Maruti Suzuki begins some operations at Manesar plant

Maruti Suzuki has re-started some operations at its Manesar plant, the India’s top passenger car maker said Tuesday. The operations are focused in high automation areas of the plant, it said.

Production at Maruti’s plant in Manesar, Haryana came to a halt on Monday after the company suspended 21 employees on charges of sabotaging operations and deliberately causing quality problems in the vehicles manufactured at the plant. It had further suspended 16 more workers on Tuesday.

Maruti is now tapping new trained people from technical institutes who it aims to employ in the next couple of days to ramp up production.

"In the last 30 hours since production came to a halt, the company’s managers and engineers have been scouting for experienced and ITI trained manpower in the Manesar belt. By the end of the day today, they had identified over 200 people and expressed confidence that production would be ramped up in the next few days. These 200 people are likely to join in the next 2-3 days on a contract basis," Maruti said.

Maruti had asked all its workers at the plant to sign a Good Conduct bond, seeking an assurance that they will not indulge in activities that would hamper normal production.

It said 11 more workers signed the bond today, taking the total to 36 workers. 25 workers had signed the good conduct bond on Monday.

ONGC FPO likely to hit markets on September 20

Follow-on public offer of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is likely to hit markets on September 20, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting NewsWire 18.

The company's FPO road shows are likely to begin on September 5 while it is likely to file FPO documents with SEBI by September 8.

The stock fell 1.1%, to close at Rs 274.95 a share on BSE. Market capitalisation of the company stood at Rs 235,233.20 crore. 
 
The FPO has been deferred several times in the past due to the company not having adequate number of independent directors on its board. The FPO was then planned for July 5 but was again deferred.

Maruti may partly resume Manesar plant operations today

Maruti Suzuki is likely to resume some operations at its Manesar plant in Haryana on Tuesday and may even employ temporary contract workers at the plant, according to RC Bhargava, chairman of India’s top passenger car maker.

The company is facing fresh labour unrest at the Manesar plant. Maruti has suspended nearly two-dozen workers at Manesar and has alleged deliberate tampering with components by some workers.

The company has suspended 16 more permanent workers and discontinued the services of 12 trainees today according to PTI, further intensifying the stand-off between management and workers, and completely affecting production for the second day.

The company is asking all its workers to sign a Good Conduct bond, seeking an assurance that they will not indulge in activities that would hamper normal production at the plant. It has already lost around 1,200 units of production and Rs 40 crore in revenue due to the halt in production.

Earlier in June, a 13-day strike by Manesar workers who were demanding recognition to a new labour union, had also crippled production.

Bhargava told CNBC-TV18 today that there had been no final solution yet and the Manesar issue would take time to settle down. However, he was hopeful that the matter would not take too long to resolve itself.

Automobile companies, including Maruti Suzuki, have seen a sharp drop in sales growth this year due to expensive loans and high fuel prices. This fresh unrest at Manesar, which produces the new Swift among other cars, could hurt Maruti further.

Vehicle sales, which rose over 30% in 2010-11 (April-March) are only expected to rise around 11-13% according to Society of Indian Auto Manufacturers. Bhargava, however, feels the industry is only likely to manage about 8% growth in the current fiscal year.

He said sales in August are unlikely to be any better than in July, but is hopeful that there will be some pick up in the festive season. Bhargava also doesn’t expect the issues at Manesar will have any effect on Maruti’s market share.

Maruti Suzuki shares fell over 1.5% on opening on Tuesday but have since recovered the losses to trade up 0.1% at Rs 1,080.70 on NSE in late morning trade.

Sensex northbound

Heavyweight Reliance Industries has seen huge buying interest that pushed the Sensex 200 points higher again. Short covering as well as fresh longs build up has been helping RIL since yesterday; the stock gained another 4%. RIL added 2.8 lakh shares in the open interest.

