# Sensex ends down 131pts; Tata Steel gains 4%
# Tata buys Jaguar Land Rover for $2.3bn
# Term insurance plans to get cheaper
# India is 3rd most brand conscious country
# Federal Bank opens 26 branches in one day
# FIIs net buy Rs 394cr, DIIs net sell Rs 109cr
# Gartner expects 6.9mn WiMax users by 2011
# Microsoft ties up with 5 social networks
# Brazil wants Indian cos in cane farming
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
News...
# March 25th: Sensex ends up 928pts; Infosys zooms 10%
# FIIs net buy Rs 1,246cr,DIIs net buy Rs 400cr
# DuPont Knowledge Centre to be ready by June
# Gujarat plans mini-hydro power projects
# Indian IT services market to grow at 18.6%
# Govt says no to curb film piracy with policy
# Corporation Bank to raise Rs 500cr
# Gillani sworn in as Pakistan PM
# Croma to sell Dell products from April
# Nortel bags Rs 400 cr contract from BSNL
# FIIs net buy Rs 1,246cr,DIIs net buy Rs 400cr
# DuPont Knowledge Centre to be ready by June
# Gujarat plans mini-hydro power projects
# Indian IT services market to grow at 18.6%
# Govt says no to curb film piracy with policy
# Corporation Bank to raise Rs 500cr
# Gillani sworn in as Pakistan PM
# Croma to sell Dell products from April
# Nortel bags Rs 400 cr contract from BSNL
How 2008 is so different...
Courtesy: 
Mon, Mar 24 (Udayan Mukherjee's column in The Hindustan Times):
By now you would have figured out how utterly different 2008 is looking from 2007. How the roaring bull market has degenerated into a virtual bear market.
It is true that 2008 is showing every sign of being a painful year for equity markets, yet let me put a spin on that. But this is only for the stock market investor, not day trader or position trader.
Only for the person who intends to park a substantial part of his savings in stocks for good long-term returns, year after year. I know equity is a bad word just now, but it will not be for ever.
The year 2007 was, for the most part, a terrible year to buy stocks. The second half of the year, when the Sensex started trading above 14,000, was a minefield.
It was only a question of when you would get caught with the excesses. After July 2007 the risk-reward trade-off in a very large number of stocks was loaded totally against the buyer.
Valuations were too high and stocks were priced for perfection. Now that conditions are less than perfect, people are losing their shirt.
The year 2008 could turn out to be the exact opposite. Like 2007 was euphoric while it lasted and then extremely painful immediately after, 2008 could be painful and then utterly rewarding.
I have not the foggiest idea whether the markets will bottom out now, in June, in December or in June next year. That would require a crystal ball.
Whenever it does, 2008 may, in hindsight, look like the best time to have bought stocks. I do not mean today, but during the course of this year.
If this is no more than a one-year bear market, then history will tell you that the highest appreciation always happens when stocks are bought in bear markets and held through bull markets. The risk to this prognosis, of course, is that this is nothing like a sharp, short bear market.
It has just begun and we are going to grind in it for several quarters. The problem is that very few analysts can actually call a bear phase till the market is neck deep in it.
There is no point being complacent about it. Yet, that is the risk that a long-term investor has to take.
You have to forget about a bull market and a bear market, just think of what is conservative fair value for good stocks.
Mon, Mar 24 (Udayan Mukherjee's column in The Hindustan Times):
By now you would have figured out how utterly different 2008 is looking from 2007. How the roaring bull market has degenerated into a virtual bear market.
It is true that 2008 is showing every sign of being a painful year for equity markets, yet let me put a spin on that. But this is only for the stock market investor, not day trader or position trader.
Only for the person who intends to park a substantial part of his savings in stocks for good long-term returns, year after year. I know equity is a bad word just now, but it will not be for ever.
The year 2007 was, for the most part, a terrible year to buy stocks. The second half of the year, when the Sensex started trading above 14,000, was a minefield.
It was only a question of when you would get caught with the excesses. After July 2007 the risk-reward trade-off in a very large number of stocks was loaded totally against the buyer.
Valuations were too high and stocks were priced for perfection. Now that conditions are less than perfect, people are losing their shirt.
The year 2008 could turn out to be the exact opposite. Like 2007 was euphoric while it lasted and then extremely painful immediately after, 2008 could be painful and then utterly rewarding.
I have not the foggiest idea whether the markets will bottom out now, in June, in December or in June next year. That would require a crystal ball.
