Indian rupee down 23 paise against US dollar

The Indian rupee lost 23 paise to 62.43 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market due to increased demand for the American currency from importers.

Forex dealers said a weak opening in the domestic stock market also put pressure on the local currency but dollar's weakness against other currencies limited the fall.

The domestic currency had lost 36 paise, its biggest loss in three weeks, to close at 62.20 versus the dollar on Tuesday. The forex and money markets remained closed yesterday on account of "Chhatrapati Maharaj Jayanti".

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 83.42 points, or 0.40 per cent, at 20,639.55 in early trade today.

Source: News in Hindi

From FE News

BSE Sensex advances amid firm trend in Asian markets

Benchmark indices advanced on Tuesday amid a firm trend in Asian markets. The BSE barometer, the Sensex was trading 80 points or 0.3% higher at 20,414.36 points, while the NSE's Nifty was trading 17.15 points or 0.28% higher at 6,070.60 points at 10.45 am IST.

Experts expect markets to trade within a narrow range. “Nifty may trade within a range of 6000 – 6150 in near term. Selling pressure may increase, if Nifty breaks 6000 and close below support level,” Standard Chartered analysts said in a research note. “The trend in investment by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and the data on industrial production for December 2013 which will be out on Wednesday will dictate the near-term movement,” the note added.

Among sectoral indices, BSE IT (1.53%), BSE Consumer Durables (1.10%) and BSE FMCG (0.11%) were the major gainers. Among individual stocks, Tata Motors (2.88%), Tata Steel (1.86%) and TCS (1.47%) were the major gainers. Shares of Tata Motors gained after the automaker reported 195% y-o-y rise in its net profit to Rs 4,804.80 in Q3.

Among key Asian indices, the Nikkei was up 1.77%. The Hang Seng (1.82%), Kospi (0.46%), Straits Times (0.61%) and Shanghai Composite (0.46%) were the major gainers.

Source: Hindi News

Form TFE News

DIPP allows 26% cap for FII, NRI investment in insurance

The government on Wednesday released foreign investment norms for the insurance sector and clarified the four areas where such investment would be allowed while keeping the cap at 26% through the automatic route.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) issued a press note in which it allowed the foreign institutional investments (FIIs) and investments by non-resident Indians (NRIs) along with foreign direct investment (FDI) within the 26% cap prevalent in the insurance sector.

While the earlier policy only talked about the insurance sector, the new guidelines now specify four sectors where insurance related FDI can come in. These are - insurance companies, insurance brokers, third-party administrators and surveyors and loss assessors.

Finance ministry sources said that there is no change in the FDI policy for the insurance sector and this is only a clarification.

“The insurance law and the Insurance Regulator Regulations have similar caps for FDI, FII and NRI investments. This press not is only consolidating the existing policy provisions,” said Akash Gupt, executive director at PWC.

“The companies bringing in foreign investment will have to obtain necessary licence from the

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) for undertaking prescribed activities,” the note said.

Insurance brokers are entities which for remuneration arrange insurance contracts with insurers or reinsurers on behalf of their clients. As per Irda, TPAs help in facilitating health insurance on behalf of insurers. Surveyors and loss assessors provide technical services to the insurance companies.

Incidentally, the Arvind Mayaram committee had recommended composite FDI cap of 49% fro the insurance sector from the current 26% within the norms stipulated by Irda.

Source: Hindi News

From TFE News

Microsoft Corporation's new CEO Satya Nadella becomes a rage in cyber world

Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella swept the cyber world today with nearly half-a-billion search results thrown up even as he became toast of the social networking sites abuzz with news of him being named as Microsoft Corporation CEO.

'Satya Nadella' name in Google search box produced over 440 million results in half a second. Google news propped up 12.8 million news articles featuring the 46-year-old in just 0.14 second. Right now, it appears he is only third after the US President Barack Obama, who attracted about 650 million results and Bill Gates (about 480 million), in the virtual world.

While Indian business icon Ratan Tata fetched nearly four million results, Indian-American Indra Nooyi, chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo, had less than one million search results on Google.

Principal of Hyderabad Public School¿Begumpet Col R S Khatri said that he had mentioned, in his speech during the old students' reunion in 2011 in which Nadella was also present, that Google produced 1.14 lakh entries in just 0.13 seconds when Satya Nadela's name was typed.

"Reacting to my remarks, Nadella had said that he would tell his people at Bing (microsoft search engine) that they should do it a shade better," Khatri told PTI.

Nadella had his schooling in Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet.

A page opened just a few hours ago in the name of Nadella on Facebook saw over 30,000 likes in the afternoon and was flooded with wishes for his role as CEO.

In a reply to Sreeramulu Alapati, his classmate from MIT Manipal, Nadella answered: "I marvel every day at how people can excel - and that's what really gets me going."

Microsoft's official blog said on Tuesday morning, the Studio D building at Microsoft resembled a mini-version of Seattle's Century Link Field, as hundreds of Microsoft employees swarmed around a small stage and craned their necks over three floors of balconies and stairwells, raising voices and clapping hands to welcome the company's third CEO, Satya Nadella, and to honour the previous two CEOs, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

As Satya basked in glory, his parents in Hyderabad remained out of bounds.

Source: Tech News in Hindi

From TFE News

Indian CEOs most confident about economy: PwC survey

CEOs from across the world have become more optimistic about revenue gains of their companies and overall economic growth, with Indian business heads emerging as the most confident about economy and among top-5 globally for internal topline figures, a survey said today.

Besides, CEOs from across the world including in India plan to aggressively expand their workforce this year, even as their worries about over-regulation, fiscal deficits and tax policy have reached highest ever levels, the PwC survey said.

