India may have to lean more on West Asian nations for supplies of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a cooking fuel, in the coming years after Indian state-run refiners drew up big plans to diversify into producing more profitable petrochemicals. This shift leads to reduced LPG output, Indian refining executives said. The mantra for state-run oil companies, from Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) to liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Petronet LNG, which are looking to diversify their businesses from lower-margin fuels, has been value-added petrochemicals.
Fitch Ratings on Tuesday raised India's growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7.2 per cent, from 7 per cent projected in March, saying elevated consumer confidence will drive spending, besides increased investments. In June update to its global economic outlook report, Fitch said it expects inflation to decline to 4.5 per cent by end of this year and RBI to cut policy interest rates by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent.
It said early polls suggested the BJP should win the largest number of votes and seats, giving it the opportunity to form a government.
In the wake of the sharp downturn in the valuations of mortgage-backed securities last year, financial firms justified their investment in these non-transparent instruments on the triple ratings accorded to them.
Reliance Industries Ltd is expected to invest Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion), of the total Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) announced, in its telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm over the next two years, credit rating firm Moody's said on Monday. The investment in the telecom business is a credit negative for RIL because RJio will not generate any EBITDA (an indicator of cash flows) for at least next 12 months, it said. Moody's added however that RJio will be a formidable competitor in the sector making it a credit negative for top telecom operators already in the field. "Based on RIL's March 2014 annual report, we estimate that it has already invested about Rs 400 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) in Reliance Jio, and we expect RIL to invest the next Rs 300 billion in Reliance Jio over the next two years," Moody's Investors Service said in a statement. RIL recently announced that it will launch commercial 4G telecom service of RJio in 2015 entailing investment of Rs 70,000 crore. RIL has said that RJio will initially cover about 5,000 towns and cities accounting for over 90 per cent of urban India, as well as over 215,000 villages in India and the target is to expand this to over 600,000 villages. Moody's said RJio will be a "formidable competitor in India's telecom sector" as it will enter the business with financial muscle. RJio's entry into highly competitive telecom sector is also credit negative for incumbent mobile operators and market leaders Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India because "it will undoubtedly result in intensified competition that will lead to declines in average revenue per user and margins". But, it also said that strong spectrum holding of incumbents; existing large subscriber-bases and well- established brand equity; offering 2G and 3G services (apart from 4G services being launched) as well as marketing and distribution architecture mitigate much of the near-term competitive threat from Reliance Jio for them. "Furthermore, given issues of language and literacy, large parts of rural India remain a substantially voice-based market where near-term demand for 4G services may be muted," Moody's said.
Global rating agency Moody's said the decision to change the outlook on 'Barclays's C-/ baa2 standalone rating to negative from stable' reflects concerns over resignations of seniors and the consequent uncertainty surrounding the firm's direction, which are negative for bondholders.
It had upped India's rating to Baa2 from Baa3 and changed its rating outlook to 'stable' from 'positive', saying the reforms would help stabilise rising levels of debt.
Moody's said it reflects India's weaker performance on fiscal.
The Sri Lankan said his team could still bounce back in the series after losing the first two games.
The global rating agency has, however, cautioned that India's fiscal position remains 'weak'.
Moody's said it expects exposure to low oil prices to shave off 0.8 per cent from real GDP growth on average across oil exporting countries in 2016.
Sri Lanka's coach criticised the pitch after the West Indies bowled out the hosts for 150 on the first day of the second Test.
BCCI sources said while skipper Sourav Ganguly favours Chappell, vice-captain Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble prefer Moody for the India coach's job.
Talks are underway with the Australian to take over the job held by John Dyson, whose term ended last month.
The 'P-3' ratings suggest acceptable ability to repay short-term obligations.
Credit rating agency Moody's on Monday appointed Chetan Modi as the head of its India operations.
"The downgrade would mean they would have no buyers for their debt papers. It would also impact borrowing from overseas banks," said a Mumbai-based analyst.
Notwithstanding Rajasthan Royals making a match out of the 202-run chase, Sunrisers Hyderabad chief coach Tom Moody said that his team had things under their control through the course of the Indian Premier League match at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai, on Thursday.
Global rating agency Moody's Investor Services in its latest report said the strong fundamentals, combined with upturn in savings and investment as well as rising rate of potential growth, supports the Indian government's foreign currency sovereign medium investment grade (Baa3) bond rating and local currency speculative grade (Ba2) bond rating.
Listing the series of reforms which led to the upgrade, he said while demonetisation took the economy towards greater formalisation and digitisation, use of Aadhaar ensured targeted delivery of government benefits.
Western Australia coach Tom Moody said on Thursday he had rejected an offer to apply for the job of England head coach.
Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the long-term foreign currency bond ratings of ICICI Bank to Baa3 from Ba1.\n\n
The young Tilak Varma was included in the Indian team for the Asia Cup as the sixth specialist batter.
The agency said, 'The downgrade reflects Moody's expectation that China's financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years, with economy-wide debt continuing to rise as potential growth slows.'
'But their bowling is poor. Beyond Jasprit Bumrah, there is no one to actually support them in that bowling attack, and the CSK batters took them apart.'
Former India coach Greg Chappell, ex-Australia coach John Buchanan and Victoria's Greg Shipperd are the other Australian coaches targeted by IPL teams.
Moody's downgraded local currency bank deposit ratings.
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A higher subsidy burden and lower growth will weaken the country's fiscal metrics, analyst Atsi Sheth said in the presentation.
Following the insertion of Corus Group on Tata Group's balance sheet, global credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded Tata Steel Ltd's corporate family rating from investment to speculative.
The economy is projected to clock 7.4 per cent growth.
Govt to strongly pitch for better rating, to argue India has successfully weathered its problems and govt capacity on growth remains high.
Dhoni picked as skipper of IPL's all-time greatest team
Awestruck by Mahendra Singh Dhoni's swashbuckling knock against Sunrisers Hyderabad, former Australia all-rounder and Hyderabad coach Tom Moody says India is 'very lucky' to have the 31-year-old 'special' cricketer as captain.
Moody's listed six agenda on the list of pending reforms -- land acquisition Bill, labour law reforms, significant infrastructure investment, tangible benefit from Make in India initiative, tax administration and PSU bank reforms
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Moody's became the first rating agency to retain the sovereign rating of Baa3 for the country after the rupee dived below 63 to the dollar, on Monday.
Government has been able to push through economic reforms, especially allowing foreign investment in multi-brand retail.
The ratings agency currently rates India at Baa3
RBI is likely to keep interest rates stable in the near term, revealed Moody's. It may also ease its monetary policy stance later in the year.
The Reserve Bank's tight monetary policy is likely to moderate the growth rate of Indian economy in the second half of the current calendar year, the economic analysis arm of international rating agency Moody's has said.
The outlook for India's rating would improve if fiscal, inflation and infrastructure metrics get better, a global report said.
