Rupee pushed to a new low
Mumbai: Large dollar purchases reportedly made by Hindalco, India’s largest aluminium company, knocked 12 paise off the rupee on Monday, to end the day at a new low of 44.49/4950 against last Friday’s close of 44.37/38. Hindalco is said to have purchased nearly $150 million to pay Alcan of Canada for the 54.6 per cent stake it recently bought in the Calcutta based Indal.

However, the company denied any such large scale purchases stating that it had a very strong Export Earner’s Foreign Currency account. Company officials dismissed it as rumours being generated by the market to speculate on the rupee.

Dealers expect the rupee to settle in the 44.10-44.40 range by next week when month-end dollar demand from importers drops. They also feel that with stock market bottoming out, foreign funds might bring in money once again to pick up value stocks.

In the forwards segment, there was a mix of receiving (buy-sell swaps) by banks and paying (sell-buy swaps) by a section of importers. The six-month forward annualised premium ended at 2.79 per cent against last Friday’s 2.88 per cent, while the 12-month premium ended at 2.98 per cent (2.96 per cent).
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Government to shortlist 3 consultants for Air-India selloff
New Delhi: In keeping with its earlier announcement on the disinvestment of the government holding in Air India, the government today announced that it will shortlist three global consultants to invite bids for charting out the finer modalities of the divestment. The consultants will be shortlisted in 45-60 days.

According to a senior official of the disinvestment ministry, an inter-ministerial group will do the shortlisting and decide upon the tender conditions for inviting bids from the shortlisted consultants. The inter-ministerial group will have representatives from finance and industry ministries, department of disinvestment and the concerned ministry.

The government is said to have shortlisted ANZ Grindlays for carrying out the divestment process of the Indian Airlines.
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