India Briefs

FMCG major Hindustan Lever announced it decision to issue bonus debentures to its shareholders. The bonus debentures with face of value of Rs 6, totalling Rs 1320 crore will be issued from the general reserve in the ratio of one for every one share held. The debenture will carry a coupon of nine per cent and be redeemable in two equal instalments.

Hughes Software Systems stunned the markets last week with a 52 per cent fall in its net profits for the quarter ended September 2001. The company has reiterated its forecast that income will grow 25-35 per cent for the year to March and said net profits will increase marginally from the previous year.

In nation-wide searches on brokers in march-end has detected a total undisclosed income of Rs 1200 crore. The department had searched the premises of Ketan Parekh and his associates, Nirmal Bang group, First Global group, Anand Rathi and associates and Radha Krishna Damani among others.

The weigthage of India in the first phase of the rebalancing of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) index has dropped 0.93 per cent, dipping from 7.1 per cent to 6.2 per cent after the recast.

However, the decline seems to be much lower than the market expectations. The lower-than-expected fall is due to the decision by many corporates to allow the hike in FII limit to 49 per cent.

Yet again, IT major Infosys managed to overshot market expectations by registering a 30.87 per cent growth in net profits for the second quarter ended September 2001.

While the revenues for the period under review soared to RS 650.13 crore, up from Rs 446.1 crore in second quarter of FY01. The company has maintained its earlier growth guidance of 30 per cent and announced an interim dividend of 150 per cent (Rs 7.5 per share) as compared to 50 per cent (Rs2.5) earlier.