Sensex makes history, kisses 5000-mark
THE return of the Vajpayee Government with a comfortable majority today triggered a bull charge creating a history in the Indian stock markets when the benchmark sensex breached the 5000 mark.

• Infosys net soars 131 per cent

Crop insurance scheme on anvil
CHANDIGARH, Oct 8 — Mr Rashid Jilani, Chairman and Managing Director, Punjab National Bank, said here today that the economy has shown signs of recovery during the first half of 1999-2000.

Women protest at ‘vulgar’ AC ad
NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — A leading national daily has stopped printing an advertisement for a brand of air conditioner after women activists lodged an FIR, terming it as vulgar.

Food habits change with higher income
NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — Growing incomes have resulted in a major change in the food habits of the people with consumption of grains coming down drastically and that of milk, meat and fruits increasing.

Swraj Paul calls on Prime Minister
NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — Lord Swraj Paul called on Atal Behari Vajpayee here today to convey the British Government’s keen desire to develop relations with India “across the board”.

CII sets agenda for new govt
NEW DELHI, Oct 8 —CII today urged the new Government to hasten the process of economic reforms while expressing hope that the present formation will complete its full term.

Safeway launches software
CHANDIGARH, Oct 8 — Safeway along with IBM India Ltd and Infinium Software Inc, USA launched ‘Infinium ERP solution’ in India here last night.

Tighter IPO norms for IT firms
MUMBAI, Oct 8 — SEBI today made it mandatory for information technology companies proposing to tap the primary market to furnish a three-year track record of profitability out of their IT activities.

Sensex makes history, kisses 5000-mark

THE return of the Vajpayee Government with a comfortable majority today triggered a bull charge creating a history in the Indian stock markets when the benchmark sensex breached the 5000 mark.

The BSE Sensex touched an intra-day high of 5091 points before retracting on technical grounds and closing an eventful day at 4981.74. NSE moved up by 7.35 points at 1477.10 on its account closing day while Delhi Stock Exchange shot up 17.10 points at 1078.90.

The undercurrent at this moment remains very strong with the election results coming to the expectations of the market.

“This is the happiest moment in the stock market’’, a happy BSE President Anand Rathi said. The prospects of a stable government charged the bulls when signs of economic recovery had already set a stage for the rally.

Change in the Moody’s outlook to positive from stable on Indian economy further enthused the investors.

This was also the first time after the 1992-securities scam that the market witnessed such a bull run. Experts believe that the current bull run is an indicator of better future prospects for India.

Prof Ajay Shah of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research ruled out to link the bull run to the immediate economic revival but said that the stock market has matured to indicate future prospects of the economy.

According to experts, the Indian stock market had been basically undervalued and under-priced — a combined outcome of the Asian currency crisis, the aftershocks of the nuclear tests, the policy muddles in the summer of 1998, less than robust state of the domestic economy and the prospects of defusing the nuclear tension improved the policy of the Government and demonstrated greater market wisdom. A return of investment interest — particularly from FIIs saw the stock market indices soar.

Vasudeo Joshi, Director at HSBC Securities Ltd said that the market has witnessed a bull run as FIIs have returned to the market after the election results conveyed the signals of stability at the Centre.

Leading foreign brokerage houses have predicted that the sensex may cross the 6000 points level by March, 2000.

Various positive factors that played a significant role in boosting market sentiment were growth in cement volume at 22.6 per cent in the first quarter, 46 per cent increase in sales of commercial vehicles, and 21 per cent increase in the indirect tax collections while 29 per cent in excise collections, the record decline in the inflation rate and a substantial increase in GDP.

There are total 488 FIIs registered with SEBI and total FII investment in India was recorded at $ 9676.1 million on October 4, 1999.

Although the FII investment remained negative last month, the market is expecting record FII investment in the current month.

Backdrop: The backdrop for the Indian stock market creating history today was formed by a sustained rally surprisingly after political parties failed to provide an alternative government and dissolution of the Lok Sabha in April, an ICRA analysis has said.

