Dubai/London: Banks outside the Gulf played down their exposure to Dubai debt on Friday after fears of default shook global markets, and European leaders said the world economy was now strong enough to cope with the setback.

Stocks from Tokyo to New York were haunted by concern that banks were exposed to state companies in Dubai, whose rise from a desert backwater into the business hub of the world’s top oil exporting area lured expatriate cash and executives.

The crisis began on Wednesday when Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates federation, asked to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt issued by conglomerate Dubai World and its main property subsidiary Nakheel, developer of three palm-shaped islands that once attracted celebrities and the super-rich.

source: IBN

Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which sold a third of its shares (about 2.72 crore) or 2.23% of its total stake in Mahindra Satyam (erstwhile Satyam Computer Services) on Friday, is expected to sell the rest of the stake in soon to fund acquistions. The total stake sale of 8.13 crore shares or 6.90% is expected to fetch L&T more than Rs 900 crore at an average share price of more than Rs 100 per share. As on March 31, 2009 L&T had cash and bank balances of Rs 775.29 crore in its books. The cumulative cash is expected to put L&T in a better position to look at growing via the inorganic route. The company has been in the news lately owing to its interest to acquire Patni Computer Services.

L&T generated about Rs 313 crore by selling each share at Rs 114.90, a premium of 42% from the Rs 81 average price at which it had bought the stake. The stake purchase had blocked almost Rs 658 crore of L&T as these shares was under the lock-in period. The total stake sale is expected to fetch L&T a profit of about Rs 250-300 crore.

At the same time, L&T has been looking out for potential acquisitions to grow its IT services unit L&T Infotech into a larger firm. Media reports have indicated that L&T has been quite keen on buying stake in Patni after its attempt to buy 31% stake in scam-hit Satyam failed. “If L&T wants to acquire substantial stake in Patni, it has to buy 48% held by the Patni brothers and then go for a open offer for the next 20%. Besides this, it will also have to buy almost 18% stake held by General Atlantic or there could be a conflict of interest if it is bought by a third party,” he adds.

source: financialexpress

Amfiindia.com, is the official website of AMFI India (Association of Mutual Funds In India). A walk through of the website will reveal a lot of interesting information regarding Indian Mutual funds. You can get most data pertaining to all mutual funds houses in India, like scheme corpus, fund corpus, etc at amfiindia.com.

Latest NAVS of Mutual Funds are updated everyday at 8 pm at amfiindia.com. You can download latest NAVs of Indian Mutual Funds at AMFI’s official website.

www.Amfiindia.com

New Delhi, Oct. 9 — Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday promised to examine the critical proposals of the direct taxes code (DTC), the contentious issues of taxation of savings schemes and imposition of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on gross assets.

The new Direct Taxes Code, the draft of which was put up for public debate in August, has proposed to bring down the corporate income tax rate to 25 per cent from 34 per cent at present. It also proposed to abolish the securities transactions tax.

The code, which is slated for introduction by April 1, 2011, has proposed major changes for computing MAT from ‘book profits’ to ‘gross assets.’

The rate of MAT proposed is 0.25 per cent for all companies – except banking. The proposal, however, did not find favour with industry.

“It represents a shift from profit-based taxation to asset based taxation, which is not line with international taxation practice,” said Harshpati Singhania, president, FICCI.

Confederation of Indian Industries President Venu Srinivasan also echoed similar views and urged the government to change the provisions.

Mukherjee said the government has identified seven critical areas on the code for further detailed examination.

“We want to present the stakeholders with a tax regime which is simple and broad-based leading to lowering of tax rates, better tax compliance and reduced litigation,” he said.

Earlier in the day, addressing industrialists at the annual meeting of industry chamber Assocham, Mukherjee said a robust domestic demand will be key to withstanding the shocks and uncertainties that come with a global economy.

Indian Bank 700 Clerks recruitment result
August 23, 2009 by Nitin · 348 Comments
Filed under: Banking, Government, Notifications, Recruitments n Jobs

Indian Bank written exam was scheduled on 21.06.2009. Candidates appeared for examination for Appointment of 700 Clerks in Indian Bank. All of us wereveagerly waiting for Indian Bank clerk recruitment results.The Results has been declared. The results are in pdf format.

know more  about other Banks recruitment .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday the need for Fed support for consumer and small business loans remains strong even as use of other financial backstop programs tapers off as markets regain balance after a wrenching crisis.

