MUMBAI, July 17: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 16 points down on Tuesday. Realty, automobile and power stocks were the worst performers.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,176.93 points, closed at 17,086.39 points (provisional) down 0.10 per cent or 16.92 points from its previous day close at 17,103.31 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.17 per cent down at 5,188.45 points.

The BSE realty index was down 24.99 points. And so were automobile index, down 130.61 points, and power index, down 26.10 points.

The major Sensex losers were: Bajaj Auto, down 2.51 per cent at Rs 1,446; TCS, down 1.96 per cent at Rs 1,186.45; BHEL, down 1.85 per cent at Rs 225.75; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.66 per cent at Rs 705.80; and Tata Motors, down 1.50 per cent at Rs 225.85.

The major Sensex gainers were: Wipro, up 2.10 per cent at Rs 363; Dr Reddys Lab, up 1.70 per cent at Rs 1,704.04; ITC, up 1.55 per cent at Rs 255.80; Sun Pharma, up 1.29 per cent at Rs 629; and Coal India, up 0.87 per cent at Rs 354.55. (IANS)

NEW YORK, July 17: Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has slashed the ratings of 13 Italian banks, citing the weakened credit profile of the Italian government.

The downgrades on Monday came only four days after the ratings agency cut Italy’s government bond rating to Baa2 from A3, with a negative outlook, reported Xinhua.

The ratings declined by one notch for seven of the affected institutions, and by two notches for the remaining six. The short-term ratings for three of the banks were also downgraded by one notch, triggered by the long-term ratings changes.

“Along with the increase in the risk of sovereign bond defaults, the downgrade of Italy’s long-term ratings to Baa2 also indicates a similarly increased risk that the government might be unable to provide financial support to its banks in financial distress,” explained the ratings agency in its statement.

“As a consequence, Italian banks with standalone ratings at or close to the Baa2, and higher debt and deposit ratings as a result of an expectation of systemic support, have seen the support uplift in their debt ratings reduced by one or two notches,” it added.

Italian banks had previously been downgraded in mid May, as part of an international bank ratings review.

Moody’s said that banks are normally rated no higher than a government “due to multiple channels of shared exposure and contagion”.

Italian banks, it said, have substantial exposure to the domestic economy and “high direct exposure” to sovereign debt. Analysts said the downgrades weren’t exactly surprising, but could increase pressure on the already troubled lenders. (IANS)

NEW YORK, July 17: US prosecutors have made a plea for leniency for a former Indian-American executive of McKinsey & Co whose testimony helped convict Wall Street giants Raj Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta on insider trading charges.

Anil Kumar’s cooperation was “nothing short of extraordinary,” federal prosecutors said on Monday, in a letter to Judge Denny Chin three days before Kumar, 53, is expected to be sentenced on Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

Kumar, who chose to plead guilty after being charged criminally, helped prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in their wide-ranging probe of illicit trading on Wall Street, prosecutors said.

“From the first day of Kumar’s cooperation through the present, he’s been one of the best and most important cooperating witnesses that the (prosecutors) working on the Rajaratnam investigation have worked with in securities fraud cases,” the letter said.

Kumar was essential in helping the government improve its case and convict Rajaratnam and Gupta, “two of the most important securities fraud trials in history,” they said.

Kumar’s testimony at the successive trials of the two men was particularly convincing because he had opted to turn against one person who had been his friend for over 25 years, and the other who had been his mentor at McKinsey, prosecutors said.

Galleon-group hedge fund founder Rajaratnam is serving an 11-year prison term after being convicted last year. Gupta, a former board member at Goldman Sachs who headed McKinsey & Co for nine years, was convicted in June. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in October.

As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Kumar pleaded guilty in January 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud tied to feeding Rajaratnam secret stock tips. (IANS)

NEW DELHI, July 17: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday urged the government to urgently announce confidence-building reforms like opening up multi-brand retail trade that would send out positive signals to global investors about the Indian economy.

Echoing virtually US President Barack Obama’s views on the “deteriorating investment climate” in the country, the industry lobby said the government should also take steps such as raising foreign direct investment (FDI) in civil aviation and defence production.

