Kotak Mahindra MF sells media, tobacco, buys banking, metal

Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund has slashed its exposure in media & entertainment, tobacco and consumer non-durables space. However, it increased its weightage in oil & gas, banking & financial services and metals & mining. Power Grid Corporation, Sun TV Network and Tata Power Company were top sells, while Redington (India), Tata Motors (DVR) and Zuari Industries were top buys by the fund.

The study of Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund for the month of July 2012 showed that in the media & entertainment space, the fund sold DB Corp, Hathway Cable, Hindustan Media Ventures and also exited Sun TV Network. However, it bought Zee Entertainment Enterprises. In the tobacco pack it sold ITC. In the consumer non-durables sector, it sold Hindustan Unilever, Dabur India and Bata India, while it introduced Godrej Industries and Colgate Palmolive (India). It also bought Gillette India. (View - All Bulk Deals by Mutual Funds).

The fund purchased Reliance Industries, ONGC and Cairn India in the oil & gas space. However, it sold Oil India, HPCL and Gujarat State Petronet. In the banking & financial services segment, it introduced Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank Of India, IDBI Bank and Syndicate Bank. The fund also purchased HDFC, SBI and HDFC Bank. However, it sold PNB, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda.

North Carolina tobacco crop bouncing back from 2011

As harvest got under way, the tobacco crop in eastern North Carolina appeared to have bounced back from the hurricane-induced disaster conditions of 2011. In Salemburg, N.C, about 70 miles south of Raleigh and on the northern edge of the area damaged by Hurricane Irene on Aug. 27 of last year, brothers Sherrill and Clay Strickland were looking at a crop that appeared headed for a very respectable yield. “We have some good fields and some bad fields, and the intense heat we had in June and July had an effect,” said Sherrill Strickland.

“But now (July 15), it is looking real good overall. We got good rains a few days ago, and the top is looking very green. The bottom stalk is not much, but our tips are going to turn out really good. This crop should definitely be a better one than last year.” That seemed to be the situation for most flue-cured growers in July. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projected on July 11 that flue-cured production in the U.S. this year will reach 432 million pounds, up a whopping 25 percent from 2011. Planted area for flue-cured is four percent below last year at 199,000 acres.

Yield per acre is forecast at 2,173 pounds, up 507 pounds from a year ago. But expected production was still down in South Carolina and Georgia because of fewer acres planted. By state, the USDA reported: • North Carolina's flue-cured was rated in mostly fair to good condition. Production levels recovered from last year's hurricane damage, with yield projected at 2,200 pounds per acre, up 650 pounds from last season. Production is estimated at 338 million pounds, up 36 percent from last season. Many farmers had started to irrigate in mid July as weather was extremely hot in many growing areas.

 • Virginia — the only state to see an increase in flue-cured plantings — was progressing well in mid-July with the majority of the crop rated in fair to good condition. Production was estimated at 46.2 million pounds, up nearly three million pounds from last season on 7.7 percent more planted acreage.

 • South Carolina production had been affected by unusually cool, wet weather through July which led to some reports of thin and yellowing plants. Projected yield was 1,800 pounds per acre, only 100 pounds more than in the hurricane year. Production was projected at 24.3 million pounds, down nearly eight percent from 2011 on 13 percent less planted acreage.

Philip Morris Profit Tops Analysts’ Estimates On Sales In Russia

You can buy marlboro cigarettes from this shop for chep price.

Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company, reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, spurred by demand for cigarettes in Eastern Europe. Net income in the period ended June 30 fell 3.8 percent to $2.32 billion from $2.41 billion a year earlier, the New York- based maker of Marlboro cigarettes said today in a statement.

On a per share basis, profit rose to $1.36 because the number of outstanding shares decreased. Analysts projected $1.35, the average of 16 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Chief Executive Officer Louis Camilleri has introduced new varieties of top-selling Marlboro cigarettes to boost demand in Russia. Shipments in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa rose 5.1 percent in the second quarter while total cigarette shipments excluding acquisitions slipped 1.2 percent.

“This was a touch better than our expectations thanks to a great quarter” in the Eastern European region, Rogerio Fujimori, a Credit Suisse AG analyst, wrote today in a note. He rates the shares as neutral, the equivalent of a hold recommendation. Philip Morris rose 0.2 percent to $89.55 at 4:15 p.m. in New York. The shares have climbed 14 percent this year.

Keeping kids from all forms of tobacco

A recent article on tobacco use pointed out that although cigarette smoking has gone down nationally, the use of cigars and other non-cigarette tobacco products has gone up over the past few years ("Cigarette use down, other tobacco up, CDC says," Aug. 3). A recent study of Maryland youth tobacco use reported a similar troubling trend — while fewer kids are getting addicted to cigarettes (thanks to our smoke-free air laws and tax increases), more kids are smoking cheap flavored cigars that are just as detrimental to their health.

