Gold, silver prices zoom on seasonal demand

Gold prices surged by Rs 305 to Rs 31,930 per ten gram in the national capital on Wednesday on brisk buying by stockists and jewellers to meet the rising seasonal demand amid strong global trend.

Silver prices too zoomed by Rs 1,190 to Rs 50,200 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers for coming festivals led by Diwali and ongoing marriage season.

Silver and gold coins, which are normally used for pooja on Diwali and gifting purpose during marriage celebrations, remained in keen demand.

Firm global trend after payrolls in the US climbed, increasing speculation the Federal Reserve will maintain monetary stimulus to boost the economy, also influenced the sentiment, traders said.

Gold in New York, which normally sets price trend on the domestic front, climbed 2 per cent to $1,342.60 an ounce, nearing the highest level since September 30. Silver also climbed 2.3 per cent to $22.79 an ounce.

On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity surged by Rs 305 each to Rs 31,930 and Rs 31,730 per ten gram, respectively, while sovereign held steady at Rs 25,300 per piece of eight gram.

In a similar fashion, silver ready surged by Rs 1,190 to Rs 50,200 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 700 to Rs 50,000 per kg. However, silver coins held steady at Rs 87,000 for buying and Rs 88,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

L&T Finance net up 13.7 per cent to Rs 301 crore

L&T Finance Holdings has reported a 13.7 per cent rise in consolidated net profit in the September quarter to Rs 300.7 crore, driven by a healthy growth in assets.

Loans and advances grew 28.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 35,458.7 crore compared to Rs 33,309.9 crore.


The growth in net profit in lending businesses has been on account of improvement in margins, offset by an increase in credit cost. For the lending businesses, net interest margin for the quarter improved by 0.1 percentage point to 5.6 per cent, the company said in a statement.

Gross NPAs stood at 2.89 per cent or at Rs 992.9 crore of loan assets compared to 2.54 per cent in the June quarter or Rs 846.4 crore. Net NPAs stood at 1.93 per cent or Rs 654.6 crore of loan assets compared to 1.67 per cent or Rs 551 crore in the June quarter.

The company attributed the rise in gross NPAs to slippage of one account in the infrastructure segment.

Despite a de-growth in the investment management business industry, the average assets under management grew by 9.4 per cent to Rs 15,078.9 crore, resulting in an increase in market share from 1.6 per cent in Q1 to 1.9 per cent in Q2.

The private wealth management business continued to grow momentum with the client base crossing 1,000 and an average assets under service of Rs 3,570 crore.

MTS awaits cheaper spectrum for India expansion

Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL), which operates under the MTS brand in India, has launched a high-speed wireless broadband service in an attempt to boost its data revenue.

The new 3GPlus service will offer speed as high as 9.8 Mbps. This is higher than the speed on third-generation (3G) networks, which peaks at 7.2 Mbps, but is lower than 4G speed.

"The margins are higher on data. So we want to be a data company," said Dmitry Shukov, CEO of MTS India.

The company has licences to operate in nine of India's 22 telecom service areas. The 3GPlus service is delivered over evolution-data optimised (EVDO) technology. It will be available over MTS dongles and MTS-branded smartphones. The service will be offered at a starting price of Rs 700 for a month, and goes up to Rs 1,498.

The company aims to increase its share of the Indian dongle market by 50 per cent. It currently has 13 per cent of the Indian dongle market by volume. However, if the nine circles where MTS is present are to be taken, it governs anything between 18 to 20 per cent, said Leonid Musatov, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at MTS India.

CEO Shukov said the company will expand beyond the nine circles if it gets spectrum at a lower rate. When asked what should be the reserve price for spectrum, he answered: "The right price according to me is zero."

So, at what price does MTS want to go for pan-India expansion? "We have done some calculations but are not ready to talk about them," Shukov said. But he is sure he wants spectrum cheaper than what MTS paid in the last auction - Rs 2,013 crore in addition to Rs 1,626 crore it had paid in 2008.

In early October, MTS received a unified telecom licence from the government, which allows it to offer services through both Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technologies. However, it's not interested in providing GSM services.

"What's the point of thinking about 2G when operators are looking at next-generation [services]," Shukov said.

The company also recently received its third carrier, or tranche, of 1.25 Mhz spectrum for all its circles, taking its total spectrum availability to 3.75 Mhz. But it will still not be able to offer long-term evolution (LTE) technology for 4G services, which it intends to do.

"We need four carriers to do LTE in these circles, but we don't have contiguous spectrum," Shukov said. He, however, remains committed to achieving MTS India's break-even by the end of 2014. Shukov is also waiting for clarity on the Indian government's merger and acquisition guidelines for the telecom sector.

Is MTS looking to make an acquisition? "We are open for discussion [with other operators]," Shukov said

Nissan recalls over 188,000 SUVs worldwide to fix brakes

Nissan Motor Co is recalling more than 1,88,000 Nissan and Infiniti SUVs worldwide to fix faulty brake control software that could increase the risk of a crash.

The recall covers some Nissan Pathfinders from the 2013 and 2014 model years, as well as the 2013 Infiniti JX35 and its successor model, the 2014 QX60.

Nissan says that during light braking on rough roads, the antilock brake software could cause longer-than-expected stopping distances. The company said no crashes or injuries have been reported.

Nissan will notify owners within 60 days, and dealers will reprogramme the antilock brakes free of charge.

The recall includes nearly 1,52,000 SUVs in the US and roughly 36,000 in China, Canada, Mexico and other countries, the company said.

The Pathfinders were built between April 18, 2012 and September 20 of this year. The JX35s were built from September 15, 2011 to January 16 of this year, while the QX60s were built from January 17 to September 20 of this year.

India rupee up 57 paise to 61.08 dollar in early trade

The rupee opened strong and was trading 57 paise up to 61.08 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on Wednesday as the greenback fell against other currencies overseas after the weak US jobs report fuelled hopes the Federal Reserve will keep its stimulus programme in place.

Besides, increased dollar selling by exporters and a higher opening in the domestic equity market also supported the rupee, forex dealers said.

The rupee had lost 13 paise to close at 61.65 against dollar in Tuesday's trade on sustained demand from importers and banks as investors awaited US jobs data.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex was trading over 100 points down in late morning trade on Wednesday.