“CII strongly feels that it is time to announce a few confidence building reform measures such as announcing increasing FDI caps in civil aviation, defence production and opening of FDI for multi-brand retail,” said Adi Godrej, CII president.

“These (measures) will go a long way in correcting the perception about India globally.”

Godrej added that recent policy decisions like introduction of GAAR (General Anti Avoidance Rules) and the announcement of retrospective amendments to income tax law had affected business sentiments and investor confidence in the Indian economy globally.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) also said the country’s policy makers should focus on the reform process than on countering Obama’s views which are aimed at shoring up the US president’s support bases in an election year.

“We may see more of this rhetoric in the run-up to the November’s presidential race. We should focus on reforms,” Rajeev Kumar, FICCI secretary general, said.

According to Kumar, the government should look at other reform measures which will have little or no political backlash like an amendment to the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act and implementation of cash subsidies transfer to the poor.

The government on Monday brushed aside Obama’s views, stating that India’s FDI policy regime is investor-friendly and the country has taken an array of steps to liberalise its economy and ease norms related to foreign investments.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) quoting a recent UNCTAD report pointed out that India is the third most desirable destination for FDI. “FDI inflows to South Asia turned around as a result of higher inflows to India, the dominant FDI recipient in the region.”

Pushing the point further, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said, “Obama’s perception is different from reality”. (IANS)

SAN FRANCISCO, July 17: Yahoo on Monday announced that it has appointed Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, to be its president and chief executive officer (CEO), reported Xinhua.

Mayer will also join Yahoo’s board of directors and the appointment will be effective on Tuesday, Yahoo said. The appointment of Mayer signals a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue at Yahoo, the company noted in a press release.

Mayer, the first female engineer hired at Google, joined the Internet search giant in 1999 as its 20th employee and led efforts for many of Google’s most recognizable products including the search product and homepage.

She most recently served as Google’s vice president of location and local services.

In a statement, Mayer said she was “honoured and delighted” to lead Yahoo, one of the Internet’s premier destinations for more than 700 million users.

“I look forward to working with the company’s dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world,” she said.

Mayer, 37, will be Yahoo’s fifth CEO in five years and the appointment is making her one of the most powerful women in the US technology industry.

Mayer will fill the post left open by Scott Thompson, former Yahoo CEO who stepped down in May over academic credentials.

Yahoo executive Ross Levisohn was named as the company’s interim CEO after Thompson’s departure and Yahoo has been searching for a new CEO since then.

In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, Mayer said that she was first approached in the middle of June about the job after returning from a trip to China.

“It was a reasonably easy decision” to take the top job at Yahoo as it is one of the best brands on the Internet, Mayer told the newspaper, which first reported her surprising appointment before Yahoo’s official announcement.

The choice of Mayer, who has the experience of managing Google’s many innovative products, is seen as a new opportunity for Yahoo to make a fresh start.

“Marissa is a well-known, visionary leader in user experience and product design and one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting strategists in technology development,” David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo, said in a statement.

However, Mayer will be facing an uphill battle as she tries to revive Yahoo, as the company has lagged behind rivals such as Google and Facebook, which have been more nimble and more adept at leveraging the increasingly social nature of the Web, The New York Times noted in its report. (IANS)

NEW DELHI, July 17: India and Russia on Tuesday discussed the contours of a fresh bilateral agreement to further their nuclear trade by setting up two additional units at the Kudankulam power project in Tamil Nadu, despite the first two units being virtually ready but not operational.

The matter came up for discussion at talks held by India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, as part of the inter-session meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission.

“The two sides discussed the agreement for units III and IV of Kudankulam. The agreement is still in the work,” India’s ministry of external affairs officials said here to a question on the nuclear plant, which is facing protests from local anti-nulcear activists over its safety issues.

However, at the official joint press conference after their talks, both Krishna and Rogozin did not say anything about the Kudankulam agreement.