“The failure of an alternative government to be formed and the dissolution of the Lok Sabha surprisingly formed the backdrop of a sustained rise in the market — the third phase — which has not ended after four months’’, ICRA said.

Between end-December 1998 and September 11,1999 the 30-share BSE Sensex gained about 57 per cent in local currency terms and 54 per cent in US dollar terms.

The rally in the market in 1999 passed through three distinct phases. The first phase in January 1999 saw a modest, though significant gain of 250 points (8 per cent ) in the BSE Sensex and remained more or less flat till the Budget was presented in end-February. This was primarily on account of higher expected outlays from foreign investors — a regular phenomenon in January for the last few years.

The Budget, which was well-received by business, saw the market rise by nearly 500 points (15 per cent), marking the second phase, before being brought up short by the prospective loss of majority by the Vajpayee government.

Nearly 80 per cent of the gains of March were wiped out in the politically fluid month of April.

In the third phase, May saw a rise of 580 points (17 per cent), June of 190 points (5 per cent), July of 390 points (9 per cent) and August of 325 (7 per cent).

“In many cases the dividend (tax-free) yield was running at well over 15 per cent in the couple of preceding years. Such was the risk perception with regard to continued profitability’’, ICRA said. — UNI, TNS

Infosys net soars 131 per cent

INFOSYS Technologies Limited (ITL) today announced a 131 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 65.71 crore on a turnover of Rs 218 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, but ruled out any immediate acquisition abroad or a stock split.

Against the analysts’ prediction of Rs 70 crore profit for the quarter, Infosys reported an impressive profit of Rs 65.71 crore up from Rs 28.4 crore the same period last year.

Chairman and Managing Director of the company N R Narayana Murthy was quoted by a foreign news agency that the company had not decided anything on acquiring foreign companies. “Nothing seems good to acquire currently in the horizon,” he was quoted.

After the results, stock of this only Indian company listed in the American NASDAQ bourse, closed at BSE at Rs 8133, down 1.4 per cent from previous closing.

The company’s total income grew from Rs 120 crore the same quarter last year to Rs 218 crore this year registering a growth of over 80 per cent.

This overwhelming performance took the half-yearly net profit to Rs 126 crore from last year’s Rs 56 crore with a growth of well over 100 per cent. Turnover of the company also registered a close to 100 per cent jump at Rs 402 crore from last year’s half-yearly figure of Rs 219 crore.

Citicorp: Citicorp Information Technology Industries Limited announced a 51 per cent growth in the turnover for period April to September 1999 as compared to the same period in the last financial year.

The company recorded a total turnover of Rs 89.43 crore (unaudited results) for the six-month period. Profits before tax at Rs 34.16 crore have shown a 50 per cent increase as compared to the first six months of the last financial year.

The annualised EPS prior to bonus was an impressive Rs 159.33 (March 99 EPS: Rs 123.82) and the post-bonus EPS stood at Rs 69.67. CITIL announced a 1:1 bonus issue on August 31 at its annual general meeting in Mumbai.

Kotak Mahindra: Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd on Friday decided to refund service and documentation charges in full, aggregating to about Rs 1.5 crore, to its customers in Hughes Software Systems book-build portion of the IPO.

Godrej: Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Limited today announced the divestment of its 50 per cent equity shareholding in the Rs 728 crore Godrej Pacific Technology Limited to Tech Pacific.

Take 3-year leave, look for a job

MUMBAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — Manipal-based Syndicate Bank has come up with an innovative scheme to trim its excess staff under which it will give special leave for three years to look for alternative employment prospects during the period.

Employees at all levels opting for the special leave will have the liberty to look for alternative employment and can return to the bank after a period of two years if job hunting efforts go unsuccessful, the bank’s Chairman and Managing Director K.V. Krishnamurthy told reporters here today.

Those rejoining after two years will be paid the last salary drawn and posted at the previous position held, he said.

During the leave period, all monetary benefits of such employees will be suspended, he said.

Employees who do not return to the bank at the end of the three-year period have to submit their resignations.

Explaining the scheme, Krishnamurthy said that since he could not force employees to leave the bank and a voluntary retirement scheme was not financially feasible, the new scheme seemed the best bet for reducing the staff strength from the present 35,000.

