Sensex in India Rebounds 1.7%; Gujarat Summit Draws Investors

Chandrasekhar Atreya
12 Jan, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai rebound 1.7% after six days of decline led by realty and banking sectors. Fifth investment summit in Gujarat draws usual platitudes and project announcements of multi-billion dollars. Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India set us a venture to facilitate mobile phones based banking.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – Stocks in Mumbai rebound 1.7% after six days of decline led by realty and banking sectors. Fifth investment summit in Gujarat draws usual platitudes and project announcements of multi-billion dollars. Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India set us a venture to facilitate mobile phones based banking.[/R]

The benchmark Sensex bounced back 1.7% on the back of real estate developers and banks after falling for six days in a row.

The BSE Sensex surged 1.7% or 326.15 to close at 19,522.49. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange added 109.15 to close at 5,863.25.

The rupee closed at Rs 45.84 to a dollar in Mumbai today.

India initiated energy efficiency targets for eight industrial sectors in April 2011, in a move that is expected to save 10 million tons of energy by 2013-14.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has prepared energy efficiency targets for 580 industrial units in the eight sectors, thermal power stations, steel, fertilizers, cement, aluminum, chloralkali, paper and textiles. Violators will face a penalty, a power ministry official said.

Inflow of foreign direct investment in the services sector dipped by 30% to $2.16 billion during the period April to October, 2010, according to latest data from Industry Ministry.

The financial and non-financial services sector attracted investment worth $3.12 billion during the same period in 2009.

Anil Ambani said today his Reliance Group will invest Rs 50,000 crore in Gujarat in the next 5 to 7 years.

“We are committing to invest Rs 50,000 crore in the state of Gujarat in gas-based and coal-based power projects in the next 5 to 7 years,” Ambani said while speaking at the fifth Global Summit of Vibrant Gujarat in Ahmedabad today.

Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India will together invest $22 million (Rs 100 crore) in a joint venture that will facilitate banking through phones, O.P. Bhatt, Chairman of the country’s largest lender said today.

Bharti Airtel said in September it had received a license from the central bank to launch mobile payment services in India.

The government is planning to impose anti-dumping duty of up to $236 per ton on imports of a chemical, used in bricks, tiles and ceramics, to protect the domestic industry from cheap Chinese shipments.

The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties, the agency under the commerce ministry, has concluded in its findings that barium carbonate exported by China to India does not represent true costs.