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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Tata Consultancy Predicts Stronger Growth on Outsourcing By Anoop Agrawal and Bianca Vázquez Toness - Apr 16, 2014

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS)India’s largest software exporter, predicts growth will be stronger this year as customers in the U.S. and Europe, as well as the Asia Pacific region outsource more work.
“We are exiting the year with a great growth momentum,” Chief Executive Officer N. Chandrasekaran said yesterday after the company reported a 51 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit. “If you look at what clients are telling us, if you look at the deal pipeline, deal closures, order book, sentiment, and the discretionary spend, taking all of this we believe FY15 will be a stronger year.”
Net income rose to 53 billion rupees ($879 million) in the three months ended March, Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy said. That compares with the 52.4 billion-rupee median of 39 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Tata Consultancy joins competitor Infosys Ltd. (INFO) in posting earnings that beat estimates as more companies spend on cloud-based solutions, mobility and data analytics. Sales growth at Tata Consultancy will be stronger in the fiscal year that started April 1 than the prior 12 months as customers in the financial services, retail and life sciences industries step up technology spending, according to Chandrasekaran.
“We expect the stock to react positively,” said Ravi Menon, assistant vice president at Centrum Broking Pvt. in Mumbai. “People were concerned if there is an industrywide softness in demand. TCS has said they don’t see any weakness in the retail or high-tech verticals. In fact, they are seeing clients spending on digital in these two verticals.”
Tata Consultancy declined 2.5 percent to 2,196.30 rupees in Mumbai trading yesterday, before the earnings release. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Index fell 0.9 percent. The stock has climbed 48 percent in the past 12 months, compared with a 38 percent gain for Infosys and the Sensex’s 19 percent increase.

Contract Wins

Revenue at Tata Consultancy rose to 215.5 billion rupees, from 164.3 billion rupees a year earlier. That compared with the 216.9 billion-rupee median of 41 analysts’ estimates.
The software-services provider, which last month said the fourth quarter was “seasonally weak” amid slowing demand in India ahead of general elections, expects the home market to stay “soft” for longer, Chandrasekaran said. “We think that India from the current levels will improve. We’re going to wait for the first two quarters.”
The company, which has won contracts from India’s Department of Posts and the tax office, got 7.8 percent of sales from the home market in the year ended March 2013. Voting in India’s general elections, which began April 7, will conclude May 12 and ballots will be counted May 16.

Discretionary Budget

Tata Consultancy, which maintains computers and provides software and outsourcing services for companies including Citigroup Inc. and France’sGDF Suez SA (GSZ), won nine large deals in the last quarter. Contracts included one with a European utility to transform customer service processes and a multiyear, multimillion dollar order from a North American drugmaker, the company said.
Companies are investing in technology to simplify business processes and drive efficiency, Chandrasekaran said yesterday. “There is a discretionary budget that is going towards digital that we are hearing across the board, and we are engaged with our clients in the area. The third area of spend is regulatory changes, governance, security, controls and risk management.”

Demand Recovery

Worldwide information technology services spending will climb 3.7 percent to $671 billion in 2014, accelerating from 2.8 percent growth last year, according to market researcher IDC.
“We maintain our thesis of an industrywide demand recovery” in the current fiscal year, driven by a spending recovery at U.S. banking and financial services companies, Nitin Jain, an analyst at Ambit Capital Pvt. in Mumbai, wrote in an April 7 report. Demand will also be bolstered by an increased offshoring trend in Europe and greater acceptance of social media, mobility, analytics and cloud, Jain wrote.
Infosys, India’s second-largest software-services exporter, on April 15 forecast full-year sales growth that beat analyst estimates. Revenue in the 12 months started April 1 will climb 7 percent to 9 percent in U.S. dollar terms, Infosys said, faster than the 6 percent to 8.3 percent average of six analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporters on this story: Bianca Vázquez Toness in New Delhi at btoness@bloomberg.net; Anoop Agrawal in Mumbai ataagrawal8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net Suresh Seshadri, David Risser

