Page 1310 - Business Finance
Market turmoil hits BlackRock's bottom line in fourth quarter
NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc, the world's largest fund manager, reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday due to financial market turmoil, but investors celebrated the company's strong sales of relatively low-fee funds.
Gains in Goldman, BofA drive Wall Street to four-week high
(Reuters) - Bank stocks drove Wall Street to a one-month high on Wednesday after strong earnings from Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, with a multi-billion dollar deal in the fintech sector adding to the boost.
BofA's loan growth drives better-than-expected profit
(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp's quarterly profit topped analyst estimates on Wednesday as a growing loan book helped it ride out year-end market turbulence, sending the lender's shares up more then 5 percent.
RBI relaxes external commercial borrowing norms
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced a new framework for external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and rupee-denominated bonds in a bid to improve ease of doing business.
SBI to sell Rs 15,431-cr loan exposure in Essar Steel
In a surprise move, State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday put its entire loan exposure of Rs 15,431.44 crore in bankrupt Essar Steel on sale even though the prolonged insolvency case had neared resolution last October.
GDR manipulation: Sebi bars Syncom Healthcare, 6 individuals from markets for five years
Markets regulator Sebi has barred Syncom Healthcare, its six former board members for five years from capital markets in a matter related to manipulation of a global depository receipts (GDR). The regulator after conducting a probe found that the firm issued 4.5 million GDRs worth USD 20.74 million on September 3, 2010, on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Vintage FZE, a Dubai-based firm, now known as Alta Vista International FZE, was the only subscriber to the GDR and the subscription amount was paid by obtaining loan from European American Investment Bank (EURAM). However, the loan paid by Vintage was secured by pledge agreement between Syncom and EURAM Bank, the regulator said. The fraudulent arrangement of loan and pledge agreement, which resulted in facilitating the subscription of GDR issue of the company by only one subscriber, was not disclosed to the exchange by the company, the regulator said in an order dated January 15. Moreover, the firm mislead the investors into believing .
Cabinet nod for regularising non-board executives' pay in power CPSEs
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved regularisation of pay-scales of below board-level executives of the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) in the power sector that will benefit 5,254 executives.
Sebi issues norms for mutual funds investments in derivatives
Markets regulator Sebi has decided to allow mutual funds to write call options subject to certain conditions. Generally, call options refer to an agreement that gives a buyer the right to purchase an asset at a specified price within a particular time period. Currently, mutual fund schemes are permitted to undertake transactions in equity derivatives but cannot write options or purchase instruments with embedded written options. In a circular Wednesday, Sebi said mutual fund schemes (except Index Funds and ETFs) can write call options only under a covered call strategy for constituent stocks of Nifty 50 and Sensex indices. "The total notional value (taking into account strike price as well as premium value) of call options written by a scheme shall not exceed 15 per cent of the total market value of equity shares held in that scheme," it said. Further, the total number of shares underlying the call options written should not exceed 30 per cent of the unencumbered shares of a ...
Exclusive: BJP wants expansionary economic policy ahead of general election
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party is in favour of an expansionary economic policy and does not consider the government's plan to keep the fiscal deficit to 3.3 percent of GDP as "sacrosanct", a party spokesman told Reuters.
Rupee tumbles for 4th day; falls 19 paise to 71.24 vs USD
The rupee weakened further by 19 paise Wednesday to close at 71.24 against the US dollar amid a strengthening greenback and fresh capital outflows. Higher bond yields, which spiked on concerns that the government may over-shoot the fiscal deficit target in an election year, too weighed on the domestic unit, forex traders said. The rupee has now lost a hefty 83 paise in four straight sessions. Meanwhile, the pound rallied after British Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal to leave the EU was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs, leading to speculation that UK lawmakers may be forced to have a re-look at the entire Brexit process. The rupee opened on a weak note at 71.10 at the interbank forex market and lost further ground to reach an intra-day low of 71.27. However, it pared some losses to finally finish at 71.24 per US dollar, down 19 paise over its previous close of 71.05. "Indian rupee depreciated for the fourth day in row amid higher bond yield and expectation of expansionary ...
Sebi issues draft norms for commodity indices
Sebi Wednesday issued draft norms for commodity indices, proposing a maximum weightage of 20 per cent for a constituent. Besides, the watchdog has proposed rules for product design for future on the indices as part of larger efforts to deepen the participation of institutions in the derivatives segment. Only contracts that are compliant with certain conditions would be allowed to be part of the indices. The contracts should have traded for at least 90 per cent of trading days in last 12 months and they should have a minimum average daily turnover. The turnover should be at least Rs 75 crore for agricultural and agri-processed commodities, and Rs 500 crore for all other commodities, as per the draft norms. Before re-balancing an index, the future contracts concerned should have been trading in the particular exchange for at least 12 months. Regarding weightage, any constituent in index would have a maximum weightage at 20 per cent and minimum at 1 per cent. The weightage of the index ..
