BackThe Mint Report for 13 September 2011
The Mint Report for 13 September 2011
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India’s struggling airlines are looking for a way out of their losses and airfares are their first target. The country’s big carriers met on Monday to discuss hiking current ticket prices, which they believe are too low. Two airlines, Air India and IndiGo stayed away from the meeting. The subject of hiking airfares is a sensitive one and could attract the attention of the Competition Commission of India. But airlines including Jet and Kingfisher have made losses in the first quarter and are staring at the possibility of losses throughout the fiscal.
India’s economic growth is slowing down, and this seems to be having a negative effect on the country’s job market as well. According to the latest figures of the Manpower Employment Survey, India’s Net Employment Outlook is just over 30% for the period of October to December, as compared to 45% in the previous quarter. Of the seven sectors surveyed in the country, services ranked highest with 37 % while Manufacturing was 32%. Despite the falling numbers, the employment outlook for the country is still among the strongest in the world.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has expressed concerns over the deepening financial crisis in Europe. He cautioned the global community not to lose its nerve and called for collective action to overcome the crisis. Growing fears of the potential Greek debt default ripping into Europe’s banking sector have rattled world markets and are adding to the domestic concerns of Indian policymakers.
Early gains were wiped out after global equities fell in reaction to the European debt crisis. The Sensex dropped 34.3 points to 16467.44. And the Nifty lost 6 points to 4940.95. Shares of lenders declined over renewed worries about a fresh rate hike by the Reserve Bank on Friday. State Bank of India dropped 1.5% on the BSE to 1840, while ICICI Bank went down 0.92% to 854. HDFC Bank also lost 0.42% to 467.
IT stocks meanwhile broke the trend, by making gains after the rupee grew weaker. Infosys shares rose 1.21% on the BSE to 2,224, TCS climbed 0.61% to 995 and Wipro jumped 1.25% to 328.55.
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