India Estimates Record Grain Crop and Faces Record Food Prices

Chandrasekhar Atreya
29 Dec, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai surged more than 1% on higher traded volumes ahead of the derivatives contracts expiry on Thursday. Punjab and Sind Bank fixed its public offering price. Record grain harvesting is expected in the current fiscal year surpassig the previous record in 2009.

[R]4:30 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – Stocks in Mumbai surged more than 1% on higher traded volumes ahead of the derivatives contracts expiry on Thursday. Punjab and Sind Bank fixed its public offering stock price. Record grain harvesting is expected in the current fiscal year is expected surpass the previous record in 2009.[/R]

Stocks in Mumbai gained momentum on higher traded volumes boosted by the monthly derivatives contracts expiry on Thursday.

The BSE Sensex Index gained 1.21% or 241.82 points to close at 20,267.23. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange gained 64.35 to close at 6,060.35.

The rupee closed at Rs 45.77 to a dollar in Mumbai today.

Shares of state-owned Punjab and Sind Bank will list on Indian bourses tomorrow, with the issue price fixed at Rs 120 a share.

MOIL has invited bids from global firms to form joint ventures and seek acquisitions overseas to meet the growing demand for manganese ore in India, which is expected to touch 4.5 million tons by 2012.

Public offerings on Indian exchanges through IPOs and rights issues in November dipped nearly 45% to Rs 10,556.9 crore after reaching a record high in October on Coal India offering.

Eight offerings including four initial public offerings raised as much as Rs 19,109.7 crore in October, according to market regulator SEBI.

Kochi-based Vibes Visual and Media Private Ltd on Tuesday said it will launch India’s first web TV, named Indiavibes on January 1.

“We are focused on targeting people and not celebrities. The production hubs will be set up at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore to start with,” the company’s founder Andrine Mendez told reporters in Kochi.

India is likely to have a record food grain production in the current fiscal year ending in 2011, surpassing the previous high of 234.47 million tons in the fiscal year 2008-2009 on the increase in the acreage under cultivation, a top Agriculture Ministry official said on Tuesday.

“It is very much achievable. Any fall in rice production from 2008-09 levels can be compensated by higher production of wheat, pulses and coarse cereals,” Agriculture Secretary P.K. Basu said while talking to reporters in New Delhi.

Despite the record crops in since 2007, grains, vegetable and lentil prices in India have nearly doubled in the last three years.

Bangladesh invited today proposals from global energy giants, including India’s ONGC, to explore for natural gas in its insurgency hit rugged regions of Chittagong hill areas.

“We have invited expression of interest from the foreign companies for carrying out exploration activities in the region,” Chief of the state-run Petrobangla Hossain Mansur told PTI today in Dhaka.