French Companies to Invest

Chandrasekhar Atreya
07 Dec, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai in a choppy trading closed lower. French Prime Minister Sarkozy

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – Stocks in Mumbai in a choppy trading closed lower. French Prime Minister Sarkozy’s business delegation committed to invest 10 billion euros by 2012 in India. BSNL will need more funds to complete private fiber optic network for the armed forces.[/R]

Stocks in Mumbai dropped in a choppy trading led by banks as commodities rise and European finance ministers negotiate in Brussels to stem the rising debt contagion.

The BSE Sensex lost 0.19% or 37.76 to close at 19,943.55. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange slipped 15.70 points to close at 5,976.55.

The rupee ended the day at 45.11 to a dollar in Mumbai.

The French contingent accompanying the visiting French President announced that companies from France would invest nearly 10 billion euro by 2012 and urged India to open its retail and insurance sectors. India employs nearly 6% of its labor in the retail sector and most small retailers rely on the trade to make a living in smaller cities and villages.

“The commitment of 10 billion euro could be much more if opportunities come up by the opening of multi-brand and insurance sectors. Everything is about give and take,” said the French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde while speaking at the Indo-France Business Forum organized by FICCI in New Delhi on Monday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is visiting India on a four-day visit with a group of 50 chief executives including from the companies Dassault Aviation SA, EADS, MBDA and Areva SA.

French President Sarkozy also pledged to support India’s bid for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.

Indian continued to be world’s largest recipient of overseas remittances in 2010, with remittances rising to $55 billion from $49.6 billion in 2009. India has the second largest emigrants after Mexico, according to the World Bank’s just-released Migration and Remittances Fact Book 2011.

A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services Ltd on Monday set a price range of Rs 400 to Rs 410 for its initial public offering set for December 9, to raise as much as Rs 862 crore.

The company plans to sell 4.56 million shares.

GAIL India Ltd, India’s largest natural gas distributor, is planning to assess the environmental impact of its two 350 megawatt gas-based power plants proposed to be built in northern and central India.

The state-run firm is eliciting bids from companies to analyze the effect of these plants planned at Viajaipur in central India and Dabiyapur in the north, according to a tender document on the Web site of the company.

BSNL overshot it budget of Rs 9,175 crore to build an alternate communications network for the armed forces by 50% and plans to seek additional funds of Rs 5,355 crore from the central government, executives connected with the project told ET today.

In December 2009, the Union Cabinet approved the plan to build an alternate optic fiber cable network for the defense services, paving the way for the auction of third generation spectrum that was held this year.

The armed forces vacated the 3G frequencies in August 2010 after they were assured by that the telecom department would keep its side of the bargain in rolling out this alternate network as scheduled.

India gold futures on the Multi Commodity Exchange struck a record high of Rs 20,887 per 10 grams today, tracking overnight price increase in international markets. The previous high was Rs 20,874 recorded on November 30.

Asian Development Bank plans to channel $300 million loan to Bihar for developing state roads which was one of the key issue to Nitish Kumar’s recent electoral success.

“Our mission is to develop state highways so that one can reach the capital Patna from any part of the state within six hours,” state’s road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit told ET today.