Sensex Drops; India Tax Collections Up 16%

Chandrasekhar Atreya
06 Aug, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai moved sideways and then finished lower taking cues from Asian markets. Coal India Limited board approved draft prospectus of public offering. TRAI recommends a four step process of converting analog to digital TV for cable operators.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai – Stocks in Mumbai moved sideways and then finished lower taking cues from Asian markets. Coal India Limited board approved draft prospectus of public offering. TRAI recommends a four step process of converting analog to digital TV for cable operators.[/R]

Indian stocks seesawed early on Friday taking cues from mixed Asian markets and then dropped considerably in the last hour of trading to finish lower. Automakers led the gains earlier in anticipation of robust earnings from Tata Motors.

The BSE Sensex Index lost 0.16% or 28.84 to close at 18,143.99. Sensex gained by 1.5% this week.

Reserve Bank of India Governor said there was no magic formula to contain inflation and it is not practical for a central bank in an emerging economy like ours to focus exclusively on inflation and ignore the broader development of the nation.

The governor replied to questions from the audience after delivering the 10th C.D. Deshmukh memorial lecture “financial crisis-some old questions and maybe some new answers” organized by the Council of Social Development in Hyderabad on Thursday.

The draft prospectus of Coal India Ltd was approved by its board which met in Kolkata on Thursday.

All the directors of the expanded board of CIL signed the prospectus which will now be submitted to the Securities & Exchange Board of India, a source said. The prospectus for the IPO is slated to be filed next week.

Regulator TRAI recommended a four-phase digitization process for cable TV networks in India while setting a deadline of December 31, 2013 for complete switchover to digital cable.

The first phase of the shift from analog to digital cable will happen in the four metros-Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai for which TRAI has set a deadline of March 31, 2011.

India’s GDP may grow 8.4% in the current fiscal year, a Reserve Bank quarterly survey of economists showed, raising their forecast from 8.2% in the last survey.

The bank polled 26 economists for the survey which included macro-economic parameters like GDP, inflation, interest rates, money supply and credit growth. In its first quarter monetary statement last month, the RBI said it projected a real GDP growth of 8.5% for 2010/11 and kept its baseline projection for wholesale price inflation for March 2011 at 6%.

Essar Shipping Ports & Logistics Ltd sold five-year convertible bonds to raise $150 million and seven-year debt for $130 million, CFO Shailesh Sawa said Wednesday. These bonds carry a 5% coupon and will be used to buy ships and rigs and to build ports.

Essar Shipping said six projects are under development now and the total port infrastructure capex plan is Rs 5,300 crore.

Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is looking at executing Rs 30,000 crore worth of projects over the next five years in real estate, infrastructure, logistic parks and airports.

The company said it had projects worth Rs 8,000 crore for setting up residential apartments and special economic zones in Chennai, Nagpur, Kolkata and Gujarat.

Direct tax collections in the first four months of this fiscal surged by 15.75% to Rs 85,647 crore from Rs 73,900 crore during the same period in the previous year, mainly due to a robust 21% spurt in corporate income tax collection.

According to the revenue collections data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in New Delhi on Thursday, the mop up by way of corporate income tax grew by 20.95% to Rs 51,627 crore as compared to Rs 42,685 crore in the previous year.

Gainers & Losers

Anant Raj Industries Limited fell 3% to Rs 116.00 after the infrastructure construction company said consolidated net profit fell 33.5% to Rs 45.85 crore.

Ashapura Minechem Limited declined 2.4% to Rs 65.00 after the mine owner of Bentonite reported consolidated net profit rose 113.20% to Rs 10.68 crore.

Bhagyanagar India Limited dropped 4.9% to Rs 24.25 after the manufacturing copper products, real estate, infrastructure and non conventional energy company net profit fell 35.3% to Rs 2.40 crore.

B.A.G Films & Media Ltd. fell 1.8% to Rs 14.13 after the company said board of directors approved a preferential issue of equity warrants to a promoter group entity.

BGR Energy Systems Limited rose 1.8% to Rs 797.80 after the company signed two joint venture agreements with Hitachi, Japan & Hitachi Power Europe GmbH, Germany for manufacturing supercritical steam turbines and boilers, respectively.

Essar Shipping Ports & Logistics Limited surged 5.9% to Rs 115.30 after the chartering fleet operations company raised $280 million by selling convertible bonds to its parent to buy ships and expand ports.

GVK Power & Infrastructure Limited rose 1.2% to Rs 43.80 after the power generation & manufacturing facilities provider said company is planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore to expand the Bangalore and Mumbai airports.

The Indian Hotels Company Limited gained 1.2% to Rs 97.70 after the company reported it is looking to increase its room rates by September or October this year.

ICSA (India) Limited fell 0.8% to Rs 132.75 after the software & embedded solutions company net profit fell 18.32% to Rs 27.78 crore.

Jain Irrigation Systems Limited surged 3% to Rs 1,283.70 after company secured an order worth Rs 168.30 crore for a sprinkler irrigation project in the state of Karnataka.

Mahindra & Mahindra Limited rose 0.6% to Rs 649.35 after the company said it is looking to set up a new facility in Tamil Nadu for tractors and three & four wheelers at Rs 1,800 crore.

Parsvnath Developers Limited gained 1.3% to Rs 132.00 after the construction company said they are planning to raise Rs 200 crore by selling stake in its projects to private equity investors.

REI Agro Limited increased 4.6% to Rs 21.50 after the producer of basmati rice and wind power halted a four-day 28.14% slide on bargain hunting.

Tulip Telecom Limited rose 0.1% to Rs 181.55 after the telecommunications services provider captured orders worth Rs 158.20 crore for providing data connectivity services in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

Transgene Biotek Limited fell 0.6% to Rs 79.45 after the provider of diagnostic services entered in to an agreement to acquire US based oncology drug maker Marillion Pharmaceuticals Inc, in an all-share deal.

Visa Steel Limited declined 2.2% to Rs 37.05 after the minerals and metals industry reported turned ex-dividend August 6 for a dividend of Rs 1 per share for the year ended March 2010.

Vijay Shanthi Builders Limited surged 4.5% to Rs 40.30 after the construction and mineral water manufacturer said net profit jumped 319.51% to Rs 1.72 crore.

Varun Shipping Company Limited declined 7.47% to Rs 44.00 after the shipping company reversed Thursday''s 16.4% rally on profit booking.