Reliance Results inline, Bharti Results Beats street

Earnings: Reliance Industries Q1 net profit up 13% YoY

Reliance Industries' net profit rose 13.22 per cent to Rs 4,110 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008 compared to Rs 3,630 crore for the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income increased 40.75 per cent to Rs 41,805 crore against Rs 29,721 crore for the same quarter last year. On BSE today, Reliance Industries shares closed up 1.81 per cent at Rs 2306.55 on volume of 12,34,443 shares.

Inventory gains to lift RIL profit

Investors and analysts are keeping their fingers crossed as they await the quarterly results of India’s largest private sector company — Reliance Industries (RIL). Analysts expect RIL’s profit growth to vary substantially between 9 per cent and 30 per cent.

In fact, a customary Bloomberg survey revealed that analysts expect a 24 per cent profit growth over the year-ago period, while a similar exercise by Reuters came out with a much lower profit growth expectation of 14 per cent. A lot will depend on how the company has treated its inventory gains and whether it has suffered any forex losses. Although there are differing views on RIL’s Q1 profits, most agree that RIL’s refinery business will put up a good show, while the petrochemicals business will suffer.

While gross refining margins (GRMs) have remained strong globally during the quarter, margins in petrochemicals business have weakened due to high naphtha prices. Petroleum refining contributed around 64 per cent to the company’s total revenues in FY08 against 34 per cent from petrochemicals. “We are expecting RIL to post $16/bbl GRM in the June 2008 quarter. The petrochemicals margins will be lower due to high naphtha prices, but the net profit should jump 27 per cent to Rs 4,150 crore. The future outlook is positive for the company due to production from KG basin and Reliance Petroleum (RPL) to start production from Q3FY09,” said Sudeep Anand, research analyst working with Religare Securities.

The private sector refiner is expected to benefit from the rise in the prices of crude oil and petroleum products during the June 2008 quarter, allowing it to book inventory gains. “It is mainly inventory gains that are pushing up GRMs of Indian refiners. When RIL publishes Q1 results on Thursday, we believe they may choose not to account for these inventory gains because of fear that high profits could invite a tax on windfall gains,” felt an industry observer.

“We are estimating $18-$19 as GRMs for RIL. However, they could cross $20 depending on inventory gains. On the other hand, profit from petrochemicals should be lower than the previous quarter,” said a research analyst working with a Mumbai-based international investment bank. Going forward, two major projects are scheduled for commissioning over the next six months, which will drive profit growth for the company. RIL’s 70 per cent subsidiary, RPL, is set to commission its 580,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, while its KG basin natural gas fields are likely to commence production anytime soon. On Wednesday, RIL scrip gained 5.16 per cent to Rs 2,265 in a euphoric market, when the Sensex spurted 5.94 per cent.

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Bharti Airtel Q1 net up 34%, beats forecast

Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile operator, beat forecasts on Thursday with a 34 percent rise in quarterly profit as it rode a boom in the world's fastest growing wireless market. Bharti, about 30 percent owned by Southeast Asia's top phone firm, SingTel, said consolidated net profit rose to Rs 2,025 crores ($484 million) under US accounting rules in its fiscal first quarter ended June, from Rs 1,512 crore a year earlier.

A news agency poll of 12 brokerages had forecast a net profit of Rs 1,934 crore for Bharti, which had 69.4 million mobile subscribers at end-June, up 63 percent from a year earlier. Bharti provides mobile services on the popular GSM platform in all of India's 23 service areas and accounts for nearly a quarter of the country's total mobile users.

It added 7.4 million users between April and June. The New Delhi-based firm mainly competes with No. 2 Reliance Communications and unlisted Vodafone Essar, controlled by Britain's Vodafone Plc. Shares in Bharti, India's fourth-most valuable firm at $36.4 billion, fell 12.6 percent between April and June compared with a 14 percent drop in BSE.

