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Fundamentals May 7, 2013

Nik's Diary
The Indian markets opened positive today tracking strong cues from SGX Nifty. Meanwhile, major Asian indices are trading flat except for Japan which has rallied sharply on back of upbeat U.S. jobs data and the yen's weakness against the U.S. dollar. After moving sharply higher over the course of the previous week, US stocks saw some further upside during trading on Monday. While trading activity was somewhat subdued, the markets continued to benefit from the recent upward momentum. The European markets ended modestly down on Monday, following the strong rally at the end of the previous trading week. The breakout on Friday was sparked by the better than expected U.S. jobs report for April. Trading volume was weak on Monday, due to the holiday for the U.K. market. Some weaker than expected economic data of Eurozone also dampened the mood at the start of the new trading week. However, the European Central Bank readiness to cut interest rates again if the economic situation in euro area continues to weaken prevented further downside. Meanwhile, Indian shares rose modestly to end near a three-month high on Monday, with IT and metal stocks leading the gainers, with investors cheering the upbeat U.S. labor force report which sent Wall Street to an all-time closing high last week.

18 Coal India projects get clearances from MoEF 
The government today said 18 coal mining projects of state-owned CIL have received clearances from the Environment Ministry. Of these, 14 have received environmental clearances and four forestry clearances, Minister of State for Coal Pratik Prakashbapu Patil said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. "Soon after the meeting of CCI (Cabinet Committee on Investment)... MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) has accorded environmental clearances (EC) for 14 projects and stage-I forestry clearances (FC) for four projects of Coal India Ltd (CIL)," the minister said. The government has set up CCI to expedite decision making process for clearance of projects in the infrastructure sector. Patil further said that a regular interaction between coal ministry and MoEF is taking place to address the pending issues concerning both environmental and forestry clearances. "Similarly, regular interaction with the concerned state government is taking place to address the issues related to land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected persons," he said. The Coal Ministry is also holding regular dialogue with Railways to address issues related to pending rail infrastructure projects for coal evacuation in different coalfields, he added. The CCI had in February considered the proposal of the Coal Ministry regarding fast tracking of the approvals for the environment and forest clearances in respect of 12 coal mining projects, according to an official statement. According to the Ministry of Coal, these 12 projects will lead to annual coal production of 36.97 million tonne and an investment of Rs 1,347.63 crore. Source: BusinessStandard

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