Milk, Fruits and Pulses Raised Food Inflation to 17.70%

Higher prices of milk, fruits and pulses raised food inflation to 17.70% for the week ended March 27.

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This was due to the expectations that RBI may further tighten rates in its annual monetary policy on April 20.

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Meanwhile, food inflation in the previous week stood at 16.35%.

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The overall inflation for March is likely to cross the double digit mark.

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This is with prices of vital items increasing and fears of food inflation spreading to manufactured goods.

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The overall inflation, which includes variation in prices of food and non-food items, was 9.89 per cent in February.

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On an annual basis, pulses became dearer by 32.60 per cent, milk by 21.12 per cent, fruits 14.95 and wheat by 13.34 per cent.

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Moreover, on a weekly basis, the index for food articles rose by 0.9 per cent as fish marine, milk, fruits, masur and vegetables became costlier.

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In order to rein in inflation, the PM is holding a meeting of the core committee of Chief Ministers with representations from 10 states and senior Cabinet ministers.

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The core group of chief ministers comprises Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

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Besides CMs, the other members of the committee are Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

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General inflation has already surpassed RBI”s March end projection of 8.5 per cent.

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On the other hand, RBI governor D Subbarao had also said that the apex bank will carry on its exit from monetary stimulus policy to check high inflation and ensure sustainable growth.

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Earlier, according to the government data, released yesterday states the India”s Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 14.86 % in the month of February 2010 as against a year ago, which is lower than January”s annual growth of 16.22 %.

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During the month of February 2010, the CPI for Industrial Workers reduced by 2 points to 170.

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Also, India”s annual wholesale inflation rose to 9.89 % in February 2010 as compared to an increase of 8.56 % in January 2010 and 3.50 % against a year ago.

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The wholesale price inflation is more closely watched in India because it covers a higher number of products.

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The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate is rising quite sharply ever since it came out of the negative territory in September 2009.

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Stay Tuned for More Updates

Dubai Shakeout Leaves Thousand of Indian Families Worried

Dubai Debt Fallout Leaves Thousand of Indian Families Worried

The $59-billion debt woes of state-run Dubai World, one of the largest global conglomerates, has left thousands of Indian families worried, as the region accounts for half of the country’s $25-billion remittances.

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Gulf countries employ five million Indians, out of the 25 million total strength of the Indian diaspora in 130 countries, and Dubai being a key driver of the region’s economy, a shakeout there is seen unsettling the job market — and the incomes of relatives.

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Market experts have expressed that there will be at least 25-percent contraction in the job market and there may be a ripple effect on most Middle East countries because of Dubai World bust.

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They also said that Middle East meltdown is not a last month generated phenomena  rather it has been there for the past one year.

Infact, people have been coming back to India for the past one year.

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🙂

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Market experts and policy makers have expressed concern over the prospect of Indians employed in the Gulf losing their jobs.

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However they insist that much would depend on Dubai world Bust’s impact on the real economy there and employment.

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Many relatives of Indian expatriates in the Gulf have expressed concern and worries over the prospect of the loss of jobs in Gulf  in the wake of Dubai World Fiasco !!

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Many of families have taken huge amount of home loans to construct houses or to buy flats.

(With the dependence of paying it through the remittances they generally receive from their relatives working in Gulf).

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Now, they have worries like if their close family member working in Gulf loses the job then it will get impossible to repay the loan amount in full.

😦

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In Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for the largest share of remittances from the Gulf after Kerala, the realty industry feel there is an underlying worry that the Dubai World episode may just be the tip of the iceberg.

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Experts over there feel that things might go from bad to worse when the Dubai companies announce their financial results in December and January and many more could lose jobs.

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Analysts, nevertheless, maintained that while the future plans of Dubai World in India may be affected, the existing ones may not suffer much.

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India’s Wealth Lies in Its Cities

It was once believed that India lives in its villages.

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Now it is clear that India’s wealth lies in its cities, or more specifically, Mumbai.

 

India's Wealth Lies in Its Cities

A study conducted by Delhi-based SMC Global classified companies geographically on the location of their registered offices.

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It reveals that Mumbai-registered companies account for 36.28% of the total BSE 500 market cap.

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Some of the prominent names based out of Mumbai are Reliance Industries, L&T, HDFC and SBI.

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Also, out of the market capitalisation ascribed to Maharashtra which has the highest market capitalization among the states — more than 90% originates from Mumbai.

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In fact, Mumbai and six other cities account for 85.71% of the total market capitalisation of BSE 500.

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With Delhi NCR (National Capital Region, which includes satellite cities such as Gurgaon and Noida along with the capital) contributing 27.82%.

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After the financial and political capitals, state capitals take the fore.

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Bangalore lays claim to 7.10%,

Hyderabad to 4.86% and Kolkata accounts for 3.83%,

while Ahmedabad and Chennai account for 3.35% and 2.47%, respectively.