Whenever it does, 2008 may, in hindsight, look like the best time to have bought stocks. I do not mean today, but during the course of this year.
If this is no more than a one-year bear market, then history will tell you that the highest appreciation always happens when stocks are bought in bear markets and held through bull markets. The risk to this prognosis, of course, is that this is nothing like a sharp, short bear market.
It has just begun and we are going to grind in it for several quarters. The problem is that very few analysts can actually call a bear phase till the market is neck deep in it.
There is no point being complacent about it. Yet, that is the risk that a long-term investor has to take.
You have to forget about a bull market and a bear market, just think of what is conservative fair value for good stocks.
How bad is the mortgage crisis going to get?
What started in subprime is likely to continue cascading into the markets and keep the US economy down until 2010, economist Paul Krugman forecasts. Bottom line for homeowners: An average drop of 25%.
Courtesy: Fortune Magazine:
If there is any word that captures the mood in the US economy right now, it's uncertainty, along with shadings of bafflement and distrust. We have never seen a credit crisis quite like this. What's next?
Princeton economist Paul Krugman spoke with Fortune's Jia Lynn Yang about the impact on the economy, the outlook for home prices, and the reasons for both fear and hope. Krugman, a former Fortune columnist who now writes a column for the New York Times, will also appear in a one-hour CNN & Fortune special report on the economy that premieres March 28 at 8 p.m. ET.
Fortune: By year-end, 15 million Americans could have mortgages worth more than the value of their homes. What happens then?
Krugman: Actually, I think home prices will fall enough for us to produce about 20 million people with negative equity. That's almost a quarter of U.S. homes. If home prices are rising, or if there's positive equity, you can refinance or sell. But if you have negative equity, you can end up being foreclosed on, and then some people will just find it to their advantage to walk away. We're probably heading for $6 trillion or $7 trillion in capital losses in housing. Some fraction of that will fall on owners of mortgages. I still think the estimates people are putting out there - $400 billion or $500 billion in losses - are too low. I think there'll be $1 trillion of losses on mortgage-backed securities showing up somewhere.
How far do you think home prices will fall?
My preferred metric is the ratio of home prices to rental rates. By that measure, average home prices nationally got way too high. We'll probably basically retrace all that. So that's about a 25% decline in overall home prices. Only a fraction of that's happened so far. Of course, it varies a lot. In places like Houston or Atlanta , where home prices have not risen much compared with underlying rents, the decline will be relatively small. In places like Miami or Los Angeles , you could be looking at 40% or 50% declines.
Is there a risk of a spiral too, where the more homes that are foreclosed on, the lower home prices go?
Not without limit. But if we think home prices overshot on the way up, why can't they overshoot on the way down too? And to the extent that this all produces a recession, that's also bad for housing demand. People at the Fed are talking about feedback loops. At the moment, most of what they're concerned about is that falling home prices are leading to a credit crunch, which is actually driving up mortgage rates and making mortgages unavailable, which is causing home prices to fall even more. I'm not one of those people who thinks the Great Depression is coming back, but there's lots of echoes.
"But if we think home prices overshot on the way up, why can't they overshoot on the way down too?"
Why not the Great Depression?
Because I think we know something that we didn't then. The Federal Reserve was clueless back then. They were only concerned about protecting the nation's gold reserves, and the federal government believed that austerity and cutting spending was the answer to recession. I think we know more than we did then, and just the fact that we have a big federal government is a stabilizing factor. But the current problem is still pretty awesome.
Can you compare this to other economic crises the U.S. has faced?
The financial stuff looks like a combination of 1990 and 2001, and probably bigger than both combined. You've got the financial disruption, which is probably bigger than the savings and loan crisis. And you've got the loss of wealth from the housing bust, which is bigger than the dot-com bust. So this looks fairly nasty. And then everybody who's paying attention is worrying about the Japan analogy. Japan never had a really severe recession. It just started with a recession and never really had a recovery for a whole decade. And that's the kind of thing we're afraid of.
You've been saying 2010 is when we get out of this recession. How did you arrive at that date?
The last recession officially ended after eight months, but employment didn't start to recover until 30 months later, so I think we go at least that long this time. If the recession started in January 2008, then that would mean July 2010 is the first month we have anything that feels like a recovery. But I wouldn't be surprised if it goes longer than that - maybe into 2011.
What can Fed chairman Ben Bernanke do in terms of cutting rates? You wrote on your blog recently, "Keep cutting, Ben!"
