Powered by a rally in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, equity benchmark Sensex broke its four-session losing run to close above the 55,000-mark on Thursday despite a weak trend overseas. Investors made a cautious return to IT, pharma and bank stocks after their recent sell-off. However, a depreciating rupee and persistent foreign fund outflows capped the gains, traders said. Overcoming a lacklustre start, the 30-share BSE Sensex surged 427.79 points or 0.78 per cent to close at 55,320.28.
OVL had bid for two of the 10 shallow-water blocks that Myanmar had auctioned in December but drew a blank when the fields were awarded on March 26.
While a new formula for pricing of all domestically produced natural gas was notified on January 10 and published in Gazettee on January 17, the Election Commission last month asked the government to defer its implementation till general elections are completed.
Nifty50's earnings growth, estimated at 20 per cent by global research and brokerage firm Jefferies for financial year 2023-24 (FY24), will be amongst the top three in the Asian region, and is likely to outperform peers. Asean 40 index with 29.1 per cent estimated earnings growth and Straits Times Index (STI) with 29.1 per cent estimated earnings growth are the only two other indices in the Asian region that are likely to outperform India, suggests the recent Jefferies report, coauthored by Mahesh Nandurkar, their managing director along with Abhinav Sinha and Nishant Poddar.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the Delhi government's decision to probe the Centre's policy on gas pricing was a "peculiar" and "absurd" situation.
India's corporate sector is likely to report a slowdown in revenue growth and earnings for the July-September 2023 period (Q2FY24), according to earnings estimates by brokerages, after the country's top listed companies posted higher than expected profits for the first quarter. The combined net profit of Nifty50 companies, based on brokerage estimates, is expected to have grown by 19.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 1.75 trillion in Q2FY24 - a sharp deceleration from 37.6 per cent Y-o-Y growth in the combined earnings of index companies in the April-June 2023 period. According to estimates, the combined earnings in the second quarter would be down 8.8 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis and the lowest in the past three quarters.
The fuel from the KG basin will prune Rs 114,000 crore (Rs 1,140 billion) from the country's import bill. The price of $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) approved by the government for selling gas implies potential savings of about Rs 85,000 crore (Rs 850 billion) for consumers, said Ambani. Ambani's statement on gas pricing comes even as the government is considering a revision of the floor price of $4.2 mBtu that was approved in September 2007.
As per the 15-day billing cycle, gas producers are to raise the first invoice at the revised price of $5.61 per million British thermal unit this weekend.
The near-doubling of gas prices to $8 per million British thermal units that will kick in from next month will accrue to all producers in the country.
Justice Roshan Dalvi sought to recuse herself from the case involving Reliance Industries Ltd and state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation over the supply of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin on Wednesday.
Mukesh Ambani has resigned from the board of his group's telecom arm, Reliance Jio and handed over the reins of the company to elder son Akash, a step seen as succession planning by the 65-year old billionaire. In a stock exchange filing, Reliance Jio Infocomm said the company's board at a meeting on June 27, "approved the appointment of Akash M Ambani, non-executive director, as chairman of the board of directors of the company." This comes after his father resigned with effect from close of working hours on June 27, it said.
The Anil Ambani group, fighting a legal battle for securing 28 mmscmd gas for Reliance Natural Resources from RIL at a price of $2.34 per mmBtu under a family settlement, had last week questioned the marketing margin and had informed RIL that it would not pay the same.
Reliance Industries, the country's largest LPG producer, will be spared from footing the Rs 7,200 crore (Rs 72 billion) bill for the one year freeze in LPG and kerosene prices, despite rising cost.
Business conglomerate Adani Group's chairman Gautam Adani is now the world's second-richest person after overtaking Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List. At the time of writing this report, Gautam Adani's net worth was $153.9 billion, compared to Arnault's net worth of $153.7 billion. Adani is now just behind business magnate Elon Musk, according to Forbes' data.
