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Mumbai: The Indian rupee touched at 46.15/16 per dollar, its strongest since Sept. 26, 2008. The dollar’s fall and a strong stock market start may trigger more capital inflows.

“Weaker dollar overseas is fuelling selling, it is a sell uptick story,” said Ashtosh Raina, head of foreign exchange trading at HDFC Bank.

Low U.S. interest rates and investor bets on commodity currencies saw dollar at its weakest in 14 months.

Foreign fund investments into local shares are key factor determining the direction for the rupee. Foreigners have bought a net $12.8 billion worth of shares this year, almost reversing net outflows of more than $13 billion in 2008.

New Delhi: Air India pilot Ranbir Arora and a co-pilot Aditya Chopra, who were accused of molestation and assault of airhostess, Komal Singh, were arrested when the latter filed a complained. The accused were later released on bail.

Airhostess Komal Singh claimed that on Ocotber 3, aboard the Sharjah-Delhi flight, she was assaulted and molested by Arora and Chopra inside the cockpit.

Pilot Ranbir Arora and co-pilot Aditya Chopra were called for questioning and later arrested in connection with the mid-air scuffle.

“As the offence is bailable, they were released after registering their arrest and questioning,” a senior police official said.

Mumbai: According to Asia-Pacific Wealth Report released by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Capgemini, India’s high net worth individual (HNI) population shrank by 31.6 per cent in 2008.

A drop in the pace of economic growth and erosion in market capitalization are cited to be the reasons for the dip. This is the second largest decline in the world.

HNIs are those individuals who have investable assets of more than $1 million, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables.

“After experiencing the largest growth in HNIs in 2007, India reversed the trend in 2008, as the key drivers of wealth such as GDP and market capitalization was hit hard by the global financial crisis. The drop in GDP growth and market capitalization caused an erosion of massive amount of HNI wealth in 2008,” said Salil Parekh, CEO (Financial Services), India and Asia-Pacific, Capgemini.

Pradeep Dokania, head of global private client, DSP Merrill Lynch, said the asset-allocation preferences and the distribution of wealth by the HNIs also resulted into a decline in numbers.

A decline in the global demand for India’s good and services caused the GDP to slow down and lead to a drop of 64 per cent in 2008 in market capitalization.

The report said the markets in China and India were forecast to grow faster within the Asia-Pacific region and even faster than markets in Latin America.

New Delhi: The car sales in the month of September has taken the speed of a bullet to record a double-digit growth this year as compared with just 1.31 per cent last year on the back of optimistic sales in the first half of 2009-10 as reported by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).

Car sales in September jumped 20.61 per cent to 1,29,683 units which is the highest in a month from 1,07,517 units in the corresponding period a year ago. During the first half of the year, sales grew 14.75 per cent to 6,89,339 units from 6,00,738 units a year ago. This growth was due to the stimulus package and a cut in interest rates.

Dilip Chenoy, director-general of Siam, said that the revival in stock markets, a resurgent monsoon and the festival period improved consumer sentiment.

Other factors such as launches, festival discounts, a reduction in taxes, improved liquidity and the salary hike of government employees, following the recommendations of the pay commission, also helped. Issues of concern include fluctuating commodity prices, multiple tax structures, repossession norms, the weak pace of infrastructure growth and the availability of upgraded fuel.

Auto analyst Murad Ali Baig confirms that stimulants are still needed to drive growth in the market, though most firms have shown good signs of recovery. If easy access to funds and an improved market condition continues to be a constant phenomenon, double-digit growth is not far away.

If we look at the two wheeler industry, Bike sales rose just 6.56 per cent to 6,73,891 units, while two-wheeler sales grew 7.67 per cent to 8,38,150 units.

Commercial vehicles sales increased for the third consecutive month from 6.46 per cent to 45,451 units from 42,693 in the year-ago period.

Mumbai: Reliance Industry says, one bonus share will be issued for every share held by an investor. The company has also declared a dividend of 130% or Rs 13 per fully paid-up equity share of Rs 10.