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Source: ET

Results: Idea,ACC,Rolta,NMDC,crisil,Hind.Zinc,Sobha,Patni etc

Allcargo Global Logistics net profit rises 25.72% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Allcargo Global Logistics rose 25.72% to Rs 21.51 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 17.11 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 56.49% to Rs 126.62 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 80.91 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007

Idea Cellular net profit declines 12.67% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Idea Cellular declined 12.67% to Rs 269.53 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 308.62 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 47.11% to Rs 2173.18 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 1477.29 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Reliance Industries net profit rises 13.22% in the June 2008 quarter

Aventis Pharma net profit rises 12.06% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Aventis Pharma rose 12.06% to Rs 41.80 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 37.30 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 7.99% to Rs 248.60 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 230.20 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Ratnamani Metals & Tubes net profit rises 12.66% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Ratnamani Metals & Tubes rose 12.66% to Rs 25.45 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 22.59 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 31.40% to Rs 249.67 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 190.01 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Rolta India net profit rises 3.81% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Rolta India rose 3.81% to Rs 54.78 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 52.77 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 28.45% to Rs 219.45 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 170.85 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.
For the full year, net profit rose 44.27% to Rs 262.94 crore in the year ended June 2008 as against Rs 182.25 crore during the previous year ended June 2007. Sales rose 42.02% to Rs 850.92 crore in the year ended June 2008 as against Rs 599.14 crore during the previous year ended June 2007.

NMDC net profit rises 56.82% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of NMDC rose 56.82% to Rs 981.31 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 625.77 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 54.68% to Rs 1673.15 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 1081.66 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Fag Bearings India net profit rises 8.97% in the June 2008 quarter

ACC net profit declines 21.52% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of ACC declined 21.52% to Rs 271.42 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 345.83 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales declined 3.08% to Rs 1785.74 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 1842.53 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Zee News net profit rises 49.69% in the June 2008 quarter

NIIT reports net profit of Rs 3.16 crore in the June 2008 quarter

CRISIL net profit rises 182.28% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of CRISIL rose 182.28% to Rs 32.01 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 11.34 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 152.62% to Rs 92.46 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 36.60 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Hindustan Zinc net profit declines 28.45% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Hindustan Zinc declined 28.45% to Rs 847.81 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 1185.00 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales declined 16.57% to Rs 1643.66 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 1970.00 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007

Info Edge (India) net profit rises 11.43% in the June 2008 quarter

Bajaj Electricals net profit rises 28.79% in the June 2008 quarter

Sobha Developers net profit rises 23.77% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Sobha Developers rose 23.77% to Rs 50.50 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 40.80 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 29.55% to Rs 346.80 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 267.70 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Marico net profit declines 2.22% in the June 2008 quarter

United Phosphorus net profit rises 57.91% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of United Phosphorus rose 57.91% to Rs 46.63 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 29.53 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 51.68% to Rs 509.85 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 336.13 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Piramal Healthcare net profit rises 48.12% in the June 2008 quarter

Greenply Industries net profit declines 23.26% in the June 2008 quarter

MRF net profit declines 25.04% in the June 2008 quarter

Cummins India net profit rises 37.83% in the June 2008 quarter

Patni Computer Systems net profit declines 20.51% in the June 2008 quarter

Net profit of Patni Computer Systems declined 20.51% to Rs 95.95 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 120.70 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007. Sales rose 30.87% to Rs 366.69 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 as against Rs 280.19 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2007.

Aztecsoft reports net loss of Rs 13.24 crore in the June 2008 quarter

Source: Capitalmarket.com

Inflation at 11.89% Vs 11.91%

Inflation softens a bit, touches 11.89%

24 Jul, 2008, 1330 hrs IST, ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Relatively tamed inflation at 11.89 pc gives UPA a second sigh of relief in one week.

In what may be seen as a sobering effect, inflation rate climbed to 11.89-per cent for the week ended July 12 which is less than a quarter per cent jump, week on week. The inflation has softened somewhat with prices of many essential items either declining or remaining static.
The trend for the past three weeks connotes that the rate of inflation is stabilizing a bit. The figure for the week ended July 12 is quite in line with the rate of inflation for the week ended July 5, 2008 that stood at 11.91 per cent, very marginally higher than the rate of 11.89 per cent reported a fortnight ago.

With early signs of stabilization in tandem with the marginal rationalization in the oil prices and the rupee bounce, it is expected that the Reserve Bank of India may choose to maintain status quo in the forthcoming credit policy on July 29. If at all, the industry feels that RBI may choose to increase the repo rate by 25 basis points as oppose to an increase of 50 basis points that was being anticipated a couple of weeks earlier.

