Chidambaram "knew it all' 2G: Raja claims

Former telecom minister A Raja's lawyer on Monday told the court that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was a party to all the decisions taken in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation.

He, however, clarified that he was not making an attempt to present Chidambaram as an accused.

"I am not calling P Chidambaram an accused but he knew everything. He was acquainted with all facts and circumstances of the case," he said.

Raja's lawyer also said that the statement of the home minister should have been taken in September 2010 itself.

Earlier on Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed fresh charges in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, seeking life imprisonment for all the accused.

Till now, the charges against the accused could have led them to a maximum imprisonment of seven years.

Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit filed an application before Special CBI Judge O P Saini, saying a case of criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code is "certainly made out" against Raja, his former private secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura.

The CBI plea said besides Raja and two former officials, all others, including DMK MP Kanimozhi and three telecom firms should be charged under section 409 (criminal breach) read with 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

"It is submitted that accused 1, 2, and 3 (Raja, Behura and Chandolia) were public servants having a dominion over valuable 2G spectrum in their respective capacities as public servants," said the CBI application.

"The said accused public servants in pursuance of conspiracy with other accused dishonestly disposed of the valuable 2G spectrum illegally and in violation of the existing policies and the eligibility criterion in order to confer wrongful gain on accused no 4 (Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa), 5 (Vinod Goenka), 6 (Swan Telecom), 7 (MD of Unitech Sanjay Chandra) and 8 (Unitech Wireless Tamil Nadu Ltd)," the CBI told the court.

"Thus, accused Raja, Behura and Chandolia have committed an offence punishable under section 409 IPC and all other accused have committed an offence punishable under section 409 read with section 120 B IPC. With the cognisance of this court (they) should be charged accordingly," the application said.

Earlier, all the accused were slapped with cheating and criminal conspiracy charges. Raja was additionally charged with forgery.

In another related development on Monday, the hearing of Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's application, pleading for Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to be made an accused in the 2G case, was deferred till October 12.

Swamy expressed hope that his petition in Supreme Court asking for a CBI probe against Chidambaram would be decided by then.

Sensex recovers 300 pts

The market made a smart recovery from day's low to trade flat with a negative bias, following rebound in global markets. Bharti, ICICI Bank, TCS, Infosys, SBI and Wipro were lead players in this recovery. The 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 14 points to 4,853 and the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 47 points to 16,115 after showing more than 300 points recovery from day's low of 15,801.01.

European markets like France's CAC and Germany's DAX jumped 2% each; Britain's FTSE rose 0.5%. Even the Dow Jones futures gained 0.6%, which lost more than 1.5%.

On the home turf, heavyweights like Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank shot up 2.5-3%. TCS, Infosys, SBI, DLF and Wipro were up 0.5-1.5%.

Jaiprakash Associates was the biggest gainer - jumped 3%. Tata group stocks too got back into green - Tata Steel, Tata Power and Tata Steel rose 0.5% each.

However, largecaps like L&T, ITC and NTPC went down 1.3-1.7%. ONGC and Reliance Industries fell 0.7% each.

Sterlite Industries, Hero Motocorp, Cairn, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, GAIL and Sesa Goa tumbled 2-3.5%.

But the broader indices underperformed benchmarks - the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 1.2% each.

Rupee weakens tracking Asian peers

The rupee weakened on Monday morning, tracking lower Asian peers amid broad gains in the dollar against major currencies. Traders will watch the domestic share market for further cues.

* At 9:05 a.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 49.53/54 per dollar, after dropping to 49.69 in early deals and weaker than its close of 49.42/43 on Friday.

* The unit had shed 4.4% of its value last week, its biggest fall since the week ended July 12, 1996.

* The MSCI index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was down 1.8%, while the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were down 0.7%, suggesting a weak start to the local market.

* The index of the dollar against six major currencies was up 0.14% at 78.616 points. It was at 78.502 points when the rupee closed on Friday. Most Asian currencies were also lower versus the dollar.

* The euro dropped sharply on Monday, moving towards an eight-month low hit last week, as riskier assets were hammered across the board with markets waiting for more details on fresh efforts from European officials to tackle the debt crisis there.

Sensex dips below 16000, Nifty at 4800

Equity benchmarks fell further in line with rest of Asia. Oil & gas, capital goods, FMCG and private banks stocks were under pressure. The 30-share BSESensex was trading at 15934, down 228 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 69 points to 4798, led by panic selling.

Among Asian markets, Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan were down 1.5-2%. Jakarta Composite fell over 4% and KLSE Composite slipped nearly 3%. Shanghai declined just 0.5%. Thailand plunged 6.5%.

Macquarie Securities said equity markets continued to face downside risks. 

Among commodities, Silver crashed 7%. Crude slipped below USD 80 a barrel on the NYMEX.

John-Paul Smith of Deutsche Bank said the next phase of the unraveling of the carry trade might lead to major decline in commodity prices and increase signs of distress among EM corporates. "This could result in further underperformance of equities," he added.

On the sectoral front, the BSE Metal Index slipped 3% on the back of fall in commodities prices in international markets.

Oil & Gas, Capital Goods, FMCG, Auto, Realty and Bank indices were down 1-1.7%.

Largecaps like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, L&T and HUL were down 1-2%. ONGC and SBI fell 0.7% each. Sterlite Industries plunged 4%.

Sensex trims losses; Re goes down to 49.74/$

The market recovered partially and appeared stable after sell-offs in initial trade. The 30-share BSESensex was trading at 16,226, down 134 points after seeing recovery of more than 100 points from early day's low. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 42 points to 4,881.

Technology (post fall in rupee to 49.74 per dollar), FMCG (defensive counters), PSU oil & gas and select power companies' shares were on buyers' radar.

However, financial, telecom, metal, capital goods and auto stocks were still under selling pressure, which weighed on the market.

Tata Motors, Sterlite Industries, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Cairn India, Axis Bank and SAIL were top losers among largecaps - these stocks plunged 3-4%.

However, TCS, Tata Power, Wipro, Infosys, NTPC and HCL Tech gained 1-2%. ONGC, ITC and HUL were other gainers; rose 0.6-0.9%.

The broader indices underperformed the benchmarks - the BSE Midcap Index was down 1.3% and Smallcap down 1.6%. About three shares fell for every share gaining on BSE.

Among midcaps, KGN Industries, Sunteck Realty, Trent, Patni Computer and Redington gained 1-5%.