Monday, April 14, 2014

Unilever Woos Villagers With Free Music on Mobile Phone By Adi Narayan - Apr 14, 2014

Unilever (ULVR) is using a new method to sell products from Lifebuoy soap to Fair & Lovely skincream to 350 million villagers in India: Bollywood music on their phones.
Last month about 2 million people listened to Unilever’s free music service available on mobile phones in two states, said Anaheeta Goenka, executive director of Lowe Lintas & Partners, the agency handling the campaign for the world’s second-biggest consumer company. The offering expanded toUttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, on March 31.
Companies from Unilever to PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) have turned to mobile campaigns in the world’s second-largest phone market to reach consumers including those in villages as growth in rural spending exceeds that in urban centers. With ad spends surging, mobile-phone campaigns are more attractive because they cost less and are more targeted than mass media.
“Mobile advertising has the reach, the power to measure, and the power of constant engagement,” said Girish Nair, chief executive of Netcore Ltd., the agency that is executing Unilever’s mobile service. “You now have the opportunity to get data on each subscriber” that can help optimize ad campaigns and improve distribution, he said.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUVR), the Mumbai-based unit of Unilever, started the service last year in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, and extended to neighboring Jharkhand, Goenka said. The service has got 8 million listeners since it started in October through end of March, Hindustan Unilever said in an e-mailed response, declining to comment on the costs of the campaign and on the plans for the service.

Not Spotify

This is not like Spotify Ltd.’s popular music-streaming service where subscribers can listen to personalized playlists. On Unilever’s service a user places a call to a toll-free number which disconnects after two rings. The system then calls the user and plays a 15-minute pre-recorded chunk of music interspersed with ads for the company’s soaps, skin creams, shampoos and detergents. All users listen to the same recorded segment each week, Goenka said.
There are some concerns about the effectiveness of such a service.
“It’s a new thing and might be successful for the first three-four months,” said Harsh Mehta, a Mumbai-based analyst at HDFC Securities Ltd. “The customer would eventually get bored with the same stuff.”
Unilever, PepsiCo and other companies are seeking to reach villagers as mobile phone ownership increases. There were 364 million rural mobile phone users as of Jan. 31, and the pace of additions in villages was faster than cities for the fourth consecutive month, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Mobile Ads

“Many advertisers are starting to use mobile as a way to reach” areas where cable television and newspapers have a limited reach due to poor infrastructure, said Anand Thakur, national sales head for digital ad agency Aidem Ventures Pvt. And the medium is also more cost effective, he said.
A 10-second spot on mythological drama Mahabharat on India’s Star Plus television network costs about 250,000 rupees ($4,143). That is enough to pay for reaching at least 21,000 people with a 10-minute phone call, according to Bloomberg calculations based on prevailing mobile tariffs.
Indian companies spent 3 billion rupees on mobile ads last year, and the market is projected to grow 43 percent this year, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. The bulk of this spending goes toward voice-based services because the majority of Indians use basic feature phones.

Free Talktime

PepsiCo last year started a campaign similar to that of Unilever -- playing back entertainment content on mobile phones.
Several companies including Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ)’s Cadbury’s unit have offered free mobile airtime credit to buyers. A code printed inside the packaging of Cadbury’s 5-Star chocolate bar enabled the user to redeem the points, according to the ad.
Marico, India’s biggest seller of hair oil, in September started a service in which users would receive a pre-recorded call offering basic English lessons, according to its website.
The rising incomes of villagers is an attraction.
Farm wages adjusted for inflation rose almost 7 percent on average annually in the five years through March 2012, from 1 percent in the previous decade, according to India’s Planning Commission.
That’s prompted consumer products companies to expand their rural networks, hire armies of village housewives to sell soaps and detergents to their neighbors, and advertise in hundreds of country fairs.