“Usage of many of these programs has been winding down as markets improve, but one program for which an ongoing need still clearly exists is the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF,” Bernanke told the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

He said the Fed has acted to ensure TALF borrowers include firms owned by women and minorities. Under TALF, investors borrow from the Fed to buy securities backed by consumer, student, small business and commercial real estate loans.

Interest rates on auto loans have gone down considerably since the start of TALF and autos has been one of the biggest categories of loans, Bernanke said in response to questions.

However, there have been problems in getting AAA-ratings for auto floor plan loans eligible for the program, he said. Such loans are typically used by dealers to acquire inventory.

“I am hopeful the situation in the auto companies is going to improve,” Bernanke said.

The Fed chairman faces an unusually busy congressional agenda this fall. He must win Senate confirmation for a second four-year term as chairman and ensure congressional efforts to strengthen U.S. financial market supervision do not weaken the Fed or damage its independence.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by James Dalgleish)

New Delhi, Sept. 25 — In case you have bought a policy from any of the four state-owned insurance companies, your claim settlement will take lesser time than it used to take earlier because back-office processes are being overhauled.

The state-owned non-life insurance companies known for delays in settling claims and poor service have introduced a claims hub in every city. They have also revamped their business operations on the lines of private insurance companies.

The four public sector undertaking (PSU) insurers that control 60 per cent of the market – New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance and National Insurance – have introduced a vertical system under which dedicated branches will be there in each city to serve one line of business.

Each city will have one dedicated office called a claims hub for settling claims, one branch office to get retail business, one branch for corporate insurance covers, and an office exclusively for training.

For instance, New India Assurance, which has four regional offices in Mumbai, will have two as claims hubs. Each city will have at least one claims hub.

“The claims hub will be the claim sanctioning authority and will ensure faster claims settlement,” said a senior New India official who did not want to be identified.

According to M Ramadoss, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Oriental Insurance, “The turnaround time for settling a motor ‘own damage’ claim was 72 days in Delhi which we have been able to reduce to 22 days.”

He said policyholders had the option of making claims from the office where it was issued or to the claims hub in the city.

Last year, the finance ministry had asked the four insurers to appoint consultants for revamping their operations to control underwriting losses, increase efficiency and improve service delivery. Similarly, it has 16 third-party motor insurance service centres that will be increased to 42 by the year-end.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc sued Morgan Stanley on Friday for breach of contract, saying the Wall Street firm owed it $245.4 million for protection it bought on a loan.

Citibank bought a credit default swap (CDS) from Morgan Stanley & Co International in 2006 on a $366 million revolving credit facility it provided to an issuer of collateralized debt obligations (CDO), according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The swap obliged Morgan Stanley to pay Citibank the money as a result of a payment default on the credit facility to the CDO, known as Capmark VI, it said in the complaint.

Liquidating the CDO collateral did not cover the entire amount, and Citibank said it exercised its right under the CDS to have Morgan Stanley make up for the shortfall, but it refused, according to the complaint.

Citibank paid Morgan Stanley about $750,000 for the CDS, according to the complaint.

Morgan Stanley could not immediately be reached for comment.

The case is Citibank NA vs Morgan Sanley & Co Internation al PLC, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-8197

(Reporting by Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Nick Macfie)

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The dollar slid to a one-year low against a basket of currencies as market players seized on surprisingly strong New Zealand economic growth data as a reason to push the kiwi dollar higher and dump the U.S. currency.

Even as many commodity prices dipped, the dollar’s drop has boosted oil and metals and lifted resource-related shares around the region. Commodity-heavy Australian stocks outperformed most other markets in the region, nudging Asian shares to a 13-month peak.

“It’s a mixture of optimism about global growth and stronger commodity prices, which is particularly good for Australia,” said Tom Elliott, a fund manager with MM&E Capital, which oversees about A$50 million in Australian shares.

Stock market activity, however, was limited in Asia, with markets in Japan closed for a third straight day before reopening on Thursday.

