The Reserve Bank on Monday issued detailed operation guidelines for hedging of commodity price risk by corporates. Earlier this month, the centre had allowed corporates with genuine underlying exposure to access global commodity exchanges for hedging risk.

Benchmark price for rubber hiked:

The government has raised the benchmark price for natural rubber to Rs 3,405 per quintal for RSS-4 grade and Rs 3,355 per quintal for RSS-5 grade with immediate effect. The prices had been last revised by the ministry of commerce in February 1994.

DGFT upgrades 14 offices:

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has upgraded 14 offices to the level of joint DGFT from deputy DGFT in its effort to decentralise its powers as announced in the Exim policy in April this year. The upgraded offices are at Moradabad, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Panipat, Baroda, Bhopal, Rajkot, Cuttack, Guwahati, Patna, Coimbatore, Madurai, Pndicherry and Vishakapatnam.

CorporateMonitor

Karnataka officials meet Tata:

A team of Karnataka government officials on Monday met Tata group chairman Ratan Tata with a draft memorandum of understanding in connection with the revival of the Rs 1,500-crore airport project near Bangalore. The draft MoU is to extend the life of the present MoU which is expected to expire on September 30. Sources declined to comment on the talks except to say that "a statement will be issued by Karnataka government and Tatas on Tuesday".

IOC in talks with global majors:

IOC has kicked off discussions with several international majors for tie-ups in exploration and production activities both here and abroad. IOC CMD MA Pathan said on Monday that while UK oil major Premier Oil and Enterprise would partner the corporation in its local operations, Petronas, Marubeni, PTT, Mobil and Petrotin had been identified as potential allies.

BPCL sales up 3.8%:

Bharat Petroleum has achieved its highest sales turnover and profit for 1997-98.According to chairman and managing director Sundar Rajan, sales turnover stood at Rs 20,698 crore, achieving a growth of 3.83 per cent against an industry growth of 3.57 per cent. The market share of the company moved up to 20.5 per cent from 15.3 per cent.

GAIL to diversify into power generation

GAIL is diversifying into power generation, now that it has a toehold in the petrochemicals business, with production of ethane and propane having commenced at its Pata petrochemicals complex, chairman-cum-managing director CR Prasad said on Monday.

Coke in talks with Bengal bottler:

Coca-Cola India is negotiating with Black Diamond Beverages, its bottler in West Bengal, to develop their alliance into an acquisition or joint venture, as part of its national strategy. Coke has been making strong efforts to woo its Bengal bottler, which has two plants.

Mukand, Mitsui Babcock Energy tie up:

The Mukand group on Monday announced a joint venture with Mitsui Babcock Energy (India) Pvt Ltd toprovide coal pulverising equipment and spares to the power sector in the country. The 50:50 joint venture, Mukand Babcock, will invest about Rs 35 crore in the Indian market over the next five years, according to vice-president TS Anand said.

Parke-Davis sales up 23%:

Parke-Davis has registered a 22.8 per cent jump in sales to Rs 83 crore for the first five months of the current fiscal, compared with Rs 67 crore in the corresponding period in the previous year. Profits for the period rose to Rs 6 crore from Rs 5.1 crore in the previous year.

Escort petrol model launched:

Mahindra Ford India on Monday launched the new petrol Ford Escort Alpha as a limited edition car in the Zetec 1.6 category in Mumbai. Introduced as part of the company's special value pack programme, this edition of the Ford Escort Alpha will carry a price tag of Rs 716,973 (ex-showroom) in Mumbai.

Market Pulse

Newton plans Rs 100-crore India fund:

Newton Investment Management has firmed up plans tolaunch an India-dedicated fund in the United Kingdom. The initial corpus of the fund is likely to be in the range of Rs 75 crore to Rs 100 crore. This will be the first India-dedicated fund from the UK-based investment company. The fund will invest in the Indian equity markets.

BSE gilts trading awaits ministry nod

The Reserve Bank has sought the finance ministry's clearance to allow BSE to kick off trading in government securities. The central bank had earlier forwarded the issue to Sebi in April 1998 which had in turn appointed Wipro to vet the on-line software designed by BSE and then passed on the clearance to RBI.

Banking & Finance

RBI to be open on Sept 30:

The Reserve Bank has said that all its offices in Mumbai will conduct normal business, including clearing operations, on September 30. The central bank has also directed all urban co-operative banks to keep their branches open for two hours on September 30, declared as half-yearly closing day.

Centre may reconsiderthird-party premium hike:

New India Assurance chairman-cum-managing director SK Kanwar on Monday hinted that the centre may take a second look at the controversial hike in third-party motor premium, which came into effect in February this year. He said, "The goverment is contemplating whether to bring the premium of third-party motor premium down or not.

SBI disburses Rs 3,000cr RIB proceeds:

State Bank of India on Monday disbursed about Rs 3,000 crore to banks the second tranche of their share in the Resurgent India Bond (RIB) collection. With this, SBI has disbursed about 90 per cent of the estimated Rs 6,700 crore meant to be lent to the RIB collecting banks.

Oriental Insurance net up 68%

Oriental Insurance Co, one of the four subsidiaries of General Insurance Corporation, has announced a net profit of Rs 153.87 crore for 1997-98, a jump of 68 per cent over the previous year. Gross profit for the year is Rs 183.68 crore. All its profits have come from investments in the stockand money markets.

2-year paper auction devolves:

The Rs 3,000-crore two-year paper auction devolved on the primary dealers to the tune of Rs 207 crore. The devolvement, as part of the underwriting commitment, was on account of the central bank accepting only 125 bids from 138 received at a cut-off yield of 11.40 per cent.

Politics & Policy

Laloo fails to meet Sonia:

RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav's efforts at opposition unity in the capital during his stay here left one yawning gap: he failed to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, thus leaving the distance between them unbridged. Laloo's day-and-a-half visit here after scoring a political victory over the Bihar events was ostensibly meant to bolster unity moves among the leading anti-BJP groups.

BJP strategy on Bihar issue:

Following the embarrassment the government is facing over the Bihar issue, the BJP has adopted the strategy that offence is the best form of defence. Acting in tandem, union home minister LKAdvani and BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday called for a nation-wide debate on the use of Article 356 since it could not be imposed on Bihar which was the ``fittest case'' for it.