The bank’s board has already approved the scheme and discussions with the Reserve Bank of India have also not met with any opposition, the Chairman said.

Krishnamurthy who was in the city today in connection with the bank’s initial public offering of Rs 125 crore at par, said they were trying to offset establishment costs by redeployed excess staff.

Crop insurance scheme on anvil
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 8 — Mr Rashid Jilani, Chairman and Managing Director, Punjab National Bank, said here today that the economy has shown signs of recovery during the first half of 1999-2000.

Presiding over the 70th meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee, Mr Jilani said that the foodgrains production has registered a record growth of 200 million tonnes during 1998-99. Exports too have registered a sustained growth in real terms. The banking sector also has shown good growth.

Mr Jilani said that the Government of India has proposed crop insurance scheme to take care of crop failure of any of the notified crops, which would benefit farmers. The banks have issued 6,43,463 Kisan Credit Cards involving credit limits of Rs 1,560 crore up to 31.3.99. During the current year commercial banks target to cover 20 lakh farmers under the Credit Card scheme.

The performance of banks in Haryana remained quite encouraging in extending credit support under the integrated rural development programme (IRDP)/ Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna, Swaranjyanti Shehri Rojgar Yojna and assistance to women beneficiaries.

Mr Vishnu Bhagwan, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Haryana, who was the chief guest, appreciated the performance of banks as far as growth in various developmental programmes is concerned. However, he was of the view that there are some short-comings in certain areas where the bankers and the Government agencies need to look into.

The meeting was also attended by Mr N.R. Kannan, CGM, NABARD, Mr V.K. Aggarwal, GM, PNB, Head office, New Delhi, Mr A.K. Bhargava, GM, PNB, Chandigarh, Mr R.S. Nanda, GM, SBP and Mr S.C. Vohra GM, PSB.

Women protest at ‘vulgar’ AC ad

NEW DELHI, Oct 8, (UNI) — A leading national daily has stopped printing an advertisement for a brand of air conditioner (AC) after women activists lodged an FIR, terming it as vulgar.

Indecent ads pollute the human psyche and encourage unwanted and unwarranted behaviour towards womenfolk, said the General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, Ms Amarjeet Kaur, in a Press note here today.

The Federation registered the FIR against a leading newspaper of the Capital for printing the advertisement in its September 16 city issue.

Mrs Amarjeet Kaur said the ad has no relevance to the selling of ACs. Being a consumer item, it is not only used for bed-rooms but also for offices, hospitals and other public places. Such an advertisement promotes unwanted gender behaviour.

Food habits change with higher income

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI) — Growing incomes have resulted in a major change in the food habits of the people with consumption of grains coming down drastically and that of milk, meat and fruits increasing.

A study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) between 1972-93 and 1993-94 reveals the share of foodgrains have come down in the urban as well as rural areas quiet significantly.

In the urban areas, the share of foodgrains in the food basket fell from 41 per cent to 32 per cent during the period, while the share of milk and milk products, meat, eggs, fish, fruit and vegetables have increased substantially.

In the rural areas, there was a more drastic fall from 62 per cent to 44 per cent in the foodgrains share during the period.

Swraj Paul calls on Prime Minister

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI) — Lord Swraj Paul called on Atal Behari Vajpayee here today to convey the British Government’s keen desire to develop relations with India “across the board”.

Congratulating Vajpayee on the NDA’s election victory, Lord Paul told him that Britain wanted to open a new chapter on its ties with India.

Besides more trade and investment, Britain was keen on greater political cooperation especially on global issues such as terrorism and trade policy.

Lord Paul also met External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, who has been invited to pay an official visit to Britain in December. He was accompanied by the British High Commissioner, Sir Rob Young.

Lord Paul called on President K R Narayanan on Wednesday.

He will go to Pakistan on Sunday to promote trade relations.

CII sets agenda for new govt
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 —CII today urged the new Government to hasten the process of economic reforms while expressing hope that the present formation will complete its full term.