Yeah, that's right. I'm now reasonably sure that they will cut again and again and again. A few cuts of 75 basis points and we'll be down to zero. And there's a pretty good chance that we're heading to zero, and that there's going to be a Japan-style ZIRP, zero-interest-rate policy.
Has that happened in the U.S. before?
Not since the 1930s. They didn't have the Fed funds target rate back then, but effectively we had a zero-interest-rate policy for a good part of the '30s. If the Fed responds this time with as much cutting as it did in the last two recessions, we get to zero. And then the problem is, What if that isn't enough? And there's a pretty good chance it won't be.
If the credit markets are still in paralysis, doesn't that blunt any monetary policy from the Fed?
The effective borrowing costs for a lot of people are rising, not falling, despite the Fed cuts. The rising spreads are more than offsetting it. The mortgage rates have not been falling as you might hope. And, of course, for many types of people who were able to borrow two years ago, they now can't - at any interest rate. We're looking at the classic pushing-on-a-string problem, where the Fed can cut, but it's not clear it does much for the real economy.
One of the criticisms of Alan Greenspan is that his rate cuts helped cause two bubbles, first tech, then real estate. Do we run the risk of creating another one if we keep cutting rates?
His rate cuts helped make the bubble possible, but I'm not sure there was any alternative. I remember the interest rate was down to 1%, and the economy was still losing jobs. What Greenspan did not do was listen to warnings about subprime. The Fed had substantial regulatory and moral-suasion power. They could have done a lot to limit the excesses. It's more what he failed to do during the boom than what he did in response to the last slump.
There's been talk about the 1970s and a return of stagflation. What's the risk of that?
What you worry about with stagflation is that price increases start to feed on themselves. Expectations of inflation get built into the price-setting process. I don't see any sign of that. The inflation happening right now is not being fed by expectations of inflation - there's no self-reinforcing process - it's just mostly commodity prices going through the roof. That's not pleasant, but it's not something the Fed needs to be all that worried about, as long as it stops there.
What do you think about the government's economic stimulus plan?
I wasn't happy with it. Most of the money is given to people who are not much inclined to spend it, people who are not in financial difficulty. And therefore they will just put it in the bank or pay down credit card debt. I've been trying to make the case that since this thing is going to go on for a long time, effectiveness is more crucial than speed. I'm actually for public investment now - repairing bridges, building infrastructure. Normally people say if you try to do any public investment to stimulate the economy, the recession will be over before it can come online. But I don't think that's a problem this time.
Do you think the U.S. economy relies too much on consumer spending?
Oh, yeah. No question. If you looked at the profile of the U.S. economy as it was two years ago, we had what looked like prosperity, based on high consumer spending, huge residential construction, unspectacular levels of business investment, and a huge trade deficit. You want to turn that around and have an economy that does less consumer spending, runs less of a trade deficit, and has more business investment. Of course, the problem is getting there from here.
Is there any solution?
Well, a weak dollar is helping. I look at the euro at $1.53 and cheer - not for this European trip I'm planning to take after classes are done. But for manufacturing plants in the Midwest , it's a very good thing. Arguably the only good thing we have going for the U.S. economy now is the weak dollar and how that helps exports.
A lot of foreboding economic numbers are floating around right now. What strikes you as the most alarming?
I'm looking at the increase in interest-rate spreads, with the LIBOR ( London interbank offered rate) pulling away from U.S. Treasury bills. When the spread gets that big, it suggests that banks are losing trust in each other. Various measures of panic in the markets are looking bad again. I've been thinking to myself, This is now the fourth wave. We had a first wave more than a year ago, when subprime first began to go. And everyone said that was contained. We had a second wave last August, when things started going to hell. We had a third wave late in the fall, and heroic efforts seemed to bring the problems under control. And now here we go again. This is starting to look like a much more comprehensive financial crisis.
What's changed?
There has been the realization that the increased nervousness about risk and deleveraging is going to hit a lot of markets a long way removed from subprime - like when people start to see auction-rate securities go. Something has finally tipped the balance. We've got Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suddenly having to pay substantial spreads. It seems to me like every few weeks there's another $300 billion market I've never heard of that has just collapsed. And there's credit cards, auto loans - I don't know what's next. But it's clear we're going to have a commercial real estate crash not too far short of the severity of the housing crash.
Can the government step in more and deal with this liquidity problem?
