Sensex in India Gains 17.3%; Sahara Buys Grosvenor Hotel for

Chandrasekhar Atreya
31 Dec, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai continued to rise for the third day in a row. The Sensex index gained 17.3% in 2010 as economy rebounded and international fund flows continued. Sahara Group acquired London based Grosvenor House for $726 million.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai, 6:30 AM New York – Stocks in Mumbai continued to rise for the third day in a row. The Sensex index gained 17.3% in 2010 as economy rebounded and international fund flows continued. Sahara Group acquired London based Grosvenor House for £470 million.[/R]

The BSE Sensex gained 0.46% or 93.39 to close at 20,482.46 today and 3,017.65 or 17.28% in the year. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange added 25.45 points to end at 6,127.30. For the year the Sensex added 17.3% and the CNX Nifty 50 index gained 17.3%.

The rupee closed at Rs 45.55 in Mumbai today.

The government of India said in a statement that fiscal deficit for the period between April and November was at 186,000 crore rupees ($42 billion) or 48.9% of the full year target. The government estimated the full year deficit at 381,000 crore rupees or 5.5% of the gross domestic product.

In the period to November, the government collected 296,000 crore rupees in taxes and spend 690,000 crore rupees.

The Indian financial sector, which weathered the credit crisis, faces headwinds after easy policies to avert the disaster led to some excesses, although stress tests show a reasonable degree of resilience, said the central bank in its report.

“Some soft-spots are discernible. The current account deficit is widening while capital flows continue to be dominated by volatile components. External sector ratios have deteriorated, fiscal conditions are still under pressure, and inflationary pressures persist,” the RBI said in its second Financial Stability Report.

India’s output of six key infrastructure sectors grew 2.3% in November from a year ago, the slowest pace in the last 21 months, raising prospects of a drop in industrial growth for the month.

The six core industries, crude oil, petroleum refining, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel, have a combined weight of 26.7% in the index of industrial production and are considered as advance indicator of industrial activity.

India attracted close to five million overseas visitors this year despite the nation failed to attract tourists during the Commonwealth Games. Number of arrivals increased 10.4% in the first eleven months of the year.

Notwithstanding its failure to woo one lakh foreign tourists during the Commonwealth Games as targeted, Incredible India campaign attracted 4.93 million overseas visitors in the first 11 months of this year as compared to 4.46 million during the same period last year, up 10.4%.

Sahara Group said it agreed to acquire London, UK based Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair district for £470 million or $725 million from Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. The UK based troubled bank has been selling assets to repair its balance sheet.

The Calcutta Stock Exchange said today it has received approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India to allow trading on the NSE platform.

“We have received SEBI’s approval to allow National Stock Exchange trading for our members through the local bourse,” CSE Chairman Dipankar Chatterji told PTI today.

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is re-branding all its businesses as ‘Reliance’ rather than maintaining individual identities for each service, the head of brand and marketing for Reliance Communication, Sanjay Behl told ET today.

“The aim is to transition from multiple Reliance sub brands to a singular iconic Reliance master brand and as a result the group will lose the small ADAG tagline in several of its current logos and the suffix in brands like Reliance Mobile,” he said.

Noida-based HCL Infosystems said on Thursday it acquired a 20% stake in Dubai-based Techmart Telecom Distribution FZCO, the Nokia distributor in the Gulf region and Africa.

The acquisition is expected to add 20% of Techmart’s profits to HCL Infosystem’s bottom line next year. Techmart Telecom generates sales of about $40 million to $50 million per month.

Reliance Industries reduced crude oil imports in November by about 7% and made its first ever purchase of crude oil from Norway.

Reliance imported about 988,800 barrels per day of crude in November, down from about 1.06 million barrels per day in the previous month and about 1.42 million barrels per day a year earlier, data from trade sources showed.