02 September 2008

Biz Headlines (02.09.08)

Sensex ends up 551pts; banking, realty stocks rally
Tata Motors suspends work in Singur
NMDC to invest Rs 12,000 cr in Chhattisgarh steel plant
July trade deficit widens to $10.8 bn
30% of Wipro staff may soon work from home

Rupee weakens on trade data, RBI watched
Crude oil near $100
Sensex vaults 551 pts as bulls storm the ring; Bank, realty stocks flare up
Bosch board okays share buyback
Great Offshore buys 2 cos for Rs 160 cr

Post Session Commentary - Sep 2 2008
Tata to Singur
Tumbling oil lifts Sensex by 551 points
SEBI to review IPO grading concept
23% fall in debt pvt placements in Q1

Re at 17-month low despite RBI move
Nifty September premium widens
US stock futures jump on oil tumble
Annual inflation seen at 12.44%
Options outdo futures for first time in 8 years
Max New York Life plans to have 1,600 offices in next 3 years


atures


Quickies
Danger lurks in e-world portals
India's Top 10 Company Brands
E-banking safety checks
A roller coaster ride called market
India's top IT & Telecom brands
Old building: Get together and rebuild
How not to invest in stock market
The lost world of lakes
World's top 10 auto groups by sales
India's top Finance & Banking brands


Source: ET, Sify, DP blog, BS etc

Exports sharply up, but no let-up in imports too

Exports sharply up, but no let-up in

India's exports accelerated to 31.2% in July and to almost 25% during the April-July 2008 period over their respective levels a year ago.
But, imports too maintained their unstoppable momentum, with a year-on-year surge of 48% during the latest month and by over 34% during the first four months of 2008-09.

In the event, trade deficit for July zoomed to $10,798 million from $5,879 million during the same month of the last fiscal; for the four-month period, the trade gap widened to $41,227 million from the preceding year's $27,352 million.

The export effort was partly facilitated by the depreciation of the Indian rupee vis-à-vis the dollar.
This provided an incentive to exporters whose realisation in our currency would thus go up.

Indications are that though the rough weather faced by the American economy has proved to be a dampener in our export performance, this setback has been more than made good by better showing in the Asean, South-east Asian and Latin American markets.
But, with crude prices on the boil for most of the period covered by the foreign trade data, the oil import bill till July 2008 rose by a whopping 54.9% and by a staggering 69.3% in July alone. Translated into simple terms, this means that we must brace for a steep rise in the value of crude imports during the current fiscal, as any softening trend in the months ahead may not adequately compensate the high cost of oil in the first four months.
Compounding the problem posed by high cost of oil imports, the first four months of 2008-09 also saw a strident increase in other imports —- mainly raw materials, capital goods and essential items. Non-oil imports during July were higher by nearly 39% and till July by 25%.
With imports outpacing exports by a sizeable margin, the trade gap remained disconcertingly vast in July 2008 as well as during the first four months.
In other words, there was a further deterioration in the ability of our exports to pay for our imports during this fiscal.
The import-purchasing power of exports fell to 58.9% from 63.5% during the comparable period of 2007-08.
With ample foreign currency assets at our disposal, the imbalance in our external trade ledger may not be a serious problem now but, it does impact on the current account.

But, the trend in exports thus far suggests that we are on course to hit the target of $200 billion set for 2008-09. Already, we have reached $59 billion; since the latter part of the year is usually a period of heightened tempo in the growth of exports, there is even a possibility of surpassing this target.

Source:Sify

Market cheers oil slide; Sensex closes 550 points up

Market cheers oil slide; Sensex closes 550 points up

Equities closed sharply higher on Tuesday led by surge in interest-rate sensitive sectors after international oil prices tumbled to a low of $105.46 per barrel.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex closed at 15,049.86, up 551.35 points or 3.80 per cent. It touched a high of 15,106.15 and low of 14,543.21. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 4504.00, up 155.35 points. The 50-share index touched an intra-day high of 4522.40 and intra-day low of 4343.10.

BSE Midcap Index closed 1.66 per cent higher at 5,837.01 and BSE Smallcap Index ended at 6,982.39, higher by 1.32 per cent. State Bank of India (7.44%), ICICI Bank (7.34%), DLF (7.14%), ONGC (6.97%), Jaiprakash Associates (6.83%) were amongst the major Sensex gainers. Ranbaxy Laboratories (-1.89%) and Tata Motors (-1.82%) were the only losers. Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 1675 advances against 986 declines. In Europe, oil prices rebounded to $108.24 per barrel after plunging to $105.46 per barrel on concerns of fall in global demand and as worries on hurricane Gustav eased.