RIL has proposed to charge the government- fixed rate for natural gas on a gross calorific value (GCV) basis, instead of net calorific value (NCV).
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 13.6 per cent fall in October-December net profit, the first drop in the Mukesh Ambani-led company's quarterly profit in more than two years, as refining margins fell sharply and reservoir complexity pulled down gas output.
Launching a fresh broadside at Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily, CPI leader and MP Gurudas Dasgupta on Tuesday said no action has been taken against Reliance Industries for deliberately keeping natural gas output low and is instead being rewarded by a steep hike in prices.
The Oil Ministry has proposed raising natural gas prices by at least 60 per cent, a move that will result in rise in urea as well as power costs.
Reliance Industries has asked the government to immediately name new customers of its natural gas, saying it is being forced to produce less than capacity in the absence of mandated buyers.
RIL has been using gas from GAIL during the past three months to test-fire the 1,440-km east-west pipeline, India's longest, from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat. Only 100 km of the pipeline remains to be test-fired. It will transport gas from the world's largest gas discovery at the Krishna-Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal to Jamnagar in Gujarat, where it has set up the world's largest petroleum refinery.
RIL on April 2 shut the well A1 on the main producing fields of Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) in Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 for "reservoir build-up study," according to a status report of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons.
Though the developments are positive, analysts say the benefits will accrue only in the long run
The field pumped about 5,000 barrels of crude oil on the restart as the company tested equipments and systems. Output may rise to 10,000-12,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the month-end, when the field would be shut again for 45 days to hook up more oil wells.
The company will wait for sizeable user base for better valuation.
Anil Ambani group counsel Mukul Rohtagi said he had no objection.
They also voiced concerns over a double penalty being sought to be imposed on them for KG-D6 fields output not matching targets.
RIL, its partner BP plc of UK will invest about Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) by 2016 to help sustain and improve recovery from the two main gas fields.
Reliance Industries and its partner BP Plc on Thursday won approval to invest $3.18 billion in R-Series gas field in the flagging KG-D6 block.
Government has put on auction the gas discovery area it snatched from Reliance Industries in KG-D6 block and the field that Cairn India is seeking to regain around its Rajasthan block.
Stock market investors became poorer by Rs 8.30 lakh crore as equities continued their slide for the sixth consecutive day on Friday. The BSE Sensex has tumbled 1,855.58 points or 3 per cent since February 16. During this period, the combined market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms has tanked Rs 8,30,322.61 crore to reach Rs 2,60,00,662.99 crore. "The domestic market is broadly demonstrating a lack of confidence, registering its sixth consecutive day of losses despite global markets turning green.
BG Exploration and Production India, a part of UK-based BG group and Reliance Industries, hold 30 per cent stake each in the field, while ONGC has a participating interest of 40 per cent.
India does not have the facilities needed for developing advanced aerospace products. There is only one wind tunnel in the country, the almost six decade old one in the National Aeronautics Laboratory.
If approved, gas price will rise to $6.775 per million British thermal unit from $4.2 currently.
The list includes CAG's request dated July 2, 2012 for information on award of contract for laying of a 1,395-km pipeline by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd for shipping KG-D6 gas from east coast to the west.
India on Wednesday announced auction of 46 small discovered oil and gas fields, holding about Rs 70,000 crore worth of hydrocarbon reserves.
A day after deciding to nearly double natural gas prices to $8, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday hinted that power and fertiliser units may get gas at subsidised rates to keep electricity and urea costs down.
The Aam Aadmi Party slammed BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, asking him to come clean on the money spent on his rallies.
In the January, 2013 Cabinet note on revision of prices of all domestically produced natural gas, the ministry had proposed immediate implementation of the formula suggested by a panel, headed by Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan, for all producers except in cases where the current rate is valid for a certain period.
Gas price hike seems to be a distant dream for Reliance Industries and its partners--Niko Resources and BP.
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