The market was showing strong uptrend but profit booking at higher levels capped the upside. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,617, up 199 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 60 points at 4,980.

Nifty 5000 call added 8 lakh shares in open interest, which shows that the market may go up further. EvenNifty 5200 call added 5 lakh shares in open interest.

European markets too were quite supportive; France's CAC and Germany's DAX were up over 0.5%. Britain's FTSE rallied 2.8% (it was closed yesterday).

Global cues lift Sensex 200 pts

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trend higher on Tuesday morning led by positive global cues. The indices reacted to the 15% jump in Athex (Greek market) Composite on consolidation in the banking industry. There was also a sigh of relief as the damage from Hurricane Irene was less than feared.

Technology, financial, metal, realty and capital goods stocks were seeing buying interest. But investors looked a bit cautious ahead of GDP data today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,621, up 205 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 62 points to 4,982 led by gains in 45 stocks.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's stocks like Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Reliance Power maintained uptrend; stocks rallied 2-4%.

DLF, HCL Tech and Infosys were up 2-3%. In the financial space, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and SBI moved up 1.5-3%.

Among other largecaps, Tata Steel, JSPL, SAIL, Reliance Industries (up 2%), Bharti Airtel, L&T and Tata Motors too were on buyers' radar.

Sensex gains 450 pts

Indian equity markets continued to trade higher on the back of positive global cues. European markets too opened strong; France's CAC and Germany's DAX were trading 1.5% higher. The 30-share BSE Sensexmoved up 450 points to 16,298 and the 50-share NSENifty shot up 133 points to 4,880.

TCS and Jindal Steel have topped the gainers list; both stocks rallied 6% each.

Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Wipro, L&T, HDFC, Cairn, M&M, Tata Steel and Bajaj Auto surged 2-4%. NTPC and ITC gained 1-1.5%.

Kotak Mahindra Bank jumped 5.5%. However, ONGC turned negative; the stock fell 1%.

Maruti Suzuki declined further; it lost 2% due to problems emerged at Manesar Plant. Ranbaxy Labs, Sesa Goa and Ambuja Cements were other losers.

About four shares advanced for every share falling.

TD Power IPO subscribed 3 times on QIB support

Manufacturer of AC generator TD Power Systems ' initial public offering has received good response from qualified institutional buyers (QIBs). The Rs 227-crore issue has subscribed nearly three times, as per data available on the National Stock Exchange.

The issue has received bids for 2.2 crore equity shares as against issue size of 75.6 lakh shares (excluding anchor book). Maximum bids have seen at lower-end of price band of Rs 256-261 a share, which was on expected lines because the anchor book was subscribed at Rs 256 a share.

QIBs helped the issue with their reserved portion being subscribed 6.52 times. Non-institutional and retail investors' portion subscribed 0.38 times each.

Manufacturer of AC generator has output capacity in the range of 1 MW to 52 MW.

The company proposes to utilize the net proceeds of the issue mainly to finance the expansion of the existing manufacturing plant in Dabaspet, Bangalore and for the construction of a project office in Bangalore. It also proposes to utilize part of the net proceeds to repay debt, fund working capital requirements and for other general corporate purposes.

It also executes Turbine Generator (TG) island projects for steam turbine power plants with output capacity up to 52 MW using a Japanese turbine combined with TD Power generator.

Milk prices may rise more in festive season

Prices of milk and its products are expected to go up further during the ensuing festive season due to supply concerns amid rise in demand, Assocham said in a study.

"The price of milk and milk-based products in India is set to surge on the back of a variety of natural and human factors, including a shortage during monsoon months," it said.

In the last one year, prices of milk have increased by about 25-30% and any further rise in rates could have an adverse impact on food inflation, which rose to 9.8% for the week ended August 13.

The chamber said fodder scarcity and export of cattle fodder are some of the main reasons which had pushed up the milk prices in the country.