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On a state-wide basis, five states in combination with Delhi NCR and Maharashtra account for 94.20% of the total market cap.

A total of 66.17% of the index’s market cap can be traced to Maharashtra and Delhi NCR.

While the latter accounts for 38.35%, Delhi accounts 27.82%.

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Karnataka accounts for 7.74%, Gujarat, 7.48%, Andhra Pradesh is at 4.95% and Tamil Nadu at 4.02%, while Bengal has 3.83%.

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Though the big Indian companies have a pan-India presence with factories or plants located across the country, they tend to have registered offices in metros.

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That is because of the ease of operations and presence of other corporate houses, suggested the study.

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“The traditional metro cities have accumulation advantage.

Its ultimately the money which brings in more money.

As the Indian economy keeps evolving, tier-2 and tier-3 cities may catchup gradually, to bring-in more equitable distribution of wealth across the country.”

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…said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capitals.

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CORN………. “The Un-discovered Legend” Part 1

Hello Friends here we come up with another write up on “Commodity Corner Series”.

Here we would touch upon the importance of Maize crop in Indian commodity market and its relevance in the context of Indian Scenario 🙂

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CORN………. “The Un-discovered Legend”

Maize, also known as corn, is a cereal which is an important crop after rice and wheat.

The domestication of maize has been dated back as far back as 12,000 years ago. Today, maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, in a greater size with top producing countries like United States, China, Brazil, France, Indonesia, India and South Africa.

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Indian Scenario:

Andhra Pradesh is now the largest producer contributing around 21% of annual maize production.

India ‘s area harvested of maize and yield have risen by mainly on account of rising production of single cross hybrids seeds, its demand and increasing acceptability among farmers.

In India, its cultivation extends from the hot arid plains of Rajasthan and Gujarat to the wet hills of Assam and Bengal.

There are three distinct seasons for the cultivation of maize:

the main season is kharif;

next is Rabi in Peninsular India and Bihar and

in spring in northern India.

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Normally, higher yields have been recorded in the rabi and spring crops.

Over 85 per cent of the maize acreage is sown under rain-fed conditions during the monsoon when over 80 per cent of the annual rainfall is received.

However, this year due to the erratic monsoon production has been affected, as a result of which maize prices have been in uptrend since the withdrawal of monsoon from the country.

During 2008-9, Indian exported 3 million tonnes of maize and 12,000 tonnes of maize seed worth of Rs 2,400 crore and Rs 2,000 crore respectively.

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Stay Tuned for more on this.

In next blog we would touch upon the issues like Potential source of demand for Maize crop, Industrial Demand and PVO (Price-volume-open Interest) of MAize crops.

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WHEAT MAY MOVE IN RANGE WITH UP BIAS

Domestic wheat prices have escalated by around 10 per cent

Domestic wheat prices have escalated by around 10 per cent amid concerns of adverse monsoon and flood in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which has raised concern over kharif food grain production particularly rice and maize.

Although there is still some upside left as far as wheat prices are concerned.

The prices will face strong resistance at higher level as supply situation in India and in rest of the world is in healthy shape.

Ample availability of stock at domestic level

At domestic level, wheat inventories have increased after two back to back record crops in the country.

Due to better carry over stock and record purchase government stocks reached to second highest level in the history at 32.29 million tonnes almost double than buffer stock requirement of 17 million tonne.

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According to the Agriculture ministry’s fourth advance estimates, India produced a record crop of 80.58 million tonnes in 2008-09, while production was at 78.57 million tonnes in 2007- 08.

With bumper production and steep hike in minimum support price, government made record purchase of 25.3 million tonnes this year, 13 percent more as compared to last year.

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Prospects of next year crop

Despite having comfortable supply currently, weak monsoon, flood in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and consequent Shortfall in kharif paddy output prospects has started fueling prices in the market.

A smaller paddy and maize crop will lift demand for their substitutes, primarily wheat.

As per crop weather watch report, acreage of kharif paddy this year remained at 324.28 million hectare till October 09, 2009 which is 16.2 percent or 6.26 million hectare lower than same period last year.

However kharif maize acreage remained higher this year but recent flood in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka has aggravated the concerns of lower output.

As per Agriculture department report, kharif maize acreage was at 71.08 lakh hectares, 0.8 percent or 0.5 lakh hectares higher than last year.

Besides, flood in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and weak monsoon also raised concern over prospect of next wheat Crop.

Due to weak monsoon in northern part of India mainly in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, soil moisture condition is not sufficiently good for next wheat sowing.

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Water storage in this region has also declined. As per Central Water Commission’s latest data in 81 important water reservoirs monitored by CWC in different parts of the country, total live storage has increased from 90.48 BCM on 01.102009 to 91.75 BCM on 08.10.2009.

But still is far from a satisfactory level.

Stay Tuned for More on this topic.

We would see demand and supply scenario in coming months, price trend and on Export Ban.

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