European shares were set for a sluggish start, with futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 up just 0.1 percent.

Many investors are waiting for the Federal Reserve’s policy decision later in the day, looking for changes in its post-meeting statement that would acknowledge the economy’s improvement and might suggest more steps towards winding down its emergency measures to support financial markets.

The Fed has already been meeting with primary bond dealers on Wall Street to discuss different methods for absorbing the massive reserves injected into the banking system to stave off the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The MSCI benchmark of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4 percent and reached a 13-month high, while the Thomson Reuters index of regional stocks edged up 0.2 percent.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.4 percent on the back of a rise in commodity-linked shares. BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, rose 1 percent.

Consumer discretionary shares, which have played a big role in the MSCI’s nearly 60 percent surge in this year, were the biggest sector to rise on the day.

NEW ZEALAND RECESSION ENDS

The New Zealand dollar’s jump in early trade triggered a wave of U.S. dollar selling after key levels were breached, prompting more hedge funds and players to build up bets that the U.S. currency is poised for a retreat towards last year’s record low.

New Zealand’s economy unexpectedly grew 0.1 percent in the second quarter, snapping the country’s longest recession on record and stoking expectations that its central bank could start lifting interest rates from record lows early in 2010.

Asia has been at the forefront of the global economy’s recovery thanks to China’s big stimulus spending and an aggressive slash in inventories during the slide in global trade that left manufacturers better positioned for the rebound.

The dollar was down 0.5 percent at 90.70 yen after tumbling in early trade. Some traders worried that speculators may try to push the U.S. currency below the 90 level and trigger more automatic sell orders expected at around that mark.

“The dollar is vulnerable at the moment as it is around key levels against many currencies, hovering in areas where lots of loss-cut selling orders await,” said Tohru Sasaki, chief FX strategist for Japan at JPMorgan Chase in Tokyo.

The dollar index, a gauge of its performance against six major currencies, fell to a one-year low of 75.892 in volatile early trade — a low that was later recalculated due to the sharp moves in the gap between New York and Asia trade.

The euro was up slightly at $1.4810 after jumping as high as $1.4843 on trading platform EBS, a one-year peak.

The kiwi jumped 1 percent to $0.7268 and hit a 13-month high of $0.7315 on the Reuters Matching platform after the growth figures.

New Zealand short-term interest rates were hit hard by the building expectations of a coming rate rise. One-year swap rates rose 7 basis points to 3.23 percent, while the three-year jumped 12 basis points to 4.87 percent.

While the curve steepened on the day, analysts expect short-term rates to keep rising more quickly as a New Zealand rate rise comes into view, causing the swap curve to flatten. The one-year/three-year curve is at 164 basis points, near a record peak of 170 basis points reached in August.

(Additional reporting by Denny Thomas in Sydney and Rika Otsuka in Tokyo; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

(For more news on Reuters Money click http://www.reutersmoney.in)

India gold traders continued to trickle in on Wednesday as the rupee strengthened, making the dollar-quoted asset cheaper, to build up stocks in the middle of

the festival season, dealers said.

“The rupee has appreciated so it is making gold cheaper for traders. They are just buying bare minimum for festivals,” said a dealer with a state-run bank in Mumbai. “I sold around 250 kgs since yesterday evening.”

“Volumes are expected to pick up due to festive demand,” said another dealer with a private bank.

The most-traded October contract was up 0.30 percent at 15,864 rupees per 10 grams at 1:53 p.m.

The Indian rupee hit a six-week high in early deals on Wednesday as dollar demand from importers and weaker domestic shares offset the weakness in the dollar overseas.

Dealers said the underlying demand is still strong, with many traders staying on the sidelines to replenish stocks.

“I have plenty of orders in the range of $990-1,000 (an ounce),” said another dealer with a private bank.

India, the world’s largest consumer of the yellow metal, is in the midst of the festival season, with Dussera on Monday and Diwali and Dhanteras next month, which is expected to revive sagging gold sales.

The World Gold Council’s January to June figures show India’s gold imports fell 55 percent to 126.7 tonnes from 282.3 tonnes a year earlier.

(For more news on Reuters Money click http://www.reutersmoney.in)