Gold to touch Rs 17K by August: Assocham

Date : Feb-26-2009 09:24
Gold prices are expected to touch Rs 17,000 per 10 grams by August, an industry body said on Feb 25. In the same way, silver prices would also climb to Rs 24,000 a kg by the same time, as assessment study by industry body Assocham said. Since global financial crises has diminished investment opportunities in stocks, mutual funds, government securities and bonds, investments in gold and silver would continue to grow and restrict at Rs 17,000 per 10 grams and Rs 24,000 a kg, respectively by August 2009, it said.

Nevertheless, gold and silver would subside to fall to realistic levels of Rs 12,000 per 10 gram and less than Rs 17,000 a kg by January 2010 onwards, it pointed out. The assessment on ''Prospects of Bullion Trade'' for the next six months, carried out by Bullion Trade Committee headed by bullion expert S K Jindal, anticipated that peak crisis in stocks, realty and other secured markets would gradually start fading away by August and until then, gold and silver will continue to lure investors for their surpluses. In March, the average gold price would go up to Rs 15,750 per 10 gram, while silver would stray at around Rs 23,000 a kg, it said.

HDFC MF launches 13 months plan

Date : Feb-25-2009
HDFC Mutual Fund house has commenced initial offering period of HDFC Fixed Maturity Plan 13 Months March 2009 (1) under HDFC Fixed Maturity Plans-Series X. The NFO will open for subscription on March 3 and close for subscription on March 24, 2009. The face value of new issue is Rs 10 per unit.
It is a close-ended income scheme. The objective of the fund is to generate regular income through investments in debt as well as money market instruments and government securities. The scheme offers wholesale plan and retail plan with growth and dividend option.

The minimum application amount under the retail plan will be Rs. 5,000 and in multiples of Rs. 10 thereafter. On the other hand, the minimum investment amount is Rs. 25 lakh under the wholesale plan and in multiples of Rs. 10 thereafter. The scheme will invest 60%-100% in debt as well as money market instruments, with low to medium risk profile. The scheme will also invest up to 40% in government securities with low risk profile. The FMP will not charge an entry and exit load. As the scheme is being listed, the investors during the tenor of the Scheme will not be able to redeem their units and there will be redemption by the fund only on the maturity of the scheme.

Market traded in red despite fall in inflation data: Sensex below 9K mark

Date : Feb-26-2009 13:32
The key benchmark Indices plunged on concern over global financial sector crisis and recession in key global economies has pushed economic growth in India down to a six-year low. Further, concerns about rising borrowing costs for Indian corporate pondered on the market as fears a downgrade of India’s sovereign rating by global rating agencies worries larger segment of the market.

Now all eyes are waiting for the RBI to reduce its key rates that would pump in more liquidity into the system and prompt the banks to reduce their respective PLRs to enhance the credit growth.

Volatility is likely to remain as rollover of Nifty positions from February 2009 series to March 2009 series stood at 62% while market wide rollover of positions was 57%, as on Wednesday, 25 February 2009.

On the sectoral front, traders off-loaded position across the sectors. Metal stocks declined on concerns a weakening domestic and global economy will have negative impact on demand. Banking stocks fell on fears of rising defaults in a weakening economy. Realty stocks plummeted on recent reports falling rates have failed to boost housing demand.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE, out of 2,207 stocks traded so far, 821 shares advanced while 1,285 shares declined. Nearly 101 shares are unchanged.

At 1.30PM, the BSE Sensex is trading lower by 45.37 points at 8,857.18 and NSE Nifty is down by 13.50 points at 2,749.00.

The BSE Mid Cap is trading lower by 2.28 points at 2,754.70 and Small cap is trading down by 26.03 points at 3,108.65.

Major losers from the BSE Sensex pack are Ranbaxy Labs deteriorated 16.55% to Rs. 172.95 along with ICICI Bank tumbled 5.65% to Rs. 321.25, Housing Development Finance by 4.09% to Rs. 1,203.15, Hindalco Ind by 2.00% to Rs. 39.25, Jaiprakash Associates by 1.94% to Rs. 65.75 and HDFC Bank by 1.75% to Rs. 849.00 among others.

