EGoM on fuel to meet on May 11

    The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee-headed Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on fuel would meet on May 11 to review diesel prices and discuss ways to cut the rising losses of oil marketing companies.The meet could lead to a diesel price increase of around Rs 2 per litre, after a gap of nearly 11 months. A Rs 2-3 increase in the price of petrol, which had been freed from government control last June, is also on the cards immediately after polling in the last phase of Assembly elections is completed on May 10.

    The OMCs — Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — which purchase crude oil at market rates, are required to sell diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at government-subsidised prices, resulting in losses.The companies incur an under-recovery or revenue loss of Rs 8.50 on every litre of petrol, Rs 16.17 on every litre of diesel, Rs 29.69 on every litre of kerosene and Rs 330 for every LPG cylinder.The diesel price has not been raised since June 26 last year. At these rates, the OMCs could end the current financial year with an all-time high loss of Rs 180,000 crore.

    The OMCs incurred a gross under-recovery of over Rs 47,000 crore for the first three quarters of the last financial year. The under-recovery for the last quarter is estimated at about Rs 37,000 crore.These losses are partly compensated through a mix of cash subsidy from the government and discounts from upstream companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India and partly absorbed by the OMCs.

Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills reports 17% drop in its FY11 net profit

    Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills has reported results for the year ended March 31, 2011.The company has registered a drop of 17.07% in its net profit at Rs 44.94 crore whereas the same was at Rs 54.19 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased by 21.22% at Rs 792.64 crore for the year under review whereas the same was at Rs 653.91 crore for the previous year.Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills has recommended a dividend of Re 1 per share of Rs10 each for the year ended March 31, 2011.

Shoppers Stop’s subsidiary opens new stores

    Shoppers Stop’s subsidiary company - Crossword Bookstores has opened one “Crossword" store at Central-Bangalore. Further, the company has also opened one franchises store of “Crossword” at Vapi, Gujarat. With the opening of these 2 stores, there are now 73 'Crossword' stores.

    Recently, Crossword Bookstores has opened one “Crossword” store each at Shoppers Stop, Indore and at R Mall, Thane.

Silver falls to one-month low after COMEX margin hike

    Silver prices fell 1% on Thursday to a one-month low, after the CME Group hiked margin requirement on COMEX silver again, while gold held steady.
    Spot gold was little changed at $1,516.29 an ounce by 0042 GMT, after falling for three sessions straight.COMEX gold futures edged up $1.30 to $1,516.60.COMEX silver futures fell 1.2% to a one-month low of $38.91. Spot silver fell by 1% to $38.92.

    The CME Group set successive hikes on COMEX silver futures margin, pushing margin up 84% in just eight days.As COMEX silver tumbled under the weight of surging margins, the iShares Silver Trust , the world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, experienced a near 5% fall in its holdings.
    Mexico massively ramped up its gold reserves in the first quarter of this year, buying over $4 billion of bullion as emerging economies move away from the ailing US dollar, which has dipped to 2-1/2-year lows.

Bharti Airtel Q4 net slips 31% at Rs 1,401 cr

    Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone carrier, on Thursday reported a bigger-than-expected 31.5% fall in quarterly profit, hit by losses at its African operations.

     The company’s net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 has decline by 13.70% at Rs 1837.90 crore as compared to Rs 2129.70 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased by 10.20% at Rs 9856.60 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 8944.30 crore in the  corresponding previous quarter.

   The company has registered fall of 18.13% in its net profit for the year ended March 31, 2011 at Rs 7716.90 crore as compared to Rs 9426.20 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased by 6.80% at Rs 38128.70 crore for the year from Rs 35699.20 crore in previous year.

On consolidated basis, the group’s net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 was down by 31.49% at Rs 1400.70 crore as compared to Rs 2044.40 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Total income for the quarter has increased by 51.38% at Rs 16304.20 crore as compared to Rs 10770.50 crore for the corresponding previous quarter.

For year ended March 31, 2011 on consolidated basis, the group’s net profit for the year was down by 32.64% at Rs 6046.70 crore as compared to Rs 8976.80 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010. Total income for the year has increased by 42.19% at 59601.80 crore as compared to Rs 41916.90 crore for the previous year.

14% decline in Hero Honda net profit

    Hero Honda Motors has announced the results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2011.The company has posted a net profit of Rs 501.61 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 598.81 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, down 16%. Its total income has increased from Rs 4191.81 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 to Rs 5465.27 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.

    For the year ended March 31, 2011, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 1927.90 crore as compared to Rs 2231.83 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010, down 14%. Total income of the company has increased from Rs 16096.14 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010 to Rs 19669.29 crore for the year ended March 31, 2011.Meanwhile, the board of directors of the company has recommended a final dividend of 1750% i.e. Rs 35 per equity share of Rs 2 each for the financial year 2010-11.