Other Related:
Sensex regains 15K level; Nifty crosses another milestone
Investors cheer crude slide; banks, realty lead
BSE extends trading hours from September 24 on sun outage
Sensex ends up 551pts; banking, realty stocks rally
Sensex vaults 551 pts as bulls storm the

Source: ET, Sify, BS.

Biz Headlines

Options outdo futures for first time in 8 yrs

Finance Secretary D Subbarao appointed RBI Governor

Ranbaxy Fine buys US co for $340m

Sensex bounces back

RIL shelves stake transfer plan

Sensex closes down 66 points despite

Daughters of Mittal, Ambani and KP Singh follow them into Forbes list

Tata Steel, Jet Airways most powerful brands


Maruti Suzuki August sales falls by 9.19 pc
A biofuel-propelled car that can run at 84mph over snow, ice
Hyundai domestic sales up 34 pc in Aug
Hyundai sales soar 57.5% in August

Hero Honda Aug sales up 27 pc

Bajaj Auto motorcycle sales rise 5 per cent in August
TVS Motors logs 11 per cent volume growth in August


Reliance abandons stake transfer of gas-rich D-6 block
Aban Offshore arm's JV bags $271 mn order from Maersk Oil
Delay in starting of gas production in RIL's D6 field
IOC to import up to 0.9 mn T diesel this FY


ONGC says to start pumping coal seam gas
Reliance to pump D-6 gas from October-govt
Govt unlikely to penalise RIL for delaying gas production
RIL-RNRL KG gas dispute hearing to resume on Tuesday

Arbitration panel asks Tata to pay $19 million in damages to Reliance Communication

Oil drops $4 as Gustav hits US Gulf Coast

Resurgere Mines share double its issue price

D Subbarao is new RBI chief

Suzlon advances REpower stake buy

Sensex recovers on late buying, ends down 66pts

Source:ET,BS.

Brand Power: RIL king of brands at $6.8 bn

Brand Power: RIL king of brands at $6.8 bn

DELHI: India’s trillion-dollar plus stock markets boast of 20 companies with a brand value of over $1 billion, up from 16 last year. There are now a dozen (BSE-listed) companies with a brand value over $2 billion (vis-à-vis nine last year) and half-a-dozen with over $3 billion (up from four last year). Raise the cut-off to $6 billion, and it’s a club-of-one, India’s biggest private-sector company, Reliance Industries, with an end-2007 brand value of $6.81 billion (Rs 26,801 crore) vis-à-vis $5.8-billion in end-2006. Using the relief-from-royalty method of brand valuation, which assumes that a company does not own its brand and needs to licence it from a third party, a global leading brand valuation firm, London-headquartered Brand Finance India’s Top 50 Most Valuable (Company) Brands, 2008, presented exclusively by ET, studied only BSE-listed consumer-facing corporate brands (and not holding companies, such as Hindustan Unilever, which own a portfolio of branded businesses) to arrive at the BF Top 50 list.


Brand Power: RIL king of brands at $6.8 bn2 Sep, 2008, 0210 hrs IST,Shailesh Dobhal & Bhanu Pande, ET Bureau
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NEW DELHI: India’s trillion-dollar plus stock markets boast of 20 companies with a brand value of over $1 billion, up from 16 last year. There are now a dozen (BSE-listed) companies with a brand value over $2 billion (vis-à-vis nine last year) and half-a-dozen with over $3 billion (up from four last year). Raise the cut-off to $6 billion, and it’s a club-of-one, India’s biggest private-sector company, Reliance Industries, with an end-2007 brand value of $6.81 billion (Rs 26,801 crore) vis-à-vis $5.8-billion in end-2006. Using the relief-from-royalty method of brand valuation, which assumes that a company does not own its brand and needs to licence it from a third party, a global leading brand valuation firm, London-headquartered Brand Finance India’s Top 50 Most Valuable (Company) Brands, 2008, presented exclusively by ET, studied only BSE-listed consumer-facing corporate brands (and not holding companies, such as Hindustan Unilever, which own a portfolio of branded businesses) to arrive at the BF Top 50 list.
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Tata Steel, Jet Airways most powerful brandsPrima facie, the BF Top 50 study doesn’t show any dramatic shift in last year’s line-up. The top brands are evenly spread out across sectors pretty much like last year, reiterating the fact that brands can create significant value even outside the traditional consumer goods sector. As many as nine out of top 10 brands of last year have maintained their place in the roster, albeit with a minor reshuffle in positions. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) is the only one to have got nudged out by a newcomer, Bharti Airtel, from the Top 10 list.