"Once milk prices go up, the prices for milk-based products like butter and cheese will also go up. The prices will be further impacted by the upcoming festivals season which sees a spike in the demand and consumption of milk based products, especially sweets," the industry body added.

India is the world's largest milk producer with more than 110 million tonnes of production. However, the growth in production is lower than the rise in demand.

It further said between 2005-06 to 2010-11, the prices of eight essential commodities have gone up by nearly 72%. On the contrary, the per-capita income of an average Indian in the metros has gone up by 38%.

Prices of condiments and spices, eggs, fish and meat, milk and pulses have witnessed a sharp increase.

Rupee rises on sharp share gains

The rupee strengthened on Monday on the back of sharp gains in domestic shares and gains in other Asian peers.

* At 9:58 am, the partially convertible rupee was at 45.84/85 per dollar, stronger than 46.145/155 at close on Friday.

* Domestic shares were trading up 2.4%, in line with other Asian markets after the US Federal Reserve chairman left the door open for further action to stimulate the world's biggest economy.

* The dollar came under light pressure against a basket of major currencies in Asia on Monday, with traders speculating the Federal Reserve may offer more stimulus next month in the face of an uncertain growth outlook.

* Most Asian currencies were stronger compared to the dollar.

* The index of the dollar against six major currencies was down 0.1% at 73.741 points in Asian trade, much below 74.017 points when the domestic forex market closed on Friday.

Nifty rises 100 points

Investors are choosing India over other Asian peers this morning. Broadbased buying took the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,196, up 345 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 101 points to 4,849.

Technology stocks were completely on buyers' radar; respective index shot up over 3%.

The BSE Bank, Metal, Realty, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and Auto indices surged 2-2.7%. The broader indices too were following the same trend; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 1.5% each.

Among largecaps, Jindal Steel was the biggest gainer; the stock jumped 6%. Reliance Infrastructure, IDFC, TCS, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries and Wipro rallied 3-4.5%.

However, Sesa Goa was the only loser on Nifty as company halted its mining operations at Chitradurga Mine. The stock fell 1.86%.

Market breadth was positive; about four shares advanced for every share declining

RIL, ONGC in close race for India's most-valued co title

In a veritable game of musical chairs, energy giantsReliance Industries and ONGC pipped each other several times to the position of the country's most-valued firm during afternoon trade in the stock market today.

In early afternoon trade, ONGC toppled RIL as the country's most valued firm, but its lead lasted only for a few seconds before the private sector corporate giant grabbed the top slot again.

Within minutes, ONGC again passed RIL on the market valuation charts, albeit only for a few seconds, and a kind of race was on between the two, with less than a 0.1% difference in their market valuations.

At 1313 hours, ONGC shares were trading 0.43% up on the BSE, giving the company a market value of Rs 242,462 crore, higher than RIL's Rs 242,201 crore.

ABN AMRO cuts 9% of jobs

Nationalised Dutch bank ABN AMRO is shedding 2,350 jobs - some 9% of its workforce - as the state readies it for sale or a listing.

The bank said it expected 1,500 redundancies and 850 positions to be lost through natural attrition in the next three to four years.

Most of the job cuts will be in back-office operations such as IT, but some retail and private banking positions will also be axed. The bank said it has taken a restructuring provision of 200 million euros pre-tax for the redundancies.

Global banks have announced close to 50,000 job cuts in recent months in the face of sluggish economic growth, volatile markets and regulatory changes.

The Dutch state, which nationalised ABN AMRO during the 2008 financial crisis, plans to sell ABN AMRO in 2014 or later, preferably by listing it on the stock market, so improving efficiency would make the bank more attractive to potential buyers.

Historically, ABN AMRO has had a relatively high cost-to-income ratio compared with other banks.

It said its cost-income ratio fell to 63% at the end of June, from 75% a year ago.

Dutch rival ING has reported an underlying cost-income ratio of 59.2%, while Rabobank has an efficiency ratio of 59.7%.

