Moody's says India inflation and fiscal metrics remain weaker than peers

India's inflation and fiscal metrics remain weaker than peers, Moody's Investors Service said in a presentation on Wednesday.
A higher subsidy burden and lower growth will weaken the country's fiscal metrics, analyst Atsi Sheth said in the presentation.
Economists have been worried that the annual $20 billion food subsidy programme passed by lawmakers may widen the fiscal deficit.
The agency, however, said the country's current reserves can finance the current account and external debt payment needs.
Moody's has an investment grade rating on India with a stable outlook

Sensex rises 333 points; TCS, Infosys hit record high

(Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose over 300 points and the Nifty rose 2 percent on Wednesday on value buying in blue chip stocks after a fall of nearly 4 percent on Tuesday was seen as overdone, while IT shares surged on improving business outlook.
Shares also tracked a sharp recovery in the rupee after suspected heavy dollar selling by the RBI prevented the battered currency from slipping to a record low.
However, analysts say volatility may persist as the country faces its worst economic crunch since a balance of payments crisis two decades ago amid rising conviction that the Federal Reserve will trim its stimulus and Washington is seen moving closer to a military strike on Syria.
"It's hard to predict which way the market can go as negative newsflow continues to come at even lower levels," said Deven Choksey, managing director at K R Choksey Securities.
The broader Nifty rose 2 percent, or 106.65 points, to end at 5,448.10, closing above the psychologically important 5,400 level.
The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 1.83 percent, or 332.89 points, to end at 18,567.55.
Among recently beaten down blue chip shares, Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) gained 2.2 percent while Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.NS) ended 4.9 percent higher.
IT shares surged on improving business outlook and rupee depreciation, dealers said.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS.NS) ended 3.4 percent higher after earlier making its all-time high at 2,078.80 rupees while Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) gained 2.6 percent after earlier hitting a record high of 3,139.90 rupees
Bank shares rose on hopes that the central bank may unwind its liquidity tightening measures soon now that Raghuram Rajan, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), takes charge of affairs.
In a reminder of the uphill task he faces, a report on Wednesday showed that activity in India's services sector shrank in August for the second straight month for its lowest reading in four years.
ICICI Bank Ltd (ICBK.NS) rose 4.4 percent and Axis Bank Ltd (AXBK.NS) ended 2.4 percent higher.
Jet Airways (India) Ltd (JET.NS) ended 5.7 percent higher as India's cabinet approved an accord with the United Arab Emirates to nearly quadruple airline seats between the two countries over three years.
The stock has risen 12.1 percent in three consecutive session of gains following Etihad Airways' comments on Sunday that it expected its investment in the Indian carrier to be cleared by Indian authorities "imminently".
Ipca Laboratories Ltd (IPCA.NS) shares surged 7.6 percent after the company said in a statement that U.S. Food and Drug administration found its oral solid dosage formulations manufacturing facility in Pithampur 'acceptable'.
However, among decliners, real estate companies fell after the Reserve Bank of India said late on Tuesday that housing loans from banks to individuals should be closely linked to the stages of construction.
DLF Ltd (DLF.NS) fell 0.6 percent, Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (INRL.NS) ended 0.1 percent lower.

AP govt to issue notice to HPCL over fire in Vizag refinery

Hyderabad: The Directorate of Factories of Andhra Pradesh will be seeking an explanation from the Vizag facility of the state-owned Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), on the recent fire in the refinery-cum-petrochemical complex there, which left 24 workers dead, a senior official said today.

According to G Bala Kishore, Director of Factories, the department is investigating into the blaze following which they will issue a notice to the facility seeking an explanation for the accident.

"Notice is yet to be served. Investigation has to be completed. We are short of details. After we come to know the facts of the case, we will issue notices," Kishore told PTI, adding that they will also look into the safety measures undertaken by the facility.

"The nature of accident is intriguing. They (HPCL management) will have to give us a clarification. Based on their reply to our notice, we may seek Government permission to prosecute them," the official added.

On August 23 a massive fire broke out at the sprawling HPCL complex in Vishakhapatnam, when mostly staffers from private companies were at work.

Prima facie, a gas leak in the sea cooling water system was attributed to the fire even though probe is on into the incident.

Besides Vishakhapatnam, (East Coast) with a capacity of 8.3 Million Metric Ton Per Annum (MMTPA), HPCL operates another refinery in Mumbai (West Coast) with a capacity of 6.5 MMTPA.

HPCL currently operates two major refineries producing a wide variety of petroleum fuels and specialities.

Meanwhile the Vizag Refinery which is currently operating at 50 percent capacity after the fire mishap is expected to take some more time to scale up to full of its capacity, HPCL Executive Director VVR Narasimham said.

Mutual funds witness Rs 50,000 cr outflows in July

New Delhi: Investors pulled out a net amount of more than Rs 50,000 crore from various mutual fund schemes in July -- the highest outflow in five months.

The huge pull-out of funds during July followed a net withdrawal of Rs 48,403 crore in the preceding month, taking the total outflows for two consecutive months to close to Rs one lakh crore.

As per the latest data available with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the net outflow of Rs 50,067 crore during July was the highest withdrawal by investors in mutual fund (MF) schemes in a single month since March, when investors had redeemed Rs 1.08 lakh crore.

This has left the MFs' net mobilisation of funds from investors so far in the current fiscal (April-July) at about Rs 45,539 crore.

Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

At gross level, mutual funds mobilised Rs 7.8 lakh crore in July, but also witnessed redemption worth Rs 8.27 lakh crore -- resulting into a net outflow of Rs 50,067 crore.

This has brought down the total assets under management of mutual funds to Rs 7.6 lakh crore as on July 31, from Rs 8.11 lakh crore in the previous month.

The BSE's benchmark Sensex plunged by 232 points, or 1.2 percent, during the period under review.

"During the financial year 2013-14 so far (April-July), mutual funds net mobilised Rs 45,539 crore as compared to Rs 1,33,976 crore mobilised in corresponding period of 2012-13," Sebi noted.

In the entire fiscal 2012-13, mutual funds had garnered Rs 76,539 crore from investors while a net amount of over Rs 22,000 crore moved out of the mutual funds' kitty during the preceding year.

PTI

G20 Summit: PM leaves for St.Petersburg

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday left for St.Petersburg to attend the eighth G20 Summit during which he is expected to push for a coordinated plan to avoid disruption in India and other large developing economies by imminent phasing out of fiscal stimulus by US Federal Reserve.

While the dispute between Russia and the US over the conflict in Syria is likely to overshadow the two-day summit starting tomorrow in the Russian city, splits between emerging markets and the US over its winding down of stimulus and the slowing growth of India and other four BRICS countries are expected to remain in focus.

Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa--grouped in the informal BRICS bloc seen as an alternative economic powerhouse--all go into the meeting experiencing slowing growth, embattled currencies and huge capital outflows.

In a statement before leaving for the Summit, Singh called for an "orderly exit" from unconventional monetary policies being pursued by the developed world for the last few years to avoid damaging growth prospects of the developing world.

Singh, who has attended all the previous G20 summits since the first meet in Washington in 2008, is due to return home on Saturday evening.