OVL pulls out of Brazilian oilfield auction

 
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp , pulled out of an auction of $184 billion oilfield in Brazil after it could not stitch an alliance to bid for the giant project.

OVL was among the 11 companies shortlisted to bid for Brazil's Libra pre-salt block, one of the world's largest offshore oil discoveries.

It however did not make a bid at the auction on Monday as it could not form a consortium with any of the other shortlisted companies, sources privy to the development said.

The auction attracted just one bid from a consortium led by Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, France's Total and China PetroChina and its sister company Cnooc. Brazilian state-run energy company Petrobras is also part of the consortia which got the giant field at auction start price or the minimum price.

The offshore area holds between 8 billion and 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to Brazil's oil regulator and Dallas-based oil certification company Degolyer & MacNaughton (D&G).

If the estimates hold up Libra, which requires an estimated $184 billion investment, has enough oil to meet China's entire oil consumption need for three years.

Production is forecast to exceed 1 million barrels a day when fully ramped up.

Sources said OVL could not have gone alone due to the huge investment required to develop the field.

Unable to find suitable consortium partners, it decided not to bid, they said.

Shell, based in The Hague, and France's Total each have 20 per cent stakes in the winning consortium, while Cnooc and CNPC have 10 per cent apiece. The remaining 60 per cent will be with Petrobras. The consortia won the 35-year concession for the Libra prospect by promising the government a minimum 41.65 per cent of profit oil, or the barrels remaining after costs.

The winning consortium will also have to pay a signing fee of 15 billion reais (USD 6.9 billion).

Located more than 50 kilometers from Brazil's southeastern coast and discovered in 2007, the pre-salt gets its name from the layer of Cretaceous-era salt formed at a time when dinosaurs still lived and which traps the crude under the Atlantic seabed.

Other firms who were shortlisted but did not bid in the auction included Repsol-Sinopec, the joint venture between the Spanish and Chinese players, Ecopetrol of Colombia, Mitsui of Japan, Galp of Portugal and Malaysia's Petronas.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio gets unified licence for 4G services

 
Reliance Industries' telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm has won a unified telecom licence that will enable it to offer voice telephony and high speed data services across the country.

The Department of Telecommunications on Monday approved grant of unified license to Reliance Jio, the only telecom operator to own fourth generation spectrum or radio waves, sources said.

The unified licence will enable the firm to offer both voice and high-speed data services to subscribers across all the 22 telecom circles in the country.

Reliance Jio has submitted a one-time entry fee of about Rs 1,673 crore for the licence.

MTS India, the mobile telecom service brand of Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL), and Idea had previously got unified telecom licence.

Leading operators Airtel and Vodafone have however not applied.

Sources said Reliance Jio applied for Unified Licences on August 21 and stated its net worth at Rs 5,033.32 crore.

Under the unified license, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio will be allowed to provide services as full fledged mobile operator.

RIL had last week stated that Reliance Jio, which is the only private player with Broadband Wireless Access spectrum in all the 22 telecom circles of India, plans to provide reliable fast internet connectivity and rich digital services.

The new telecom licence will pave way for Mukesh Ambani's second innings in the mobile telephony space after his first stint at Reliance Infocomm which is now known as Reliance Communications.

It was given away to his younger brother Anil Ambani led company after the two split a few years ago.

In 2003, Reliance Infocomm had flooded market with a low cost CDMA handsets bundled with a scheme that allowed consumers to make mobile phone calls at low rate of 10 paise for 15 seconds and STD calls for 40 paise a minute. The prevailing rate of STD calls at that time had ranged between Rs 2.40 to Rs 5.40 a minute.

RJIL is the only company that holds pan-India spectrum for 4G services. The company earlier held Internet Service Provider Licence which will be annulled once it is issued UL.

The company has shown intention to provide phone call service using airwaves it has and is testing the technology for the same.

Jignesh Shah to stay on MCX Board for now

 
MCX promoter Jignesh Shah has managed to retain his position on the board in a crucial meeting held in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The Multi Commodity Exchange on Tuesday appointed three new share-holder directors, namely Union Bank of India's K N Raghunathan, Corporation Bank's P Paramasivam and Bank of Baroda's Sanjay Agarwal, and two new independent directors in G Anantraman - Ex- Sebi and Pravir Vora - ICICI, CIO, sources said.

Jignesh Shah managed to convince the MCX board and will continue to stay on for now as he has sought more time to step down, they said.

The market was anticipating Shah's resignation against the backdrop of the payment crisis of Rs 5,600 crore in the group company National Spot Exchange (NSEL).

