Steel Authority, NMDC to develop limestone mine in Himachal

Shimla, Nov 16: India’s public sector firms Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and iron ore producer NMDC Ltd (formerly National Mineral Development Corp) on Monday signed an agreement to jointly develop a limestone mine in Himachal Pradesh.

“SAIL and NMDC Monday signed an MoU to jointly develop the limestone mine in the Arki region of Solan district in Himachal Pradesh. The MoU for the 50:50 joint venture was signed in New Delhi,” SAIL said in a statement. The Arki mine has deposits of about 100 million tonnes of quality limestone. The two companies will develop the mine to produce one million tonnes of lumps and two million tonnes of fine limestone annually. While the low-silica limestone lumps will be used as flux for making steel, the fine limestone would be sold to cement companies. Presently, SAIL does not have any captive source of low-silica limestone and meets its entire requirement of this vital input from the market. With the proposed expansion of its production capacity in the next few years, its requirement of low-silica limestone is slated to go up to three million tonnes.

Himachal Pradesh allowed NMDC to extract limestone in the Arki region last year. This will be one of the biggest mining projects in the state with an investment of more than Rs 5 billion. (IANS)

Sensex rises 183 points to close above 17,000

Mumbai, Nov 16: Strong global sentiments, the positive weekend numbers on industrial output and cues from the government on its divestment plans helped Indian equities make handsome gains on Monday, with a key index rising 183 points to close above the 17,000-mark.

The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened higher at 16,893.11 points against Friday’s close at 16,848.83 points and ended trade at 17,032.51 points, up 183.68 points or 1.09 per cent. The index had seen an intra-day high of 17,083.2 points, but shed some gains in the last 30 minutes.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty breached the 5,000-point mark to shut shop at 5,058.05 points, with a gain of 1.18 per cent, over the previous close at 4,998.95 points. Broader market indices also closed in the green, with the BSE midcap index ended trade at 1.14 percent higher and the BSE small cap index 1.22 per cent up.

The market breadth was positive, with 1,758 stocks advancing, 1,017 declining and 89 remaining unchanged. Out of 30 stocks on the Sensex, 20 ended on the gainers list. Prominent among them were Maruti Suzuki, up 5.45 per cent, DLF, up 4.54 per cent; Hero Honda, up 3.82 per cent; Sterlite Industries, up 3.55 per cent and Reliance Communications, up 3.05 per cent. Among losers were TCS, down 0.63 per cent; Infosys, down 0.34 per cent and NTPC, down 0.16 per cent.

The government had Friday said all ministries had been asked to compile a list of state-run firms for sale of stake and listing on stock exchanges, even as it expected partial divestment in at least three such firms by the end of this fiscal. Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra said as per data available for 2007-08, there were 10 listed state-run firms with less than 10 per cent public holding, while 50 others met the criteria for divestment in terms of profits and net worth. Statistics on India’s industrial production a day earlier showed a 9.1-per cent growth in September, compared to 6 per cent in the corresponding month last year, in yet another sign of economic recovery in the country.