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Gujarat State Fertilizers - Change in Directorate.

Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd has informed about the following changes in Board of Directors :

1. Dr. Manjula Subramaniam, IAS (Retd.), ceased as Chairperson & Director of the Company w.e.f. October 17, 2008.

2. Shri. D Rajagopalan, IAS, Director of the Company appointed as Chairman of the Company w.e.f. October 17, 2008.

Dabhol plant output down 25% due to snag.

A turbine collapse at India's biggest gas-fired power plant has reduced output by a quarter, power secretary Anil Razdan said on Monday.

The Dabhol power plant in Maharashtra has annual capacity of 1,200 megawatt but is now running at 900 megawatt, he said.

Nifty above 3000; Sterlite Industries top gainer.

Equities continued with its upward march on Monday following surge in Asian markets after China announced a stimulus package. Metals, power and capital goods were the top gainers.

China announced a huge 4-trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package. Out of which 100 billion yuan, earmarked for this quarter, will be spent on low-rent housing, roads, railways and airports and infrastructure in rural areas. The funds, equivalent to almost a fifth of China's gross domestic product last year, will be used by the end of 2010, the State Council said.

NTPC southern plants doing well.

Simhadri Super Thermal Power Station has achieved 104 per cent plant load factor during October, according to Ambarish N. Dave, Regional Executive Director (South) NTPC Ltd. Speaking after distributing the ‘NTPC Long Service Awards’ at a function to mark the 34th Raising Day of the company held here recently, Dave said NTPC’s plants in the Southern region had achieved record generation over the years. Ramagundam Super Thermal Power Station was also generating power consistently at a very high plant load factor.

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Nifty below 2900; Tata Motors top loser.

Benchmarks continued to witness selling pressure Thursday as global market sentiments turned bearish on concerns of slowing global economy after the US elections. At 12:30 pm, National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 2887.30, down 3.59 per cent or 107.65 points. The 50-share index touched an intra-day low of 2,860.90 and a high of 2998.65 intra-day trade.

Tata Motors (-13.01%), Tata Steel (-12.56%), Sterlite Industries (-10.13%), Hindalco (-8.39%) and Bharti Airtel (-7.95%) were top Nifty losers.

Ranbaxy Laboratories (2.42%), Dr Reddys Laboratories (2.13%), GAIL (1.52%), Hindustan Unilever (1.28%) and Sun Pharma (0.36%) were the gainers.

Ansal Properties cuts 150 jobs.

The Delhi-based Ansal Properties and Infrastructure is learnt to have sacked about 150 employees to cut costs.

At least two well-placed sources confirmed the development. “People have been laid off, including the almost entire corporate communication and marketing team. The company has also frozen its hiring plans,” one of them said.

Tata shares under severe pressure.

Most Tata-promoted stocks were under severe pressure on Thursday with index heavyweights Tata Motors and Tata Steel taking a beating.
The country's largest commercial vehicle maker, Tata Motors, has decided to shut production at its Jamshedpur facility for medium and heavy vehicles for three days beginning Thursday to tide over plummeting demand which had an impact on the auto company's shares. Tata Motors shares slumped 7.45 per cent.

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ArcelorMittal Q3 disappoints, cuts output more.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, forecast a weaker final quarter, increased production cuts and put growth plans on hold after it announced third-quarter results missed forecasts, sending it shares down 12 percent in early trading.

The company announced on Wednesday a series of measures, including temporary output cuts of 30 percent, from an initial 15 percent, a pause in its growth strategy, deeper cost cuts and a reduction in debt, in response to the economic slowdown.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the July to September period rose 76 percent year-on-year to $8.6 billion, but came in below the average expectation of $8.9 billion in a Reuters poll of nine analysts.

Bharti Airtel launches DTH service.

Integrated telecom services provider Bharti Airtel Tuesday announced its launch of Airtel digital TV in collaboration with its technology partner NDS which will secure, enable and enhance its direct-to-home (DTH) service.

Foreign investment inflows increase 259 percent in September.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India increased 259 percent in September to $2.56 billion, compared to the same month last year, with Mauritius being the largest investor.

FDI for the same month last year stood at $713 million.

The services sector attracted the highest foreign investment at $2.34 billion.

