Latest Market News & Trends

* ECONOMY : RBI Guv says rate hike of 25bps was aimed at maintaining country's
growth rate.. says RBI keen to move away fm its expansionary monetary stance..
says India risks a "hard landing" if inflation isn't reined in.. says may hv
to sacrifice a little bit of near term growth

* CEMENT : Cos make aggressive plans to foray into relatively untapped rural
mkts as they see it as next growth driver.. separately capacity utilisation
across country declines in Feb to 83% vs 92% YoY

* INFRA : Planning Commission says investment in 11th plan period will be close
to target of Rs 500bn

* OIL PSUs : Petroleum Secy says govt may soon raise pxs of natural gas produced
by ONGC and OIL India by as much as 30%

* ICICI : gets nod to start retail banking services in Singapore.. CEO expects
significant increase in client base in the region

* NTPC : signs agreement with Guj Power Corp for executing 500mw of renewable
power projects in wind & solar energy

* CIPLA : in talks with Piramal Healthcare to sell its emergency contraceptive
pill i-pill

* PRAKASH IND : plans to expand power capacity with target of 775mw by 2014

* GE SHIPPING : unit Greatship (India) Ltd may consider raising funds via IPO

* TRF : plans to acquire U.K.-based Hewitt Robins International Ltd for $4.5mn

* BPCL : encounters additional Gas in Wildcat Well in Mozambique

Corporate News – Industry trends

– Sahara Group promoter Subrata Roy said he will take his newly acquired Indian
Premier League team public by 2013, the second year of operations, and is open
to having investors take a minority equity stake in the franchisee. (BS)

– Larsen & Toubro won a contract valued at Rs 9.7bn from the Ministry of
Defence for the design and construction of 36 high-speed interceptor boats for
the Indian Coast Guard. (BS)

– The government may soon raise prices of natural gas produced by ONGC and
OIL by as much as 30%, Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said. (BS)

– Air India plans to sell Rs7,950mn worth of bonds as it seeks to combat rising
competition and turn around unprofitable routes. (BS)

– Godrej Properties will transfer a 49% stake in its subsidiary Godrej Estate
Developers to HDFC for Rs450mn. (BS)

– Tata group company TRF Ltd will acquire UK-based Hewitt Robins
International Ltd for around Rs200mn. (BS)

– Jindal Steel and Power will set up a coal-to-liquid plant entailing an
investment of Rs420bn in Orissa. This is the second such proposal by any
investor to set up a CTL plant in the state. (BS)

– Tata Motors signed an agreement with Myanmar government for setting up a
heavy truck plant in the South-East Asian nation with an installed capacity of
up to 5,000 units annually. (BS)

– Sanofi-aventis buys out UB stake in Aventis Pharma at Rs1,750 per share; the
Hoechst GmbH acquired 2,366,380 equity shares or 10.27% of Aventis
Pharma’s share capital from UB Group companies. (BL)

– Price of diesel and petrol in 13 major cities may go up with the petroleum
ministry considering a higher price for Euro-IV compliant fuels. Petroleum
retailers will begin supplying Euro-IV compliant auto fuel in these cities from
April 1. (BS)

– Crompton Greaves Ltd, in partnership with ZTR of Ukraine, has bagged a
Rs6,000mn contract for the supply and commissioning of 765kV shunt
reactors for Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd's various projects across the
country. (BL)

– NTPC will produce 500MW from renewable energy projects and proposes to
set up a 1,000 MW coal-based thermal power station at Khambhat, off Gulf of
Cambay, in Anand district, Gujarat. (BL)

– The Coca-Cola India plant at Plachimada, in Palakkad district of Kerala, has
caused serious damage to the environment of the village leading to losses
worth Rs2,160mn, according to a report submitted in the Kerala Legislative
Assembly. (BS)

– In order to achieve higher production to keep pace with growing domestic
demand and reduce the waiting periods for its popular models, Hyundai
Motors India Ltd would shift part export related production of the premium
hatchback i20 to Turkey June onwards. (BL)

– Qatar is looking at investment opportunities with Indian companies in the
hydrocarbon sector. The Deputy Premier, and Minister for Energy and
Industry, Qatar, Mr Abdulla Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, said, that besides supplying
additional LNG to India, his country is also looking at partnering with Indian
companies, for projects in India, Qatar, and third countries. (BL)

Economic/Regulatory development

– While defending the move by RBI to raise policy rates, Governor D Subbarao said
inflation would moderate by June-July this year as a result of a good rabi harvest
and expectations from the kharif crop. (BS)

– The Planning Commission is likely to scale down the average growth rate for
the eleventh plan period (2007-12) to 8% from an earlier projection of 9%;
primarily guided by the effect of the global economic downturn in 2008-09 and
2009-10. The Planning Commission has pegged the growth for the next financial
year 2010-11, at 8.5%. (BS)

– The government would stick to its ‘advance estimate' for economic growth at
7.2% for the current financial year, said the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee,
on the sidelines of the Reserve Bank of India-Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development International workshop on Financial Literacy on
Monday. (BL)

– Indian Railways may have to rework sections of the route alignment of its
Rs508bn dedicated freight corridor project to avoid acquiring land from those
who are not ready to part with it; This follows Railway Minister, Mamata
Banerjee's firm stand on not forcibly taking over land from owners. (BL)

International trends

– Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Petro China Co agreed to buy Arrow Energy Ltd after
increasing their offer to A US$3.5bn, marking China’s entry to Australia’s coalseam
gas industry. (BS)