After a hiatus of nearly two decades, the government's programme to privatise state-owned firms restarted with the handing over of debt-laden national carrier Air India to the Tata Group. With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of the 'Maharaja', this would be the highest-ever amount garnered through privatisation, and is even more than the cumulative sum mopped up through strategic sales from 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had in October last year inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Tatas would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
The Competition Commission of India has slapped Coal India Ltd with a penalty of Rs 1,773 crore (Rs 17.73 billion) -- the biggest by the watchdog on a company -- over alleged abuse of its monopolistic position.
With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of 'Maharaja' this would be the highest ever amount garnered through privatisation or even the cumulative sum garnered through strategic sale in 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had garnered roughly over Rs 5,000 crore during that five-year period by privatising 10 CPSEs.
Efforts to retrieve the body would continue on Wednesday.
Production of eight infrastructure sectors expanded by 7.9 per cent in September -- the highest in three months -- on account of better show by coal, fertiliser, cement and electricity segments, according to official data released on Monday. In September last year, the growth rate stood at 5.4 per cent. It was 4.1 per cent in August. The previous high was in June when the output expanded by 13.1 per cent.
At least 15 miners were trapped in the 370 foot-deep illegal coal mine in Lumthari village of East Jaintia Hills district since December 13 and all efforts to pump the water out of flooded mine have been in vain.
Shares in Jindal Steel and Power Ltd were heading towards their biggest daily loss in almost two years on Monday.
A new government has taken office in Australia, which has said it will review its predecessor's controversial proposal for a 40 per cent super-profit tax on mining revenues.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) is India's largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise, operating across energy, industry, and infrastructure sectors. The investment path for the stock is based on a large order backlog, continued strong order inflows, and rising power demand, which should push demand for BHEL's equipment and services. BHEL has historically held over 70 per cent market share in power projects.
Billionaire Gautam Adani-led promoter group has paid off all of the $2.15 billion loans taken pledging their shares in the conglomerate, and only debt at operating company level remains, Adani Group said seeking to assure investors of its ability to repay debt. Adani Group in a statement termed reports of the group not completing repayment of $2.15 billion share-backed debt "baseless and deliberately mischievous." "Adani has completed full prepayment of margin linked share-backed financing aggregating to $2.15 billion (as was announced on March 12) and all corresponding shares pledged for those facilities have been released," it said.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your stock market queries.
At the bank's current market price, the stake on offer is worth about Rs 5,700 crore
OSCO E&C said Adani had asked it to halt its design work as of July 16, with tentative plans to resume work in early October.
Examples of coordinated initiatives.
Major gainers include L&T, Asian Paints, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Coal India, Infosys, M&M, Adani Ports, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, HDFC, Power Grid, ONGC, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, ITC, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI
The Solicitor General had told the bench that several members of the National Disaster Response Force were working at the site and instead of the army, the government has sent navy personnel there as the mine was submerged in water.
Gautam Adani on Tuesday said his ports-to-energy conglomerate never slowed or stopped investing in the country as the group's success is based on its alignment with the India growth story. Speaking at the annual shareholder meeting of the group companies, he said the previously announced $70 billion investment in new energy business will help turn India from being a net importer of oil and gas to an exporter of clean energy. "Never have we walked away from investing in India, never have we slowed our investments," he said. "We believe our scale, our diversified business, and our track record of performance positions us very strongly to continue to perform well in a variety of market conditions."
Soon after coming out of the ED office in Kolkata, Banerjee said the interrogation was an effort to prevent him from participating in the INDIA meet and a testimony to the vital role TMC is playing in forging the opposition unity.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
In New York, the dollar fell against the British pound on Wednesday after the Bank of England raised its projections for UK growth in 2014. However, analysts warned that gains against the dollar could be limited.
Hindalco has already bagged 4 mines in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
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The New Year 2015, however, may see shares worth over Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) being put on the table by the government, including by way of part-sale of its holdings in PSUs and its residual minority stakes in some private sector entities.
It is domestic policy distortions and inaction to correct them that lie behind the large CADs.
Gautam Adani was the world's third and Asia's richest man a month back but a damning report by a US firm triggered a massive sell-off in shares of his apples-to-airport group, plunging his own wealth by $80 billion and the tycoon slipping to No.30 on the world billionaire index. Adani's sprawling conglomerate, which spans from sea ports to airports, edible oil and commodities, energy, cement and data centres, is under attack by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, which successfully deflated electric-vehicle maker Nikola Motors in 2020. Hindenburg, which held short positions in unidentified shares of Adani Group firms through its US-traded debt and offshore derivatives, on January 24 accused the conglomerate of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" and using a number of offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.
TCS emerges as biggest gainer with its m-cap advancing Rs 18,610.7 cr to Rs 4,97,168.53 cr
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From India, Reliance Industries is the only one in the overall top-200 list and is followed by HDFC Bank at 209th, ONGC at 220th, Indian Oil at 288th and HDFC Ltd at 332nd place.
If there were an Olympics for bank frauds in India, Rishi Agarwal, founder and former chairman of ABG Shipyard Ltd, a nephew of the Ruia brothers of the Essar group, would bag the gold, pushing Nirav Modi to his right, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Rigorous pumping of water from the nearby abandoned mines is expected to begin on Friday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked administrative ministeries to work out viable plan for disinvestment of BHEL and Coal India, including dividend payment, so as to achieve Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) target in the current fiscal.
Domestic equity markets are likely to see volatility in a range-bound trade this week amid geopolitical worries and growing expectations of a sharp hike in interest rates, analysts said. Global trends, inflation data and the last batch of quarterly earnings will drive the markets this week, they said. Besides, the rupee movement, FII investment pattern and Brent crude trends would also be watched by investors.
Coal India fell the most by 2.58 per cent among Sensex scrips, dragging the index into the negative zone.
Going by the experience of the previous years -- when the actual proceeds from stake sale were much lower than the targets -- the government's disinvestment target for 2014-15 appears too ambitious.
ONGC is the country's most profitable PSU.
In what seemed a political understanding, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee stayed away from a cabinet committee meeting where the government finally cleared two disinvestment proposals she had been opposing.
When the world was upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, metals got its shine back. In the last two years, infrastructure spending by major economies spurred demand, energy transition and intermittent supply disruptions fuelled a scorching rally in metals after a downturn during the first Covid wave. Now, Russia's war on Ukraine is ensuring that elevated prices stay the course.
Out of the seven companies, Coal India Ltd and SBI were the top gainers in an overall strong stock market. ONGC, ITC and Infosys were the losers for the week ended April 11.
International oil prices retreated from an over seven-year high but was still above $100 a barrel and continue to pose threat to India's inflation rate and current account deficit. While there are no supply concerns as the oil route remained open, consumers will feel the pinch when PSU oil firms start passing on the increase in international rates through a revision in petrol and diesel prices, which have been on a pause for over three-and-a-half-months in view of elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states. The government is "closely monitoring the situation" and will "take appropriate steps as and when required", a top official said. Brent crude oil surged past $105 per barrel on Thursday for the first time since August 2014, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.