The Dutch government nationalised the Dutch operations of ABN AMRO and Fortis for 16.8 billion euros when Belgian-Dutch Fortis group lost investors' confidence at the height of the credit crisis in 2008.

ABN AMRO said in a statement it wanted to improve its services to customers by offering new products such as banking on mobile phones, and reduce bureaucracy, resulting in the job cuts.

The bank said it would pay an interim dividend of 200 million euros, its first since it was bailed out and nationalised.

Underlying second-quarter net profit rose to 391 million euros from 11 million euros a year ago thanks to higher non-interest income and lower provisions.

Underlying results exclude integration and separation costs due to the ABN AMRO break-up following the takeover by Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Fortis in 2007.

Sensex below 16k

The BSE Sensex sliped below 16000 investors dumped realty, metal, power, banks and oil & gas stocks. Barring Reliance Media Works, rest of ADAG pack tumbled between 3%-7%. Heavyweights Stocks like Reliance, ITC, ICICI Bank, L&T and HDFC Bank were major laggard to the index.

At 13.52 hrs IST, the Sensex was down 184.70 points or 1.14% to trade  at 15961.63, and the Niftywas down 59.95 points or 1.24% to trade at 4779.65.

About 816 shares advanced as a decline of against 1837 shares declined, and 1021 shares remained unchanged.

Top losers on the Sensex: Jaiprakash Asso at Rs 56.15 (down 5.47%), DLF at Rs 178.05 (down 4.58%), NTPC at Rs 163 (down 4.15%), Tata Steel at Rs 426.55 (down 3.8%) and Tata Power at Rs 1,008 (down 3.62%).

Kingfisher board okays Rs 20bn rights share issue

Private sector carrier Kingfisher Airlines said on Friday its board has approved raising up to Rs 20 billion through a rights issue of shares.

The board also amended the terms for the issue of optionally convertible debentures that were issued on January 3, the airline said.

Earlier this year, the carrier had cut its debt through a debt restructuring process under which the airline had issued 116.3 million shares to a consortium of 13 banks led by State Bank of India (SBI), after conversion of compulsory convertible preference shares at 64.48 rupees a share.

Nifty directionless

Trading in Indian market has been listless for the past one hour. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,179.86, up 33.53 points and the 50-share NSENifty was at 4,846.70, up a miniscule 7.1 points.

Investors picked up shares in healthcare, auto and select technology stocks. Buying was seen in ONGC, Bharti Airtel, HDFC and HDFC Bank shares as well, which moved up 1% each.

However, power, cement, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group shares as well as select metal shares were being dumped. SBI, ITC, Wipro and ICICI Bank too were down.

Asian markets continued to trade mixed. Shanghai, Hang Seng and Straits Times were down between 0.2% and 0.8%. However, Kospi and Taiwan gained 0.4%.

Parliament to debate Lokpal Bill

Anna Hazare may break his fast on the eleventh day on Friday as a desperate UPA hopes to initiate a debate in Parliament on the Lokpal issue to break the logjam. Sources say the UPA wants Parliament to discuss all the versions of the Lokpal Bill, including the Jan Lokpal Bill, but is likely to go ahead with the proposal only if the draft resolution is acceptable to Team Anna.

Sources say Anna Hazare is likely to break his 11-day fast the moment a resolution on a strong Lokpal Bill is passed.

But there was confusion even after multiple rounds of talks over whether the Government and Team Anna will reach an agreement at all. Team Anna too seems divided over whether the 74-year-old anti-corruption crusader should call off his fast.

"We will find effective ways and means to discuss Jan Lokpal Bill along with the Government's version of the Bill, along with Aruna Roy's and Jayaprakash Narayan's. All ideas should be discussed and debated to get best possible bill to help us deal with corruption," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday taking the initiative to end the Lokpal logjam.

The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj aslo supported the Prime Minister's formula by saying, "We shall do everything to bring a strong Lokpal Bill".

