Media stocks attract FIIs

FIIs and global investors seemed to have taken an increased interest in media and entertainment sector, which has witnessed growing advertising revenues.
According to analysts, increasing interest rates and rising rupee have impacted sectors such as automobiles, manufacturing and IT, while also favouring interest insensitive sectors. Analysts feel that media companies' that have invested in television, radio and multiplexes are the only ones that don't seem to have been impacted.
Moreover, growing year on year advertising revenues in both print and electronic media have also accounted for these stocks being currently in favour despite volatility.
Analysts feel buyer interest in media stocks is likely to continue as the television industry is expected to grow by 22-23 per cent and print industry by 13-14 per cent in the next two years.
Another positive trigger is that most media companies' profits have more than doubled in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2007, said an analyst who did not wish to be named.

Emaar MGF likely to invest $ 12 bn in India

DUBAI: Emaar MGF, a joint venture between Dubai-based Emaar Properties and India's MGF Developments, is likely to invest about $ 12 billion in India in the next five years for setting up nine special economic zones and 50 hospitals.
Emaar MGF also plans to add 25,000 hotel rooms throughout the country in ten years, besides establishing schools and universities, residential townships and shopping malls.
"It is our vision to change the way modern India lives and toward this goal we have brought into the country the largest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian real estate sector," Emaar MGF Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director Shravan Gupta told Gulf News.
The company started the expansion programme by laying foundation stone for a township project at Mohali Hills, a satellite town of Chandigarh.
The project will have a capital of Rs 16,000 crore and will include residential plots, town houses, villas and shopping malls, in addition to facilities such as hospitals and IT parks.
Meanwhile, Emaar MGF has received approval for nine SEZs, proposed to be located in states including Haryana, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
In the hospitality sector, the company plans to build 10 luxury hotels and 45-50 business hotels in 10 years. It's joint venture with Accor will result in 100 budget hotels. In all, it will add 25,000 hotel rooms across India in 10 years.

Source: PTI

Sebi to educate investors

Mumbai: Stock market regulator Sebi will launch a nation wide investors' campaign in the next two months to educate people about the securities market, said M Damodaran, chairman, Sebi. This would be with the help of the major stock exchanges and the state governments.
Addressing retail investors at India Investors Show, Damodaran said, "We will reach out not just to people in the Metros, and only to people in the tier-two towns, but wherever investable surpluses are available."
Sebi will work through the National Institute of Securities Market (NISM) for spearheading the investors' education campaign.
Damodaran said, "We have already tied-up with some large institutions in order that our investors' education programme reach much beyond the metros and tier-two towns", he said.
Stressing on the need of the retail investors' participation in the market, Damodaran said that the participation of the retail investors in the market is necessary for the healthy growth of the Indian stock market in the long-term horizon. It will help the market also to give a reasonable return.

Source: Domain-B

Shareholders should question CEOs' salary: Ahluwalia

New Delhi: Shareholders of family-owned companies should question the quantum of emoluments being drawn by the chief executive officers (CEOs) of their companies, said the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission speaking to Karan Thapar in the programme 'Devil's Advocate' telecast on news channel CNN-IBN.
Ahluwalia further added, "If you look at the ten best performing companies in India... Find out the salaries of top CEOs and then consider how many companies that are performing nowhere near as well are paying there CEOs three-four times that salary.
Ahluwalia said regulation of CEOs salary is a shareholder issue and should be decided by the remuneration committee of independent directors.
Defending the Prime Minister's recent remarks on CEO's salaries he said the PM did not mean that skilled and highly- skilled persons getting a good salary in a competitive market is "something to be objected to," Ahluwalia said. He further added that, "if you have a family controlled business and they owe themselves large salaries it is not necessarily the best thing to do."

Source: Domain-B

Google buys Internet news delivery firm FeedBurner

SAN FRANCISCO: Google announced on Friday that it has bought FeedBurner, a firm specialising in delivering podcasts, weblogs, news and advertising to Internet browsers. Chicago-based FeedBurner is a "web feed" firm that lets online publishers constantly send updated news, commentary and other content directly to readers with tools such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS). "We are thrilled with this acquisition," Google vice president of product management Susan Wojcicki said during a conference call with reporters. "We believe the two companies are very complementary and it will enable Google to bring hundreds of thousands of new sites into AdSense network."

Source: www.timesofindia.com

India largest borrower from WB

NEW DELHI: The World Bank's lending to India will touch $3.8 billion in the 12 months period ending June 30, making the country the single largest borrower from the multilateral financial institution. "World Bank's involvement with India has increased tremendously and the $3.8 billion to be extended till June 30 is the largest amount being extended so far," World Bank executive director Dhanendra Kumar said. Out of the total $3.8 billion, $2.32 billion would be 'zero interest' grants and credit provided by the Bank's International Development Association (IDA), Kumar said. The Bank's lending to India last year was $1.4 billion. He added that half of the $3.8 billion would be deployed for development projects in rural areas. The bank is also expected to approve 14 projects by the end of June and would provide additional assistance for two projects already undertaken, he said.

Source : PTI

Markets to correct in June: Anagram Stock Broking

V K Sharma, analyst, Anagram Stock Broking, said we are heading into a bearish market. “If we look purely at the yesterday’s charts, which doesn’t take into account the closer of S&P 500 at an all-time high and Asian markets today, then it’s a bearish market that we are heading into. The market would definitely do a reversal today and open sharply higher,” he added. Sharma feels that the closure of the day in which the settlement ends is only for history and the current month. “A good close today doesn’t mean that the market is headed for a new bullish heights and a fall doesn’t mean that the next month is bad,” he explained. He believes the markets are heading into a correction in June. “We would look at utilizing any opportunity that comes to lighten commitments rather than going long. We are merely exporting the current months problems into June and the areas in which the open interest has actually been built are the weak areas and where the rollover is high,” Sharma added.

Source: Moneycontrol.com