Sensex crosses 35000 as govt moves to contain fiscal deficit
Indian stocks crossed new milestones on Wednesday on hopes of a corporate earnings recovery and the government’s effort to limit a fiscal slippage in the current financial year. However, high crude oil prices and interest rate hikes by foreign central banks remain key risks to the rally. The BSE’s benchmark Sensex closed at 35,081.82 points, up 310.77 points, or 0.89%, crossing the 35,000-point mark for the first time. The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 10,788.55 points, up 88.10 points, or 0.82%.
HUL Q3 profit jumps 28% YoY to Rs 1,326 crore, volume growth at 11%
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s biggest consumer goods company, on Wednesday reported 28 per cent YoY rise in net profit at Rs 1,326 crore for the December quarter. The number came in better than Rs 1,145 crore estimated by analysts in an ET Now poll. The FMCG major had reported a net profit of Rs 1,038 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Volume growth for the third quarter came in at 11 per cent, the company said in a BSE filing.
Satyam case: Price Waterhouse moves Securities Appellate Tribunal against Sebi ban
Audit firm Price Waterhouse (PW) challenged a two-year ban imposed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) over the Satyam Computer Services fraud on the grounds that the regulator doesn’t have jurisdiction. “Sebi has not been able to establish mens rea on behalf of chartered accountants for it to have jurisdiction,” said a person with knowledge of the petition that PW moved in the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). “That was the standard set by the Bombay High Court” Mens rea refers to knowledge that wrongdoing is being committed.
Budget 2018: Divestment target may jump in FY19
The government is expected to sharply increase its asset-sale target for the next financial year with about 36 companies lined up for strategic disinvestment. The government has raised a record ?54,337.60 crore so far this year against its FY18 target of Rs 72,500 crore, of which Rs 15,000 crore is through strategic sales. A senior government official said transaction and legal advisers are being appointed for about 10 companies. “The process is on and expressions of interest (EoIs) have been floated for some firms,” he said. “We expect a bulk of these deals to fructify in the next fiscal.”
IITs creating extra seats for women to lift gender ratio
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will create at least 550 extra seats exclusively for women in the batch starting July 2018 as the nation’s premier engineering colleges seek to strike a better gender balance. An abysmally small number of women join IITs — it was one in every 10 admissions last year — despite them faring better than men at the higher secondary level. As part of a cure for this, the Ministry of Human Resource Development earlier this month directed all 23 IITs to ensure that at least 14% of their seats went to women in the 2018 batch.
JSW highest bidder for Binani Cement
Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Group has emerged as the highest bidder for Binani Cement exceeding submissions from billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and UltraTech said three people familiar with the development. JSW’s bid is worth about Rs 5,900 crore, they said. While the bids were revealed to the committee of creditors two days ago, banks will take a final call on the winner in the coming days. The lenders have appointed consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal to evaluate bids. Bankers are confident Binani is one asset that they won’t lose money on.
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