Tuesday 16 June 2015

HPCL, BPCL, IOC rise 1-2% on petrol price hike by 64p/lit

Shares of  Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL),  Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and  IOC rise around 1-2 percent in early trade on Tuesday as petrol price was today hiked by 64 paise a litre. Diesel price was cut by Rs 1.35 per litre in line with trend in global oil rates. This is the third increase in petrol price since May.
However, in case of diesel, the reduction has halted two consecutive increases during last month. On June 1, companies skipped raising rates by 30-40 paise that had become necessary due to rise in international rates.
"Since last price change, there has been an increase in international prices of petrol while international prices of diesel have shown a downward trend. Indian rupee-US dollar exchange rate has depre
ciated during this period. Combined impact of these factors warrant an upward revision in prices of petrol and a downward revision in prices of diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price change," IOC said in a statement.
The three hikes in petrol rates have wiped away more than one-third of the gains that had accrued to consumers when global rates began to fall in August. In case of diesel, the reduction has partly restored the gains taken away in May.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL revise petrol and diesel prices on 1 and 16 of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate in the previous fortnight.

At 09:26 hrs HPCL was  at Rs 700.90, up Rs 8.00, or 1.15 percent, BPCL was at Rs 838.50, up Rs 4.65, or 0.56 percent and IOC was at Rs 355.85, up Rs 2.80, or 0.79 percent on the BSE. 

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Raghuram Rajan Takes the Fight to Loan Defaulters: 10 Facts

Reserve Bank of India chief Raghuram Rajan has given banks more teeth to banks in their fight against loan defaulters. The central bank on Monday announced new guidelines for recovery of bad loans.
Here is a 10-Point Cheat-Sheet
1) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to take control of a defaulting company if a debt restructuring fails and change the management of the company.
2) Under the new rules, banks can convert their debt into equity in case of failure of restructuring plan.
3) Banks under joint lenders forum can become majority owner in the defaulting company by holding 51 per cent or more stake.
4) "As a policy direction, it is a good move. It instills a sense of fear of compliance in the borrowers and the stake for him to perform responsibly increases," says Diwakar Gupta, for MD and CFO of State Bank of India.
5) For the new norms to be applicable, banks need insert a clause mentioning whether the loan can be converted into equity in favour of the lenders, if the borrower fails to achieve certain targets.
6) The central bank, under governor Raghuram Rajan, has taken many steps to empower lenders recover money from defaulters. Dr Rajan described wilful defaulters as "freeloaders" who needed to be chastised for not honouring their debt commitments.
7) The RBI said that the lenders should divest their holdings in the equity of the company as soon as possible. And the 'new promoter' should not be a person/entity from the existing promoter/promoter group.
8) The new promoters should acquire at least 51 per cent of the paid up equity capital of the borrower company. If the new promoter is a non-resident, and in sectors where the ceiling on foreign investment is less than 51 per cent, the new promoter should own at least 26 per cent of the paid up equity capital or up to applicable foreign investment limit, whichever is higher, the RBI said.
9) Lenders who acquire shares of a listed company under a restructuring will be exempted from making an open offer, the RBI said.

10) Indian banks are struggling under high levels of bad assets. The gross non-performing assets (NPA) is expected to rise to Rs 4 lakh crore in this current fiscal, credit rating firm Crisil recently said.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Sensex, Nifty, Midcap weak; Axis Bank, Infosys, Wipro gain

The market remained marginally under pressure due to selling in FMCG, metals and power stocks. Private sector lender ICICI Bank topped the selling list on Sensex, down 2.4 percent.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 44.14 points to 26793.06 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 13.60 points to 8121.50. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices slipped around 0.4 percent each.
About 742 shares have advanced, 942 shares declined, and 111 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors extended its losses, down nearly 2 percent followed by further weakness in ITC, Sun Pharma, ONGC, HUL, Hero Motocorp, Hindalco, Vedanta, Tata Steel and NTPC with loss of 0.8-2 percent.
However, Infosys gained 1 percent. Angel Broking said reports suggested that Infosys is said to be confident of beating Nasscom's guidance for FY2016 (which is expected to be USD Y-o-Y growth of 12-14 percent) on back of improved percentage of deals won in the last 10-12 weeks. The brokerage has maintained its buy rating with a price target of Rs 2,630.

Axis Bank rose 1 percent too after RBI said FIIs can invest in bank as shareholding is below threshold limit. Wipro was up 1 percent. 

Nestle India slips over 6% after Delhi govt, Indian Army ban Maggi

Nestle India Ltd slipped as much as 6.3 per cent in trade on Thursday, after the Delhi government imposed a 15-day ban on Nestle's Maggi noodles even as other state governments await test results.
Shares of Nestle India plunged 9 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday, its biggest drop in a day in nine years. The stock has plunged over 14 per cent in the month of June, and nearly 7 per cent so far in the calendar year 2015.
Nestle India hit a low of Rs 5800.10 and a high of Rs 5960 in trade today on BSE.
The Indian Army, meanwhile, advised its soldiers to avoid the stuff if they could. In a separate report, Nestle India has courted fresh trouble after a preliminary test by a Tamil Nadu agency of a sample of their milk powder allegedly found live larvae in it.

The Drug Administration Department (food safety wing) tested the NAN PRO3 milk powder, bought by a cab driver and the initial report by one of its food analysts found live larvae in the sample, PTI reported.