Market Share

Interacting directly with consumers is vital because the weakest economic expansion in about a decade, combined with consumer-price inflation exceeding 8 percent, has prompted a switch to cheaper substitutes for everything from soaps to food. Unilever has faced the pinch amid intensifying competition.
The company’s market share in the skincare market, which includes whitening creams and moisturizers, declined to 50.5 percent last year from 53.7 percent in 2012, according to Euromonitor. Its share in laundry detergent and bar soap markets increased, as it spent more on ads.
Mobile ad campaigns tend to be more targeted, and may help grab an individual’s attention better than ads on TVs or in newspapers. Even then, some marketers such as Aidem Venture’s Thakur say it’s difficult to measure how a campaign like Unilever’s music service can translate into product sales.
Costs for the companies can quickly rise to “unsustainable levels” if millions of users flock to a free service, said Milind Pathak, global head at One97 Communications Ltd., which owns the mobile recharge provider PayTM.
“It’s impossible to sustain these kinds of costs unless you are a really big company with lots of brands,” Pathak said. “It’s the real-time data that companies can get from mobile that makes it attractive.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Adi Narayan in Mumbai at anarayan8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephanie Wong at swong139@bloomberg.net Subramaniam Sharma, Sunil Jagtiani

Friday, April 11, 2014

Samsung Calls Google to its Defense in $2 Bln Apple Trial By Joel Rosenblatt - Apr 12, 2014

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) called the first of as many as seven Google Inc. (GOOG) witnesses to begin making its case in a $2 billion patent trial that Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s true target in the lawsuit is the Android operating system.
Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s vice president of Android engineering, testified yesterday in federal court in San Jose, California, about the development of the Android operating system used in Samsung phones. Apple contends, and Samsung denies, that several Android features in Galaxy devices infringe the iPhone maker’s patents.
As the world’s top two smartphone makers spar at their second U.S. jury trial, Samsung is trying to show that Apple’s claims are a cloaked attack on Google in an attempt to blunt smartphone competition from Android.
Apple’s iOS smartphone operating system gained ground in the U.S. in the final quarter of 2013 as the share of the market served by the platforms of Google, Microsoft Corp. and BlackBerry Ltd. shrank. Android’s share slipped 0.3 percentage points to 51.5 percent as Apple gained 1.2 percentage points to end the year with almost 42 percent of the market, ComScore Inc. said in February.
Worldwide, Samsung had 31.3 percent of a smartphone market that was valued at $338.2 billion last year, compared with 15.2 percent for Apple, whose share has shrunk as the touch-screen interface has become commonplace and Samsung, LG Electronics Inc. (066570) and Lenovo Group Ltd. have introduced lower-cost alternatives.

Operating System

Lockheimer’s opening testimony was aimed at buttressing Samsung’s argument that Google, which isn’t a defendant in the case, was more than capable of creating an operating system without copying Apple’s patents.
The executive said he joined Google in 2006 and that the company was already at work on Android, which was an independent company Google acquired in 2005. In that period, as phones were becoming smartphones, Google’s aim was to provide an open-source operating system for free.
“Rather than phones being mostly a hardware product, there was a lot of software involved,” Lockheimer said of the evolving smartphones. “We provided that software.”
Asked by Samsung lawyer John Quinn if Lockheimer’s team ever copied anything from the iPhone, the witness replied, “Not that I’m aware.”

‘Own Identity’

“We like to have our own identity,” he said. “It was important that it was our ideas.”
Samsung has presented e-mails in which Apple co-founder Steve Jobs spoke of his Cupertino, California-based company facing an “innovator’s dilemma” and announced a “Holy War with Google,” saying the goal was to “Catch up to Google” in its Android and cloud service capabilities.
Jobs, the former Apple chief executive officer who died in 2011, is quoted in a biography by Walter Isaacson as saying his mission was “to destroy Android,” which Jobs said “ripped off the iPhone, wholesale.”
Harold McElhinny, a lawyer for Apple, told the jury in his opening argument last week that portraying the case as an attack on Mountain View, California-based Google is misleading because Samsung made the choice to use and profit from the infringing Android features in its phones.

