BUSINESS LINE - 15th October

Submitted by: sec-f
Harshit kumar
Gaurav arora
Gaurav Sharma

Indirect tax mop-up soars 44% in H1 on robust factory output
The Centre's indirect tax collection registered a robust 44.4 per cent increase in the first half of the current fiscal to Rs 1,50,686 crore.
For September, the Centre's indirect tax collection recorded a 37.62 per cent increase to Rs 26,476 crore (Rs 19,238 crore).
Customs duty collections in April-September registered 66.8 per cent increase to Rs 63,229 crore (Rs 37,907 crore).
4the Customs duty collections stood at Rs 11,323 crore, reflecting a 67.6 per cent increase over the Rs 6,756 crore collected in same month last year.
Service tax collections in the first half registered a 14.8 per cent increase to Rs 26,623 crore (Rs 23,191 crore)
Interest income boosts axis bank net 38%
Axis bank post a net profit of Rs 735 crore as compare the corresponding previous quarter which is 531 crore.
September14. 2010 axis bank bse price is 1420 and October 14, 2010 is 1563. Axis bank raised its base points 7.75 percent from 7.25 per cent earlier this month.
Gross non performing assets (npas) were at Rs1362 crore . durning the quarter , the bank added Rs 445 crore to gross npas and the bank restructured loans amounting to Rs 60 crore.
Gold hits $1,380 an ounce
Gold prices have reached yet another high in dollar terms, trading at $1,380 an ounce early on Thursday evening.On Wednesday, the yellow metal closed at $1,371.1/oz, a rise of 1.6 per cent to a record fresh high. For the first time, Indian wholesale prices breached the psychological Rs 20,000.There is continued investor interest in gold because of macroeconomic pessimism and weaker equity markets.

LIC Housing net rises 37% on higher disbursements
LIC Housing Finance's net profit rose 37 per cent to Rs 234 crore in the second quarter of 2010-11, from Rs 171 crore in the corresponding year ago period.Higher disbursements and improved margins contributed to the profits.Mr R.R Nair, Director and Chief Executive of LIC Housing Finance. Reduction in the non-performing assets also helped increase profits, he said.Net interest margin increased to 2.93 per cent but was lower from the first quarter NIM of 3.01 per cent.Mr Nair said the margins may not fall further this year as the housing finance company increased its PLR by 50 basis points on September 30.LIC HF's scrip ended at Rs 1,458.05 on the BSE on Thursday, up 0.96 per cent from the previous close of Rs 1,444.15.
SBM HIKES TERM DEPOSIT RATES
State bank of mysore has increased its interest rates up to 75 basis points on different tenures effective october 15.The bank will now offer 7.75 percent interest for deposits below 15 lakh8 percent for deposits of Rs 15 lakh and above.Senior citizens will get 0.5 per cent interest additional.
Capgemini hires ex-Patni V.P as HR head
Mr Rajesh Padmanabhan has been appointed as the head of HR for french information technology company Capgemini’s India unit. He was till recently heading the human resource function for Patni computer systems. He will be managing 29,000 staffers. Mr R.Padmanabhan took over as the HR head from Mr Sripada Chandrasekhar who now joined IBM India. In career spanning over 25 years Mr. Padmanabhan has worked with industry majors like ICICI, the oberoi group and essel propack.
Brokerages expect Q2 revenue to grow 20%
Broking houses expect second quarter results to echo the tone set by India inc’s first quarter results. Though most brokerages that have released their earnings previews see revenue to grow by around 20%. They strongly believe that EBITDA margins would remain under pressure and that the capex cycle would pick up only in second half of this fiscal. Cement ,sugar and telecom stocks would see erosion in profits when compared to the second quarter of last year.