A company statement said, “The proposal for bonus and dividend continues Reliance’s tradition of rewarding shareholders on a sustained basis.”

The company also released restated results for 2008-09 to reflect the absorption of RPL effective from April 1, 2008.

The stock touched a high of Rs 2,209 but slipped 5% from there to touch a low of Rs 2,100. The stock managed to recover its losses and ended at Rs 2,119 – up 1%. Over 2.48 million shares were traded on the BSE today.

The dividend will result in a payment of Rs 2,219 crore, inclusive of taxes of Rs 322 crore. Both the bonus shares and dividend will also accrue to the shareholders of Reliance Petroleum (RPL).

The Indian IT industry is expecting sequential growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2010 by upgrading business sentiments and favourable cross currency movements.

This could prompt Infosys Technologies to improve its fiscal 2010 revenue forecast to a flattish year-on-year growth, compared with its prior downbeat projections. Infosys, which will announce its numbers on Friday, would beat its own projections for the September quarter, as declared by an official.

Under the impact of the global economic crisis, the industry had for the first time since 2001 witnessed a sequential negative growth. It had caused volumes to drop and induced pricing pressures.

Analysts said client decision making was turning orderly with improvement across verticals (especially BFSI and Telecom). Signs of recovery, including volume based utilisation improvement, stable pricing and abatement of leakages at key clients, are also visible.

Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal in a note to its clients said that pick-up in discretionary demand, faster rebound in BFSI and telecom and contribution from new business channels could lead to
upgrades.

The rupee has remained largely flat against the US dollar during the September quarter, as a result of which the rupee-term growth would be largely in line with the dollar-term revenue growth during the quarter.

New Delhi: As the Commonwealth Games 2010, leaving some of its best rivals, Air India has been termed as the official carrier. It would be providing special charters and services for the games.

The Commonwealth Games has been scheduled between 3rd and 14th October, 2010. Air India has already sign the Memorandum of Understanding for this with the organizers of the Commonwealth Games.

Arvind Jadhav, Chairman and Managing Director of air India informed “Air India has become the first company to be associated with the Commonwealth Games, and we will put our best foot forward as an official carrier”

The cellular telephony market is one of the fastest growing sector in the world.

Taking advantage of its growth, US-based handset maker Motorola today said it will launch seven new handsets (out of which six would be a part of Motorola’s Yuva series) in the next three months in India.

This launch is in sync with the upcoming festive season. These new models will be ranging from Rs 3,500 and Rs 8,000 and will be catering to the low-end to mid segment.

Motorola India Country Head (Mobile Devices) Faisal Siddiqui said in a statement that these seven models would offer a range of features and would be reasonably priced.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that India will grow at more than 6.3 per cent exceeding the Commission’s forecast as the impact of drought would not be as bad as anticipated earlier.

Ahluwalia told reporters here, “I am not revising the original forecast (of 6.3 per cent), the Planning Commission had made…But now I am eliminating the downside possibility of that forecast.”

Having grown by 9 per cent for three consecutive years, the economic growth slipped to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 on account of the impact of the global financial meltdown.

The Planning Commission had projected a growth rate of 6.3 per cent for the current fiscal in its report on the status of the economy presented to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 1.

Although, drought continues to be a matter of concern, “it will have probably (have) less of negative effect than was originally thought. There are signs of revival in the rest of economy”, Ahluwalia said.

Mumbai: Indian cotton exports are set to bound a new turn as world cotton market fundamentals are turning in India’s favour.

Given bright crop scenario, India’s cotton export prospects too are beginning to brighten. Growers are likely to benefit from the evolving market conditions.

According to the reports, world exports are poised to bounce back modestly to 6.9 mt (6.6 mt). China is the world’s largest cotton producer, consumer and importer.

According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), while consumption is expected to recover slightly because of recovery in global economic growth, output is projected to decrease, especially in China.

Consider this. For 2009-10, world consumption is projected at 23.6 million tonnes (23.1 mt previous year) while production is estimated lower at 23.1 mt (23.4 mt). Ending stocks are projected to deplete to 11.8 mt (12.3 mt).