Top Business India News Stories of 22nd October 2008

Daily news summary

Indian equities in red again
India’ equities tanked once again today after a slight improvement yesterday. Mid-afternoon the benchmark 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange was ruling at 10,281.99, down 401.40 points or 3.76 percent from its previous close Tuesday at 10,683.39 points. The Sensex opened weak at 10,455.23 points, down 228.16 points or 2.14 percent from its previous close Tuesday, touched a high of 10,484.85 before sliding steadily. At the National Stock Exchange, the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty index also showed a similar trend - opened weak, down nearly 50 points and dipped to shed nearly 150 points before beginning a weak recovery to reach 3096.05, still down 138.85 points or 4.29 percent from its previous close Tuesday at 3234.90 points. The BSE midcap index was at 3,516.23, down 71.01 points or 1.98 percent from its previous close Tuesday at 3,587.24 points. While the smallcap index was at 4,129.69, down 66.59 points or 1.59 percent from its previous close at 4,196.28 points.

Amid financial crisis, Gulf expatriates being aggressively wooed by Indian property developers
Indian real estate developers are aggressively wooing gulf expatriates, particularly from south India. This comes at an opportune time when property prices and rents are spiralling in the Gulf and the rupee depreciating. Kerala Builders' Forum (KBF) Calicut is holding a Malabar Property Show in Dubai Oct 23-25 to showcase villas, apartments and commercial space. "Because of spiralling rentals in Dubai and elsewhere in the region, Indians working here prefer to keep their families back home. It is a rare region-specific real estate exhibition coming from India," said Haseeb Ahamed, chairman of the Calicut chapter of KBF. The show is bringing 16 builders from the Malabar region of northern Kerala, who will promote projects in Kozhikode, Kannur, Thalassery and Malappuram.

No job cuts in IT industry: Infosys co-chair
Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, today said that there would be no pink slips in the Indian information technology industry as it has countered the impact of the current global financial tsunami well. Nilekani is a member of the business delegation accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his visit to Tokyo. The co-chairman explained his stance by saying that at Infosys growth has been lowered and thus they have graduated from 13-15 percent. Besides, industry experts say that losses on account of depreciation of one currency has been made up by appreciation in another due to market diversification, where Indian IT industry's heavy reliance on the US market was slowly coming down. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani leads the 20-member Indian business delegation. The delegation met with corporate honchos of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the business luncheon.

India, Japan economic pact left for another day
India and Japan have postponed the signing of the economic pact for another day. According to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, this pact will drive their bilateral trade much beyond USD10 billion. At a luncheon organised by Nippon Keidanren, a leading business association Dr. Singh said that the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which will broaden the merchandise trade basket and enhance reciprocal investments. The decision to forge CEPA was taken during Dr. Singh’s visit in 2006 during talks with then counterpart Junichiro Koizumi. Following which a joint committee was set up to examine various issues. A senior official said that the modalities are now being finalised for tariff reductions. Indian industry lobbies have sought immediate tariff elimination by Japan for products of export interest to India like leather, footwear, textiles, marine, chemicals and animal products on which Japan is having very high level of tariffs.

Wipro posts 36 percent revenue growth
IT major Wipro reported a profit of Rs.9.96 billion (USD203 million) for Q2 of this financial year ended Sep 30, recording a 30 percent year-on-year growth. Wipro chairperson Azim Premji reported to media officials that IT Services revenue in dollar terms was USD1.11 billion, showing a 4-percent sequential growth and 29 percent year-on-year growth. In rupee terms, revenue stood at Rs.47.50 billion, a year-on-year growth of 36 percent. On a confident note he said that we know that Indian economy is presently treading on dangerous grounds but the resilience of our economy will tide over these difficult times. Looking ahead, for the quarter ending Dec 31, 2008 he said that we are expecting our revenue from our IT services business to be approximately USD1.12 billion.

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