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Gold
down, $ up on Saddam arrest
IBM to
shift 4,730 jobs to India, China RIL,
HDFC bag awards
British
Telecom in dispute with VSNL |
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Star
News uplinking being considered IDBI
Bill gets Parliament nod
Hyundai
doubts Rs 1 lakh car safety
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Gold down, $ up on Saddam arrest
London, December 15 Analysts and traders did not see the news having a lasting effect on gold, with most expecting the precious metal would remain in its recent $400-410 range and the focus still firmly anchored on the dollar. Saddam’s arrest on Saturday raised hopes of a speedy transition to a sovereign Iraqi government that could shorten the US-led occupation and reduce geopolitical risks for investors. But bullion dealers said the factors that had lifted gold to near eight-year highs had not changed because there was no guarantee the dollar would keep rising. Safe-haven gold has benefited from rising global tension following the US-led invasion of Iraq in March. Spot gold was quoted at $404.00/404.75 an ounce by 0922 GMT after touching a low of $401.75. That compared with 408.90/409.40 last quoted in New York on Friday. Some analysts said gold looked overbought when it touched $411.70, its highest level since February, 1996, last week and the yellow metal could drop to $390 before staging a fresh rally. Weeks said the market could come under further pressure from profit-taking by funds ahead of the year-end. MUMBAI: Gold prices turned weak on the bullion market here today and declined sharply following fresh bouts of stockists’ selling in line with weak overseas advices. Silver followed suit on heavy selling pressure following fall in London prices. Gold in the global markets turned sharply weak after a smart recovery in US dollar following the weekend caputre of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, dealers said. Pure gold (99.9 purity) started the day on a subdued note at Rs 6,105 and continued to fall on increased offering and settled at Rs 6,095, showing a sharp loss of Rs 45 over the previous close of Rs 6,140. Similarly, standard gold (99.5 purity), after a subdued start at Rs 6,065, declined further sharply in line with pure gold and closed at Rs 6,055, also displayed a similar fall over the last weekend close of Rs 6,100.
Dollar looks up
MUMBAI: The rupee closed a shade weaker against the US dollar at 45.5550/5600 as the strengthening greenback in the overseas markets after the weekend capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein triggered strong dollar demand from banks, dealers said. The rupee opened flat at 45.5450/5550, came under pressure and stayed weak on persistent dollar demand during the session despite the bunched up weekend inflows and fresh rally in domestic stock markets, a dealer at a public sector bank said. The rebound in dollar in the global markets and concerns of dwindling foreign fund inflows on account of the year-end also prompted banks to build dollar, he added.
Oil goes down
LONDON: Oil prices fell on Monday as the capture of Saddam Hussein brightened hopes of an end to the attacks on Iraq’s oil infrastructure that have hampered its return to the pre-war export levels. London’s Brent crude fell 44 cents, or 1.4 per cent to $29.93 a barrel after Saddam’s arrest.
— Agencies
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IBM to shift 4,730 jobs to India, China
New York, December 15 The unannounced plan, which the newspaper said it viewed in company documents, will replace thousands of workers at IBM facilities in Southbury, Connecticut, Poughkeepsie in New York, Raleigh, North Carolina, Dallas, Boulder in Colorado, and elsewhere in the United States. The Wall Street Journal said about 947 persons will be notified during the first half of 2004 that their work will be moved overseas. It was not yet clear how many of the other 3,700 jobs identified as “potential to move offshore” in the IBM documents will move next year or later, the paper said. Armonk, New York-based IBM, which has about 3,15,000 employees around the world, has been among companies that have moved traditionally higher paid services jobs to low-cost centers such as India in recent years. The company has said it will continue to build its services business abroad, because it makes IBM more competitive, saves its customers money and frees up funds for other purposes. IBM did not immediately return calls for comment on the report.
— Reuters |
RIL, HDFC bag awards New Delhi, December 15 While RIL and the HDFC were conferred with the honour of best governed companies in the private sector, the ONGC bagged the award for the best-governed company in the public sector. The ICSI Life Time Achievement Award for ‘’Translating Excellence in Corporate Governance into Reality’’ has been conferred on Tata group Chairman Ratan N. Tata. The Chairman of the jury was former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah and the members included Sebi Chairman G.N. Bajpai, former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Naina Lal Kidwai besides others. Instituted by the Ministry of Finance in 1999, the awards benchmark good corporate governance practices.
— UNI |
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British Telecom in dispute with VSNL London, December 15 Reports say the telecom giant was being blocked from routing calls to two call centres in India by the country's international telecom service provider. BT wants to send calls to new directory inquiry centres in Bangalore and New Delhi using Bharti Telecom, a rival to VSNL. The calls would be carried by a network of undersea fibre optic cables owned by Reliance. Bland told "Mail on Sunday": "We are spending 3 million pounds on call centres in India and 105 million pounds on 31 call centres in the UK and in the continent." But he said VSNL was refusing to allow Bharti to connect into its network, creating a bottleneck. A spokesman for Bland denied claims that he had threatened to freeze investment in India unless the dispute was resolved. "He was asked to raise the issue by BT Global, but has not spoken of stopping the call centres," he said. VSNL carries about 80 per cent of India's international traffic but is losing out to cheaper rivals as foreign companies set up call centres, creating huge demand for international circuits. The newspaper reported that the Indian High Commission in London had intervened following BT's protest, and quoted a source as saying the commercial attache had brokered a four-way meeting in New Delhi to discuss the issue. BT is not alone in pressing New Delhi to make VSNL more accommodating. The report said the CompTel/ASCENT Alliance, a trade body representing more than 400 companies, had also told the Indian government that VSNL was creating an artificial shortage of capacity. The newspaper quoted a source as saying: "The companies warned the government that India was not the only country where the wages are low and skills were high. Malaysia and the Philippines are both under consideration as locations for call centre and back office functions." |
| Star News uplinking being considered New Delhi, December 15 Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had approved MCCS proposal for foreign investment but it was subject to the ministry’s permission for uplinking a news and current affairs television channel from India. In reply to another question, he said the government had deferred by a year initiation of a course on acting at the Film and Television Institute, Pune, to ensure that all arrangements were in place. |
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IDBI Bill gets Parliament nod New Delhi, December 15 The Bill already approved by the Lok Sabha was passed by the Rajya Sabha incorporating vital recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PAC), including giving the newly converted bank a five-year holiday from maintaining statutory liquidity ratio and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh committing to pump in Rs 2,500 crore over the next five years to fulfil its recapitilisation requirement. Mr Jaswant Singh also assured the House that there would be no dilution of government share holding in IDBI below 51 per cent. The Centre would invest Rs 770 crore as part of measures to restructure liabilities of the bank. Mr Singh said a special clause has been inserted in the legislation which specifies that the existing terms and conditions of both officers and other IDBI employees to continue. |
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StanChart card Dupont’s mark Satyam Com Dewan Housing Finacle for bank Reliance MF Bharti stake Thomas Cook |
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