India

Ford India on December 12 said its $500 million investment plans for the country are on track. Our investment plans have not changed, a Ford India spokesperson said. She, however, did not take questions on how the company was planning to fund the investments. The US Senate had shot down a 14 billion dollar rescue package of GM, Chrysler and Ford. Questions have been raised on the capability of these companies to fund their expansions in other parts of the globe.

Market rumors indicate that DLF Assets may soon float a Real Estate Investment Trust in Singapore packaging its IT and SEZ space to raise upto USD 2 billion. Indian market news leader CNBC-TV18 indicates that the REIT may be launched in June, and that DLF Assets had delayed earlier plans to list the same due to Volatile Asian Markets.

The visit planned by Dominique Bussereau, French minister for Transport on May 12th is set to kick off a unique partnership between India and France to create a high speed rail network. France is known for its expertise in this area and is expected to help India create such a network.

Mumbai, May 9 (PTI) Bank depositors, who have locked in money for tenure of less than one year, could be the major losers and earn negative interest rate on their fixed deposits if high inflation persists over a longer time.
A study of interest rates, offered by different public sector banks, revealed that all of them are currently offering six per cent to 7.50 per cent interest on deposits for duration of six months to one year. Whereas, inflation has spiralled to 7.61 per cent as of April 26.

Fidelity Fund Management has entered into an agreement with Federal Bank, one of India's premier private sector banks, for the distribution of its products.

Indian stock market volumes continue to be moderate in derivatives despite steady gains in the market in the past few weeks. Nifty continues to trade at a premium to spot, reflecting the bullish trend and the open interest has improved in the market. Traders are expecting Nifty to move all the way upto 5800 incase it makes a move above the 5300 mark.

It was celebrated as the biggest land deal in India and was worth The Rs 5,000-crore land deal, when a small time realestate developer BPTP outbid its competition including DLF and Omaxe to win the 5006 crore land deal in Noida.

Indian insurance companies clocked slower growth in ULIP - Unit Linked Insurance Policies in 2007-2008. An article in Hindu by Radhika Menon shows that the contribution of unit linked plans has fallen in terms of premium as well as policies for LIC and ICICI prudential. LIC's growth fell from 118 percent to 5.8 percent while ICICI prudential's growth fell from 99 to 58 percent.

Indian government cleared a proposal of NYSE Euronext to pick up 5% stake in a commodity exchange through an investment of 218 crores. NYSE will infuse capital of Rs 281 crores in India to acquire 5 percent equity in Indian Multi Commodity Exchange [ MCX ].

Indian stock market closed today with good gains particularly in the banking space. The market did not show any sign of weakness inspite of it being a friday and it also shrugged off the higher inflation number reported today.

UTI Dividend Yield Fund, with an NAV of 13.05 declared a dividend of 7% with a record date of May 9, 2008 clocking an annual divident of 24% for the fiscal year 2007-2008. All unit holders registered with the dividend option or investors making fresh investments before May 9th will be eligible for this dividend.

To invest in a decent sized real estate venture in India today, you either have to be ultra rich and even if you are, you have to plunk down a ton of money and wait for a long term to see the returns trickle in. Things are about to change in the Indian Real Estate Investment Trusts / Funds space with a number of funds dropping the minimum investment required to take advantage of these options.

Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund today announced tax-free dividend of Rs4.00 per unit (on a face value of Rs10/- per unit) in Kotak Balance. The dividend record date is March 25, 2008.

Sharekhan, a domestic brokerage reported today that Indian Mutual funds are sitting on 23,545 crores of cash to be deployed in the market. With uncertainty being the key characteristic of stock markets at present, mutual funds are playing it safe and have accumulated a cash pile of over Rs 20,000 crore, which is awaiting deployment after conditions become stable. Rs 19,214 crore lies with existing MFs, while the remaining Rs 4,331 crore has been mobilised through the NFOs.

Unit Trust of India, the country's largest mutual fund group, said today that it would partly lift the freeze on the sale and purchase of units of its flagship fund, US-64, on Aug. 1, permitting almost half of the plan's investors an exit.