Only Parliament can form Cauvery Water Mgmt Board-:- Equity Research

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that forming the Cauvery Water Management Board is the sole prerogative of Parliament and that the court can’t order the government on this. The Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi informed the SC on Monday that the constitution of the Cauvery Water Management Board requires the consent of both houses of Parliament and that it cannot be formed on the orders of the apex court. The SC will hear the matter on Tuesday. The Centre's submission has come as a huge relief to Karnataka and Kerala which have been opposing the Board saying that it will take away their rights over the Cauvery reservoirs. On Friday, a two-member bench of the SC, Justice Deepak Misra and Justice UU Lalith, had ordered the Centre to form the board before October 4 to decide future distribution of Cauvery water among all four riparian states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The AG had assured the SC that he would inform the Centre to take note of the order. Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have already named their representatives to the board. The Karnataka government had opposed the SC order and even refused to nominate its representative to the board, with Kerala also following Karnataka. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda went on a hunger strike on Saturday opposing it. He called it off only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested him to end it. Two weeks ago, the SC had set a deadline of one month to form the board. The Karnataka Assembly has already passed a resolution against the Board saying it would take away Karnataka's right over its dams in Cauvery basin. The Centre's silence over the issue was severely criticised by all political parties except the BJP in Karnataka. But the state BJP has been openly opposing the SC decision on constitution of the Cauvery Water Management Board. The Centre's latest stand is expected to cool tempers in Karnataka, which is facing a severe drought in Cauvery basin districts this year.

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L&T bags orders worth Rs 6,024 crore-:- Equity Research

Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has bagged orders worth Rs 6,024 crore across various business segments. "The construction arm of L&T has won orders worth Rs 6,024 crore across various business segments," L&T said in a BSE filing today. The company said that its power transmission and distribution business has received orders worth Rs 1,721 crore while the water and effluent treatment business vertical has secured orders worth Rs 1,497 crore. The building and factories business also bagged orders worth Rs 1,131 crore in various sectors and the transport infrastructure unit bagged Rs 780 crore orders. The company's heavy civil infrastructure business received orders worth Rs 630 crore while the metallurgical and material handling business secured orders worth Rs 265 crore.Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has bagged orders worth Rs 6,024 crore across various business segments. "The construction arm of L&T has won orders worth Rs 6,024 crore across various business segments," L&T said in a BSE filing today. The company said that its power transmission and distribution business has received orders worth Rs 1,721 crore while the water and effluent treatment business vertical has secured orders worth Rs 1,497 crore. The building and factories business also bagged orders worth Rs 1,131 crore in various sectors and the transport infrastructure unit bagged Rs 780 crore orders. The company's heavy civil infrastructure business received orders worth Rs 630 crore while the metallurgical and material handling business secured orders worth Rs 265 crore.

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NSE's share grows in equity, equity derivatives in HI FY'17-:- Equity Research

In a sign of growing investor interest in equity and equity derivatives, NSE today said its market share has surged in these segments in April-September 2016 period, mainly on account of awareness programs organised by the bourse. The National Stock Exchange's market share in equity cash market segment stood at 86 per cent with traded volume of Rs 24,17,500 crore during April-September, while the same for equity derivatives was 99 per cent with a trade volume of Rs 4,17,80,500 crore. During the last financial year, the exchange had recorded around 85 percent and 93 percent market share in equity and equity derivative segments respectively. "NSE's incessant efforts towards investor awareness is a key factor towards ensuring increasing participation on its platform. During the last one-year period, NSE has organised around 2,000 investor awareness programs nationwide. Some of those programs were organised in far flung areas and covered a diverse set of investors through online and offline modes," the exchange said in a statement. "NSE's customer focused approach has helped the exchange to win investor's confidence," it added. Besides, the currency derivatives segment of NSE has seen 56 percent market share, while over 67 percent market participants chose to trade Interest Rate Futures (IRF) on its platform during April to September of this year. Currency derivatives and IRF platforms have registered trade volumes of Rs 23,97,100 crore and Rs 1,32,500 crore respectively. The Assets Under Management (AUM) of ETFs based on Nifty 50 index have crossed Rs 10,000 crore. It was at Rs 8,533 crore as on March 31, 2016 as compared to Rs 1,251 crore at the end of preceding financial year.

