The rupee was trading at 60.14/15, after hitting 60.1225, its highest since July 17 and versus previous close of 60.24/25.Importer dollar demand to meet month-end payment commitments will limit gains in the Indian unit.The rupee is seen in 60.00 to 60.30 range during the day.Most Asian units trading stronger against the dollar.Foreign fund flows into the domestic sharemarket to remain key factor determining rupee direction. The Nifty is trading up 0.43 per cent.Asian stocks edge up as risk aversion triggered by recent geopolitical tensions continues to ebb.(Reuters)
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The rupee is trading higher at 61.03/05 vs previous close of 61.34/35, tracking strength in equities. Local shares up 0.5 per cent, tracking regional peers.Foreign investors bought Indian shares worth $117.87 million on Thursday (20 March) when the benchmark BSE Sensex fell 0.4 per cent, provisional exchange data shows, highlighting the strong overseas interest for Indian equities.The dollar's index against six major currencies currently down 0.05 per cent.Most other Asian currencies trading mixed compared with the dollar.The US dollar hovered near a three-week peak against a basket of major currencies early on Friday, but could struggle to extend gains as investors awaited more clarity on the US Federal Reserve's policy path.(Reuters)
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Making his wealth public a day before stepping into the fray, Infosys co-founder and Congress candidate from Bangalore South, Nandan Nilekani has declared that he and his wife Rohini Nilekani have assets worth Rs 7,700 crore. "I started out with 200 rupees in my pocket, when I graduated from IIT; ...we founded Infosys with Rs 10,000," Nilekani's media team, quoting him, said. "Today, because of the success of a company built from scratch, Nandan and Rohini have assets of Rs 7,700 crore," a release issued by the media team said. His formidable opponent and five-time Lok Sabha member from Bangalore South, Ananth Kumar of BJP has declared himself poorer than his wife Tejaswani. In an affidavit filed yesterday, Kumar has declared his total assets stands at Rs 51.12 lakh, while Tejaswani owns assets worth of Rs 3.86 crore. Total assets owned by the family is Rs 4.4 crore. Chief architect of UPA'S flagship "Aadhar" scheme, Nilekani took the political plunge on March 9, when he joined Congress, a day after the party named him as its candidate from Bangalore South. Bangalore South has been a hostile terrain for Congress which had been tasting defeat since the late 1970s, barring in 1989 when former Chief Minister late R Gundu Rao had won. Nilekani said, "Most of our wealth, almost 80 per cent remains in Infosys shares; ...This wealth was created while Infosys brought lakhs of jobs to Bengaluru. The company also shared a lot of wealth with our employees through ESOPs (employee stock ownership plan)." He said he still owns 1.45 per cent, and Rohini 1.3 per cent of Infosys. Saying he is proud of the fact that his wealth is completely transparent, he said, "I haven't made any of my money illegally, or hid it in investments outside the country." "Nothing is hidden in someone else's bank account. It is all completely transparent, and tax-paid," he added. Since 1999, both are said to have donated almost Rs 400 crore of their wealth to various causes and charities. "I have worked in the social sector for more than 15 years now...and when I came into some money through the sale of Infosys shares, I was able to spend more on my philanthropy," Rohini Nilekani said. Nilekani and Rohini have prioritised their philanthropy into areas like water, governance, education.(Agencies)
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Gold prices fell for the third- straight day by dropping Rs 255 to Rs 30,425 per 10 grams in the national capital on Thursday (20 March) on sustained selling by stockists in tandem with weakening global trend. Silver followed suit and lost Rs 540 at Rs 45,700 per kg on poor offtake by industrial units and coin makers. Traders said the sentiment remained bearish on stockists selling and weakening global trend as Federal Reserve signalled a rise in interest rates while further reducing monetary stimulus, boosting the dollar and curbing demand for the metal. Gold in Singapore, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, fell by 0.3 per cent to $1,325.66 an ounce and silver traded tad lower at $20.59 an ounce from 20.61 yesterday. On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity plunged by Rs 255 each to Rs 30,425 and Rs 30,225 per 10 grams, respectively. It had lost Rs 150 in last two trade. Sovereigns also declined by Rs 100 at Rs 25,200 per piece of eight grams. Similarly, silver ready dropped by Rs 540 to Rs 45,700 and weekly-based delivery by Rs 340 to Rs 45,500 per kg. The white metal had lost Rs 960 in the previous two days. Silver coins too tumbled by Rs 1,000 to Rs 85,000 for buying and Rs 86,000 for selling of 100 pieces.(Agencies)