Major gainers from the BSE Sensex pack are Tata Motors advanced by 1.89% to Rs. 142.50 along with Larsen & Toubro Ltd by 1.31% to Rs. 620.45, Grasim Industries Ltd by 0.98% to Rs. 1,421.00, ACC by 0.28% to Rs. 559.70 and Infosys Tech by 0.23% to Rs. 1,219.00 among others.

The BSE Bankex index is lower by 136.78 points or 3.20% at 4,140.25. Stocks trading in red are ICICI Bank fell by 5.65% to Rs. 321.25, Karnataka Bank by 4.43% to Rs. 61.45, Punjab National Bank by 4.38% to Rs. 326.50, Axis Bank 4.37% to Rs. 350.25, Canara Bank by 3.58% to Rs. 156.25, IDBI Bank3.45% to Rs. 47.60 and Yes Bank by 3.27% to Rs. 51.80 among others.

Ranbaxy Laboratories deteriorated 16.55% to Rs. 172.95 after US regulators raised questions against falsified data and test results.

Reliance Industries fell by 0.01% to Rs. 1,265.90 on fears a worsening global economy will hit demand for petrochemicals.

ONGC rose 0.06% to Rs. 697.20 and Cairn India gained 1.25% to Rs. 162.50 as crude oil prices surged over 6% on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday, 25 February 2009.

Piramal Healthcare rose 16.65% to Rs. 208.40 on report French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis has emerged as the front-runner to buy a substantial stake in the Indian firm.

Matrix Laboratories advanced 2.92% to Rs. 91.60 after the company said it got approval from the World Health Organisation for generic version of a HIV drug.

Larsen & Toubro rose 1.31% to Rs. 620.45 on bagging new orders aggregating to Rs. 1,162 crore.

Madras Aluminium Company was locked at 5% upper limit at Rs. 94.95 after Twin Star Holdings set a price of Rs. 105 for acquiring 20% stake in the Indian aluminium maker as part of a delisting offer.

Strides Arcolab jumped 6.99% to Rs. 71.90, on reporting strong financial performance for CY2008.

Petron Engineering Construction gained 0.82% to Rs. 67.55, after the company said it bagged two orders aggregating to Rs. 72.55 crore.

DLF slumped 3.62% to Rs. 149.00 on reports the Income-Tax department has ordered a special audit of the accounts of the real estate giant for the assessment year 2006-07.

Tata Cap NSD issue over subscribed 6 times

Date : Feb-26-2009
Tata Capital's non-convertible debenture (NSD) issue was oversubscribed six times of the offer. It received bids worth above Rs 3,000 crore on vigorous response from all categories of investors. The Rs 500 crore issue had opened for subscription on February 2 and closed on February 24.
Tata Capital said in a statement that the company would retain subscriptions worth Rs 1,500 crore from the issue of secured NCDs. The instrument would be listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

MR Praveen P Kadle, Tata Capital managing director, said, "The issue has gained significant acceptance and this re-instates investor confidence in Tata Capital. Based on the good response we feel such bonds will become an instrument of choice for investors and other corporates leading to the development of a strong corporate bond market."

Amount raised from the issue is planned to use for company's various activities including lending and investments, for capital expenditure and to repay existing loans, he added.

6% hike in DA for Central govt employees

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Thursday raised the Dearness Allowance for Central government employees from the existing 16% to 22% with effect from Jan 1, 2009.

The Cabinet met today and cleared the hike which will increase the burden on the exchequer to over Rs 6,000 crore.

The move is significant since elections are round the corner and notification from the Election Commission is expected shortly.

In other decisions, the Cabinet cleared Rs 8,160 crore for upgrading roads in Naxal-affected areas. It also allowed states to let their fiscal deficit go up to 3.5% as compared to 3% earlier.

On Tuesday, more sops were announced by stand-in finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who declared cuts of 2% in service tax and in excise duties on most goods. Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the sops are estimated to cost the government over Rs 29,000 crore.

Announcing that the 4% cut in central excise duties made in December 2008 would continue for the next fiscal, the FM said excise rates at 10% would be cut by a further 2% to bring them down to 8%. Other excise slabs like 4% or 8% or items taxed at more than 10% would be unaffected by the cut. Experts said while only one slab had been slashed, it accounted for almost 96% of all items, which makes the cut almost across-the-board.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/