Releasing its annual CEO survey on the opening night of World Economic Forum here, global consultancy giant PwC stated that compared to last year twice as many CEOs around the world believe the global economy will improve in the next 12 months.

Moreover 39 per cent of chief executives are 'very confident' about their company's revenue growth in 2014.

India was ranked fourth in the list of countries/regional CEOs who are confident of revenue growth in the next 12 months' time, which was topped by Russia, followed by Mexico and Korea in the second and third place.

Commenting on the survey results, released at the opening of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Dennis M Nally, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers International, said "CEOs have begun to regain confidence." (Watch)

Mr Nally added that CEOs have successfully guided their companies through recession and now more CEOs feel positive about their ability to increase their revenues and prospects for the global economy. Read more..

Source: Hindi News

From NDTV News

Income Tax department seeks information on transfer of assets from Cairn: report

The Income-Tax department has 'surveyed' the office of nation's largest oil producer Cairn India in connection with transfer of assets by its erstwhile UK promoter, Cairn Energy plc to the Indian entry.

The Gurgaon office of Cairn India was 'surveyed' by IT department officials yesterday for a short duration, informed sources said.

The survey was to establish if any capital gains tax was due on the 2006 transaction when Cairn Energy had transferred shares of the Indian assets that were held in a subsidiary incorporated in Jersey, a tax haven, to newly incorporated Cairn India.

Sources said IT Department is investigating the asset transfer under Section 9 of the Income-Tax Act, which deals with income deemed to accrue or arise in India.

Any tax demand, if established, may be raised on Cairn Energy plc of UK, they said.

Cairn Energy plc had transfered the India assets into the newly incorporated Cairn India Ltd and listed the firm on the stock exchanges through an initial public offering (IPO).

The Edinburgh-based firm, which raised Rs. 8,616 crore in the IPO in 2011, sold its majority stake in Cairn India to mining group Vedanta Group for $8.67 billion. Read more..

Source: Business News

From NDTV News

Sebi for regular issuance of government bonds to deepen liquidity

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board (Sebi) today called for reforms in the underlying market and said regular issuance of government bonds across maturities can go a long way in achieving this by way of increasing liquidity.

"The success of the derivatives market is dependent on the underlying market, which has to be liquid. There have to be reforms in the underlying market as well. There should be regular issuance of government bonds across maturities to make the underlyin market of interest rate futures more liquid," Sebi Chairman UK Sinha said.

Sinha was speaking at the launch of interest rate futures (IRFs) on the National Stock Exchange.

He refused to take a question on media reports which said that he got a two-year extension.

Sinha said almost 34 per cent of the public bonds issued by government were held by the banking system. Unless they participate, any produce has little chance to succeed, he said, adding that the three earlier attempts in last 11 years to launch these products failed. Read more..

Source: Hindi News

From ET News

Kotak Mahindra Bank Q3 net marginally up at Rs 591 crore

Private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank today reported a marginal rise of 2.4 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 591.25 crore for the third quarter ended December 2013.

Profit a year earlier was Rs 577.21 crore, Kotak Mahindra said in a filing to the BSE. Total income increased to Rs 4,424.5 crore from Rs 4,157.12 crore.

On a standalone basis, the bank's net profit declined to Rs 339.98 crore from Rs 361.68 crore in the third quarter a year earlier. Read more..

Source: Business News in Hindi


From ET News

Will Rahul's appeal hike LPG subsidy to 12 cylinders?

With just one sentence at his AICC speech (17 January), Rahul Gandhi has wiped out a year's worth of reforms in one sector - cooking gas subsidies. Slow monthly hikes in diesel prices (50 paise per litre a month) and gradual elimination of LPG subsidies were the centre-piece of reforms announced in January 2013. 

Now one reform is almost over (LPG), and the other has not managed to cut subsidies one bit (diesel). Rahul appealed to "the Prime Minister to raise the bar of LPG usage from nine cylinders to 12 cylinders ,” and Veerappa Moily jumped in and said "aye, aye sir." With just one sentence at his AICC speech (17 January), Rahul Gandhi has wiped out a year's worth of reforms in one sector - cooking gas subsidies. 

Slow monthly hikes in diesel prices (50 paise per litre a month) and gradual elimination of LPG subsidies were the centre-piece of reforms announced in January 2013. Now one reform is almost over (LPG), and the other has not managed to cut subsidies one bit (diesel). 

Rahul appealed yesterday to "the Prime Minister to raise the bar of LPG usage from nine cylinders to 12 cylinders,” and Veerappa Moily jumped in and said "aye, aye sir." This single act, of increasing the subsidy limit from nine to 12 cylinders per annum, will mean that 99 percent of consumers will now receive the subsidy. 

In other words, almost everybody who uses LPG will be subsidised, a report in Business Standard suggests. If the idea of subsidy reform is to make it available only to those who can't afford to pay market prices, Rahul has essentially said that only 1 percent of Indians can afford to buy cooking gas at market prices. 

If this is so, why go through all the hoopla of first calling it a reform, and then announcing an elaborate direct cash transfer (DCT) scheme, and forcing people to get Aadhaar cards to obtain subsidies? If 99 percent of Indian citizens using LPG are entitled to subsidies, why create an entire superstructure of Aadhaar-enabled cash transfers just to save on the remaining one percent of consumers? 

Would not the benefit of gains from not subsidising 1 percent be lost by forcing the remaining 99 percent to go through the rigmarole or linking bank accounts through Aadhaar? Read more..

Source: Hindi News

From MC News