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Five and a half years after erstwhile Satyam Computer Services founder chairman B. Ramalinga Raju’s shenanigans came to light, he, along with four others from the top management, has been barred from the market for 14 years by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The capital markets regulator has also directed the five to return unlawful gains of Rs 1,849 crore within 45 days, with 12 per cent interest from 7 January 2009 to date. Raju, who is on bail after spending 32 months in jail, could again be arrested if he fails to meet the SEBI deadline.Penalised, AgainMukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries (RIL) has been slapped with an additional penalty of $579 million by the government for producing less than the targeted quantity of natural gas from the offshore KG-D6 block in Andhra Pradesh. The fresh penalty is in addition to the earlier fine of $1.80 billion slapped on the company for production shortfalls. The penalty has, however, failed to impress critics who allege proximity between PM Narendra Modi and the RIL head.Google’s Search EndsThe man responsible for reviving Boeing’s commercial aircraft business and reshaping a moribund Ford into a competitive automaker is now on board Google. The search giant, working on developing self-driving cars, has inducted Alan Mulally into its board of directors to gain from his auto expertise in this quest. The 68-year-old, who was appointed on 9 July, will receive $1 million in Google stock, an annual equity award of $350,000 with a $75,000 cash retainer and reimbursement of expenses.Stock GiveawayUber-billionaire Warren Buffett has made his biggest donation yet, $2.8 billion in securities to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and four Buffett family foundations. He gave away 21.7 million shares of his company’s class B stock, valued at $128.98 a share, which reduced his holdings to $63.1 billion. Having pledged to give away 99 per cent of his fortune, over the past eight years Buffet has donated $18.7 billion.Skype BreaksSubrata Roy sure can’t break out of Tihar, but he can take a break now. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed him to step out of jail for a few hours every day to negotiate the sale of his foreign properties over video conference to enable him to mop up the remaining sum required for his bail. Roy will only be granted bail on depositing Rs 5,000 crore in cash and an equal amount in bank guarantee.Spot ReclaimedCarlos Slim Helú is once again the world’s richest person, thanks to a sharp increase in the share price of his company América Móvil, a telecom giant, both in the US and the Mexican markets. Slim bumped Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates from the top spot in the Forbes world’s billionaire list, a position Gates held since May 2013 after displacing Slim.Still The BossSameer Gehlaut, co-founder and chairman of Indiabulls Group, which is currently undergoing a major overhaul, will continue to control, manage and supervise most of Indiabulls’s major businesses like housing finance, real estate, securities and wholesale trading. Rajiv Rattan and Saurabh Mittal, the other co-founders of the group, will relinquish all control over the firms in Gehlaut’s favour. Gehlaut also has complete rights to the Indiabulls brand.Son RiseSharvil P. Patel has been appointed chairman of Zydus Wellness, a personal care products firm, after father, Pankaj R. Patel, expressed his unwillingness to be reappoinment director of the company. The move is being viewed as a passing of the baton to the next generation in the Zydus Cadila Group. Sharvil has been a non-executive director at Zydus Wellness since 2009.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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Shares of jewellery maker Titan Co Ltd gained 4.4 per cent after Reuters reported that government had allowed five domestic private sector banks to import gold, in what industry officials say could be a significant step towards easing of tough curbs on the metal imposed last year.The move could boost gold supplies and bring down premiums for the metal in the world's second-biggest consumer after China.(Reuters)
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Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget proposal must have been music to the ears of Virendra Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director, IRB Infrastructure Developers. Development of roads, especially the Golden Quadrilateral, and the vision of 100 ‘smart’ cities using the infrastructure of arterial roads were presented as focus areas of the new government. Though not a huge outlay in the business of infrastructure, an allotment of Rs 7,060 crore, specifically for the development of modern, smart cities in the current financial year, is a sign few can miss. For IRB — a holding company for a clutch of subsidiaries and special purpose vehicles (SPV) engaged in road