Last month, the central bank had raised short-term lending rates for banks-- repo-- by 0.75 per cent in two installments, while also increasing mandatory cash deposits of banks by 0.50 per cent in two phases to suck out excess liquidity.

For the week ended July 5, the annual inflation rate for the group of 30 essential commodities had declined to 5.74 per cent from 5.98 per cent reported a week earlier. This week too, the stabilization has been reported in prices of essential commodities which include foodgrain, pulses, edible oils, vegetables, dairy products and some other commodities including kerosene, soap and safety matches.

The annual inflation has declined to 9.92 per cent in the primary articles group during the week ended July 5 compared to 10.84 per cent reported a week earlier.
The positive vibes notwithstanding, this however, would be the 22nd consecutive week that the inflation rate has been above 5.5 per cent, the central bank's target for the end of the fiscal year in March 2009.

Source:ET

Market Review: Stocks drop as traders take profits after 5-day rise

Market Review: Stocks drop as traders take profits after 5-day rise

Stocks finished a choppy session lower on Thursday as traders took profits after a 5-day winning streak. The rally, which was fueled by a combination of positive global cues, domestic politics and lower oil prices, fizzled out as European stocks turned negative and investors turned cautious ahead of inflation data due after market hours.

"The rally over the past few sessions has given index returns of about 20 per cent, so it's only natural for traders to lock in some gains. The fall in crude and the trust vote victory have given a fillip to the market, but it would be too hasty to call this a reversal," said Hitesh Agrawal, head of research at Angel Broking.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended at 4433.55, down 43.25 points or 0.97 per cent. It touched a high of 4,539.45 and low of 4,385.85. Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex closed at 14,777.01, down 165.27 points or 1.11 per cent. The index fell to a low of 14,608.05 from a high of 15,130.09.

Among frontline stocks, Tata Consultancy Services (5.66%), Tata Steel (5.66%), Reliance Communications (5.06%), State Bank of India (4.46%), ACC (4.25%) and BHEL (2.88%) were badly hit. ONGC (3.25%), DLF (2.35%), Reliance Industries (1.81%), Maruti Suzuki (1.8%), Reliance Infrastructure (1.23%) and HDFC Bank (0.7%) were the gainers. Secondline stocks were comparatively less affected. BSE Mid-cap Index closed down 0.62 per cent at 5,580.90 and BSE Small-cap Index ended 0.24 per cent lower at 6,796.11. Market breadth on BSE showed 1,258 advances and 1,458 declines.

Now that the political situation has stabilized, investors will go back to examining the fundamentals, which, analysts say, are still not very favourable. The wholesale price index is forecast to have risen 12.03 per cent in the 12 months to July 12. India's inflation currently stands at 11.91 per cent, the highest in over 13 years. "The under currents have certainly taken a turn for the better.

Inflation is also starting to fall in line with expectations. With the UPA holding fort, the market is looking toward some changes in the banking and insurance sectors, amongst other economic reforms. Corporate earnings so far have not taken up aback; there have been no major downgrades," Angel's Agrawal said. "But we have the monetary policy review at the end of the month, so there is some scepticism on that front. Also, the monsoon has not really set in, which is another worry for the market," he added. Price of oil was steady below $125 a barrel on Thursday.

US light crude for September delivery has dropped $23 since it hit a record above $147 earlier this month. Stocks ended mostly higher in the East Asian region as investors cheered the fall in crude oil. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.2 per cent, China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 2.55 per cent higher and the South Korean KOPSI added 2.2 per cent. Benchmarks in Hong Kong and Singapore ended flat with a negative bias. In Europe, the UK FTSE 100 was down 0.77 per cent, German DAX 30 had dropped 1.09 per cent and the French CAC 40 slid 0.88 per cent, at the time Indian markets closed.

Source:ET

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A2Zscholarships.com: One-stop shop for scholarships

The one-stop shop for scholarships



No deserving student shall be bereft of education due to lack of finances. That is the aim of A2Zscholarships.com, a website set up by two enterprising young engineering students at Veermata Jeejabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai.


The website aims to provide deserving students with information on hundreds of scholarships and grants in India and provide access to institutions offering grants through its centralised application process.



The brainchild of Mukund Chandak, who graduated this year in civil engineering and himself a recipient of the Ratan Tata scholarship, the website took nearly five years to finally come to fruition as he went about gathering information, contacting trusts and institutions and setting up the site architecture with his friend Rameez Pojee, a third year IT student. The website, that was launched on January 31 this year, has already received a tremendous response with over 12,000 registered users.