What we're having looks like a minor-key version of the bank failures in the early 1930s. Now it's mostly not banks, it's markets that were serving the function of banks and institutions that were doing banklike stuff, and it's not as bad - at least so far. But it's a question. If we were actually having a string of bank failures, then we would know what to do. The government would essentially seize the banks and guarantee the deposits. But what do you do when you have a wave of failures of things like the auction-rate securities market, which was effectively a funny way of doing banking? If you look historically at other financial crises, they typically end up with big government bailouts. But how's that going to work in this case? We don't even know who to bail out. And part of the problem is we don't even know who owes what to whom.
What do you think of the Fed's recent $200 billion temporary bailout of mortgage-backed securities?
I hope it will work, but I doubt it will; $200 billion sounds like a lot of money, but it's small compared with the securities market, so it's probably not effective.
On the other hand, do you think the sense of crisis is turning into a crisis of confidence more than anything else?
I fluctuate on that. I look at the prices on subprime-backed securities. Even the AAA-rated tranche is selling for barely over 50 cents on the dollar, and the rest is essentially worthless, which amounts to a prediction that you're going to get really very little on this stuff. Even if every subprime borrower walks away from his house and a lot of money is lost in foreclosure, it's hard to get numbers that bad. So there might be some overselling in these markets. But on the other hand, a lot of the financial system looks like it's going to shrivel up and have to be rebuilt. And that's not too good.
What's the biggest x factor, the question no one really knows the answer to?
What I don't know is how serious the real consequences of the financial-market stuff ends up being on Main Street . If all of the fancy financial instruments that have been so popular these past couple of decades sort of roll over, it's still not entirely clear to me how that ends up affecting the real economy. Will a lot of business investment just go on unaffected because companies can pay for it out of retained earnings or by borrowing with good old bank loans? How much in the end does the ability of consumers to keep spending get affected by what's going on in fairly abstruse financial markets? So I'm not quite sure how this works. Maybe that's a reason for hope. Maybe it'll turn out that all this Wall Street stuff is just less important than we think it is.
For a vivid look at the fallout from the subprime crisis, tune in to Busted! Mortgage Meltdown, a one-hour TV special report from CNN and Fortune. The program will air on CNN on Friday, March 28, at 8 P.M. ET and repeat on March 29 at 8 P.M. and 11 P.M. and March 30 at 8 P.M.
Courtesy: Fortune Magazine:
If there is any word that captures the mood in the US economy right now, it's uncertainty, along with shadings of bafflement and distrust. We have never seen a credit crisis quite like this. What's next?
Princeton economist Paul Krugman spoke with Fortune's Jia Lynn Yang about the impact on the economy, the outlook for home prices, and the reasons for both fear and hope. Krugman, a former Fortune columnist who now writes a column for the New York Times, will also appear in a one-hour CNN & Fortune special report on the economy that premieres March 28 at 8 p.m. ET.
Fortune: By year-end, 15 million Americans could have mortgages worth more than the value of their homes. What happens then?
Krugman: Actually, I think home prices will fall enough for us to produce about 20 million people with negative equity. That's almost a quarter of U.S. homes. If home prices are rising, or if there's positive equity, you can refinance or sell. But if you have negative equity, you can end up being foreclosed on, and then some people will just find it to their advantage to walk away. We're probably heading for $6 trillion or $7 trillion in capital losses in housing. Some fraction of that will fall on owners of mortgages. I still think the estimates people are putting out there - $400 billion or $500 billion in losses - are too low. I think there'll be $1 trillion of losses on mortgage-backed securities showing up somewhere.
How far do you think home prices will fall?
My preferred metric is the ratio of home prices to rental rates. By that measure, average home prices nationally got way too high. We'll probably basically retrace all that. So that's about a 25% decline in overall home prices. Only a fraction of that's happened so far. Of course, it varies a lot. In places like Houston or Atlanta , where home prices have not risen much compared with underlying rents, the decline will be relatively small. In places like Miami or Los Angeles , you could be looking at 40% or 50% declines.
Is there a risk of a spiral too, where the more homes that are foreclosed on, the lower home prices go?
Not without limit. But if we think home prices overshot on the way up, why can't they overshoot on the way down too? And to the extent that this all produces a recession, that's also bad for housing demand. People at the Fed are talking about feedback loops. At the moment, most of what they're concerned about is that falling home prices are leading to a credit crunch, which is actually driving up mortgage rates and making mortgages unavailable, which is causing home prices to fall even more. I'm not one of those people who thinks the Great Depression is coming back, but there's lots of echoes.
"But if we think home prices overshot on the way up, why can't they overshoot on the way down too?"
Why not the Great Depression?
