SC grants bail to 5 corporates accused

The Supreme Court of India has grated bail to all corporates accused in 2G scam case. Each corporate will file two sureties of Rs 5 lakh each. The corporates include Unitech 's Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom's Vinod Goenka and Reliance ADAG's Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair, Surendra Pipara.

Shahid Balwa has not got bail as the trail was not scheduled today.

This is the first set of bail granted in the telecom spectrum scam.

The Reliance executives are accused of cheating as part of an alleged conspiracy. They allegedly created a web of companies through subterfuge in order to conceal the real identity of the holding hands of Swan telecom.

Goenka is accused of being a part of this larger conspiracy whereas Unitech's Chandra is accused of being a beneficiary in the scam.

Chandra's firm was given the 2G spectrum licence by former Telecom Minister A Raja despite its ineligibility and that his company was tipped-off about the proponing of cut-off dates for applying for the 2G licence.

The CBI also alleged that after getting the licences, Unitech and co-accused Swan Telecom had sold their equity to foreign companies much before beginning to roll out of their services, thereby making huge profits.

The CBI is also expected to give its reply to a special court in response to the notice on another accused Shahid Balwa's plea.

Defenses by the accused in the Supreme Court are - no prima-facie case, no documents to suggest cheating or forgery against them. Even if a prima facie case exists, bail is the rule and denial of it is an exception.

Accused have no criminal past and had all along cooperated with the CBI during the investigation in the case.

Investigation in the case is over, chargesheets have been filed against the accused and they are no longer needed for further investigation hence they should be released on bail.

The CBI on the other hand says that, the accused are influential persons and if released on bail they could tamper with the evidence and that the offence committed by the accused is very grave.

Sensex snaps 8-day losing streak

Indian equity benchmark Nifty snapped 8-day losing streak on Tuesday -- bouncing back above the 4800 mark -- led by technology, banks, metals and auto (four-wheeler) stocks. But the market was extremely volatile during the day due to choppy trade in rupee. Both the benchmarks trimmed gains in late trade following cut in gains in European markets and downward spiral in the rupee. The 30-share BSESensex rose 119.32 points, to close at 16,065.42 and the 50-share NSE Nifty moved up 34 points, to end at 4,812.35.

Asia's worst-performing currency in 2011, the rupee today tumbled to an all-time low of 52.73 against the US dollar. In an intra-day trade, it appreciated to 52.30, which suggests that the RBI may have sold dollars; but it again moved down to 52.59 a dollar at the time of closing of Indian equity markets.

Anant Narayan, managing director, regional head of fixed income and currency trading, south Asia at Standard Chartered Bank and Sajjid Chinoy, Asia economics at JPMorgan suggest that despite the volatility being global, in the short term, it is only the central bank that can intervene and arrest the free fall.

European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were trading 0.5% higher, which rallied 1% in the opening trade. The Dow Jones futures turned flat.

Back home, the most beaten down stocks in the last eight days saw short covering in today's trade. Tata Motors was the biggest gainer among largecaps, rising 6% to Rs 173 a share.

In the technology space, TCS, Wipro and Infosys gained 1.7-2.3%. HDFC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, SBI, Sterlite and BHEL climbed 1-2%.

Jaiprakash Associates, which lost 15% in last seven days, gained 4%. However, Bharti Airtel was the major loser - dropped 2.5%.

ITC, HUL, M&M, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp among other largecaps were down 1-2%. HDFC Bank, ONGC and NTPC were marginally lower.

Total traded turnover on both exchanges was more than Rs 1.99 lakh crore. The broader indices were flat today and even the advance:decline ratio was equal.

Amtek Auto shot up 20% on buyback news. S Kumars Nationwide, Pantaloon Retail, Educomp, Suzlon, Kingfhisher and Jet Airways gained 3-10%. However, Parsvnath Developers crashed 20%.

Howrah-Doon Express fire

Railway Ministry officials confirmed that the death toll in the Howrah-Dehradun Express train fire which broke out late on Monday night, is now up to seven.

The Railway Ministry officials have also said that there was no pantry car attached to the train, so the investigations are on to find the source of the fire.

He added that the affected bogies have been detached and that rescue and relief operations are on.

"We have detached the affected bogies. Relief and rescue trains are on their way," he said.

According to a Railway Ministry spokesperson at New Delhi, the fire broke out at 2:30 am in B-1 AC coach and then it spread to B-2 AC coach.

The train is currently stationed at the Giridih district of Jharkhand which is four hours from Ranchi.

The Railway managers and medical teams were on the site. Eight trains have been held up from Gaya and Dhanbad.

The Railways have set up a helpline for the relatives of the passengers.

The helpline numbers are:

033-26413660

033-26402243

032-62220518

BWN Enq: 03422-561601

DHN Enq: 0326-2220518

Nifty holds 4800 amid choppy trade; Re hits low of 52.72/$

The 50-share NSE Nifty is still in its upward spiral amid a choppy trade, supported by oil & gas, capital goods, metals and financials (barring HDFC Bank). The current short covering-led upmove was despite falling rupee and weak Asian cues. The BSE Sensexrose 100.31 points to 16046.41, and the NSE Nifty moved up 28.15 points to 4,806.50.