And even though the total brand value of Top 50 at $68.25 billion looks impressive compared with last year’s figure of $50.8 billion, it’s largely the effect of rupee appreciation (at an average exchange rate of Rs 45.5 and Rs 39.3 to a dollar in calendar 2006 and 2007, respectively, for the purpose of this study) that reflects an over 34% jump in the dollar-denominated brand valuation. In rupee terms, the Top 50’s brand value has gone up by only 15%, Rs 2.67 lakh crore from Rs 2.32 lakh crore. However, a closer scrutiny of the Top 50 list highlights some twists in the tale. For one, it marks the debut for 11 new brands on the Top 50 list, United Breweries, Tata Tea, Dabur, Idea, Tata Communications, Pantaloon, DLF, Jaiprakash Associates, GMR, Reliance Infrastructure and Gail. Says Brand Finance India MD M Unni Krishnan: “These brands have swiftly grown in size through a combination of organic and inorganic growth and their ability to transform their business to offer a whole range value proposition to customers.

These brands have shown leadership in shaping their industries ahead of time and consequently strengthening their ability to retain and acquire new customers.” The cut-off for Top 50, which was a low Rs 172 crore (No. 50, Essar Oil’s brand value) last year, has moved up to Rs 645 crore this year (Gail at No. 50 this year). Equally, as many as one in five brands on the Top 50 list last year dropped out of the list this year, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, Essar Steel, Cipla, Nicholas Piramal, Reliance Energy, Sun Pharmaceutical, Gujarat Ambuja, Reliance Capital, ACC and LIC Housing. “Whilst the IDBI brand remains valuable, we have not been able to complete the brand valuation analysis due to paucity of marketing, customer and people data/information in the public space,” explains Mr Krishnan.

Two, the emergence of infrastructure as a fresh force and the decline of banking & finance and manufacturing in the brand war for supremacy in valuation. Though RIL retains its top position this year too, the petrochem-to-retail giant has seen its brand value (in rupee terms) remain virtually static, it barely inched up 1.4% over the year.

Gainers in the top 10 include Bharti Airtel (brand value: Rs 9,798-crore), which rose three rungs to settle at rank 8 and ICICI Bank (Rs 11,533-crore) that moved two slots up to reach the No. 7 spot. More than scaling the chart, the two have seen a jaw-dropping change in their values. Bharti Airtel gained as high as 26% in (rupee) value while ICICI Bank followed with a increase of 24% in brand value. Interestingly, it’s been a lacklustre year for the oil navratnas in the public sector. They continue to be under pressure due to rising crude prices and steep under-realisation due to government price controls.

All three oil PSUs, IOC, BPCL and HPCL, not just slipped down in the chart, they saw a significant erosion in their brand value in 2007. IOC slid to the third position (from No. 2 last year) with a brand value of Rs 17,987 crore (a drop of 5.3%), BPCL dropped to No. 9 slot from No. 7 last year and saw its brand value erode by a whopping 17% and HPCL down by 15%. SBI at No. 4, is the only one amongst the PSUs to hold its own while showing a remarkable rise, close to 16%, in its brand value. Sectoral analysis shows that banking & finance rule the list with nine brands although their number has dwindled over the last year. Oil & gas and IT have sent in six brands each, followed by automobile (four brands) in the list. Amidst the construction boom and some big-ticket IPOs in that space, infrastructure brands made a grand entry in the study for the first time. These include highly-visible brands of 2007, DLF, Jaiprakash Associates, GMR and Reliance Infrastructure, at rank 43, 46, 48 and 49, respectively.

The entries from a new sector had an obvious impact on brand from other sectors. While FMCG and telecom added new brands to the list of Top 50, banking & finance, manufacturing (steel, cement, durables) and pharma saw brand representation from within the sector go down. Barring a handful of brands, there’s been relatively minor shifts in ranks. The steepest fall has come for the likes of Tata Power (No. 47 versus No. 38 last year), Bank of Baroda (No. 39 and No. 30) and Videocon (No. 35 and No. 27). Others that moved down sharply in the list include Taj (Indian Hotels) that fell from No. 26 to No. 33 and JSW Steel dropped from No. 37 to No. 42. The study in its second year still manages to say a lot about the rapidly transforming business landscape in India. It’s no longer about consumer goods alone. The dominance of banking, IT, oil & gas, et al, may pale as we go along and we could see a rise of brand from new sectors that get a boost in the emerging new economic paradigm.


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