Because I think we know something that we didn't then. The Federal Reserve was clueless back then. They were only concerned about protecting the nation's gold reserves, and the federal government believed that austerity and cutting spending was the answer to recession. I think we know more than we did then, and just the fact that we have a big federal government is a stabilizing factor. But the current problem is still pretty awesome.
Can you compare this to other economic crises the U.S. has faced?
The financial stuff looks like a combination of 1990 and 2001, and probably bigger than both combined. You've got the financial disruption, which is probably bigger than the savings and loan crisis. And you've got the loss of wealth from the housing bust, which is bigger than the dot-com bust. So this looks fairly nasty. And then everybody who's paying attention is worrying about the Japan analogy. Japan never had a really severe recession. It just started with a recession and never really had a recovery for a whole decade. And that's the kind of thing we're afraid of.
You've been saying 2010 is when we get out of this recession. How did you arrive at that date?
The last recession officially ended after eight months, but employment didn't start to recover until 30 months later, so I think we go at least that long this time. If the recession started in January 2008, then that would mean July 2010 is the first month we have anything that feels like a recovery. But I wouldn't be surprised if it goes longer than that - maybe into 2011.
What can Fed chairman Ben Bernanke do in terms of cutting rates? You wrote on your blog recently, "Keep cutting, Ben!"
Yeah, that's right. I'm now reasonably sure that they will cut again and again and again. A few cuts of 75 basis points and we'll be down to zero. And there's a pretty good chance that we're heading to zero, and that there's going to be a Japan-style ZIRP, zero-interest-rate policy.
Has that happened in the U.S. before?
Not since the 1930s. They didn't have the Fed funds target rate back then, but effectively we had a zero-interest-rate policy for a good part of the '30s. If the Fed responds this time with as much cutting as it did in the last two recessions, we get to zero. And then the problem is, What if that isn't enough? And there's a pretty good chance it won't be.
If the credit markets are still in paralysis, doesn't that blunt any monetary policy from the Fed?
The effective borrowing costs for a lot of people are rising, not falling, despite the Fed cuts. The rising spreads are more than offsetting it. The mortgage rates have not been falling as you might hope. And, of course, for many types of people who were able to borrow two years ago, they now can't - at any interest rate. We're looking at the classic pushing-on-a-string problem, where the Fed can cut, but it's not clear it does much for the real economy.
One of the criticisms of Alan Greenspan is that his rate cuts helped cause two bubbles, first tech, then real estate. Do we run the risk of creating another one if we keep cutting rates?
His rate cuts helped make the bubble possible, but I'm not sure there was any alternative. I remember the interest rate was down to 1%, and the economy was still losing jobs. What Greenspan did not do was listen to warnings about subprime. The Fed had substantial regulatory and moral-suasion power. They could have done a lot to limit the excesses. It's more what he failed to do during the boom than what he did in response to the last slump.
There's been talk about the 1970s and a return of stagflation. What's the risk of that?
What you worry about with stagflation is that price increases start to feed on themselves. Expectations of inflation get built into the price-setting process. I don't see any sign of that. The inflation happening right now is not being fed by expectations of inflation - there's no self-reinforcing process - it's just mostly commodity prices going through the roof. That's not pleasant, but it's not something the Fed needs to be all that worried about, as long as it stops there.
What do you think about the government's economic stimulus plan?
I wasn't happy with it. Most of the money is given to people who are not much inclined to spend it, people who are not in financial difficulty. And therefore they will just put it in the bank or pay down credit card debt. I've been trying to make the case that since this thing is going to go on for a long time, effectiveness is more crucial than speed. I'm actually for public investment now - repairing bridges, building infrastructure. Normally people say if you try to do any public investment to stimulate the economy, the recession will be over before it can come online. But I don't think that's a problem this time.
Do you think the U.S. economy relies too much on consumer spending?
Oh, yeah. No question. If you looked at the profile of the U.S. economy as it was two years ago, we had what looked like prosperity, based on high consumer spending, huge residential construction, unspectacular levels of business investment, and a huge trade deficit. You want to turn that around and have an economy that does less consumer spending, runs less of a trade deficit, and has more business investment. Of course, the problem is getting there from here.
Is there any solution?
Well, a weak dollar is helping. I look at the euro at $1.53 and cheer - not for this European trip I'm planning to take after classes are done. But for manufacturing plants in the Midwest , it's a very good thing. Arguably the only good thing we have going for the U.S. economy now is the weak dollar and how that helps exports.
A lot of foreboding economic numbers are floating around right now. What strikes you as the most alarming?
