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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  Opening bell 2 June
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Opening bell 2 June

Opening bell 2 June

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Mumbai: Overnight, the US markets had their worst days in two months after payroll and manufacturing data fell short of estimates. The S&P 500 declined nearly 2%.

Now, that rubbed off on Asian stocks as well and oil as well. The first Asian market to open today, Japan, fell 2%. Of course, the fact that Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan faces a no-confidence motion later today also adds to the uncertainty.

The news at home isn’t cheery though it is not unexpected either. May sales for most auto makers were either flat or even contracted as dealers tried to clear their inventories. Read more...

Apart from slowing auto sales, the purchasing managers’ index, the core sector index and the earnings of Indian firms in the March quarter all point to growing macroeconomic concerns. Read an analysis of fourth-quarter earnings here.

These concerns don’t seem to weigh on Andrew Holland, chief executive-equities at Ambit Capital Pvt Ltd, who was positively chirpy in an interview to Bloomberg UTV’s Vivek Law. India will remain among the fastest growing nation, he declares here.

One reason for his optimism could perhaps be the softening prices of some commodities such as coal and iron ore. But then, prices could be falling because demand from slow makers is slowing down as they struggle to stay viable.

Cairn India could give up the non-compete fee on the Vedanta deal due to royalty issues. Both companies are still waiting for an okay from the Cabinet to complete the deal.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to allow multi-brand FDI in retail. But with a string of conditions on investment, sourcing, number of outlets per city, even going to the extent of giving state governments the final say in some matters. Setting up a bank would be easier it seems.

The rural development ministry is proposing that farmers should get 80% of the profits from resale of land bought from them for real estate developers. That goes one better than the 25% suggested by the National Advisory Council. Read more...

South Africa is Godrej Consumer Products’ darling as it has acquired a fourth company there in as many years. While these buys have added heft to the company’s revenues, the challenge now is to sustain the growth. Read more...

And finally, it seems that the heart is a “plant" and the expenditure been incurred on “current repairs", aka surgery, should be income-tax deductible. Thus argues Shanti Bhushan, more in the news these days for causing heart-ache to the government on the Lokpal bill issue. Read more...

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Published: 02 Jun 2011, 09:04 AM IST
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