First Trial

Unlike the first trial in 2012, when Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages after convincing jurors that Samsung copied the iPhone’s look and design, the current case is exclusively about software functions.
Apple claims that 10 Samsung products, including the Galaxy S3, infringe five patents covering a range of user-interface designs for the iOS software that powers iPhones and iPads, including features like the slide-to-unlock function, automatic spelling corrections, and the ability for a user to make a call by clicking on a phone number within a web page or e-mail instead of having to dial it separately.
Others functions Apple says are covered by its patents include searching for words in files stored in different applications and updating applications while using other features of the phone. Apple seeks about $2.2 billion in damages.
Samsung alleges that eight Apple products, including the iPhone 5 and versions of the iPad and iPod, infringe two patents. Samsung, based in Suwon,South Korea, seeks about $7 million in damages, according to a court filing.
Apple finished presenting its evidence at the trial yesterday.
Samsung plans to call another Google engineer, Dianne Hackborn, to testify about the design of Android features that Apple claim infringe the patent covering single-click phone calls, according to Samsung lawyers and a court filing.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 12-cv-00630, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in federal court in San Jose, California, at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net Peter Blumberg, Mary Romano

Thursday, April 10, 2014

India’s Nifty Futures Fall as Technology Shares May be Active By Rajhkumar K Shaaw - Apr 10, 2014

Indian stock-index futures dropped after the benchmark index climbed to a record yesterday.
SGX CNX Nifty Index futures for April delivery fell 0.4 percent to 6,788.5 at 10:05 a.m. in Singapore. The underlying CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange of India was little changed at a record 6,796.40 yesterday. The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) gained less than 0.1 percent to 22,715.33, an all-time high. The Bank of New York Mellon India ADR Index of U.S.-traded shares fell 2.2 percent to 1,220.20.
Infosys Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. may be active after U.S. technology stocks tumbled yesterday amid speculation that valuations are too high. Indian elections began this week, with opinion polls indicating the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will secure the most seats. Overseas investors have pumped $11 billion into local stocks and bonds this year amid speculation the elections will produce a BJP administration with the mandate to tackle corruption and lift economic growth from a decade low.
“The rally has been too fast, too soon,” Arun Kejriwal, a director at Kejriwal Research & Investment Pvt., said by phone from Mumbai yesterday. “We can see some consolidation at current levels. But the bias remains upward as the foreign inflows have been very strong.”
India is scheduled to report industrial production figures today. The Sensex has climbed 7.3 percent this year and trades at 14.3 times projected 12-month profits, compared with the average multiple of 14.5 over the past five years. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has risen 1.3 percent in 2014 and is valued at 10.3 times.
India is prepared for potential financial fallout if the Federal Reserve increases interest rates before April 2015, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said yesterday in Washington.
“Nobody is prepared for every eventuality, but for most eventualities, we are prepared,” Rajan said in an interview with Bloomberg News after an event in Washington. “For us, the specific timing matters less than that it should happen when U.S. growth is strong.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Rajhkumar K Shaaw in Mumbai at rshaaw@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Patterson at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net Chan Tien Hin

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Indian Rupee Advances Most This Month as Inflows Seen Increasing

