Thought of the Day:
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you”
Jim Rohn
Did you know?
There’s a building in London that reflects the Sun so perfectly, it literally melts cars.
India:
International:
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you”
Jim Rohn
Did you know?
There’s a building in London that reflects the Sun so perfectly, it literally melts cars.
India:
- Tata Motors, HCL Top FY13 Profits in just 9 Mnths: Tata Motors, Sesa Sterlite, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra are among the companies in the BSE 200 index whose net profits during the first nine months of FY14 have exceeded their FY13 full year profits. An ETIG analysis shows two out of every nine companies that reported net profit during the first nine months of FY14 in the BSE200 index have exceeded their FY13 full year profits. These companies have been able to surpass their previous year’s profits in less than a year on account of either sustained sales growth or better operating and non-operating cost management or both. This is despite the slowdown and the fact that growth last fiscal was at a decadal low and with indications that it will be below 5% this fiscal too. Many of the companies which managed to top their FY13 profits are either medium or small companies based on their profit potential. For instance, of the top 10 companies in the sample based on their nine-month net profit, only two, including Tata Motors and Sesa Sterlite, reported higher figures relative to the full-year profits for the previous fiscal. Tata Motors is reaping the benefits of higher global demand for its Jaguar and Land Rover models while Sesa Sterlite’s profit was boosted due to the merger of two companies — Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries. Of the top 50 companies in the sample, only seven reported higher profits in the first three quarters of FY14. Of these two belonged to the IT sector, including HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra.
- IHC, Barista Lavazza Deal Talks Fall Apart: Takeover talks between Barista Lavazza and diversified hospitality company India Hospitality Corp (IHC) have ended without an agreement, dealing a blow to Italian firm Lavazza Spa’s efforts to find a buyer for the coffee chain, an official aware of the development said. “The exclusivity term of the due diligence (for India Hospitality Corp) has lapsed,” the official said requesting not to be named. Lavazza has now constituted a new M&A team to drive the process of selling Barista that currently operates 180 stores across the country, the person said. “We have no comments to offer,” a Barista Lavazza spokesperson said in response to an ET query. IHC chairman Ravi Deol, who incidentally stewarded Barista in its infancy days, said his company had no interest in Barista. “We don’t believe in the business,” he told ET in a text message. However, early this month when ET asked Deol if IHC was reviewing Barista, he had said, “We keep getting various proposals. There is no view on Barista yet.” ET in its March 12 edition had reported that Lavazza’s asking price for Barista might play a spoilsport in its talks with IHC. Two people in the know of the negotiations had said Lavazza was looking at a valuation of at least 80 crore, which IHC was not willing to shell out.
- Trent appoints Noel Tata as chairman: Noel Tata has taken over as chairman of Trent, the retail company created by his mother in the nineties after selling off the cosmetics business, Lakme to Hindustan Unilever. The 57-year-old has succeeded Tata Group old timer FK Kavarana, who retired on Sunday. The development is in line with the fact that the mother (Simone Tata) and son duo has always been in charge of the company. A product of Sussex and Insead, Tata has been associated with Trent since the acquisition of Littlewoods International's Indian unit in 1998, which marked its foray into large format stores. Littlewoods' Bangalore outlet was subsequently renamed as Westside. Besides Westside, Trent operates Star Bazaar big-box stores and Landmark book and music chains. Under the stewardship of Tata, Trent has gone from strength to strength, thanks to the philosophy of focusing on profitable growth over scale. The company's consolidated revenue has jumped significantly from a mere Rs 8 crore in 1999 to Rs 1,932 crore in 2013.
- How to make e-retailing better: E-retailers are now entering the area of guided discovery. The online stores are providing navigation that will enable consumers to look for the products easily by important product characteristics. They aim at giving customized experience to the customers depending on their browsing history. Experts, engaging a costumer within first few seconds of logging in and presenting less and accurate choices will increase the average order value. To make guided discovery possible, the e-retailers must think like customers. Data curation of social data offers grand insight about trends and also influences consumer experience. When it comes to guided discovery, online deal sites face problems such as, local services. To make the search more accurate, it is important to not only look at past purchase history of the consumer. It is also important to track the internet reviews and social networking of the consumer to make the recommendations richer and precise. Narrow personalization or guided discovery is a business strategy that guides the customers about what to purchase without taking their shopping experience.