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Govt working on rollout of GST from next April-:- Equity Research

Government is working on a target date of April 1, 2017 for the rollout of Goods and Services Tax, and the first meeting of the GST Council was held in a "very cordial and constructive environment", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today. In his opening remarks at the Fourth Meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting here, he said the government so far is following the road map for implementation of GST "as per the schedule". The subject of meeting was GST, an official release said. Jaitley said that till September 16, 2017, one year after the provisions of the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016 being brought into force, the Constitution empowers the central government to levy excise duty on manufacturing, and service tax on the supply of services. Similarly, the Constitution Amendment Act empowers the state governments to levy sales tax or Value Added Tax (VAT) on the sale of goods till that time September 16, 2016. The Finance Minister further said that the first meeting of the GST Council was held in a very cordial and constructive environment earlier this month. The second meeting is scheduled today. The GST Council is a joint forum of the Centre and the States. The Council will take decisions on important issues like tax rates, exemption list and threshold limits. Members of Consultative Committee sought various clarifications with regard to GST Law and gave suggestions for its better implementation. Some of the major suggestions include need for absolute clarity and transparency with regard to where taxes will be collected, assessed and where the appeal will be filed in case of GST regime. As per a release, the members said that it will be a challenging task to tackle complex situation arising-out of implementation of GST law in a federal system. Some of them suggested there is a need for launching a large scale awareness campaign especially for small traders as most of them are still unaware of the complex procedures and processes under the GST regime including registration and filing of returns.

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RBI shifts monetary policy timing to mid-afternoon-:- Equity Research

The Reserve Bank has decided to change the timing of announcement of its policy review, due next Tuesday, to mid-afternoon. For long, the central bank has been unveiling the monetary policy at 11 am. "The resolution of MPC will be placed on the official website of RBI at 2.30 pm on October 4," the central bank said on its website, adding that MPC will be meeting on Monday and also Tuesday to take a call on rates. The announcement, which will come in during market hours itself, will be followed by a press conference to be addressed by new Governor Urjit Patel at 2.45 pm, it said. Under his predecessor Raghuram Rajan, the press meet had been starting at 11.10 am followed by a conference call with researchers and analysts in afternoon. When D Subbarao was at the helm, he addressed the press at 3 pm after announcing the policy at 11 am while the analyst call was slated for the next afternoon. Since this is the fourth bi-monthly policy review of this fiscal and the first under the MPC framework, the Reserve Bank will be coming up with the twice-a-year Monetary Policy Report that takes stock of macroeconomic developments. This will be Patel's maiden policy announcement as the Governor. He was the deputy governor in-charge of the monetary policy function for over four years before the recent elevation. It will also be the first policy to be announced under MPC, where the decision-making on rates will shift to the six-member panel which has equal representation from RBI and the government. While RBI nominees are Executive Director Michael Patra, Deputy Governor in-charge of monetary policy R Gandhi and Patel, who has a casting vote, the government's members are Chetan Ghate of the Indian Statistical Institute, Pami Dua of Delhi School of Economics and Ravindra Dholakia of IIM Ahmedabad. The panel, which was notified only yesterday, shall be meeting on October 3 and 4 to take a view on the rates, the Reserve Bank said on its website. With inflation subsiding last month and showing signs of downward trend, arrival of a new chief of the central bank and the panel-led decision making has led to expectations of a rate cut on Tuesday.

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IOC to expand Barauni refinery with Rs 8,287 cr investment-:- Equity Research

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will invest over Rs 9,800 crore in expanding its Barauni refinery in Bihar and setting up a petrochemical unit at Panipat refinery in Haryana. The Board of IOC in its meeting on Thursday approved expansion of Barauni refinery from 6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 9 MTPA. The "expansion of Barauni refinery from 6 MTPA capacity to 9 MTPA capacity along with downstream Polypropylene unit" will cost Rs 8,287 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing. Also, the Board accorded "in-principle approval for implementation of Olefin recovery project alongwith expansion of existing naphtha cracker unit, MEG revamp and benzene expansion unit modifications at Panipat at an estimated cost of Rs 1,527 crore," it added.

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Repco Home Finance to raise Rs 100 crore via bonds-:- Equity Research

Repco Home Finance will raise Rs 100 crore by issuing a 3-year tenure bond on private placement basis next week. "A meeting of the Securities Allotment Committee of the Board of Directors will be held on October 5, 2016 to consider and approve the private placement of rated, listed, secured, redeemable non-convertible securities in the nature of debentures," it said in a regulatory filing. The issue size is of Rs 100 crore and the bonds are to be issued on a private placement mode, it added. The company said the bonds will mature on October 4, 2019. Coupon rate on the bonds is at 8.5 percent per annum. The Chennai-headquartered housing loan company was set up in April 2000 to tap the growth potential in the housing finance market.

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