The Indian rupee touched an all-time low of 52.72 to the dollar today as against 52.16 on Monday, which resulted outflow of foreign money. It depreciated by 74 paise at 70.99 to an euro. Nilesh Shah of Axis Direct points out to high gold imports as the reason for the weakness in rupee.

Sudarshan Sukhani of technicaltrends.com expects rupee to be at 55 to the dollar. He said he would maintain the short positions.

Major largecaps like Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank and ONGC gained 1-1.8%. Tata Motors, Hindalco and BHEL were top gainers, rising 2.5% each.

L&T and SBI rose 0.7% each. Tata Steel, JSPL, Cipla, NTPC and Maruti were up 1% each.

However, Bharti tumbled nearly 2% and Bajaj Auto lost 2.5%. Hero Motocorp, TCS and Wipro were other losers.

On the global front, Asian markets like Shanghai, Nikkei, Hang Seng and Taiwan fell 1% each. Straits Times and Kospi were flat.

At 9:20 hours IST : Sensex rebounds 100 points; Re hits 52.44/$

The Indian equity benchmarks—Sensex and Nifty—opened above the 16,000 and 4,800 mark, respectively. Short covering helped the market. It was warranted after a fall of more than 1,600 points on the Sensex in the last eight days.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 135 points at 16,081.10 led by 27 stocks. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 39.6 points to 4,817.95 amid volatility.

The market shrugged off the falling rupee. It hit an all-time low of 52.44 to the dollar today. It was trading at 52.43 a dollar, down 27 paise from the previous closing price. It was down by 46 paise to 70.70 a euro.

Tata Motors, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure, JP Associates, Reliance Communications, SBI, ICICI Bank, IDFC , DLF, Sterlite, Hindalco, JSPL, Reliance Industries, NTPC and SAIL gained 1-2%.

However, Infosys lost 1.6% post the management's outlook. HCL Tech and Bharti Airtel too were down. 

The CNX Midcap rose 31 points to 6,571.

Asian markets were mixed. Shanghai and Hang Seng fell 0.5-1%. However, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan were marginally higher.

The US equity markets managed to recover marginally from the day's low on Monday. S&P and Moody’s reaffirmed the US' ratings even after the congressional committee failed to reach an agreement to reduce the country's USD 15 trillion deficit. However, Fitch warned of a revision of negative, if the US deficit was not controlled.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan gives birth to baby girl

Mumbai: Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has given birth to a baby girl, the first daughter for the former Miss World and her actor husband Abhishek Bachchan. The delivery took place at the Seven Hills Hospital in Marol, Mumbai.

A proud grandfather, Amitabh tweeted on Wednesday morning, "T 561 - I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl !!"

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai had married on April 20, 2007 as per Hindu customs. The much publicised wedding had taken place in a private ceremony at 'Prateeksha', the Bachchan residence in Juhu, Mumbai.

Twitter has been the speculation ground for the Bachchan baby since long. There have been speculations on the exact date of delivery and the gender of the baby.

An irritated Amitabh Bachchan had even hit back after the interest shown by the media and people by tweeting, "Getting congratulatory messages on Aishwarya delivering a boy !!! Guess they know more than even she does !! False and incorrect news."

Even celebrities did not lag behind in expressing interest about the baby. Renowned novelist Tasleema Nasreen had tweeted that "I love Aishwarya Rai. But when I said 'I wish she would give birth to a baby girl', people asked me, Why do you hate Aishwarya?"

A set of guidelines, issued purportedly by the Broadcast Editors Association, recently surfaced prompting senior Bachchan to deny having tried to influence the coverage of the high profile birth. The much awaited birth of the year has made the child a celebrity in her/his own way.

It will be interesting to see how the Bachchan family will guard the baby from being exposed to the limelight even before it reaches a certain age.

The western world has seen many celebrity children such as David Beckham's son Brooklyn or Brangelina's twins in recent times where the paparazzi have hounded every step of the child and its parents.

The twitterazzi swooped down upon the news from the moment Bachchan broke the news on Twitter. A tweet confirming the pregnancy of a leading actress in the industry, perhaps for the first time in cinematic history, made front page news in major national dailies. As the sun sets on the era of star kids, celebrity babies usher in a trend imported from Hollywood show business.

As Bollywood's first family, the Bachchans have always been in the limelight, be it the intense coverage of the Abhi-Ash wedding or Senior B's illness.

As a celeb baby, every moment of its life is going to be of interest, the pregnancy photos, the delivery date, the first baby photos might go to the highest bidder as is the Hollywood trend, the baby's name will have the nation thinking and whether the new born will get the father's height and gait or the mother's looks. And post that, every action, every decision made by the celeb parents for the baby will be news. Tremendous pressure on a new-born isn't it?

The celeb baby phenomenon has just come in to Bollywood. Abhishek and Shweta had star parents as well, as did Esha Deol. But their birth and childhood was never half as high profile.

In the recent past, Ajay Devgan and Kajol's children and Twinkle and Akshay Kumar's son – has been in the news only when spotted with their star-parents. They aren't stars yet. The Abhi-Ash child will come in to an industry that worships the parents and the grandparents.