December 26. In non-edible oils, castor improved marginally on support from buyers and rice bran subdued on lack of demand from consuming units while linseed, mahuwa and neem remained stagnant at balanced supplies. In edible oils, groundnut, cottonseed, soyabean, sesame, rice bran and palmoelin were traded lower on increased arrivals coupled with lack of matching demand. Mustard expeller remained stagnant as demand matched supplies. In non-edible oils, castor recovered by Rs 20 at Rs 4000, while rice bran subdued by Rs 40 at Rs 1800 per quintal as against last week’s price trend. In edible oils, groundnut, soyabean, rice bran and palmolein declined by Rs 100 per quintal each at Rs 4400, Rs 3380, Rs 2600 and Rs 3700 per quintal, cottonseed was down by Rs 140 at Rs 3560 and sesame shed Rs 50 at Rs 4600 per quintal on heavy arrivals from producing centres as compared to the last week’s closing price range. Vanaspati, oilseeds and oilcakes remained stagnant. (UNI) |
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Bulls tighten grip, bring Christmas joy to bourses MUMBAI, Dec 27: The Christmas week brought joy to the bourses with the bulls tightening their grip on fresh purchases by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII’s) and domestic funds. The halt in the four-day air attacks by the US and the UK on Iraq acted as the catalyst to investors and the sensex was pushed up by 88.36 points at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The market also got a boost when the controversial Patents Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha during the just concluded Winter session. Companies (Amendment) Act Bill and buyback of shares with some alterations gave fresh support to the depressed market. FII’s, who had reduced their purchases on account of Christmas holidays and the year-end, re-entered the market as the Patents Bill was being introduced and created fresh positions to book profits at a later date in softwares, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods shares in the process lifting the index substantially. Cement shares were also in limelight following reports that the Government was considering using cement in a big way in highway constructions. There was mild reaction when the Patents Bill was deferred to be tabled in the Lok Sabha during the budget session whereby FII’s booked profits at higher levels in some of the heavyweighted shares. Domestic funds restricted their activity on Thursday to squaring up positions for the settlement and on account of long weekend holidays for Christmas. Infosys tech was in limelight following reports that Board of Directors had considered bonus issue in the ratio of one share for every share held. The scrip flared up by Rs 239.50 to Rs 2915.25. Pentafour software was also in good demand from FII’s and domestic funds, rising by Rs 44.00 to Rs 656.00. Satyam Computers also traded both ways on demand and offerings. The scrip finally settled with a rise of Rs 23.75 at Rs 653.75. NIIT gained by 6.75 to 1548.25. Shares of TATA Group Companies fared better with TELCO, TISCO, TATA Tea and TATa Chem showing handsome gains on informed buying. Among the multinational companies Britania and Castrol were in the forefront on all round bull support. The BSE sensitive index gained by 88.36 points to 2963.45 from the previous week’s close of 2875.09. The BSE-100 also rose by 40.88 points to 1314.05 from 1273.17 last week. The BSE-200 ended higher at 303.80 and the dollex at 118.90 from the last week end close of 295.37 and 115.60 respectively. The total turnover during the week was Rs 5635.88 crore as compared to Rs 5920.68 crore last week. Turnover on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was Rs 695.06 crore as compared to Rs 8014.69 crore. On the NSE, the S&P CNX nifty index rose by 25.90 to 861.10, CNX nifty junior gained by 47.60 to 1460.70 and the S&P CNX defty improved by 21.25 to 701.50. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Sugar subdued while khandsari flared up at the local market during the week ended December 26. In the absence of any announcement in sight for increase in import duty on sugar in the near future, mill delivery and spot sugar prices traded marginally during the course of the week. The prices of sugar would move in a narrow range for the next couple of weeks until the revival of wedding season by the middle of January. Khandsari prices notched smart gains for all varieties on tight supply position amid cold weather conditions. Sugar M-30 improved by Rs 10 at higher level at Rs 1470/1510 and S-30 gained Rs five at the higher level at Rs 1450/1480 per quintal as compared to last week’s closing price range. Mill delivery prices recovered by Rs five to Rs 10 at Rs 1290/1375 per quintal as against last week’s prices. Khandsari flared up by Rs 75 at the lower and Rs 40 at the higher level at Rs 1375/1450, dust by Rs five to Rs 25 at Rs 1275/1325 and desi was up by Rs 55 to Rs 90 at Rs 1280/1340 per quintal as compared to last week’s closing price level. Gur remained stagnant. (UNI) |
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