The team Anna went into a huddle after the sense of the House was conveyed to them, but Anna Hazare was not convinced, and after consulting with his colleagues, he categorically spelt out that he would not concede on the three demands - appointment of lokayukta, lower bureaucracy and the citizen charter.

Start Lokpal debate tomorrow in Parliament, says Anna; govt likely to agree

As the prospect of a compromise emerged that could lead Anna Hazare to end his fast, the 74-year-old activist addressed his by-now-standard crowd of thousands at his protest camp in Delhi. He acknowledged that the Prime Minister and he have exchanged messages about how to end the crisis over his Jan Lokpal Bill that Anna has drafted with his associates.

Anna, who has not eaten in ten days, said he has conveyed to the Prime Minister, "If you are serious, let's start a debate tomorrow in Parliament on the Jan Lokpal Bill. There are three points of dispute... we will test you on these."  He said if there is consensus on these issues, he will consider ending his fast, but may choose to continue his protest.

Anna has vowed not to end his fast till the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by him and his colleagues is placed in parliament. Named for the independent anti-corruption agency that it creates, the Lokpal Bill currently exists in three versions prepared by the government, Team Anna and a group of activists headed by Aruna Roy. The PM has suggested that all three drafts can be discussed by Parliament; a compilation of the best features from each could then be sent to a parliamentary committee for detailed study and feedback.

The fact that the government wants to discuss all three bills in Parliament may not sit well with Anna.

In his speech, Anna referred to the PM's rich tribute to him in Parliament this morning. "Thanks to all those who praised me," he said. "It is actually you who deserve the praise. But I worry that this is just a ploy." He added, "I want to ask Opposition parties why they're silent. Speak up. Say that you support our Jan Lokpal Bill."

The Prime Minister today reached out to the 74-year-old activist with a sincere tribute and a new offer for compromise, both delivered in Parliament. (Read: PM offers new formula for ending Lokpal stand-off) |(Watch: PM's entire speech in Parliament)

Dr Manmohan Singh, who has been criticised for appearing too distant during Anna's massive anti-corruption movement, said, "His point has been registered. I respect his idealism. Anna Hazare has become the embodiment of people's concern and disgust with corruption. I applaud him, I salute him." 

He then sent his party's Vilasrao Deshmukh to meet Anna at his protest camp and convey that a debate in Parliament can begin tomorrow on all versions of the Lokpal Bill. Mr Deshmukh knows Anna well, both men are from Maharashtra where the Congressman has served twice as Chief Minister. Hoping for a breakthrough today, the PM will meet his senior ministers. (Watch: Salman Khursheed vents against Team Anna)

Anna's team has three demands that have been contentious for the government.  Now, ministers are searching for solutions to these. The first is that the Lokpal - a new independent agency to investigate corruption - must be allowed to cover junior bureaucrats so that graft is combatted "from the villages to our ministries."  The second is that the Lokpal Act must be introduced not just at the Centre but in states. Finally, he wants government departments to adopt a citizen's charter that would punish officials for under-performance. 

So far, the government has said that the Lokpal's powers over the lower bureaucracy could give it an authoritarian dimension.  It also wants each state to decide on its own version of the Lokpal Act.

Cipla to see growth of 14% this year

Drugmaker Cipla expects to meet domestic industry growth of 14% this year, its chairman said on Thursday, but warned of a possible slowdown in its business in Libya, Syria and Algeria due to the political situation in those nations.

"There has not been major impact on the overall Africa business but only certain countries have slowdown due to the political situation in the last year," Yusuf Hamied told an annual meeting of shareholders.

The Mumbai-based firm, which enjoys the highest share in India's pharmaceuticals market, is known for selling low-cost generic versions of anti-retroviral drugs used to fight HIV/AIDS.

CLSA downgrades PSU banks on asset quality concern

The consequence of an economic slowdown has begun to show on banks’ asset quality.

