Indian Stock Market

Over the past one year, the ONGC stock has been an outperformer falling 34 per cent compared with a 50 per cent fall in the Sensex. Another oil producer, Cairn India, too has done better than the benchmark and though crude oil prices have come off sharply, analysts believe there could be some upside for both stocks, over the next year or so.

The Street is concerned that profits next year could be under pressure.

Let’s question the relevance of western marketing principles in India.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has started hunting for reinsurance companies to renew its annual insurance cover from April 1. But the energy giant is seeking to extend its risk cover at a time when threat perceptions in the Indian subcontinent have increased following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Lahore.

In a damage control move, Price Waterhouse, the external auditor of Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services, has set up a new advisory board and appointed a new quality assurance and risk management head.

Continuing with the fare war on the India-London route, British Airways (BA) is back with its promotional return fares of Rs 9,990 for all flights from New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Uganda, the fourth-largest importer of Indian medicines in Africa, is discussing a draft proposal to prevent entry of drugs defined as counterfeit for breaching intellectual property claims, which analysts here say will impair Indian firms ability to export drugs into that country.

Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), which operates a TV network in India under Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd, has acquired Channel 8, a Bengali language film channel based in Kolkata, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition marks the entry of Multi Screen Media (owner of TV channels such as Sony, Set MAX, ANIMAX, AXN and PIX) in West Bengal.

To ensure uninterrupted supply of power to the consumers and tide over any possible shortage of power in the state over the next four months, Grid Corporation of Orissa Limited (Gridco) plans to purchase about 400-500 MW of surplus power from the captive power plants (CPPs).

Ranbaxy, facing data falsification charges from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) at one of its Indian facilities, has relied upon the drug making capabilities of its US subsidiary, Ohm Laboratories, to replenish its US product basket. The move could prove to be a costly option as production in the US does not have the same competitive advantage as in India, analysts say.

Trumount Cosmoceuticals, a Pune based company on Thursday launched 20 different beauty products that meet the standards set by the food and drug administration (FDA) in the Europe and the US. A a group company of Ludhiana based pharmaceutical firm Wind Trust Pharma Ltd, Trumount would market these products under the brand name Votre.

The year-old plan of the countrys largest sea carrier to get into the dredging business has failed to take off.

Tata Tea posted a 69 per cent decline in net profit (consolidated) at Rs 396 crore for the third quarter ended December 2008 compared with Rs 1,292 crore recorded in the previous corresponding quarter. The stock price was down by 2.73 per cent at Rs 606.05 on the BSE.

A bitter shareholder battle over poor financial performance has broken out over The Indian Film Company (IFC), acquirers and distributors of such blockbusters as Jab We Met, Welcome, Singh is Kinng and Ghajini.

As a fallout of the financial irregularities in Satyam Computer Services, a section of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is in favour of cancelling the award of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. The project was won by the Nava Bharat-led consortium, in which Maytas Infra, a listed firm related to Satyams promoters, is one of the partners.