สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 11 กันยายน 2556

India attractive hub for gas exploration: Veerappa Moily

India has become an attractive investment destination for gas exploration because it has decided to raise gas prices from April, which will also contain the spurt in gas demand, Oil Minister Veerappa Moily said. He said investors had been shying away from investing in India because of low prices of domestic gas. The government has decided to raise the price of gas from next financial year, which would "certainly make India an attractive destination for investment in the sector", he said. "India has large proven reserves of gas that remain unexploited.” While the total proven reserves are 1.3 trillion cubic metres, what is currently exploited is only 0.04 tcm," Moily said in the keynote address at the LNG producer-consumer conference in Tokyo. He said there was a gas demand supply mismatch in India because of artificially depressed gas prices.

(Source: Economic Times)

Sebi set to ease entry norms for long-only foreign funds

Foreign institutional investors will be able to trade in Indian equity markets with minimal paperwork. The Securities and Exchange Board of India plans to come out with notifications to minimise the know your customer (KYC) requirement for FIIs that have established a strong track record of compliance with Indian rules. The change in regulations comes at a time when the FII’s investments moved out of the country in large chunk. Sebi on Tuesday said it will announce some important measures for the corporate bond market in “a couple of days”. Sebi is trying to provide more liquidity into the corporate bond market and one or two measures are in the pipeline to improve trading mechanism.

(Source: Financial Express)

Gold price hits 3-week low as easing Syria tensions dent safe-haven appeal

Gold slipped to a three-week low on Wednesday before recovering on bargain hunting, but the precious metal was losing its safe-haven appeal for investors on hopes a US military strike against Syria could be averted. Syria has accepted a Russian proposal to give up chemical weapons but US President Barack Obama said it was too early to tell if the initiative would succeed, vowing to keep military forces at the ready to strike if diplomacy fails. Gold, which has fallen more than 18 percent this year, is also being hurt by expectations the US Federal Reserve will opt to taper its monetary stimulus programme after the Fed's Open Market Committee meeting on Sept. 17-18. Spot gold hit a low of $1,356.85 an ounce, its weakest since August 22, and was steady at $1,364.01 by 0343 GMT. The Fed's three quantitative easing schemes have buoyed prices of gold and other commodities.

(Source: Business Standard)

Trade deficit narrows 23%

The government’s import-compressing measures and a recovery in the US markets have started yielding results on the trade deficit. Trade deficit, part of the wider current account deficit (CAD), declined 23 per cent in August — to $10.91 billion from $14.17 billion in the same month last year. The gap was narrowed as merchandise imports fell to $37.05 billion in the month from $37.30 billion in August 2012, even as oil imports rose 18 per cent. Gold imports fell to $0.65 billion in August, from $2.20 billion the previous month. The government had in August raised import duty by two percentage points to 10 per cent. On the other hand, exports continued their bull run, rising 13 per cent to $26.14 billion in month, from $23.14 billion in August 2012. Besides, the deficit was 11 per cent lower when compared with July’s $12.27 billion and the lowest trade deficit figure so far this financial year. As a result, the trade deficit declined 1.75 per cent to touch $73.36 billion in the first five months of the current financial year, against $74.67 billion in the corresponding period of last year.The narrowing of trade deficit will come as a relief to the government, which aims to limit CAD at 3.7 per cent of GDP, or $70 billion in the current financial year against the record 4.8% of GDP or $88 billion in 2012-13. Trade deficit had touched $192.46 billion in 2012-13, according to figures released by the commerce department. However, there is always difference in the trade data provided by the commerce department and the Reserve Bank of India, which releases CAD. According to RBI figures, trade deficit had stood at $195.7 billion in 2012-13.

(Source: Business Standard)

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