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Economic Fears
India can tide over global storm: World Bank
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Another big bank on ice
Oil edges up, OPEC may review output in Nov
Spice loses 6 lakh users in Punjab
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Economic Fears
New York, October 9 The US market benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by close to 2 per cent in early morning trade, surging to 9,448.14 points, with a gain of close to 188 points over its previous close. The strong opening in the US market followed a broader positive trend in the Asian and European markets, a day after a number of central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England, came together to cut their interest rates to ease liquidity concerns. The US is also considering to acquire ownership shares in some of the leading banks in the country. The Nasdaq index also rose by close to 2 per cent, surging about 37 points to 1,787.41 points, while the broader S&P 500 index added about 16 points to reach 1,005.25 points. The shares of US-listed Indian companies also bounced back sharply after days of beating. ICICI Bank and Infosys jumped by over 4 per cent, while Tata Motors, Patni Computer, Wipro, Tata Communications, HDFC Bank and Satyam also gained between 1-3 per cent each. Among other Indian ADRs, IT-related firms like Genpact rose by over 4 per cent, EXLService gained over 2 per cent, WNS appreciated by about 1 per cent, while MTNL was up more than 13 per cent. In the past six trading sessions, the DJIA index has lost close to 15 per cent and yesterday touched its lowest in about six years. Meanwhile, European market opened strong following recovery in the Asian market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 gaining close to two per cent. — PTI
Are Korean banks next in line?
Seoul: As the global financial crisis picks off victims among US and European financial institutions, analysts fear South Korea's banks could be the next casualties.
The concerns have come as something of a shock to ordinary South Koreans, repeatedly told by officials that the prudence born from the misery of the Asian financial crisis a decade ago had largely inoculated what is now Asia's fourth-largest economy from another economic catastrophe. Officials are backing words with deeds, offering to provide access to hefty foreign exchange reserves and additional funding support if necessary to ride out the crisis, efforts analysts expect to avoid a meltdown. —
Reuters
Asian markets also up
Beijing: Asian markets today rebounded following emergence of buying interest after central banks around the world cut interest rates to restore faith in the economy.
Japan's benchmark index Nikkei 225, which had plunged to a 20-year low yesterday, settled down by a marginal 0.50 per cent at 9,157.49 points today. While, Hong Kong's Hang Seng pared yesterday's losses and closed in the green, up 3.31 per cent at 15,943.24,Singapore's key index Strait Times and Korean Kospi gained 3.40 per cent and 0.64 per cent, respectively. Analysts believe the recovery was triggered by rate cuts by apex banks, including Taiwan and South Korea, which cut key rates by 25 basis points, following similar moves by US, China and European central banks, while Japan has pumped in a further $20 billion into the money markets.—
PTI
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India can tide over global storm: World Bank
Washington, October 9 "India like China has been growing very well. I think you will see some slowdown, but for a number of reasons I hope India will be in a position to weather the storm. There are issues that the government is focusing on... The (Indian) Prime Minister is keenly aware of those topics," World Bank president Robert Zoellick said. Zoellick's statement came a day after India's cabinet came out with almost similar statement. Yesterday, the cabinet had stated that the Indian economy has the capacity and the resilience to face the global financial crisis. "We have enough instruments to ensure the stability of the Indian financial system and we will continue to provide credit and other support for the growth of the economy," finance minister P Chidambaram had said reading out the statement. Indian economy grew at 9 per cent last fiscal and 7.9 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal. Ahead of annual meeting with the International Monetary Fund, Zoellick, said he had talked about certain economic issues to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the UNGA meet and will meet Chidambaram in a couple of days. Referring to World Bank's projects in India, Zoellick said the multilateral agency has found that the country is keen on sectors like health and education. The bank will not only provide resources but the expertise to help the country in the required areas, he added. — PTI
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Reykjavik: Iceland seized control of its biggest bank on Thursday to try to shore up its listing financial system, halted all trade on its stock market and maintained that it should cope without IMF help. By taking hold of Kaupthing, the state has now grabbed three of Iceland's major banks after Landsbanki and Glitnir were put under national control earlier this week. As the crisis deepened, the stock exchange suspended trading in all shares, citing unusual market conditions. It said trade would not resume until Monday. — Reuters
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Oil edges up, OPEC may review output in Nov
Bhagyashree Pande
New Delhi, October 9 Oil edged up towards $90 a barrel level in the past few days after a steep slide this week in response to expectations that demand will fall sharply if the global economy slides into recession. Nigeria, Qatar and Iraq, all members of OPEC, when they met on Wednesday, floated the idea of a cut in the group's oil output. However, much will depend on the Saudis and whether they will agree to restrain their massive production as there are chances that they will resist sharp cutbacks. Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, had voiced concern on Tuesday about the impact of the credit crisis on oil demand, and Libya raised the prospect of an early OPEC meeting. Oil-producing countries are also facing a crisis as the oil prices are going down. The Middle-Eastern investments are also coming under threat because of financial crisis in the western world. An output reduction agreed by OPEC at its last meeting, on September 9-10 in Vienna, has so far failed to stem the price fall. Gasoline stocks rose 7.2 million barrels to 186.8 million barrels last week, the energy agency said, more than six times the 1.1 million barrel rise that analysts had forecast. Commercial supplies of crude in the United States surged 8.1 million barrels to 302.6 million barrels in the week to October 3, the Energy Information Administration said, more than triple the forecasts by analysts for an increase of 2.3 million barrels.
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Spice loses 6 lakh users in Punjab
Chandigarh, October 9 From a total customer base of 27,54,963 as on June 30, 2008, Spice customer base has come down to 21,52,496 as on August 31. Spice started operations about 10 years ago and showed good growth in the initial years as it had a monopoly in Punjab. However, once other operators like Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone started their operations in the state, Spice steadily lost its premier position and Airtel overtook it in terms of customer base in just two years. Spice now claims to cover over 10,000 towns and villages in Punjab. On its website, it states that in the past 6 months, it has added over 700 towns and villages and that it will be adding over 500 more in the next 4 months. However, all these steps are not proving enough for customers. "We have stopped selling Spice connections because there are too many problems with the service," says a local mobile retailer. "The Spice network has too many technical problems and customers are fed up with call drops and the slow response of the company to changing technologies. Today, customers ask for an Airtel or Vodafone connection because they deliver what they promise." Does this means that the days of growth in mobile telephony are over in Punjab? Not so, if you look at the other service providers like Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL, who have collectively notched up nearly 2,50,000 new customers in the past two months. Similarly, the CDMA segment comprising of Reliance, Tata and Connect is also progressing well. It is learnt that most of the old hands in senior positions have left the company. The only other circle Spice operates is in Karnataka, which has also seen over 3,82,000 customers breaking away from it in July and August.
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Tata Chem shelves Tanzania JV IDFC raises $855 m Luminous to launch e-scooter IBM Q3 net up 20 pc M&M SUVs in US BSE to resume normal timings
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streak as authorities worldwide geared up to tackle the financial crisis, and IT services giant IBM's quarterly results also beat market expectations, suggesting that business demand is not being affected as much as feared.