I'm looking at the increase in interest-rate spreads, with the LIBOR ( London interbank offered rate) pulling away from U.S. Treasury bills. When the spread gets that big, it suggests that banks are losing trust in each other. Various measures of panic in the markets are looking bad again. I've been thinking to myself, This is now the fourth wave. We had a first wave more than a year ago, when subprime first began to go. And everyone said that was contained. We had a second wave last August, when things started going to hell. We had a third wave late in the fall, and heroic efforts seemed to bring the problems under control. And now here we go again. This is starting to look like a much more comprehensive financial crisis.
What's changed?
There has been the realization that the increased nervousness about risk and deleveraging is going to hit a lot of markets a long way removed from subprime - like when people start to see auction-rate securities go. Something has finally tipped the balance. We've got Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suddenly having to pay substantial spreads. It seems to me like every few weeks there's another $300 billion market I've never heard of that has just collapsed. And there's credit cards, auto loans - I don't know what's next. But it's clear we're going to have a commercial real estate crash not too far short of the severity of the housing crash.
Can the government step in more and deal with this liquidity problem?
What we're having looks like a minor-key version of the bank failures in the early 1930s. Now it's mostly not banks, it's markets that were serving the function of banks and institutions that were doing banklike stuff, and it's not as bad - at least so far. But it's a question. If we were actually having a string of bank failures, then we would know what to do. The government would essentially seize the banks and guarantee the deposits. But what do you do when you have a wave of failures of things like the auction-rate securities market, which was effectively a funny way of doing banking? If you look historically at other financial crises, they typically end up with big government bailouts. But how's that going to work in this case? We don't even know who to bail out. And part of the problem is we don't even know who owes what to whom.
What do you think of the Fed's recent $200 billion temporary bailout of mortgage-backed securities?
I hope it will work, but I doubt it will; $200 billion sounds like a lot of money, but it's small compared with the securities market, so it's probably not effective.
On the other hand, do you think the sense of crisis is turning into a crisis of confidence more than anything else?
I fluctuate on that. I look at the prices on subprime-backed securities. Even the AAA-rated tranche is selling for barely over 50 cents on the dollar, and the rest is essentially worthless, which amounts to a prediction that you're going to get really very little on this stuff. Even if every subprime borrower walks away from his house and a lot of money is lost in foreclosure, it's hard to get numbers that bad. So there might be some overselling in these markets. But on the other hand, a lot of the financial system looks like it's going to shrivel up and have to be rebuilt. And that's not too good.
What's the biggest x factor, the question no one really knows the answer to?
What I don't know is how serious the real consequences of the financial-market stuff ends up being on Main Street . If all of the fancy financial instruments that have been so popular these past couple of decades sort of roll over, it's still not entirely clear to me how that ends up affecting the real economy. Will a lot of business investment just go on unaffected because companies can pay for it out of retained earnings or by borrowing with good old bank loans? How much in the end does the ability of consumers to keep spending get affected by what's going on in fairly abstruse financial markets? So I'm not quite sure how this works. Maybe that's a reason for hope. Maybe it'll turn out that all this Wall Street stuff is just less important than we think it is.
For a vivid look at the fallout from the subprime crisis, tune in to Busted! Mortgage Meltdown, a one-hour TV special report from CNN and Fortune. The program will air on CNN on Friday, March 28, at 8 P.M. ET and repeat on March 29 at 8 P.M. and 11 P.M. and March 30 at 8 P.M.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The frugal billionaire...and world's richest man
He bought his first share at age 11.
He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
He does not have a cellphone, has no computer on his desk, drives his own car and does not have security guard with him.
One of the most successful investors the world has ever seen, Warren Buffett is today the richest man on the planet, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires.
Chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's wealth jumped by $10 billion jump to hit $62 billion during 2007. Buffett has beat friend -- and Microsoft boss -- Bill Gates' 13-year reign as the richest man.
A staunch follower of value investing, he started with an initial fund of $105,000 in 1956, the rest is history. Over the next five decades, Buffett's wealth rose to $62 billion.
But he is not the one to flaunt his riches, simple and down-to earth, Buffett continues to live in the same house in Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
US Slump Moves From Wall St. to Main St.
Source
With Wall Street caught in a credit crisis that has captured world headlines, the forces assailing the US economy are now spreading beyond areas hit hardest by the boom-turned-bust in real estate like California, Florida and Nevada. Now, the downturn is seeping into new parts of the country, to communities that seemed insulated only months ago.
