Dalal Street

Bharat Electronics Ltd has announced the following Unaudited results for the quarter ended December 31, 2008:

The Company has posted a net profit of Rs 1227.690 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 as compared to Rs 1129.687 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2007. Total Income has decreased from Rs 7285.619 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 to Rs 7165.377 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

Bharat Electronics’ board, at its meeting held on January 23, 2009, has declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 per share for the year 2008-09.

Inflation changed its trajectory during the week ended January 10 as the week on week wholesale price index for all commodities rose by 0.4% to 230. Year on year rise in prices stood at 5.6% compared to 5.24% during the previous week.

The increase primarily came from food and primary articles. Food articles were up 2.2% over the week while primary articles inched up by 1.2%. Economists however feel that it may not be such a bad thing to have happened as the trajectory that inflation was following in previous weeks, would have pushed India into deflationary phase by beginning of the next fiscal.

While inflation’s ill impacts are well known, deflation could be much more damaging as it would act as a pro-cyclic force in a slowing down economy. What the current figure shows is that probably the inflation will go down at a flatter trajectory now that can help India avoid the deflationary phase in next fiscal.

Indian Bank has reported a 14.04% rise in the net profit to Rs 350.70 crore for the December 2008 quarter as against Rs 307.50 crore for the December 2007 quarter.

The bank’s total income moved up from Rs 1676 crore for the December 2007 quarter to Rs 2071.37 crore for the December 2008 quarter.

Indian Bank is currently trading at Rs 125.75 up by 1.30 points or 1.04% from its previous closing of Rs 124.45 on the BSE.