Indian lenders are now expected to record higher non-performing assets though the trend will differ from bank to bank depending on certain factors like exposure to high risk sectors, restructured loans and aggression in growth in past few years, says international brokerage CLSA.

This is what the CLSA report said:

“Banks with high restructured loans and those with higher exposures to sectors like infrastructure, real estate and textiles could report sharper rise in NPL. Private banks are better placed than PSUs due to lower exposure to risky sectors like SME, textile, infrastructure and higher share of retail- led by mortgage. Moreover, their superior profitability along with higher NPL coverage will cushion earnings against the risk of rise in credit costs.”

This clearly gives an edge to private sector banks over their peers in public sector space. The brokerage downgraded some frontline PSU banks including Punjab National Bank , Bank of India ,Canara Bank , Corporation Bank , Oriental Bank of Commerce , and Union Bank of India , to "underperform". India’s largest lender the State Bank of India was already downgraded to underperform due to higher share of stressed asset portfolio and premium valuations.

Team Anna calls for 'Dilli Chalo' march from Saturday

Team Anna Hazare today gave a call to the people to peacefully march towards the national capital from Saturday if the government fails to resolve the Lokpal issue.

Arvind Kejriwal, core member of Hazare's team, also appealed to people here to hold a protest outside the 7, Race Course Road official residence of the Prime Minister demanding tabling of Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.

He asked the Prime Minister why he is not doing anything about the Jan Lokpal Bill.

"By Saturday, if there is no solution, we will appeal to the people for 'Dilli chalo'. People should come in large numbers and sit here till the government finds solution to the issue, if it doesn't introduce the 'Jan Lokpal bill' in Parliament they should not leave till it is resolved," he told reporters after a meeting of the team's core committee.

The meeting also discussed last night's talks between civil society and government representatives that ended in a deadlock.

Team Anna reaffirmed that they are ready for talks with the government, but insisted that government should give in writing its intentions before the next rounds of talks.

"The government should give in writing their intentions and what they want. We will deliberate on their written statement and respond to it once consensus is reached among us. Then we will go for talks," he said.

The RTI activist said Team Anna will talk to political parties to seek consensus on the issue.

"We are going to start talking to other political parties today. We are seeking their time as we have to come to know through newspapers that they may have reservations with some points. We will meet them to resolve these doubts and issues," he said.

The civil rights activist also called for peaceful protest outside the Prime Minister's residence later in the evening today.

Asian shares cheered by Wall Street

Asian shares rose on Thursday, cheered by gains on Wall Street, but Apple skidded on the shock resignation of Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs and gold continued to struggle after running into a wall of profit-taking.

Shares of Apple tumbled as much as 7% in after-hours trade in a knee-jerk reaction to news that Jobs resigned as chief executive of the world's most valuable technology firm.

"Apple will need to show that without Jobs it can come up with visionary products," said Hendi Susanto, analyst at Gabelli & Co.

US stock index futures were off 0.1% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq futures fell about 1.0%.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs resigns, Cook to take over

Steve Jobs resigned as Apple Inc Chief Executive on Wednesday, without specifying a reason.

Tim Cook, the company's Chief Operating Officer, who has been standing in for Jobs during his medical leave, has been named the new CEO. Jobs becomes Chairman.

Apple's shares fell 5% in after-hours trading.

The following are instant reactions from analysts and investors.

MICHAEL YOSHIKAMI, CEO, YCMNET ADVISORS

"They obviously have been planning this for some time, given the extended nature of Steve Jobs' illness. Tim Cook has proved himself worthy of the role."

"Unless we hear something more about his health situation, it does seem as if he is going to continue to at least have some input into the company through his chairman role. And I think if it was even more serious, I would be surprised if he had actually recommended he go into the chairman role. So I think probably this is more a reflection that he just simply can't do it on a day-to-day basis."

