Jan 25, 2011

Some Useful News Highlights

FMCG-to-hotels major ITC has witnessed a 21.4% jump in net profit in the third quarter of this fiscal at Rs 1,389 crore, up from Rs 1,144 crore a year ago. The growth was fuelled by the above par performance of cigarette, hotel and agri businesses. The new FMCG businesses have cut down losses in the quarter to Rs 73 crore. Cigarette, agri and hotels business witnessed a healthy growth in profit while paperboard profit was marginally down to Rs 191 crore during the quarter.

The Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) on Friday announced results of third quarter for the financial year 2010-2011. The net profit of the bank for the quarter is Rs 90.25 crore as against Rs 52.3 crore in the last quarter. Operating profit for the third quarter of current financial year (Q3 FY2010-11) stands at Rs 789.17 crore as against Rs 552.26 crore in Q3 FY2009-’10, recording a year to year (y-o-y) growth of 42.90 per cent. The total business of the bank rose to Rs 106514.98 crore as compared to Rs 95032.13 crore as on December 31, 2009, showing a y-o-y growth of 12.08 percent.

Reliance Industries, India’s top company by market value , reported a 28% growth in quarterly net profit as it earned more dollars for each barrel of oil it refined while strong demand boosted the petrochemicals business to its best-ever performance. The company, which runs the world’s biggest refining complex at Jamnagar, is expected to maintain robust refining margins in the current quarter as economic recovery in Western countries fuels demand and expands gross refining margins (GRM). Its refinery is expected to process more crude in the current quarter as one unit was shut down for maintenance in the October-December period.

Tech Mahindra, India's fifth-largest IT company, reported a sluggish 2% rise in its sales for three months ended December 31, 2010, from the same period last year. Despite sluggish sales growth, the company, which counts British Telecom and AT&T as it largest customers, reported a net profit growth of 49% since last year.

Buoyed by rural and international sales, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL) posted a 21% jump in revenues to Rs 695 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2010, compared to the corresponding period a year ago. Earnings before interest and tax ( EBIT) for the quarter rose 14% to Rs 85 crore. The company reported an operating margin of 12.3% for the quarter.

The follow-on public offer (FPO) of Tata Steel garnered a smart response from the investors, with the issue getting over-subscribed 5.97 times on the final day. As per the data available on the National Stock Exchange website till 1700 hrs, the Tata Steel FPO received bids worth 29.06 crore shares against 4.8 crore equities on offer, thereby, generating demand worth a whopping Rs 17,726.6 crore.

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today shut some wells at the Bassein oil and gas field, Western Offshore, after detecting leakage in the Mumbai Uran Trunk (MUT) oil pipeline. Fields in the Western Offshore are about 140 km from the west coast here and 40 km south of the Mumbai High fields. Bassein is the nation’s biggest oil field. The leak will cause a loss of 25,000 barrels (a barrel is 157.5 litres), ONGC said in a press statement today. The MUT currently pumps 212,000 barrels of oil per day.