Daily News Roundup - March 2 2010

SAIL says hike in excise duty will be passed on to customers resulting in a Rs500-600 per ton price hike on long products. (BL)

Bhushan Steel plans to invest about Rs280bn to set up a value-added steel plant in Karnataka. (DNA)

Maruti Suzuki would raise prices between Rs3,000 to Rs13,000 across various models, with immediate effect. (DNA)

Cement companies across all regions have increased prices in the range of Rs10-12 per bag to offset the twin effects of hike in excise duty and rise in diesel rates. (ET)

RIL is on the verge of losing its bid for bankrupt petrochemical company Lyondell-Basell, as it baulks at rising valuation due to the recovering global economy. (ET)

Coal India will increase its spending by three times to Rs98bn in the next financial year, primarily to fund its expansion and acquisition programmes. (FE)

Hindustan Dorr-Oliver has acquired Sheffield-based DavyMarkham, a 180-year-old company involved in design, manufacture and assembly of large equipment used in mining, power, oil, gas and nuclear sectors. (BS)

Tata Steel rules out raising equity to meet covenants. (BS)

MphasiS Ltd is scouting for a company with revenues in the region of US$45-60mn and having a good presence in the cloud computing space, with a view to growing its Infrastructure and Technology Outsourcing (ITO) business. (BS)

SAIL to spend ~Rs123bn in the next financial year largely to fund its mega expansion programme. (FE)

Bhushan Steel would spend Rs280bn to build a 6 lakh tonnes steel plant in the Bellary region of Karnataka. (ET)

Nabard plans to provide Credit Plus services through the Farmers’ Clubs. (BS)

Tata Motors reported 58% yoy growth in total sales volume, including exports volume. (ET)

FPO of NMDC may be at a substantial discount to its market price, going by the numbers announced by finance minister in his Budget speech. (Mint)

Venezuelan government owned oil firm likely to buy stake in ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals for setting up an aromatic unit in Mangalore SEZ. (FE)

SAIL will be spending Rs123bn in the next financial year, mainly to fund its expansion program. (FE)

Budget clarification on extension of service tax will include all activities in the entire continental shelf and exclusive economic zone will increase the cost of offshore exploration for ONGC and Reliance Industries. (BS)

ICICI Bank hikes long-term deposit rates by 25-50 bps. (ET)

The Tatas will have to either buy out the 26% stake in its life insurance JV or rope in another partner if Prudential UK buys out the Asian life insurance business of AIG. (BS)

United Bank of India fixed issue price of its IPO offer at Rs66 per share. (BS)

M&M plans to launch nine vehicles in various segments till March 2011; raises product prices by up to Rs18,000 following the increase in excise duty announced in the Budget. (BS)

Non-banking finance companies like IDFC, Aditya Birla Financial, Reliance Capital, Religare Enterprises and Indiabulls planning to queue at the RBI to seek banking licences. (BS)

Bharti Airtel may sell stake to cut Zain deal debt. (ET)

Shriram Transport Finance enters the second hand truck finance market through its new subsidiary Automall. (BS)

Maharashtra government decides to award the Worli-Haji Ali sea link project to a consortium led by Reliance Infrastructure. (ET)

Reliance ADAG scales up its stake in the Fame by 1.7% to nearly 14%. (ET)

Texas Pacific Group may take over the assets of troubled Vishal Retail and convert it into a cash-and-carry operations. (ET)

Fiscal deficit for 2010-11 pegged at 5.5% of GDP. (DNA)

Government raises excise duties by 2% to 10% on all non-oil products as part of withdrawal of the stimulus measures. (DNA)

Domestic oil companies increased ATF prices with the increase in price ranging from Rs1.3/litre in Delhi to Rs1.4/litre in Chennai. (BL)

Economy recorded a less than expected 6% growth in Q3 FY10, lower than the 7.9% GDP growth recorded in Q2 FY10. (BL)

The Government has decided that telecom companies offering 3G services will not be allowed to claim tax breaks under Section 80 IA of the Income Tax Act. (BL)

Minister of Road Transport and Highways has lowered the target for awarding national highway contracts to 7,000km by June from the earlier stated level of nearly 12,000km. (BL)

Finance Ministry hopes to garner about Rs260bn in 2010-11 from the budget move to go back to the pre-June 2008 duty structure position on the petroleum sector. (BL)

RBI is considering giving some additional banking licences to private sector players, including non-banking finance companies. (BL)

Vehicles prices set to rise across the automobile industry as the government announced a 2% hike in excise duties across all segments in Budget 2010-11. (BL)

Due to increase in customs and excise duties on petrol and diesel, consumers will now have to pay Rs2.71 per litre and Rs2.55 per litre more respectively. (BL)

Foreign exchange reserves fell by US$527mn to US$279bn for the week ended February 19. (BL)

Government has estimated the net borrowing for FY11 at Rs3.5tn or Rs534bn lower than the revised estimates of the current year. (BL)

Government proposes to introduce competitive bidding process for allocating coal blocks for captive mining. (BL)

The government is seeking a uniform low risk weight on banks’ exposure to the specialised infrastructure financing companies. (ET)

RBI has indicated that it will take longer than April to implement base rate scheme. (ET)

The Indian Banks’ Association had asked RBI to extend the deadline for base rate implementation by banks by three months to July. (ET)