construction, build-operate-transfer (BOT) concessions, real estate and even hospitality — good days are ahead, if it plays its cards right. Since 2009, the company has recorded great growth. Between 2010-11 and 2013-14, its net sales revenues expanded almost ten-fold from Rs 267 crore to Rs 2,212 crore. However, growth slowed in the last fiscal. IRB is a fairly young company. Incorporated only in 1998, it speedily made a mark by pioneering the BOT model of highway and road development. In fact, the first BOT venture in the country was undertaken by IRB before incorporation in 1995, when it executed the 25-km-long Thane-Bhiwandi Bypass (Phase I). The company has two key streams of revenue. First, from construction and development contracts. The second is BOT projects, which are again mainly roads. Though the ratio of revenue from construction and BOT concessions is 60:40, it is the BOT model that IRB has mastered. It has also proved lucrative for IRB. In its BOT business, some of IRB’s milestones include the 196-km Ahmedabad-Vadodara project of the National Highways Authority of India costing Rs 4,880 crore in 2011. More recently, it was awarded three national highway projects for the Solapur-Yedeshi (Rs 1,500 crore), Yedeshi-Aurangabad sections, as well as in Kaithal on the Rajasthan border. Over the years, IRB has developed one of the largest BOT portfolios in the country, with a total length of over 9,000 km. It holds a market share of about 11 per cent on the Golden Quadrilateral. The company was lucky to have slotted its initial public offer (IPO) in 2008 before the recession hit, raising Rs 945 crore. There are some interesting factors that make IRB a high-growth company. It has very few competitors in the large project category. It has a healthy order book position of Rs 11,973 crore, though it has to still achieve financial closure on many of these projects. Around 16 projects are expected to begin operations during the current fiscal. The company has managed to keep its operating margins at a steady 30 per cent for its construction projects. IRB has also been actively diversifying to related areas of business. Principally, it is looking at real estate development alongside the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. It has, over time, acquired around 1,200 acres along the arterial road and will be kicking off more acquisition and realty projects soon. It has also successfully bid to build an airport in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has handed over 263 hectares of land for the Rs 350-crore project, and the company has paid Rs 21 crore for the 95-year land deal and concession. There are, however, some serious issues of concern that the company may have to address. As can be seen from the annual performance figures, FY2014 has not been particularly bright for IRB. Net sales revenues grew by just 8.8 per cent, the slowest in four years. The company will, therefore, have to ramp up its business operations both in the number of live projects as well as kicking off new verticals. Mhaiskar did not respond to BW | Businessworld’s queries. As things stand, IRB is overly dependent on Maharashtra (41 per cent) and Gujarat (23 per cent), which together account for 64 per cent of its BOT projects. The concessions for road building and toll revenue are extremely ‘political’ and there is a major move in Maharashtra today for ending road tolls because of the popular upsurge against the charge. A regime change in Mumbai or Bangalore can reverse a healthy order book position overnight into a drought. It is not known whether the company has taken adequate steps to counter these trends. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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Gold prices plunged by Rs 275 to Rs 28,200 per ten gram in the national capital today on stockists selling, tracking a weak global trend.Besides, subdued demand from jewellers in the domestic market and shifting of funds towards the surging stock markets also weighed on gold prices, traders said.Silver also declined by Rs 200 to Rs 45,200 per kg on weak demand from industrial units and coin makers.Sentiment turned weak after gold declined in overseas as the dollar strengthened and equities advanced, reducing appeal of precious metals as an alternative investment, they said.Gold in Singapore, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front, fell 0.5 per cent to $1,305.40 an ounce and silver by 0.2 per cent to $20.88 an ounce.In Delhi, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity lost Rs 275 each at Rs 28,200 and Rs 28,000 per ten gram respectively, while sovereign eased by Rs 100 at Rs 24,800 per piece of eight gram.In a similar fashion, silver ready traded lower by Rs 200 to Rs 45,200 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 175 to Rs 44,910 per kg. Silver coins also dropped by Rs 1,000 to Rs 79,000 for buying and Rs 80,000 for selling of 100 pieces.(PTI)
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