The report also noted that the trend is especially pronounced in communities of color, contributing to grim health disparities. This is why we at the Maryland Health Care For All! Coalition strongly support the new tax increase on little cigars and smokeless tobacco (chew and spit) enacted this year by Gov.Martin O'Malleyand the General Assembly. Over the past 10 years, our state's three cigarette tax increases have resulted in a 32 percent drop in cigarette smoking in our state (double the national average), saving tens of thousands of lives.

Just as the cigarette tax increases substantially reduced cigarette smoking, especially among kids, evidence from other states shows that our new tax on little cigars and smokeless tobacco will save the lives of thousands of young Marylanders by deterring their use of these deadly products and expanding access to tobacco cessation services. Suzanne Schlattman, Baltimore The writer is community outreach and development director for Maryland Citizens Health Initiative Education Fund, Inc.

Smoke-Free Knoxville Coalition seeks new members

Smoke-Free Knoxville Coalition will have a membership recruitment and orientation breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Miller Building at Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. The coalition's mission is to "reduce death, disease, disability and financial impact related to the use of tobacco," and it wants any individual or organization — especially those who work with young people — to attend and learn about joining.

 At this year's meeting, the coalition will introduce the Peter Carter Award, which will be presented to the group or individual having demonstrated leadership in tobacco use prevention in the community. It's named for oncologist Dr. Peter Carter, who in 1993 convened a group of volunteers to urge local restaurants to ban smoking — a group that ultimately grew into the coalition.

Carter testified in 1994 before Congress, addressing the health impact of tobacco in users as well as in secondhand smoke. The coalition credits him with helping Tennessee establish the Nonsmokers' Protection Act of 2007, which bans smoking in some public places and worksites. This year, the coalition will focus on youth, building and improving programs to educate them on the dangers of tobacco use and prevent its use.

Sandy Hill co-op votes to go smoke free

The four-storey apartment complex at 140 Mann Ave. — Conservation Co-operative Homes — will no longer allow smoking inside individual units or on balconies as of January. Three designated smoking sections will be set up outside the building, about 30 metres away. They'll remain there for a year, after which time the co-op board will consider banning smoking outside as well.

 More than 100 people live inside the building's 84 units. The vote was held last week, and 66 residents showed up. Eighteen of them voted against the move, while 48 voted in favour. Trevor Haché, a board member and chair of the building's second-hand smoke committee, started working to make the building smoke free not long after his family moved in three years ago.

 "At first … we were having the most serious problem with second-hand marijuana smoke coming in, and then as years have progressed and different people have moved out of the building, we've had a lot of second-hand tobacco smoke coming in," Haché said. "And both are dangerous, so we formed a committee." The committee surveyed residents of the building in October 2010 and discovered there was a lot of support to change the building's rules about smoking. It took Haché and the committee 2½ years years to work up to last week's vote.

Santa Monica Smoking Ban Fails Second Reading

After Mayor Richard Bloom changed his vote Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council scuttled an anti-smoking ordinance that would have banned smoking in all new apartments in the beachside city. Bloom, who supported the ordinance during its first reading on July 10, decided to oppose it along with Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis, causing the ordinance to fall far short of the necessary four votes it needed to pass. Council members Kevin McKeown and Pam O’Connor also opposed the ordinance.

 “I think the Council and the ultimate decision making will benefit from further discussion,” said Bloom, who will be stepping down from the Council in order to run for a seat in the State Assembly. “I am very resolute that we do pass something that moves this issue forward,” he said, but added that there were unanswered questions about the effect the ordinance would have on medical marijuana users and on condo owners.

 “I think we should bring it back when all seven of us are here,” said Davis, who wasn’t present at the July 10 meeting. “We’re not taking a step back. What we’re doing is giving additional thought to what we would like to do in this regard.” She proposed a substitute motion that would bring the staff report from the original meeting back to the council when all the members are present. The motion failed. “I still think it’s best that we adopt this non-smoking ordinance,” said Council Bob Holbrook. “It’s just time that we made home and living spaces safe for people.” Holbrook, who is a pharmacist, said that his motivation was a public health one.

 The ordinance, which would have also forced tenants to designate their apartments either smoking or non-smoking and would have prevented new tenants moving into an apartment from smoking in it, has been an embattled one. During the July 10 meeting, McKeown turned the debate to the rights of renters, arguing that the ban would turn smokers into “second-class citizens.” He added that the requirement for smokers to designate their apartments as smoking apartments would cause their neighbors to “demonize” and eventually “displace” them.

 “We might as well hammer a big yellow ‘S’ on (smokers’) front door,” he said at the July 10 meeting. McKeown reiterated his position against the “designate and disclose” portion of the ordinance but said that he would be in favor of improving public health in the city. Bloom, Davis, McKeown, and O’Connor voted against the ordinance. O’Day and Holbrook both supported it. Council member Bobby Shriver, who originally voted for the ordinance, was absent Tuesday. A second substitute motion -- put forward by Bloom -- to hear from staff once further research had been conducted, but without the stipulation that all seven members of the council be present, passed 5 to 1.