India’s rupee strengthened the most this month on optimism Asia’s relatively fast economic growth will attract capital inflows.
Global funds pumped $10.3 billion into local stocks and bonds this year, exchange data show. Developing Asian economies are forecast to grow 6.7 percent this year, outpacing an estimated 2.8 percent expansion for the U.S., the International Monetary Fund said in a report yesterday. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index (ADXY), which tracks the region’s 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, touched a seven-week high.
“The IMF report is a positive as growth in emerging markets is likely to be higher, which supports the case of continued foreign inflows into the region,” said Amogh Moghe, a foreign-exchange trader at Mumbai-based brokerage Mecklai & Mecklai Ltd. “The dollar’s weakness against most Asian currencies is also boosting the rupee.”
The rupee rose 0.2 percent from its April 7 close to 60.0050 per dollar as of 9:46 a.m. in Mumbai, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. Financial markets in India were shut yesterday for a local holiday.
“There are some bunched-up inflows after yesterday’s holiday, which too are supporting the currency,” said Moghe.
The rupee gained 3.2 percent in the first quarter, the biggest advance since the three months through September 2012, and touched an eight-month high of 59.60 per dollar on April 2 as policies aimed at containing inflation and the current-account deficit buoyed confidence.

Rupee Forecasts

Gains in the rupee will halt as the winner of elections in the world’s largest democracy needs to build consensus for policies to revive the economy, according to the most accurate forecaster for the currency.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

India’s Sun Pharma to Buy Ranbaxy in $4 Billion Deal By David Welch and Kanoko Matsuyama - Apr 6, 2014

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (SUNP)India’s largest drugmaker by market value, agreed to buy Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. (RBXY) in a $4 billion stock transaction, the biggest purchase by an Indian company in two years.
Ranbaxy investors will get 0.8 share in Sun for every one of their shares, the two companies said today in a statement. That’s equal to about 457 rupees a share, or about 24.3 percent higher than the 60-day average, according to the statement. Ranbaxy rose 8.2 percent to 459.55 rupees on April 4.
Sun, maker of generic drugs including copies of Eli Lilly & Co.’s Cymbalta and Johnson & Johnson’s Doxil, expects $250 million in revenue and reduced costs by the third year after the completion of the deal, according to the statement. Since Daiichi Sankyo bought control of Ranbaxy in 2008, four of its Indian plants have been banned from exporting to the U.S. for failing to meet standards.
“It is a long-term positive for Sun Pharma because it adds emerging-markets facilities,” said Prakash Agarwal, an analyst at CIMB Securities India Pvt. in Mumbai. “Ranbaxy’s consent decree will be resolved in a few years’ time, so they should be out of the woods in terms of the FDA issues.”
Daiichi Sankyo Co. (4568), which owns 63.5 percent of Gurgaon, India-based Ranbaxy, said it planned to vote in favor of the deal. The transaction will help Daiichi Sankyo’s earnings, Takashi Akahane, a health-care analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center Co. in Tokyo, said by telephone. “Daiichi Sankyo seems to have backed off from directly getting involved with business in India and left it to a local company.”

Ranbaxy Surge

Daiichi Sankyo surged as much as 5.1 percent, the biggest intraday gain in more than nine months, to 1,844 yen in Tokyo trading today. The stock traded at 1,821 yen, up by 3.8 percent, at 11:27 a.m. local time.
Ranbaxy shares rose 8.2 percent to 459.55 rupees in Mumbai trading on April 4. That took its gain for last week to 26 percent, the largest weekly advance since August.
The transaction has an equity value of about $3.2 billion, according to the statement.
Ranbaxy recently received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey requesting certain documents relating to issues previously raised by the FDA on its Toansa facility in north India, Sun Pharma said in the statement. The FDA in January said Ranbaxy can no longer make or distribute drug ingredients from that plant to the U.S.

FDA Rules

FDA officials have said they plan to tighten rules on how they regulate the generic-drug industry as a way to convince American consumers that safeguards are in place.
In March, the Food and Drug Administration said Ranbaxy was recalling some batches of its generic cholesterol-lowering medicine.
India’s pharmaceutical industry exported $14.6 billion worth of products in the year ended March 2013, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. India is the second-largest supplier of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the U.S., behind Canada.
Sun Pharma was advised by Citigroup Inc. and Evercore Partners Inc. Ranbaxy hired ICICI Securities as its financial adviser and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised Daiichi Sankyo.
Sun Pharma’s legal advisers are Shearman & Sterling LLP, Crawford Bayley & Co and S. H. Bathiya & Associates, while Ranbaxy’s advisors are Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co. Daiichi Sankyo hired Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co, it said.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Welch in New York at dwelch12@bloomberg.net; Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo atkmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anjali Cordeiro at acordeiro2@bloomberg.net Anjali Cordeiro, Frank Longid