Goldstone Infratech - Outcome of Board Meeting.

Goldstone Infratech Ltd has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on October 29, 2008, inter alia, has allotted 1,50,00,000 equity shares to Goldstone Exports Ltd at a price of Rs 22/- per share, pursuant to conversion of share warrants allotted to Goldstone Exports Ltd on April 30, 2007. After this allotment, the shareholding of Goldstone Exports Ltd in the Company has increased from 9.51% to 47.19%. The acquirer would be complying the necessary statutory formalities and SEBI Rules and Regulations in this regard.

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Asian CERC - Result of Postal Ballot.

Asian CERC Information Technology Ltd has informed that the Shareholders of the Company have approved on November 05, 2008 the Special Resolution by means of Postal Ballot with requisite majority for Change of name from Asian CERC Information Technology Ltd to Religare Technova Global Solutions Ltd.

Reliance closes 5 petrochem, polyester units - paper.

Reliance Industries, India's largest private-sector company, has closed five of its seven polyester and petrochemical units near Mumbai, the Business Standard reported on Wednesday citing unidentified sources.

The report said the company had shut down plants for manufacturing polyester filament yarn, polyester staple fibre, paraxylene, purified terephthalic acid and linear alkyl benzene.

Markets choppy; Sensex slips in red on profit booking.

Equities faced a strong resistance after a gap-up opening Wednesday and turned choppy aftering paring gains as traders booked profits at h
igher levels. Second rung stocks outperformed the benchmarks. Realty and IT stocks led gains while oil&gas declined.

Ashok Leyland cuts production target.

Ashok Leyland is planning to reduce monthly production target for November to 1,500 units from the average of 6,800 units it clocked each month in the first six months of this fiscal. In November, the company will also work fewer days to match with the production schedule.

RIL shares slide 9%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries slid more than 9 per cent Wednesday putting pressure on the key indices.

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Reliance Infra purchased back 8 lakh shares.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd has purchased back eight lakh equity shares of the company in the last four days. It includes five lakh shares purchased back by the company on Nov 3 and three lakh shares on the day of Muhurat trading. Since the commencement of the buy back on March 25, Reliance Infrastructure has purchased 64.60 lakh equity shares aggregating Rs 669.13 crore.

Australia cuts rates; world recession gloom builds.

Australia cut interest rates more than expected on Tuesday, presaging likely cuts in Europe later this week in the face of evidence that the global financial crisis has already pushed much of the world into a recession.

The 75 basis point cut followed rate cuts in the United States, China and Japan last week. Britain and the euro zone were expected to follow suit on Thursday with half point reductions in borrowing costs.

But the recession that central banks and governments around the world have tried to ward off loomed ever larger as investors digested a batch of bleak corporate results and dismal economic data.

Tata Motors, Mahindra Oct sales hit by lack of finance.

Auto majors Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have shown decline in sales in October.

Tata Motors, which makes cars, utility vehicles and commercial vehicles, has reported a 20 per cent decline to 39,729 units in October against the sales figures for the same month last year. Mahindra & Mahindra’s sales dropped 19 per cent to 20,282 last month when compared to the unit sales during the year-ago period.

Promoters may rush to hike stake in holding cos.

It may be a bit early to conclude on the impact of the market regulator’s recent move of allowing promoters to hike their stake up to 75%
through the creeping acquisition route. But a section of market watchers are expecting an immediate fallout of the new rule. They feel holding companies of various corporate houses, available at a steep discount to their net asset value, are likely to see a flurry of activity in the coming days.

With share prices of these holding firms having been beaten down quite a bit, cash-rich promoters would find it cheaper to increase stakes in their companies through the holding companies’ route.

Airline stocks gain on duty exemption on jet fuel.

Airline stocks on Tuesday made some gains responding to government’s decision to exempt jet fuel from customs duty.

Jet Airways was up at Rs 205.70, Kingfisher Airlines up 7.10 per cent at Rs 36.20, and SpiceJet up 5.22 per cent at Rs.13.51.

Responding to the government's decision to exempt jet fuel from customs duty three days ago, state-owned refiners have reportedly reduced the prices of the fuel by 4.5 per cent.

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