RBI loosens curbs on companies' offshore borrowing, move seen supporting rupee
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India relaxed offshore borrowing rules for companies and financial institutions on Wednesday, a move that is likely to boost the rupee exchange rate.
Reckitt Benckiser's Rakesh Kapoor to retire after eight years in charge
(Reuters) - Reckitt Benckiser Chief Executive Rakesh Kapoor will retire this year, paving the way for a potential change in strategy or break-up of the British consumer goods maker.
BJP amassed over Rs 430 crore in donations, 12 times more than all national parties
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has got over 93 per cent of donations of above Rs 20,000 received by national political parties, during 2017-18, pocketing Rs 437.04 crore of the total Rs 469.89 crore donated by corporates and individuals.
Reckitt Benckiser CEO Rakesh Kapoor to retire by 2019-end
British FMCG major Reckitt Benckiser (RB) Wednesday said its chief executive Rakesh Kapoor would retire by the end of 2019. The company has now initiated a formal process to appoint Kapoor's successor, it said in a statement. RB product portfolio includes Dettol, Durex and Lysol. Kapoor has "indicated his intention to retire as CEO by the end of 2019, after more than eight years as CEO and 32 years at the company", the company said. It further said that "RB's board has now initiated a formal process to appoint his successor, considering both internal and external candidates." On his decision, Kapoor said: "It has been a huge privilege to lead RB and I am very proud of the hard work and commitment of our people in delivering our success and many achievements." He added that the year 2020 will herald a new decade and it is a good time for the new leadership to take the company through the next phase of "outperformance". Kapoor said he will remain on the driving seat until his successor .
Network18 to launch first weekly paper Firstpost on Jan 26
Diversified media conglomerate Network18 Wednesday said it will launch its very first weekly newspaper Firstpost on January 26. Positioning itself as the last word on news, Firstpost will be a 20-page broadsheet appearing every Saturday and shall cater to readers in Mumbai and New Delhi. ************* 1500+ buyers to take part in Vibrant Gujarat Gandhinagar: As many as 1500 domestic and overseas buyers will take part in the buyer-seller meet to be organised during global trade show at Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit starting here Thursday, state finance energy minister Saurabh Patel said. Sales and order bookings worth Rs 2,000 crore are expected during the buyer-seller meet, he said. "At least 10,000 meets between sellers and buyers will take place, organised through online platform. This will benefit small scale industry from Gujarat," he said. The trade show will also see vendor development meet for which around 100 large companies have registered to seek new ...
Mindtree net profit grows 35% to Rs 191.2 cr in Dec qtr
Mid-sized IT firm Mindtree Wednesday said its consolidated net profit for the December 2018 quarter grew 35.1 per cent to Rs 191.2 crore and exuded confidence that its January-March numbers will be better than the just-concluded quarter. Mindtree had registered a net profit of Rs 141.5 crore in the October-December 2017. Its revenue grew 29.7 per cent to Rs 1,787.2 crore in the December 2018 quarter from Rs 1,377.7 crore in the year-ago period. "Our consulting first approach combined with deep technology and domain expertise are helping our clients drive enterprise-wide transformations...this has also helped the company sustain its growth momentum, even in a seasonally weak quarter," Mindtree Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rostow Ravanan told reporters on a concall. He added that the company continues to invest in people to further strengthen its ability to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. The Bengaluru-based company has been in the spotlight over ...
DCB Q3 net up 51% to Rs 86 cr on higher interest income
Private sector lender DCB Bank Wednesday reported a 51 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 86 crore in the quarter ended December 31, helped by higher interest income. The bank had reported a profit after tax of Rs 57 crore in the same quarter last year. "The growth in profit was on account of higher interest income and also as our cost to income ratio declined," its managing director and CEO, Murali Natrajan, said. The cost to income ratio in the quarter stood at 55.22 per cent in the quarter from 62.34 per cent last year. Its net interest income grew 17 per cent at Rs 294 crore as against Rs 250 crore as compared to last year. The gross non-performing assets stood at 1.92 per cent as against 1.89 per cent, while net NPA was stable at 0.71 per cent. Net interest margin declined to 3.83 per cent from 4.12 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Advances grew 23 per cent to Rs 22,888 crore as on December 31, 2018 from Rs 18,595 crore last year. Deposits grew by 29 per cent to
Companies cry out for Brexit clarity, warn on no-deal
LONDON (Reuters) - Furious companies facing weeks more uncertainty over an ever closer Brexit lashed out at politicians on Wednesday, and warned of chaos at ports and catastrophic job losses if Britain failed to secure a withdrawal deal with the European Union.
Himachal approves annual Plan of Rs 7,100 crore
An annual Plan size of Rs 7,100 crore for the next fiscal was approved at a meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Planning Board presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here on Wednesday.