“Unlike the previous government, in the present case it is a pre-poll alliance”, President of CII, Mr Rahul Bajaj said adding that “the industry supports two strong coalitions”.

Speaking to newspersons here today, Mr Bajaj said that the victory of the National Democratic Alliance would impart the much needed political stability in the country and allow the focus to shift to economy, growth and development.

Outlining a 13 point economic agenda for the new Government, Mr Bajaj said that the Government must make a start in downsizing government. “The government was too large, too flabby and too costly”, he said.

The revival of North India and East and North East India had to be addressed and sustained. Mr Bajaj observed that there was a crisis in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and the North East in terms of growth, development and unemployment and the Government of India must focus its attention on this crisis.

Privatisation must have an empowered authority to drive this key agenda. Mr Bajaj was felt that there was a need to avoid multiple ministries and agencies and centralise this new agenda for action.

There was a need to focus immediately on WTO and the Seattle conference, end-November, and finalise India’s negotiation strategy. This, Mr Bajaj observed, was critical and urgent.

Scrap the SSI reservation policy because it was standing in the view of SSI growth and efficiency.

Low cost housing development and construction must be given overriding priority. Mr Bajaj stated that there was a need to have 2 million new housing units up and ready. HDFC and Hudco etc must be empowered to implement this programme.

Agriculture must be given a new policy framework very clearly with a clear focus on deregulation and liberalisation. India was globally competitive in agriculture and the policy cobwebs needed to be cleared, including for sugar, Mr Bajaj said.

The Centre must decentralise power to the States, Mr Bajaj stated that the Centre must get out of the approvals on environment, mining, transport etc. The Centre must frame guidelines and then leave it to the States.

Labour policy must be changed. In particular, CII President mentioned the Factories Act 1948 and the Industrial Disputes Act. He felt that India must not stay with outdated labour laws.

Safeway launches software
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 8 — Safeway along with IBM India Ltd and Infinium Software Inc, USA launched ‘Infinium ERP solution’ in India here last night. A seminar on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and e-commerce was also organised for the region’s medium and growing small-scale industries.

Mr Arvinder Gupta, MD, Safeway Consultants, explained the emerging trends in ERT, e-business and mid-range computing. A road show of Infinium’s ERP software and IBM’s AS/400 range of servers was also organised during the conference.

Mr Maurice See, Director, Infinium Software Asia/Pacific Inc (Singapore), said the ERP software is the latest IT tool which is being used by 90 per cent of the top companies all over the world. ERP is considered as the ‘software mantra’ for managing organisational resources effectively and efficiently and e-business, a means of conducting business at the speed of thought.

Tighter IPO norms for IT firms

MUMBAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — SEBI today made it mandatory for information technology (IT) companies proposing to tap the primary market to furnish a three-year track record of profitability out of their IT activities.

“This would restrict initial public offers (IPO) by companies that have changed their names to reflect activities in the IT sector or recently entered the IT business”, SEBI Chairman D. R. Mehta told newsmen after the board meeting here today.

A company that does not fulfil this criterion, can access the market provided the project is appraised and financed up to 10 per cent by a bank or financial institution, SEBI Senior Executive Director O. P. Gahrohtra said.

During the period April to September 1999, SEBI received 46 IPO applications amounting to Rs 5,951.38 crore of which 21 were software companies offering capital of Rs 509.87 crore, he said adding that so far this year, 11 software companies had raised Rs 464.94 crore.

The SEBI board also reviewed the guidelines for public issues being made through the 100 per cent book-building route and made reservation of 15 per cent for individual investors optional.

Instead, 25 per cent of the issue may be offered to the public at the price as determined through book-building, he said.

Current book-building norms require a minimum of 10 per cent to be offered to the public which has now been raised to 25 per cent, keeping the individual investor out of the book-building process.

SEBI has also made it optional for the issuer to disclose either the issue size or the number of securities to be offered to the public.

Bank of India
MUMBAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — Bank of India (BOI) has revised the rates of interest on domestic and Non-Resident deposits by 50 basis points with effect from October 11, 1999. The bank revised its rates on domestic term deposits by 50 basis points for 46 days to 179 days to 6 per cent.