Business News

Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro is close to bagging three major petrochemical contracts worth over $2.5 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) from the Middle East.

The World Bank on Wednesday approved a $600-million loan to power transmission giant Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) to strengthen the electricity transmission system to increase reliable power exchange between regions and states.

The US Federal Reserve's 75 basis points rate cut from 3 per cent to 2.25 per cent could be a little less than the 100 bps cut that many were looking for, but it is still it is likely to have a positive impact on the overall market sentiments as it eases the liquidity in the US markets.

Stepping up efforts for greater energy security in the region, South Asian countries are meeting in Islamabad next week to work out the broad contours of an intra-regional energy cooperation framework.

In the first signs of jobs moving out of India, TCS has opened a new development centre in Cincinnati, Ohio. Facing pressures in the form of increasing wage hikes and non-extension of the tax breaks to software technology parks, client demands of a delivery centre close to their locations have prompted TCS to set up a software development centre in Ohio.

KEC International Ltd has earmarked around $80 million for an acquisition in the US and South Africa each. The company is eyeing sales of Rs 2,900 crore in 2007-08 and has emerged as the largest builder of power distribution towers and infrastructure in the world.

Indian private sector bank stocks, one of the most venerated lots in this four-year bull run, have been trashed in the last one month. The largest one, ICICI Bank, has lost half its market value and smaller ones like Yes, DCB and Centurion have halved as well.

Malayasia's state-owned Petronas is picking up a 12.7 per cent stake in Cairn India (CIL), the Indian arm of Canadian oil and petrochemicals company Cairn Energy. The stake, valued at Rs 2,103 crore ($516 million) would help fund Cairn's commercial oil production target from Rajasthan, according to an official Cairn release.

There's just too much noise around financial markets these days. No wonder everyone is so confused. While it's difficult to take a clean call on the market from here, it helps to lay down the key metrics which will determine the endgame, both bullish and bearish, and assign probabilities to them. It may still not enable you to make up your mind but it should certainly aid clarity in perspective.

In many parts of Europe and North America, menu cards are publicly displayed by restaurant owners so that passers-by can have a clear idea of what it will cost to have a meal in their establishments. Consumers who are comfortable with both the ambience and the pricing will step in or else move on.

The rule book says : Investors should not try to time the market, they should invest systematically, equities is the best performing asset class over a period of time. Ask any investor on the street today and you will find that their views are diametrically opposite to what the rule book lays out.

Even as global markets formed a mixed bag, Indian equities staged a pullback rally on Friday as buying came in at lower levels in index heavyweight stocks.

In the volatile and somewhat crazy business of commodities trading, what you see is not what you always get. Technical analysts now say that gold and crude oil prices may now slip after a heady run to new highs in 2008. But what is seen is only a 'correction' – not a plunge. Experts are also puzzled why demand for oil remains high while talk of an economic slump in the US should dampen demand.

What's going on out there is enough to rattle nerves of steel. The ease with which stock prices are coming off is staggering. Forget the Nifty, the damage which has been inflicted on midcap portfolios is mind numbing. People are talking about value but not too many are buying. In fact, there must be a long queue of investors, global and retail, who would be praying for a bounce simply to exit.

This weekend, March 15, will bring the proverbial Ides of March, an expression made famous by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar to signify impending doom. But investors can take heart that at least for now, leading market pundits are by and large sticking to their earnings outlooks.

A slump in local industrial growth and fears triggered across Asia by the US dollar's surge against the Japanese yen thrashed Dalal Street with a double-whammy on Thursday, as the Sensex plunged 4.8 per cent, hitting sentiments and stopping bargain hunters on their tracks.

Even as investors remain obsessed about the state of the US economy, recent economic data closer home hasn't exactly been encouraging. The Industrial production figure of 5.3 per cent for January is a bit of a shocker. Within that the 2.1 per cent growth number for capital goods is so unexpected that it's probably a blip.

FOR INDIA'S battered stock markets, Wednesday's news wasn't good. India's industrial growth sharply slowed to 5.3 percent in January from 11.6 percent in the same month last year, the government said Wednesday, heightening fears that the impact of high interest rates on the economy could be much worse than thought earlier.

REC lists today. The company went ahead with its issue in difficult primary market conditions and came out with huge oversubscription figures. It was a well-priced initial public offer (IPO) and should go on to list at a premium, maybe in the 120-25 zone. The problem is that REC's peer set has corrected significantly since it did the issue and its relative attraction may have come down a notch.

With Budget 2008-07 ushering in a higher tax regime in commodity trading, traders may find their cost of transaction going up by around 60 per cent.