Shifra Menezes caught up with Mukund to find out more about the website, the motivation behind the launch and future plans.


How did A2ZScholarships come about?
I've been working on this idea for the last five years actually, even though it was only launched in start 2008. Initially it began with searching for scholarships for myself. In the process I found that there was no one place where students could find all the information they needed to go about applying for a scholarship. Deserving students were just not aware of what all was available to them.


So I began by making a list of all the available scholarships and then visited their offices. I visited 210 offices in all, to find out more about the grants and discuss the idea with them. Once I collected all this information, Rameez and I started working on integrating this information into a system. That's how I began working on it part-time.


Tell us how you went about setting up the website.
Just gathering the information took two years. Once we had all the information we needed, we set about designing the site infrastructure. That took about 8-9 months. When we launched on January 31, the site only provided information about various scholarships.It did not provide any interactive mechanism.
The website was received very well. We got a tremendous amount of emails, some encouraging, some inquiries, some suggestions -- people were logging on and found the information useful. Responses came from across the country.
One of the main issues was that a candidate had to apply to each scholarship individually. This was time consuming and a troublesome process. That is why we then began working on a centralised application process. For this again we had to approach each institution and we finally launched the facility on July 1, 2008 with six institutions on board. About 12-15 others have also showed interest in signing up.


How does the application process on the website work?
We have the various application forms from all these scholarship institutions. We combine the requirements of all the forms and make it one consolidated form with all the relevant fields covered -- education, percentage scores, family income, field of study etc. This is then put online. Interested students can fill up the form and the details will be stored. The institution can then search through the list of candidates based on the criteria that is most important or relevant to them -- age, sex, percentage etc. Candidates that are not eligible are not presented in the search results. So trusts can search for eligible candidates based on their particular requirements.
So far we have six trusts with us. Now when a student applies online through our site, we get the details verified, we request for hard copies of the relevant documents apart from soft copies. We have set up a verification cell in Nashik. This team of 5-6 people checks the details that students have provided such as the percentage etc. Once verification is complete, the application is forwarded to the relevant trust.
After it reaches the trust, we get regular updates on how far the application has reached and its status. If the applicant is selected for the scholarship, he or she is notified through the website itself. This ensures that the student is a return visitor. Also, when a student is awarded a grant of say Rs 10,000, the other trusts in the system are also notified.


How do you plan on taking it to the masses?
In an effort to spread the word about the website, we have initiated a method whereby every student that refers a new student to the site and results in a registration, gets a monetary incentive. This ensures that publicity through word of mouth is kept going and it keeps the traffic growing. At every college we have created a partner system where five students join us as partners. These partners publicise the website and get a commission. The system is working well right now.
For every new registered user that is referred to us by a partner, we give Rs 30. Anyone can become a partner. The students who sign up as users however are not concerned with the payment of commissions; he or she is only concerned with registering and using the website's facilities. Students can register for Rs 250 either by DD or cheque payment.
So far the experience has been fantastic. Responses have come in from all over the country, not just Mumbai. We have had 12,000 registrations since February. Now if we are able to convert these 12,000 into partners, we should be able to bring in 60,000 registrations at least.
What kind of investment did you make to set up the site?
Well, the investment has all been made by me, although, I'm really not sure how much it all adds up to considering my initial travel expenses. However, since I am a student, it does add up to quite a large sum.


How do you plan to recover those expenses?
Initially this service was free. But as costs increased, we felt the need to use the system to bring in some funds. Now to grow further, we are thinking of beginning advertising on the site. As traffic to the site grows, and it is growing quite rapidly, we would need a plan in place to be able to sustain the increased bandwidth and manpower requirements.


You've just graduated, what are your plans going forward?
Placements are completed and I have received offers from three Mumbai-based companies. I will be joining one of these companies in August. The website will however continue to function independently of my professional career.


Are you aware of students who have managed to get scholarships?
Yes we are. While the students do write in informing us about their scholarships, we are also kept in the loop by the trusts and institutions.


Any other ideas in the pipeline
Well, there are a few ideas I've been thinking about, but it's all very early now. Right now the main focus is on making this website a success.



