BUSINESS LINE 16th October

INFOSYS RETURNS TO DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH, BUT CAUTIOUS OF FUTURE

DATAS PROVIDED:

· 10.2 PERCENT GROWTH IN DOLLAR TERMS

· Rs 30/share is the dividend to shareholders and Rs 10/share as interim dividend with total payout coming to Rs 2400 crore on 30^th anniversary of the company

· Posted a net profit of 13.3% growth in net profit after tax at Rs 1737 crore and revenue grew to 24.4% to Rs 6947 crore.

DETAILS:

CEO AND MD Mr.S.Gopalakrishnan told that while results are the turning point of the company with revenue of $100 million on the other hand Infosys was cautiously optimistic of its future because of:

· Industry expecting clarity from clients on IT budgets for the 2011 calendar and expects greater revenue growth

· Currency volatility according to CEO Mr.S.D.Shibulal.

IT Scripts, Profit booking pull SENSEX down 372pts

Sensex down 372 pts. at 20125 pts. due to

· Infosys caution in currency fluctuation impacting future earnings. All sectors in the index down specially IT(-3.25%) which is the biggest looser.

· Profit booking by the investors.

· Investment in coal India IPO opening which has public offering of Rs15000cr. So investors needed liquid money.

Toyota Etios to be launched in Bangalore on Dec 1

· Toyota is about to launch its Etios compact car in Bangalore on 1^st of December where president Akio Toyota is likely to be present.

· Toyota has roped A.R. Rahman, the pride of India as they dream to makes Etios the same.

· It also reflects the new emergence for the developing nations such as India.

Toyota engineers carried out market research in local perspective and planned the key drivers to be quality, durability and reliability.

· It was this spirit that Etios was created as an affordably priced vehicle, that is a class above competition.

SBI may hike base rate in 3^rd quarter

SBI rates likely to go up in view of increasing cost of deposits. Many banks revised their base rates by +25 bp

But SBI has held its base rate steady at 7.5%.

· Benchmark prime lending rate is 12.25 %

· SBI chairman Mr. O.P. Bhatt said in 2^nd quarter cost of deposit was at lowest level in last 12 months, deposit rates have gone up pointing pressure on liquidity.

· Therefore call rate short term rates, commercial paper and certificates of deposits too have gone up.

· Bank is short of RBI’s projected growth of 20% & is around 18-19%.

SBI to raise Rs 1000 cr thru long term retail bonds

· SBI to raise Rs 1000 cr by issuing long term bonds of 10 & 15 years to retail investors. Fist time bank issues tier II bonds to retail investors.

· Issue opens on 18-25 oct. with face value Rs 10000

· It has two series Series I of 10 years coupon rate 9.25 & Series II of 15 years coupon rate 9.5

· Bank is having a call option after 5 y for Series I and 10 y for Series II.

· About bond OP Bhatt chairman said it would give investors additional investment avenue.

· 50% issue is reserved for retail customers, 25% for high networth individuals & 25 for institutional investors.

VODAFONE MOVES COURT AGAINST I-T DEPT TREATING IT AS HUTCHINSON’S AGENT

· Vodafone international BV on filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court to defend itself against a different course of action taken by the I_T department.

· Initially they took an action against the failure to conform to TDS obligations which was related to deductor’s liability

· But now they are considering Vodafone as a representative assesse (agent) of Hutchinson, for which they have aimed at bringing the entire income of Vodafone into Tax assessment, including profit and losses.

· Vodafone mentioned that it is just an agent of Hutchinson and not liable to pay the Tax.

· Now 4 weeks’ time has been provided to the Tax department to prove the matter infront of the Supreme Court, but according to Vodafone officials’, I-T department is taking this as an unusual development as they ignored the immediate hearing of the Supreme court.

INDIA WANTS HUMAN PATHOGENS COVERED BY BIODIVERSITY PACT

INDIA and BRAZIL will lead developing nations to ensure that human pathogens are covered under ACCESS BENEFIT SHARING (ABS) framework at the conference of parties of UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION OF BIODIVERSITY to be held at NAGOYA,JAPAN.

· It is the 10^th conference going to be held between October 18 and 29 with 193 representative countries participating.

· Till now pharmaceutical companies have been using resources of the developing countries without sharing the benefits of the local people.

· India is demanding to add pathogens in the ABS framework.

· This move is going to benefit those from whom disease causing organisms and pathogens are taken for producing drugs.

· According to Mr. Ramesh India is trying to include the entire value chain along with compete disclosure with regard to exploitation of Bio-diversity while developed nations are opting for graded disclosure.

· The National Biodiversity authority(NBA) has reached agreement with some 80 private companies that have sought access to bio-resources for commercial purpose.

Gold Pares Gains

· Gold prices experienced a low session of $1,366.55 an ounce as the currency market see sawed after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Mr. Ben Bernanke.

· The precious metal initially rallied to a session high of $1385.25 an ounce.

· Spot gold was bid at $1,369.35 an ounce at 13:04 GMT against $1376.75 late in New York on Thursday.

· Therefore, open interest a amounts to well over 17,000 contracts equivalent to 1.7 million ounces of gold.

· Investments in gold exchange-traded funds picked up, the holdings of worlds largest, New York's SPDR Gold Trust.

Regulator To Hold Talks On Resuming Sugar Futures

· The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had suspended sugar future in May last year

· According to the commodities exchange said the FMC is waiting for festival season before resuming the future sales.

· Nation Commodity Exchange had told FMC that it was ready to launch but was unable now will be launching in November or December.

· The Multi Commodity Exchange official said the bourse had not sought permission to start future trading in sugar but was ready to launch it.

· The ban was imposed last year after sugar prices touched Rs 40 a kg, following sharp fall in production to 145 lakh tones during 2008-09.

ABG shipyard hikes stake in western shipyard to 60.26%

· ABG shipyard takes control of belaeaguered western shipyard on Friday by raising stakes to 60.26%.

· ABG scrip closed at rs 311.10 down 0.67% while WISL jumped 20% to 16.76.

· ABG bought 11.9 crore from October12-14.

· ABG has acquiring existing yards to meet growing demand in Indian yards.

Forex reserves up $1.63 b

· Forex reserves up $ 1.63 billion to $ 295.792 on oct 8

· Fourth consecutive week for which reserves has risen.

· According to RBI foreign currency assets increase by $1.593b to $ 268.1b

· Gold reserves unchanged at $20.516 billion.