The rupee continued its slide for the fourth consecutive day on demand for dollars from oil importers. It fell to a new low of 55.03 per dollar on Monday due to shaky risk sentiment. The currency is expected to touch 56-57 per dollar if the external environment continues to be adverse and the domestic economy continues to be slack, reports Wall Street Journal India.
Asian markets were trading higher on Monday morning following gains in technology and export shares after US markets roared back to life overnight, reports MarketWatch. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average gained 1.1%, China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.9% following the rebound in the US markets which clocked their best session in two months on bargain buying.
Sounding a warning bell, Lanco has said power plants will shut down if gas supplies dwindle. With KG-D6 field output dropping from 61.5 million cubic meters per (mmscmd) day to 32.66 mmscmd over two years, the government has made a pro-rata cut in gas supplies to 25 power plants. Lanco had written to the government last week that it was not viable for plants to operate at such low capacity.
Biocon will be in the focus after investment bank - Espirito Santo raised concerns over the accounting processes, reports Business Standard. Espirito Santo in report released to investment community said that Biocon had booked a notional loss of euro 21 million in the AxiCorp deal and did not factor in $200-million upfront milestone payment it received from Pfizer in its Profit & Loss account.
Bajaj Auto is ramping up capacity by 25% to 6.3 million units as it faces stiff competition from Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, reports Business Standard. India’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer is also considering setting up a fourth plant to take its annual capacity over seven million units.
The woes of the telecom sector could get deeper as the Department of Telecom (DoT) will press for 17% increase in 2G spectrum base price to Rs 4,245 crore, above Telecom Regulatory Authority’s (TRAI) proposed rate, reports Economic Times. The DoT panel has also rejected the regulator’s proposal to allow companies to stagger payments for spectrum over a 12-year period.
Mahindra & Mahindra is planning to infuse Rs 500 crore in order to make a mark in the two-wheeler market, reports Economic Times. The utility vehicle major has already set up new assembly lines for scooters and motorcycles at its Pithampur plant with a capacity of 1 million units.
Lastly, while the euro crisis is bad enough for the equity markets around the world, its rapidly growing lexicon is even uglier. Some gruesome word mashes such as “Grexit” have emerged to describe an exit of Greece and “Geuro” for a parallel currency, reports Wall Street Journal.