Source: Rediff

India Inc bets big on nuclear power :Rediff

India Inc bets big on nuclear power

Indian companies led by Anil Ambani's Reliance [Get Quote] Power (RPower), Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals [Get Quote] (BHEL) plan to invest over Rs 100,000 crore in the next five years to expand their presence in the nuclear energy sector after the country signs the nuclear agreement with the US, paving the way for import of fuel and transfer of technology.

Engineering major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is also foraying into the nuclear energy sector, with plans to manufacture nuclear reactors. The BHEL stock rose by 11 per cent to Rs 1,772, Reliance Power surged 19 per cent to Rs 170.95, while the L&T scrip went up by 7 per cent to Rs 2,766.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday, whose benchmark index, the Sensex, shot up by 838 points on Wednesday.

Reliance Power has planned an initial investment over Rs 20,000 crore to foray into nuclear power generation. The company is already implementing 28,000 mw of thermal power projects.
"There are plans to start with 1,000-1,500-mw capacity initially with one or two reactors and then expand it to higher capacities in the long run,'' V K Chaturvedi, former NPCIL chairman and managing director and nuclear energy consultant for Reliance Power, said.

Reliance Power has already started negotiations with leading international companies in the field for joint ventures and strategic alliances in nuclear power generation, technology and equipment, he said. The country's nuclear power manager, NPCIL, hopes to double its capacity to generate an additional 10,000 mw with an investment of over Rs 80,000 crore by 2012.

"The availability of fuel will help our existing reactors to increase the capacity utilisation (plant load factor) from around 50 per cent currently to about 90 per cent, almost double the current production, Sudhinder Thakur, executive director, NPCIL, said.

At present, India has 17 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 4,120 mw in operation. BHEL, India's biggest power equipment maker, plans to triple spending on nuclear components to Rs 1,500 crore in two years once overseas companies are allowed to supply technology, Bloomberg News reported, citing K Ravi Kumar, the managing director of the company.

Reliance Power's Chaturvedi said the company has already started negotiations with leading international companies to foray into nuclear power generation. However, he pointed out that the plans depended on the government opening up the sector for private players.
NPCIL has plans to set up 10,000 mw of new capacity during the 11th Five-Year Plan of 2007-12. Six additional units, with a capacity of 3,160 mw, are under various stages of construction.
These include expansion of the Rawatbhata station in Rajasthan (2X220 mw), Kaiga in Karnataka (220 mw) and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu (2 X1,000 mw).

NPCIL and the government have an understanding with the Russian government to increase capacity of the Kudankulam project (Kudankulam 3-6). Further, the government has sanctioned to set up a 1,000-mw reactor in Jaithalpur, Maharashtra.

BHEL too has drwan up big plans to enter the nuclear energy sector. "If the nuclear deal comes through, we are quite confident that there will be a lot of orders in this area and we don't want to be left out,'' BHEL Chairman and Managing Director K Ravi Kumar said in an interview.
BHEL plans to spend Rs 1,500 crore in two years building plants to supply components for reactors of 1,600 mw, Kumar said yesterday. Without the accord, BHEL will invest Rs 500 crore to build steam turbine generators and other components for 700-mw plants designed in India, he said.

BHEL will set up a 50-50 venture with state-run NPCIL that will supply components for nuclear plants with a capacity to generate 700 mw, 1,000 mw and 1,600 mw of power, Kumar said. The company will also seek overseas partners to provide technology for these plants, he said, declining to name the companies. "We will invest depending on the volume,'' he added.

"The orders could be divided and companies such as Areva, Siemens and ABB will be involved,'' said Taina Erajuuri at Glitnir Asset Management in Helsinki, which manages $158 million in Indian assets, including BHEL. "The government may prefer some local companies as well, like BHEL and L&T.''

"The existing sites can accommodate about eight reactors and another five could come up on new sites, which will be developed in the future," said an NPCIL official. NPCIL's strategy is to set up power plants in coastal areas as large equipment for reactors can be shipped into country easily.

A site selection committee of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has already recommended four sites for the new nuclear projects in the coastal areas of Saurashtra in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The officials said NPCIL is in touch with international players for equipment supply and civil construction of the new plants.
"It is too early to talk about it and everything depends on how soon the government is able to go through the deal so that we can source the fuel," said an official.

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Vinod Khosla, smartest guy in Silicon Valley!

Source: Rediff