Saturday, April 5, 2014

India’s Sensex Declines for Second Day, Erasing Weekly Advance By Rajhkumar K Shaaw - Apr 4, 2014

India’s benchmark stock index declined for a second day as some investors judged recent gains to all-time highs as excessive.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), India’s biggest power-equipment maker, retreated for a fifth day. NTPC Ltd., India’s largest power producer, tumbled the most in five weeks. Tata Motors Ltd. (TTMT), the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, fell the most in two weeks.
The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) lost 0.7 percent to 22,359.50 at the close in Mumbai, almost erasing a weekly gain. The CNX Nifty index declined 0.6 percent. The Nifty climbed to records for eight straight days through April 2 as international investors extended Asia’s largest stock-market inflows amid cooling inflation, shrinking deficits and a strengthening rupee. India holds a national election starting April 7, with opinion polls indicating the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will win the most seats, ending the Congress Party’s decade-long rule.
“It’s a good sign that market has run up ahead of the elections and there is some healthy correction, which will give an opportunity for more investors to participate,” Vikram Kotak, chief investment officer for equities at Deutsche Asset Management (India) Pvt., which manages $3 billion in assets, said in a Bloomberg TV India interview today. “I am pretty optimistic.”

Election Outlook

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress party may be headed for its worst-ever electoral performance as voters punish the government for a series of graft scandals, Asia’s fastest consumer inflation and slowing growth. The BJP is favored by investors seeking change to revive an economy expanding at the slowest pace in a decade. Results will be announced on May 16.
Asia’s third-biggest economy probably grew 4.7 percent in the year ended March 31, according to a central-bank survey of forecasters published April 1, compared with a decade-low 4.5 percent expansion the previous year. The $1.8 trillion economy is expected to expand 5.5 percent in the current fiscal year that started April 1, according to the survey.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan held the benchmark borrowing rate at 8 percent on April 1 after consumer-price inflation eased to a two-year low in February and wholesale-price gains slowed to the least in nine months.

Shrinking Deficits

The current-account deficit will be kept below $40 billion this fiscal year, compared with a record $88 billion in the previous 12 months, and the budget gap will narrow to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product from 4.9 percent, according to Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.
“This rally is not happening only due to the hope around a political party coming to power,” Kotak said. “India’s economy has bottomed out and that’s contributing.”
Bharat Heavy Electricals tumbled 2.1 percent, extending this week’s loss to 8.3 percent, the most on the Sensex. NTPC declined 2.2 percent, the most since Feb. 28. The S&P BSE India Capital Goods index declined 1.2 percent this week after a 16 percent advance last month.
Tata Motors decreased 1.4 percent, the biggest loss since March 18. Wipro Ltd. (WPRO), the third-biggest software services provider, slid 1.4 percent.
The Sensex has climbed 5.6 percent this year and trades at 14.1 times projected 12-month earnings, compared with the MSCI Emerging MarketsIndex’s 10.4 times. The Indian gauge’s valuation was 18 times in November 2010, when the Sensex set its previous high.
“The index is at an all-time high but the valuations are not at an all-time high,” Deutsche Asset’s Kotak said. “Opportunities-wise, there is scarcity in the world and India is one of the very preferred destinations.”
Overseas investors bought a net $187.2 million of Indian shares on April 1 and April 2, extending this year’s purchases to $4.27 billion, the most among eight Asian markets tracked by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rajhkumar K Shaaw in Mumbai at rshaaw@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Patterson at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net Matthew Oakley, Phani Varahabhotla