JASON HIRSCHHORN, FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, MTV AND CO-PRESIDENT, MYSPACE

"I have to imagine that it's related to his health. I

cannot imagine another explanation."

"If you read his note, this is clearly not a surprise to the board, they've discussed succession."

"Steve Jobs is my hero, a legend in global industry and a true Willy Wonka-esque deliverer of joy and happiness through product and experiences."

"But you need to believe that he didn't do it all on his own and that Tim Cook is the real deal. Apple has a very, very deep bench of talent and the product roadmap is stellar and their ability to execute and supply it is beyond compare."

ANONYMOUS SILICON VALLEY CEO

"It's really sad. No one is looking at this as a business thing, but as a human thing. No one thinks that Steve is just stepping aside because he just doesn't want to be CEO of Apple anymore. It feels like another shoe is going to drop."

No deal, Govt acts tough with Team Anna

The meeting between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Anna Hazare's associates - Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan - remained inconclusive on Wednesday with the two sides agreeing to resume talks again on Thursday.

The Centre seemed to have hardened its stand during the third round of talks with Mukherjee saying that due consideration would be given to Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill, echoing the resolution passed by an all-party meeting on Wednesday evening.

While Law Minister Salman Khurshid said the talks went on in a positive manner at the North Block, Team Anna had an entirely different take on how the talks went on and said that they were disappointed with the outcome.

Mukherjee said that parliamentary process have be followed and requested Anna Hazare to end his fast.

"We apprised them of the outcome of the all-party meet. We requested them that there is a parliamentary process to complete," said Mukherjee.

"We hope that the parliamentary process will be allowed. We recommended that Anna Hazare ends his fast and that due consideration would be given to Jan Lokpal bill so that an effective Lokpal Bill will be formulated," he added.

"Talks are going in a positive manner. Talks will continue tomorrow. Both parties are trying to understand each other. Anna's health is a priority. There is need for a broad national consensus suggested by all-party meeting and we are working towards that. We cannot undermine the official Lokpal Bill that was passed by the Cabinet," said Khurshid.

But Bhushan said that the Government told them that parliamentary procedures cannot be short-circuited.

"We are disappointed from the meeting. Unfortunately, we are back to square one. Yesterday there seemed to be some progress. But today after the meeting we are back to square one," said Prashant Bushan.

"Today we are being told that the parliamentary procedure cannot be short-circuited but some timelines can be adhered to," he said.

"They told us that the Jan Lokpal Bill will not be presented," said Arvind Kejriwal.

Bedi added that Government’s tone had changed overnight. She claimed that the difference between Government's attitude on Tuesday and Wednesday was marked like "day and night".

"Today their (Government team’s) attitude was very tough. Instead of talking as they did yesterday they were literally shouting at us and putting us down. When we asked will they use police force to pickup Anna tonight they got angry,” she said.

At the all-party meeting held at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's 7 Race Course Road residence, the Government offered to make changes in the Lokpal Bill it has tabled in Parliament. But the entire Opposition wants the Government to withdraw its bill.

However, the Government says that there is no need for the withdrawal of the bill.

The Government has agreed that an amended Lokpal Bill will be tabled in Parliament but has refused to give any timeline for the final bill. The final bill will contain amendments suggested by Team Anna or any other group and the Prime Minister will be brought under the Lokpal's ambit.

The Lokpal will replace the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as the investigation agency for corruption cases and a citizens' charter will be included for redressal

But two main sticking points remain: Lokayuktas for all states and inclusion of lower bureaucracy under the Lokpal.

Sensex volatile ahead of expiry

A rally in global markets pushed the benchmarkSensex higher in the opening trade, but volatility snipped the upward trend. The 30-share BSE Sensexwas trading at 16,327, up 42 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 13 points to 4,901.

The F&O series expires today and experts feel that it may happen in the range of 4800-4900. Among largecaps Tata Motors, IDFC, Reliance Communications, HUL, DLF, Maruti, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Sun Pharma were witnessing buying interest in early trade.

However, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ITC, L&T, Reliance Industries and Hero Motocorp (goes ex-dividend today at Rs 35 a share) were down.

The CNX Midcap rose 22 points to 7,288. About 534 shares advanced as against 320 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

Buy Infosys; target of Rs 2730: PINC Research

PINC Research is bullish on Infosys and has recommended buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2730 in its August 22, 2011 research report.

“Infosys, the management has indicated that there is no revision in the guidance (18-20%YoY revenue growth) as of now, due to S&P downgrade of US debt rating. There are some delays in decisions related to the discretionary projects and ramp ups got affected but no project has been cancelled. As of now, no pricing negotiations have been done; in fact there has been increase in revenue productivity and the management does not expect pricing to decline in the short term due to global uncertainty. Clients are uncertain in a short term and not going for long term projects. No pricing negotiations and no project cancellations. Over the last two years Infosys has won large deals and currently working on ~30 transformational projects.”

“The campus offers given in last year to be inducted in FY12 is as per plan. The hiring of laterals will be as per the demand environment. Also, the utilisation is very low so lateral hiring might be lower if the demand slows down. The current utilisation (excl trainees) is 74.9% and the management is comfortable to keep it in the range of 78-82%. The strategic direction is to move towards a balanced share (33% each) of revenue from i) Consulting & SI business, ii) Business IT services and iii) Products, platforms and solutions. The current contribution is 30%, 61% and 8.5% respectively for above three segments. Maintain ‘BUY’ recommendation on Infosys with a target price of Rs 2,730 based on 17.5x FY13E earnings,” says PINC Research report.

L&T Construction bags Rs 1,340 crore new orders

L&T Construction today said it has secured new orders worth Rs 1,340 crore in building and factories segment during Q2 FY12 for the construction of commercial and residential buildings, including add-on orders from ongoing projects.            

The company has secured new orders aggregating to Rs 975 crore for building a mixed use commercial development and construction of the main civil works for an IT campus from reputed customers, it said in a statement here.   

It has also received an order worth Rs 203 crore for the construction of a residential tower from a leading developer. Besides, it has secured add-on orders worth Rs 162 crore from various clients for ongoing contracts.

These orders further enhance the order-book of the company, which has already secured major design and build contracts in airports, IT parks, commercial and residential space, it said.

Sensex slips

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower with Sensex losing over 100 points on the back of profit booking, though showed some recovery from day's low. Auto, technology, capital goods, cement and banking stocks were putting pressure on the market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,358, down 140 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 38 points to 4,911.

However, the uptrend in ONGC, Hindalco, HUL, Sterlite, SAIL, Reliance Communications, DLF, Power Grid, Ranbaxy and Reliance Infrastructure has limited the downside.

About 1466 shares advanced while 1229 shares declined on BSE.

Most active shares were SBI, Lovable Lingerie, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Coal India, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.

Gold futures slip from record levels on weak global trend

Amid profit-booking at record levels by speculators and a weak trend overseas, gold futures slipped by 0.53% from their record level to Rs 27,450 per 10 grams today.

At the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold for delivery in October fell by Rs 147, or 0.53%, to Rs 27,450 per 10 grams, with a business turnover of 1,665 lots. It had galloped to a record high of Rs 28,284 per 10 grams in yesterday's volatile session.

Gold for delivery in December also lost Rs 146, or 0.52%, to Rs 27,710 per 10 grams, with a trade turnover of 72 lots.

Analysts said profit-booking by speculators at record high levels and a weak trend overseas, where the precious metal slipped from its record level of USD 1,913.50 an ounce, mainly led to the fall in gold prices in futures trade.

Also, a weak trend in precious metals in the domestic spot market at prevailing record levels also weighed on gold prices in futures trade here, they said.

Globally, gold fell sharply by USD 68 to USD 1,830.10 an ounce in New York last night.