The broadening of the slowdown, the plunge in home prices and near-paralysis in the financial system are fueling worries that what most economists now see as an inevitable recession could end up being especially painful.
Indeed, some economists fear it will last longer and inflict more bite on workers and businesses than the last two recessions, which gripped the economy in 2001 and for eight months straddling 1990 and 1991. This time, these experts say, a recession in which economic activity falls over a sustained period and joblessness rises across the board could even persist into next year.
“It’s not hard to construct very dark scenarios, primarily because the financial system is in disarray, and it’s not clear how to get it all back together again,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
To be sure, there are many places where talk of recession still seems as out of place as a diner trying to score a table at a trendy Los Angeles restaurant without reservations on a Saturday night. First-class cabins of airplanes are jammed. So are spas, cigar bars and children’s clothing boutiques selling upscale dresses.
Unemployment, meanwhile, still remains at a relatively low 4.8 percent.
But even after the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary efforts to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns from spreading to other financial institutions, the danger still lurks that banks will grow even tighter with their funds and will starve the economy of capital.
“If lenders and debtors don’t trust each other, that causes a power outage,” said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners. “And that’s where we are now.” Until recently, Mr. Darda was among those still holding to the notion that the economy could generate enough jobs to keep the economy rolling. But the private sector has shed jobs for three consecutive months. Mr. Darda is now worried.
“We’ll be lucky to make it out of this without something that looks like a recession,” he said.
On Thursday, FedEx , whose global courier business tends to rise and fall with swings in the economy, reported that its earnings actually dropped in the United States and warned that in future months it expected to fall well short of its customary double-digit annualized profit gains.
“We just aren’t going to be able to do that,” Alan Graf, FedEx’s chief financial officer, said in a call with Wall Street analysts. “The crystal ball for everybody is very cloudy here.”
For now, there are still pockets of prosperity across the country. Farmers are enjoying record crop prices as the adoption of ethanol makes corn a way to fill gas tanks, and as rising incomes in China, India and elsewhere spell growing demand for meat. The weak dollar is helping exporters and retailers that cater to foreign tourists.
Eastern Mountain Sports, the outdoor clothing dealer, says sales increased by one-third this month compared with the year before at its store in SoHo. “A lot of that is Europeans coming over,” said Will Manzer, the company’s president.
With oil selling at approximately $100 a barrel, the Taste of Texas Steakhouse in Houston — a popular spot for events held by BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil — is reveling in days of plenty.
Even those areas suffering the downturn can bank on considerable help on the way, economists say, as the impact of lowered interest rates kicks in later this year, encouraging businesses to expand and hire. Tax rebate checks to be mailed out by the government this spring may lubricate spending as well.
Despite fears that the odds for a particularly severe recession have now increased, Mr. Zandi still subscribes to the consensus that the economy will shrink only modestly during the first half of 2008, then resume expanding as more money washes through the system. That would limit the damage to the type of relatively modest recession that hit the economy earlier this decade.
For the country as a whole, recent data shows that the economy is deteriorating at an accelerating rate. From September to January, average home prices fell 6 percent compared with a year earlier. Consumer confidence has been plummeting. The private sector shed 26,000 jobs in January and 101,000 in February, while those out of work have stayed jobless longer, according to the Labor Department.
Now, the broader discomfort is filtering into cities and towns that only recently seemed beyond reach.
With Wall Street caught in a credit crisis that has captured world headlines, the forces assailing the US economy are now spreading beyond areas hit hardest by the boom-turned-bust in real estate like California, Florida and Nevada. Now, the downturn is seeping into new parts of the country, to communities that seemed insulated only months ago.
The broadening of the slowdown, the plunge in home prices and near-paralysis in the financial system are fueling worries that what most economists now see as an inevitable recession could end up being especially painful.
Indeed, some economists fear it will last longer and inflict more bite on workers and businesses than the last two recessions, which gripped the economy in 2001 and for eight months straddling 1990 and 1991. This time, these experts say, a recession in which economic activity falls over a sustained period and joblessness rises across the board could even persist into next year.
“It’s not hard to construct very dark scenarios, primarily because the financial system is in disarray, and it’s not clear how to get it all back together again,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
To be sure, there are many places where talk of recession still seems as out of place as a diner trying to score a table at a trendy Los Angeles restaurant without reservations on a Saturday night. First-class cabins of airplanes are jammed. So are spas, cigar bars and children’s clothing boutiques selling upscale dresses.
Unemployment, meanwhile, still remains at a relatively low 4.8 percent.