- RBI may keep policy rate unchanged, voices caution: The Reserve Bank of India is expected to keep its policy interest rate unchanged on Tuesday after retail inflation, which has become its preferred price gauge, eased to a 25-month low in February. With India heading for elections running from April 7 to May 12, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan may also want to wait for a glimpse of the next government's economic policies as well as the outlook for monsoon season rains that begin in June before making a policy move, economists said. All 53 analysts in a Reuters poll released on Thursday expect the repo rate to stay at 8%. "We expect RBI to stay on hold at this policy given the breathing space they enjoy at the moment with the recent softening in inflation," said Siddhartha Sanyal, India economist at Barclays. "There are two known unknowns - elections and the monsoon - and by June, Rajan will have better clarity on both."
- Facebook cracking down on fake ‘likes’ in poll season: With politicians boosting their social media presence in the election season using fake online followers, Facebook has started cracking down on fraudulent accounts showing suspiciously high number of ‘likes’. Data from the Facebook team show that close to 52,000 pages exist for politicians and political parties in India. Of them 60 are verified pages. “We’re always focused on maintaining the integrity of our site, but we’ve placed an increased focus on abuse from fake accounts recently,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed response. The social networking site, which has around 93 million monthly active users in India alone, has built up a combination of automated and manual systems to block accounts used for fraudulent purposes and ‘Likes’. Company officials say action is being taken against sellers of fake clicks and are helping to shut them down.
- PepsiCo may bowl BCCI a legal googly over IPL: The recent Supreme Court orders relating to the Indian Premier League (IPL) has pushed a number of the tournament’s sponsors onto the back foot. Serious questions are being raised about the integrity of some of the teams and players, and even how the tournament is being run. Some of the big advertisers are still undecided about their association with IPL 7. PespiCo, the title sponsor of the tournament, is contemplating to take the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), IPL’s organizers, to court. After bagging the title sponsorship rights for nearly Rs 400 crore a year ago, the controversies surrounding the IPL have not gone down well with the global beverages-to-foods major.
International:
- Retailers Talk Tech at Oracle Conference: The retail industry hasn’t traditionally given technology top priority, but with consumers’ expectation of “anything, anywhere, anytime I want it,” tech expertise has become a competitive focus for the industry’s big players. Oracle Industry Connect, a two-day conference held March 25 and 26 here, brought together roughly 240 retail executives to network and share system implementation case histories as they chase omnichannel selling. Today, more than half of shoppers — 58 percent — rank product availability as more important than price, according to an Oracle study of 4,500 consumers worldwide. Mark Webster, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle’s retail practice, said Amazon sold 426 items a second on Cyber Monday. “If you don’t think consumers are taking advantage of new access points [to shop], then you are misguided.” In a keynote address, Karen Katz, president and chief executive officer of Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. LLC, said the $5 billion retailer is in the midst of its largest-ever capital project, which is to overhaul its merchandising system using Oracle. “It is big, scary and risky, and the only path we could have taken,” said Katz, ruminating on how a storied brand history isn’t enough to keep a retailer in business.
- Apple's 'transparent texting' makes texting while walking safer: US tech giant Apple has filed a patent for new technology that aims to make texting while walking safer by replacing the text background with a live video feed of whatever is in front of the smartphone user. Many smartphone users keep their eyes glued to the screens while texting and walking which can cause them to stumble over or bump into obstacles. Apple's 'transparent texting' aims to solve this problem by overlaying messages on a live video feed from the rear camera of the smartphone. This will allow users to see what is happening beyond their phone and text at the same time. "A user who is walking while participating in a text messaging session may inadvertently collide with or stumble over objects in his path because his attention was focused on his device's display instead of the path that he was traversing," according to the patent filed in the US.
- BlackBerry wins court order to ban Typo from selling iPhone case: BlackBerry Ltd won a preliminary injunction on Friday to ban Ryan Seacrest's Typo Products LLC from selling a $99 iPhone case after a judge agreed that television host's company had likely infringed on BlackBerry's patents. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said that the Canadian mobile phone maker had established a "likelihood" of proving that Typo infringed its patents, while mentioning that Typo had not sufficiently challenged the patents in question. The preliminary injunction prohibits Typo from the sale of its keyboard, which is a part of the relief sought by Blackberry. "BlackBerry is pleased that its motion for a preliminary injunction against Typo Products LLC was granted. This ruling will help prevent further injury to BlackBerry from Typo's blatant theft of our patented keyboard technology," a spokeswoman for BlackBerry said in an email. Typo said it was disappointed and plans to appeal the decision. "Typo will continue to make and sell innovative products that busy people can't live without," the company said in a statement. In January, BlackBerry had filed a lawsuit against a company co-founded by "American Idol" host Seacrest that offers a physical keyboard that can be attached to some of Apple Inc's touch screen iPhone 5 models.
