Business & Economy

FIIs stay bullish on Indian market 

What is India News Service, Friday, 3 December 2004, 1700 hrs IST


India is clearly the capital market destination for foreign investors as they are expected to continue their buying into 2005. 

Stock indices on Thursday closed at an all-time high fuelling further bullishness on the part of foreign investors. 

Foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows into the equity market would continue as there are expectations that the Government would take up tax reforms during the Union Budget for the next fiscal. 

Higher capital expenditure, lowering of capital gains taxes, increase in weightage of India in Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) index and the appreciating rupee against the US dollar were other factors that would propel foreign investors to continue buying.


Stock, Forex, Bullion hit new high: Thursday was a day for the markets with the bourses, forex and bullion markets touching all time highs. The booming stock markets rewrote history with the Sensex and Nifty setting new record highs after a steep fall in international crude oil prices sparked all-round buying.

Price regulator for steel ready, says Minister: Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said on Thursday that the proposed price regulator for the sector was ready and could be commissioned any day.

Telecom FDI hike heads for Cabinet: The Government affirmed that the proposal for increasing the FDI cap to 74 per cent from 49 per cent in telecom will be placed before the cabinet but in consultation with the security agencies in view of the concerns expressed by them over the proposed hike.

Rupee gains 34 paise; bond prices up: Buoyed by strong dollar inflows and a easing in global crude oil prices, the domestic financial markets were on an upswing on Thursday with the rupee appreciating by 34 paise and bond prices rallying by around Rs 1.50 in the debt markets. 

Group to watch IA's plane pricing: An inter-ministerial group would oversee price negotiations for the 43 aircraft that Indian Airlines intends to purchase from European manufacturer Airbus Industries.

Coal blocks allotted to Videocon, Lloyds Metal, Kalinga cancelled: The Coal Ministry has cancelled the allocation of coal blocks to Kalinga Power, the Videocon group and Lloyds Metal, as there has been no progress in respect of the projects for which the linkages were provided to them earlier. 
 
PSU committee to meet for autonomy: The first meeting of the high-powered committee to review navratna and miniratna scheme for public sector companies will be held next week.
 
Bata to turnaround next year: Bata India hopes to post a net profit next year wipe out its entire accumulated loss in the next two years.

Tea majors weed out wage hikes: Tata Tea, Goodricke, Williamson Magor, Assam Company, Assam Frontier and other members of the Indian Tea Association have staved off a bigger wage bill. 

FM to inaugurate Economic Summit: Finance Minister P Chidambaram will inaugurate the 20th India Economic Summit to be held in New Delhi from December 5-7, 2004.

BSNL's fixed line user base down by 3.2 m: BSNL has lost 3.2 million fixed line subscribers in 2003-04. The state-owned company had lost 1.7 million subscribers the previous year. Another 1.7 million consumers are waiting to get new connections from the state-owned telecom company. 

Airlines split over FDI: The air travel and tourism industry continues to remain divided over the issue of foreign airlines being allowed to invest in domestic carriers and on the entry norms for setting up an airline here.

Business papers 


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Business Line
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