Sensex in India Gains; Stubborn Inflation

Chandrasekhar Atreya
20 Jan, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai closed higher after fluctuating in negative territory. RBI relaxes debt restructuring norms for the micro finance sector. India and China top labor productivity table in 2010.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai, 8:30 AM New York – Stocks in Mumbai closed higher after fluctuating in negative territory. RBI relaxes debt restructuring norms for the micro finance sector. India and China top labor productivity table in 2010.[/R]

Stocks in Mumbai closed higher after fluctuating in negative territory for most of the day, after traders bought stocks near support levels. Indian indexes were the only to close higher among Asian markets.

The Sensex Index in Mumbai rose 0.36% or 68.22 to close at 19,046.54. The CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange also rose by 20.55 to close at 5,711.60.

The rupee fell 3 paisa to close at Rs 46.02 to a dollar in Mumbai today.

The wholesale price index decreased 0.5% to 193.1 from 194 for the previous week. For the year inflation decreased to 17.03% compared to 17.58% for the previous week.

The central bank had on Wednesday relaxed debt restructuring norms for the microfinance sector to enable banks to provide liquidity support to the crisis-ridden micro finance institutions.

A RBI committee headed by Director Y.H. Malegam had suggested that microfinance institution be allowed to charge a maximum interest of 24% on small loans which cannot exceed Rs 25,000, and also pitched in for creation of a separate category of non-banking financial companies for the micro finance sector.

Eight Indian equity mutual fund schemes, including SBI Magnum Contra, HDFC Equity and Reliance Growth, are among the 25 best performing equity funds in the world in the last decade, according to industry data collector Morningstar.

These eight funds returned 31% to 38% on a compounded basis in the past decade. The Sensex returned 17.8% on a compounded basis during the 10 years under review. Russia’s RTS fetched 28.6% and Indonesia’s JSX Composite increased 24.4% returns during the period.

Larger mobile telecom operators are likely to benefit from the mobile number portability implemented from today. Subscribers will be able to change between carriers without having to lose the telephone number.

This facility is available to both postpaid and prepaid customers and subscribers of both GSM as well as CDMA services. The only restriction is that one can change the operator without changing the number only within the current service area.

India and China have topped yet another global league table, this time for growth in labor productivity.

The findings of New York-based think tank, The Conference Board, finds that both India and China remain the largest and most dynamic economies with 5.4% and 8.7% growth in labor productivity in 2010 respectively.

China and India account for a third and a tenth, respectively, of all output by emerging and developing economies and heavily influence the global productivity trend, the report said.

Reliance Communications has raised Rs 1,155 crore ($255 million) of external commercial borrowings to partly refinance payments made to acquire 3G air wave licenses.

The loan is funded by a consortium of banks led by Australian and New Zealand Banking Group, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, DBS Bank Ltd and Intesa Sanpaolo, the company said in a statement.

Indian government is set to raise the threshold for independent verification of corporate transactions in the Companies Bill Act, after diluting a proposal it made before a key parliamentary panel.

The threshold would now be fixed at 1% of a company’s annual turnover as against Rs 500,000 as suggested by the Corporate Affairs Ministry before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on finance.