Business News

Oil prices tumbled nearly 4 per cent amid a commodities-wide rout on Monday, falling to their lowest since February as traders feared efforts to contain a growing credit crisis would fail to stave off a sharper decline in oil demand.

Tata AIG Life Insurance Company (Tata AIG Life), on Monday announced the launch of its first-ever unit-linked health product-Tata AIG Life InvestAssure Health.

State Bank of India will finalise the terms of general insurance venture with Insurance Australia Group (IAG) in the next few weeks, Bank's Chairman O P Bhatt said.

Indian private sector banks with an overseas presence will be affected to some extent by the global financial crisis, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor V.Leeladhar said on Monday.

Luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz on Monday said it has crossed 3,000-units mark in sales in India for the first time during January-September period, registering a growth of 56 per cent over the same period last year.

In a surprise move, Finance Ministry has asked public sector companies to stop inviting competitive bids from banks for parking their surplus funds and directed them to give such business to state-run banks on nomination basis.

Japanese financial services major Nomura on Monday said it will acquire battered Lehman Brothers' India operations, which would expand its workforce by about 3,000 employees.

China's Ping An Insurance Co said on Monday it will record USD 2.3 billion loss on its stake in troubled European bank Fortis NV, in the biggest blow yet to a Chinese institution from the global credit crisis.

Merrill Lynch's vice chairman said on Monday the global financial crisis would continue for the next 18 months to two years, in sync with the US housing slowdown continuing over a similar time frame.

US food giant HJ Heinz Company has launched a 288 million dollar (USD 215 million) takeover bid for food and beverage firm Golden Circle, the Australian company said on Monday.

The troubled German bank Hypo Real Estate got its second bailout in as many weeks, raising the total to USD 60 billion (50 billion euros) as shock waves from the US-bred international financial crisis rattled deep fault lines in Europe's banking sector.

With Germany making a blanket guarantee to cover all of the country's savings, other European countries were under increased pressure to bolster their financial defences.

Asian stocks dropped by around 5 per cent on Monday, led by exporters, and the yen surged to a 2-year high against the euro as investors doubted a scattered European response to the financial crisis and a $700 billion US bank bailout could prevent a deeper slump in the global economy.

Bank of America has agreed to settle claims brought by state attorneys general regarding certain risky loans originated by Countrywide Financial Corp in a deal that could be worth more than $8.6 billion, the 'Wall Street Journal' said.

American consumers have been cutting back on their spending by over three per cent in the last quarter in response to the ongoing financial crisis, media reports said.

BNP Paribas took control of the Belgian and Luxembourg businesses of troubled financial group Fortis on Sunday in a complex rescue that will make Belgium the French bank's biggest shareholder.

The US Federal Reserve is brokering discussions between Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc over which of the banks will buy Wachovia Corp's assets, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Telecom network equipment firm Nokia Siemens Networks said on Monday it had won an order to expand the GSM mobile telephone network of Teletalk Bangladesh, a state-owned operator.