News across India
- Mutual Funds see opportunity in stock market fall
- RIL, Reliance Cap among Asia's 20 best for future investor returns
- Budget 2008: Railway fares set to fall further
- Railways turns up the heat on airlines by slashing AC fares
- Cement transportation to jump 100% by 2011-12
- Steel firms to gain on rail plans
- Lalu launches 53 new trains
Mutual Funds see opportunity in stock market fall
MUMBAI: Equity fund managers, who trimmed stock exposure to a four-month low in January, now plan to deploy cash back mainly in energy and financial sectors, according to a poll conducted by a news agency from Feb 19 to Feb 25.
Seven of the 10 participants in the Reuters Asset Allocation Poll said the benchmark index was not likely to show negative return in the next three months, making battered stocks a good bet at current levels. "Valuations are looking quite attractive after the recent decline in the stock market," said R Rajagopal, who oversees about Rs 3000 crore as chief investment officer for DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management Ltd.
"The corporate results of third quarter have also been robust enough to indicate that the growth rate would be in the range of 20-25 per cent," he added. (Full story)
RIL, Reliance Cap among Asia's 20 best for future investor returns
NEW DELHI: Seven Indian firms, including Reliance Industries and Reliance Capital from the two Ambani groups, have been named among Asia Pacific's 20 best companies in terms of expected investor returns over next five years.
The list titled "Tomorrow's Winners" prepared by global investment banking giant Morgan Stanley also includes telecom major Bharti Airtel, engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro, Kishore Biyani-led Pantaloon Retail, infrastructure company IDFC and real estate firm Sobha Developers.
"Of the companies selected, more than half are listed in either China or India. Many of these are capitalising on major secular trends, such as infrastructure investment and per capita consumption growth," Morgan Stanley said in a report. (Full story)
Budget 2008: Railway fares set to fall further
NEW DELHI: Setting the tone for an 'Election Budget', railway minister Lalu Prasad is likely to reduce both passenger fares and freight rates, riding a strong revenue growth and reduced operational costs. Rail fares are likely to be cut by 3% to 5% while freight rates for petroleum, steel and iron ore may come down by 4% to 5% due to reclassification of goods.
Since this will be the last full-fledged Railway Budget before the general elections, scheduled for next year, the railway minister is expected to go all out with populist measures, ministry sources said. According to officials at the Rail Bhawan, there will be no deviation from the trend of not hiking freight and passenger rates as the Railways is right on track to meet the twin objectives of reducing operational cost and increasing revenues. Between April 2007 and January 2008, earnings from freight and passenger traffic have grown 11% and 14%, respectively, giving enough cushion for Mr Lalu Prasad to cut rates. (Full story)
Railways turns up the heat on airlines by slashing AC fares
NEW DELHI: Competition between the railways and low-cost airlines is set to reach a new level with railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav lowering AC fares up to 7%. The airline industry is already facing a tough time thanks to spiralling aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price.
In the last nine months alone, airfares have gone up by Rs 900 as fuel surcharge. This has helped the railways woo passengers as the gap between airfare and rail fare has widened significantly. While on long-haul routes, such as Bangalore-Delhi and Mumbai-Kochi, airlines have managed to remain more competitive, on short-haul routes, such as Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Amritsar budget, carriers are finding the going tough.
Presenting his fifth budget , Mr Yadav announced reduction of fares for AC-I class by 7% and AC-II tier by 4%. A fare reduction of 2% for the newly-designed AC 3 tier and AC Chair Car coaches was also announced. The reduction would, however, only be half for popular trains and during the peak period.
Consolidation in domestic skies has also left the Railways better placed. With merger and acquisition in the aviation industry, various offers such as Rs 2 and Rs 50 airfares launched by the carriers have disappeared. The minimum airfare available today is for Rs 2,550. A few years back the same Rs 2,550 airfare was available for Rs 900. (Full story)
Cement transportation to jump 100% by 2011-12
NEW DELHI: With the reduction of freight charges, the Indian Railways has set aside an ambitious target of doubling the transportation of cement to 200 metric tonnes by 2011-12 from the current 100 metric tonnes.
"Railways receive more than 100 MT traffic every year from the cement industry and we are targeting a loading of 200 MT from the cement industry in 2011-12," Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said while presenting the Railway Budget 2008-09 in Parliament.
Production of cement is expected to increase from 170 MT to 280 MT by 11th plan, he said adding "there are more than 10 big clusters of cement production in the country".
Prasad said work is in progress on Nandyal-Yerraguntla, Jaggayyapet-Mallacheruvu and Vishnupuram-Janpahad new lines and would be completed within the stipulated time frame. (Full story)
Steel firms to gain on rail plans
NEW DELHI: India's stainless steel consumption will rise by at least 140,000 tonnes over the next one year or so after the railway minister announced plans to build new freight wagons and passenger coaches from the metal, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.
Railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav told Parliament that 20,000 new freight wagons would be needed in 2008/09 and they would be constructed from stainless steel. He added that all new passenger coaches would be made from the commodity by the following year.(Full story)
Lalu launches 53 new trains
NEW DELHI: Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has proposed 53 new trains, including 10 Garib Raths, in the coming fiscal. Besides, he announced extension of 16 trains and higher frequency for 11 trains. The number of new trains announced in this budget is significantly higher than the 32 new trains and 8 Garib Raths announced last year.
While daily service of Garib Raths would be provided on short-haul routes, such as Varanasi-Delhi and Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam, on longer routes like Ranchi-New Delhi, it would run twice or thrice a week. Garib Rath is a low-cost air conditioned (AC) train. New Garib Raths would also be deployed on Jaipur-Chandigarh, Secundarabad-Visakhapatnam and Ranchi-Delhi routes. Full story-
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