The board has accepted and supported his request till the time the market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) decides on 'fit and proper status' of shah.

A fortnight ago, shah and Joseph Massey were forced to opt out from the board of the stock exchange arm of the FTIL, MCX-SX. Massey was an MD on the stock exchange. MCX MD Shreekant Javalgekar had also resigned last week.

The board appointed deputy managing director Praveen Singhal as managing director to oversee functions till new managing director is appointed, exchange sources said.

The board has appointed a five-member oversight committees with Chairperson Pravir Vora (ICICI, CIO), sources said.

The promoter of exchange Jignesh Shah and Paras Ajmera continue to remain directors on the board, sources said.

With the induction of five new directors, the strength of directors has become 12 as against a full strength of 14 members in a period of 2 months. The slew of resignations came in following the NSEL scam and the market regulator's new norms on board composition.

As per the FMC's norms, MCX board with a strength of 14 members can only have one anchor investor director.

BSE Sensex wipes off early gains, down over 100 points

 
After rising over 40 points in early trade, the BSE benchmark Sensex wiped off its inital gains and was trading over 100 points down in late morning trade on Wednesday.

At 11.09 am, Sensex was down 104.98 points at 20759.99. Similarly, Nifty was down 30.80 points at 6172.00 during the same time.

The 30-share index gained 40.13 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 20,905.10 in early trade with consumer durables, realty, metal and power sector stocks leading the recovery. The Sensex had shed 28.92 points in Monday's volatile session.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved up by 11.45 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 6,214.25.

In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.48 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.60 per cent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.49 per cent higher in previous session.

Wipro shares fall over 8 pc on bourses post Q2 results

Wipro shares fell by more than 8 per cent in morning trade on Wednesday after the company reported a 28 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September 30.

The stock, however, discounted the second quarter numbers and fell 8.41 per cent on the BSE to Rs 471.55.

On the National Stock Exchange as well, the stock opened weak and slumped 6.33 per cent to Rs 482.20.

The India's third largest IT exporter announced its second quarter results after market hours on Tuesday. Wipro posted a net profit from continuing operations at Rs 1,932.1 crore for the second quarter against Rs 1,510.5 crore in the year-ago period.

Market experts said the decline in the counter was largely because the company's second quarter revenue in terms of dollars lagged behind its peer group companies.

Meanwhile, the broader market was also trading in the negative territory with the 30-share benchmark index Sensex was trading at 20,736.49 points, down 128.48 points in morning trade.

In dollar terms, Wipro's net profit stood at $309 million in the second quarter this fiscal, while consolidated revenues were at $1.76 billion during the quarter.

IT services revenue rose 20 per cent to Rs 10,068 crore in the second quarter. In dollar terms, IT revenues rose 5.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to $1.63 billion, whereas, sequential growth stood at 2.7 per cent.

Banks replace IT as key drivers of Indian shares

Banks are becoming the main drivers of Indian shares, with the NSE Bank index up 11.8 per cent in October as of Friday's close, compared with a 7.7 per cent gain for the broader NSE index.
That marks a second consecutive month of gains: the banking sub-index gained 6.3 per cent in September after the central bank's move to ease short-term rates offset the impact from its hike in the repo rate last month.
Analysts say gains in banking shares have also been spurred by an initial batch of earnings results in the sector showing stable margins and asset quality that met expectations.
By contrast, gains in IT shares have been slower recently. The sector had been the key driver in markets.
The NSE IT Index has gained 8.1 per cent so far this month, although the sub-index is still up 46.2 per cent for the year compared with the 13.5 per cent fall for banks.

Gold price reclaims Rs 31,000 mark on festive demand

 
Gold price spiked to near one-and-a half-month high and reclaimed the key psychological Rs 31,000 per 10/gm mark at the bullion market here today owing to heavy jewellery stockists demand supported by robust seasonal offtake.
Silver price also surged on the back of aggressive speculative as well as industrial buying.
Price of standard gold of 99.5 per cent purity climbed by Rs 165 to finish at Rs 31,130 per 10 grams from Saturday's closing level of Rs 30,965.

Pure gold of 99.9 per cent purity also spurted by a similar margin to end at Rs 31,280 per 10 grams from Rs 31,115 previously.
Silver ready (.999 fineness) jumped by Rs 700 to conclude at Rs 49,750 per kg as compared to Rs 49,050 last weekend.
Globally, the shiny metal continued its momentum on easing concerns over an imminent withdrawal of the Fed's bullion friendly quantitative-easing measures amid sliding dollar value.
Spot gold was bid higher at USD 1,320 an ounce in early European trade and silver was up at USD 22.18 an ounce.