TANMAY OBSERVES!

Right now market is facing many negative factors and that is bringing the markets down on its own weight. Most important factors being Swine Flu, RIL-RNRL fight and Monsoon, this update tries to throw light on the same -

One of the few certainties about the H1N1 swine flu virus is that it would have to turn much deadlier than it seems right now to 

 

cause a major drop in global economic output. A renewed rash of media headlines suggests the virus, the subject of a World Health Organisation (WHO) pandemic alert since June 11, could deliver the next big blow to the global economy. 

Here are some of the potential ways by which the H1N1 virus could affect markets and economies across the world: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/H1N1-downturn-Impact-on-financial-market/articleshow/4871881.cms

 

 

India PM: Deficient Rains May Fuel Food Price Inflation

MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--The delayed and erratic monsoon rains across India have adversely impacted crop sowing operations and this may have an inflationary affect on food prices in coming months, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday. "A deficit of more than 6 million hectares has been reported in paddy [rice], which is the worst affected crop. [But] we are in a position to ensure adequate availability of food grains in drought affected areas," he said in his address at a meeting of top bureaucrats from the provinces. The annual monsoon rain, crucial to the summer-sown crops - since about 60% of farmland is rain-fed - was 25% below normal between June 1 and Aug. 5. Rainfall in the country for the week ended Aug. 5 was 64% below normal, worse even than the 18% below the 50-year average measured the previous week. Apart from rice, the deficient rains will also seriously impact the output of summer-sown sugar cane and pulses, according to industry and analysts. 

 

Singh said though the current food stock position is comfortable as there has been a record production and procurement by the government in the last two years, the country is facing a difficult situation. "The governments at the federal and local level should not hesitate to take strong measures and intervene in the market if the need arises," Singh said. He said the country should start planning for winter sown crops so that that they could compensate for whatever loss in production in summer sown crops.

 

UPDATE: Reliance Industries: Anil Ambani Trying To Influence Case

 

 

(Adds comments by Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Power)

 

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Friday accused Anil Ambani of trying to influence a legal dispute between the company and RNRL, in the latest turn in the feud between the two billionaire brothers. The comments come more than a week after Mukesh Ambani's estranged younger brother Anil Ambani, who controls RNRL, criticized the oil ministry of favoring RIL in the dispute over the pricing of natural gas from a Reliance Industries offshore block. "Anil Ambani's public statements, many of which have been directly made to the press, are a part of an orchestrated campaign designed to bring into public debate and prejudge the issues that are pending before the Supreme Court of India," Atul Chandra, Reliance Industries' president of international operations, said during a press briefing in Mumbai. Chandra said Anil Ambani's personal comments against his Mukesh Ambani, had "profoundly saddened" him.

 

Reliance Natural Resources has been locked in a three-year long legal battle with Reliance Industries over the pricing of gas to be supplied by RIL from its Krishna Godavari D6 basin. Anil insists he has the right to buy gas at $2.34/per million British thermal units, a price which was agreed on four years ago when the brothers divided the empire of their late father Dhirubhai Ambani. However, RIL says that the gas should be sold at the state-mandated price of $4.20/mmBtu. The Bombay High Court ruled in favor of RNRL, allowing it to buy gas at the cheaper price of $2.34/mmBtu. The Supreme Court is set the hear the case on Sept. 1. Responding to RIL's charges, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Power Ltd Chief Executive J. P. Chalasani cited Anil Ambani as saying that he is "pained" that RIL is doing "everything in its power to renege on its binding commitment to supply gas to us."

 

"I have no idea what it is - corporate greed, personal vendetta, misguided advice" that has prompted Mukesh to act in this way, Anil Ambani said.

 

While RIL talked of continued restraint in the verbal duel with Anil Ambani, it simultaneously lashed out at him, rejecting "the baseless, tendentious and motivated allegations and insinuations made by Anil Ambani and his associates." The simmering dispute between the brothers flared up on July 28 when Anil Ambani accused the oil ministry of favoring RIL in the legal dispute. A sparring match then broke out between RNRL and the government. Oil minister Murli Deora shot back, saying the government has no intention of intervening in a private dispute and it was merely trying to protect its legal rights. Later, India's upstream regulator, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, too joined the fray, rebutting allegations from RNRL that RIL inflated its capital expenditure to deprive the government of its due share from KG-D6 gas sales. The KG basin is India's largest gas find, with a peak output of 80 million metric standard cubic meters a day. RNRL is depending on the gas supply from RIL to power its proposed power plant in north India's Dadri town. In Friday's press briefing, RIL said the company has invested INR320 billion in the KG Basin

 

It said it has a "full sense of responsibility" as a "contractor to the government," and has gone about developing the KG basin project "in complete compliance with all obligations attached to our role as the contractor." Chalasani accused RIL of "shamefully appropriating illegal and unethical super-profits" of INR500 billion, by denying the government its share of KG basin gas revenues.