- Free People Makes Hong Kong Debut: Free People today will unveil its first in-store shop in China, a 650-square-foot unit at Lab Concept Queensway Plaza in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong shop, which is a partnership with Lab Concept, is part of the brand’s broader push into Asia. Last month, Free People opened three stores in Japan. The shop-in-shop will carry the brand’s complete clothing line and intimates collection. The Hong Kong shop will stay true to the Free People aesthetic, with colorful decor and the handmade details the brand is known for, while incorporating elements specific to the space. The shop features sheesham and teakwood tables, as well as curtains hand-sewn from hundreds of individual squares of fabric. Caged twinkle lights hanging from cast-iron branches illuminate the store, playing on the theme of nature and the outdoors.
- Retail Shares Up for Day, Off 5% in March: Stocks received a powerful lift when Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said the Fed still saw the need to support the economy and would continue to do so. Her comments during a conference in Chicago propelled stocks to gains, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 adding 0.8 percent to end the month and the quarter at 16,457.66 and 1,872.34, respectively. Retail shares rose less dramatically as the S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group logged a 0.3 percent advance to end Monday’s trading session at 889.97, 5 percent below its starting point in March and 5.3 percent below the Dec. 31 close. Specialty retailers attracted most of the largest gains among the sample of fashion, retail and beauty equities tracked by WWD. Cache Inc. shares were up 5.8 percent to $3.29 and American Apparel Inc. gained 5.1 percent to 50 cents. Stein Mart Inc. was up 4 percent to $14.01 while two California-based teen retailers in the midst of turnaround efforts, The Wet Seal Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., had matching 3.9 percent increases to close at $1.32 and $2.97, respectively.
- Future cities to have trees that glow, not street lights: The ‘smart’ cities of the future could have glow-in-the-dark trees to replace street lights, and gardens that grow vertically up walls, according to a new report. Experts at Arup, an engineering and design consultancy headquartered in UK, envision a future city where trees will glow, and if it is icy, the pavements will be heated; and when it is congested, the Global Positioning System (GPS) will automatically reroute people. The company is behind London’s Garden Bridge project — a planned pedestrian bridge across the Thames that would be planted with grass and trees — and its concept of a future city is described in a report titled Cities Alive. The report envisages “cities of the future as integrated networks of intelligent green spaces, designed to improve the health and well-being of citizens.” Arup suggests that more efforts should be made to plant vegetation wherever possible, and to integrate all the infrastructure more intelligently — such as by monitoring and rerouting cars, ‘The Times’ reported. The report also suggests use of genetically modified trees. The tree DNA spliced with that from bioluminescent organisms would allow it to convert renewable energy by day into light by night. This could allow trees to replace street lights entirely.
Currency:
· 1 USD= ₹ 60.122
· 1 EUR= ₹ 82.809
· 1 GBP= ₹ 100.177
· 1 AUD= ₹ 55.765
Glitter Meter: India
Gold (INR/10g) | Silver (INR/kg) | |||
City | Current | Change | Current | Change |
Chennai | 28890.00 | 20 | 43085.00 | 280 |
Mumbai | 28440.00 | 20 | 43085.00 | 280 |
Delhi | 28210.00 | 20 | 43085.00 | 280 |
Kolkata | 28320.00 | 10 | 43085.00 | 280 |
World Indices:
Exchange | Last | Change |
DJIA | 16457.66 | +134.60 |
FTSE 100 | 6598.37 | -17.21 |
CAC 40 | 4391.50 | -19.76 |
DAX | 9555.91 | -31.28 |
Nikkei | 14785.67 | -42.16 |
Hang Seng | 22365.39 | +214.33 |
Sensex | 22455.23 | +68.96 |
NASDAQ | 4198.99 | +43.24 |
*Disclaimer:
World One Consulting Pvt Ltd will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information contained within this newsletter including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals.
World One Consulting Pvt Ltd will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information contained within this newsletter including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals.
