Sensex in India in 6-day Drop; Gujarat Talks of $20 Billion Port Deals

Chandrasekhar Atreya
11 Jan, 2011
New York City

Mumbai stocks declined on the sixth day, the longest streak in more than a year as investors worry the government may not be able to arrest inflation as Prime Minister Singh conveys a cabinet meeting. Gujarat in a two-day summit is expected to announce $20 billion of port developments projects.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – Mumbai stocks declined on the sixth day, the longest streak in more than a year as investors worry the government may not be able to arrest in inflation as Prime Minister conveys a cabinet meeting. Gujarat in a two-day investment summit is expected to announce $20 billion of projects to develop ports.[/R]

Stocks in Mumbai extended losses for the sixth day in a row to close lower. The 6-day decline is the longest in more than a year.

The BSE Sensex extended losses for the sixth day by 0.14% or 27.78 to close at 19,196.34. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange also fell 8.75 to 5,754.10.

The rupee lost 35 paisa to close at Rs 46.04 against the dollar in Mumbai.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met today with senior cabinet colleagues and officials on steps taken to curb inflation and discuss future measures to arrest the sudden spurt in essential commodities. Previous meetings to discuss inflation have not yielded any tangible results.

India’s top five auto sector companies are expected to post a combined net profit growth of 50% in the December quarter. Tata Motors is likely to lead the industry.

In the second quarter ended September 2010, the top five, namely Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors had reported a combined net profit growth of 115% from a year ago quarter, on a net sales growth of 31.6%.

Gujarat’s port sector is expected to attract more than Rs 110,000 crore of investments during the two-day biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summit starting Wednesday.

Adani Group, Essar, GVK, Shaporji Pallonji, Larsen & Toubro and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp are the top companies to develop projects including ports, maritime city, mid-sea refueling, commodity specific jetties and terminals apart from expansion of existing capacities, a state government official said.

Private mobile phone operators in India rejected state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s offer to share its third generation network and blamed on higher prices.

BSNL had invited bids from mobile operators for roaming alliances to offer the high-end services, which include video calling and Internet access through phones. The telco has 3G airwaves in all circles except Delhi and Mumbai. The company was following the example of state-owned firm Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited that succeeded in attracting private operators for 3G roaming pacts.

Import of sensitive products increased 14% to Rs 40,499 crore in the April-October 2010 period with sharp increases in food grains, dairy products, automobiles, edible oil, rubber and alcoholic beverages.

Rise in import of crude edible oil increased the total edible oil imports to Rs 15,882 crore, up 12% over the imports in the same period in 2009.

India has voluntarily asked the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth analysis into the country’s financial sector, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday, while addressing the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata.

The scrutiny of the financial sector will take place under the Financial Sector Assessment Program established by the two multilateral leaders in 1999 after the Asian crisis.

Singapore Telecommunications said today it paid S$39 million for 4.07 million shares in Bharti Airtel Ltd, pushing its stake effectively from 32.04% to 32.15%.