Though the agreement is almost ready, the two sides are still discussing if the nuclear liability law that India enacted in 2010 would be applicable to the new units at Kudankulam. The units I and II, which are ready for operationalisation, do not attract the nuclear liability law as the agreements for the same were signed during the time of erstwhile Soviet Union. (IANS)

Buy Tata Coffee, says Tulsian

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, “I am giving a buy call on Tata Coffee with a price target of Rs 1,200 maybe in six-eight months. If you see the features of the company, this is the largest integrated tea-coffee plantation company in the world with 19 coffee estates and seven tea estates. If you break-up the results, Rs 275 crore topline has come from the global operations and about Rs 138 crore profit after tax (PAT) has come from the domestic operations.” He further added, “If you see the earning per share (EPS) of Rs 15 and the absolute number of PAT of about Rs 32 crore, Rs 24 crore has come from the Indian operations and Rs 8 crore has come from the global operations, Eight O’Clock Coffee. That means Eight O’Clock Coffee has turnover of global to ratio of the top-line is 2:1, while the bottom-line ratio by the global and Indian is 1:6. I am expecting Eight O’Clock Coffee to catch on. That is not contributing much to the bottomline. If you see on a comparable basis also, the EPS has moved from Rs 7 in Q1 of FY12 to EPS of Rs 15 in Q1 of FY13. So, much improvement is likely to be seen in case of Eight O’Clock Coffee in the time to come.” “Coffee market globally has been quite firm and that is keeping this stock quite alive. Taking all this into consideration, I am quite bullish. You can call it a high-beta stock. I am expecting now that with this result, it will come in the trajectory of four digit mark and then gradually move to about Rs 1,200 in six-eight months.”

Enter Torrent Pharmaceuticals on dips: Anu Jain

Jain told CNBC-TV18, “Quite a few of pharma stocks are giving a very good signals including Lupin, which is looking good for about Rs 620 around. Torrent Pharmaceuticals has moved already from those Rs 620 levels to closer to Rs 650. So I would say that if there is any dip, if the other part of the markets starts moving, these may go into a slight consolidation phase. So any dip upto around Rs 630-632 seems to be good because it broke out above Rs 630 level and now that is acting as a support. So I would look to buy around this Rs 635 odd levels.” She further added, “It is looking poised on the week to two weeks about Rs 690. Even as an investment call, I think this is looking good for about Rs 770 over a slightly longish period of time. So there is some mild resistance at Rs 655, momentum will be build beyond Rs 655 levels, so dips should be used to get into the counter.”

Karur Vysya Bank has target of Rs 490: Anu Jain

Jain told CNBC-TV18, “Karur Vysya Bank has been doing so well unlike the other banking charts, which have a fair amount of volatility, the chart pattern just maybe because it is not in futures. It has been a very steady gain since the time it broke out of that Rs 418-419 levels and it has been steady around these Rs 430 levels as well. So now it is moving out of that zone again. So at Rs 438 it is showing that over probably the next one to one and a half months, this would go upto Rs 490.” She further added, “I would use the dips if there are any over the next couple of days into the market or if we see that there is further strength, one could increase into the position into the counter. So at Rs 438, the 10 day moving average is closer to Rs 430 so that gives you about 2% from here. Closer to those levels, one should pick up. I think a stop loss of Rs 425 would be advisable because that would mean that the trend is completely getting broken down.” “I would play it for about Rs 470 as a smaller target and Rs 490 for a slightly longer target, I think this stock even as a whole for a one year perspective would be pretty good from the technical and the fundamental point of view.”

Tata Motors can touch Rs 260-265: Vishal Jajoo

Jajoo told CNBC-TV18, “Tata Motors recently came up with their global sales numbers and there is a 6% year on year increase in their monthly figures and as far as their high value JLR sales goes there is a 29% increase though there are questions with regards to the uncertainty in Europe from which the company derives significant portion of its revenue through its subsidiary JLR.” He further added, “However, as the number suggests this has been more than compensated by the increase in sales from China as well as the phenomenal response which its running model Evoke continues to get. On top of it as far as the future plan goes the company has got good ambitious plans for entry into South America and as far as the valuations goes it is available at marginally above 7 times its FY13 earnings. Within three months the maximum upside that we can see in the stock is maximum Rs 260-265 but not more than Rs 280.”