But even after the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary efforts to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns from spreading to other financial institutions, the danger still lurks that banks will grow even tighter with their funds and will starve the economy of capital.
“If lenders and debtors don’t trust each other, that causes a power outage,” said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners. “And that’s where we are now.” Until recently, Mr. Darda was among those still holding to the notion that the economy could generate enough jobs to keep the economy rolling. But the private sector has shed jobs for three consecutive months. Mr. Darda is now worried.
“We’ll be lucky to make it out of this without something that looks like a recession,” he said.
On Thursday, FedEx , whose global courier business tends to rise and fall with swings in the economy, reported that its earnings actually dropped in the United States and warned that in future months it expected to fall well short of its customary double-digit annualized profit gains.
“We just aren’t going to be able to do that,” Alan Graf, FedEx’s chief financial officer, said in a call with Wall Street analysts. “The crystal ball for everybody is very cloudy here.”
For now, there are still pockets of prosperity across the country. Farmers are enjoying record crop prices as the adoption of ethanol makes corn a way to fill gas tanks, and as rising incomes in China, India and elsewhere spell growing demand for meat. The weak dollar is helping exporters and retailers that cater to foreign tourists.
Eastern Mountain Sports, the outdoor clothing dealer, says sales increased by one-third this month compared with the year before at its store in SoHo. “A lot of that is Europeans coming over,” said Will Manzer, the company’s president.
With oil selling at approximately $100 a barrel, the Taste of Texas Steakhouse in Houston — a popular spot for events held by BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil — is reveling in days of plenty.
Even those areas suffering the downturn can bank on considerable help on the way, economists say, as the impact of lowered interest rates kicks in later this year, encouraging businesses to expand and hire. Tax rebate checks to be mailed out by the government this spring may lubricate spending as well.
Despite fears that the odds for a particularly severe recession have now increased, Mr. Zandi still subscribes to the consensus that the economy will shrink only modestly during the first half of 2008, then resume expanding as more money washes through the system. That would limit the damage to the type of relatively modest recession that hit the economy earlier this decade.
For the country as a whole, recent data shows that the economy is deteriorating at an accelerating rate. From September to January, average home prices fell 6 percent compared with a year earlier. Consumer confidence has been plummeting. The private sector shed 26,000 jobs in January and 101,000 in February, while those out of work have stayed jobless longer, according to the Labor Department.
Now, the broader discomfort is filtering into cities and towns that only recently seemed beyond reach.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
ESSENCE OF BHAGVAD GITA...
ESSENCE OF BHAGVAD GITA:
Whatever has happened, has happened for good.
Whatever is happening, is happening for good.
Whatever is going to happen, it will be for good.
What have you lost for which you cry?
What did you bring with you, which you have lost?
What did you produce, which has been destroyed?
You did not bring anything when you were born.
Whatever you have, you have received from Him.
Whatever you will give, you will give to Him.
You came empty handed and you will go the same way.
Whatever is yours today was somebody else's yesterday and will be somebody else's tomorrow.
SO WHY WORRY UNNECESSARILY?
Change is the law of the universe.
Whatever has happened, has happened for good.
Whatever is happening, is happening for good.
Whatever is going to happen, it will be for good.
What have you lost for which you cry?
What did you bring with you, which you have lost?
What did you produce, which has been destroyed?
You did not bring anything when you were born.
Whatever you have, you have received from Him.
Whatever you will give, you will give to Him.
You came empty handed and you will go the same way.
Whatever is yours today was somebody else's yesterday and will be somebody else's tomorrow.
SO WHY WORRY UNNECESSARILY?
Change is the law of the universe.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Sensex ends below 15,000, ICICI drops 14%
The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 433 points at 15,327 on weak cues from the overseas markets. Unabated selling saw the index slip below the 15,000-mark in early trades, and dropped below that level again in noon deals.
The Sensex hit a low of 14,738, and finally ended with a hefty loss of 951 points (6%) at 14,809 - its second biggest single-day fall. The index is down a whopping 5,478 points (27%) so far this year.
The Mid-cap and Small-cap indices shed 7% each at 6,124 (459 points) and 7,522 (557 points), respectively.
The BSE Bankex dropped 9% (754 points) to 7,569. The Realty index slumped nearly 8% (606 points) to 7,106, and the Metal index declined 7.5% (1,119 points) to 13,725.
The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,716 stocks traded, 2,404 declined, 282 advanced and 30 were unchanged today.
The NSE Nifty dropped 243 points (5.1%) to end at 4,503.
The Asian markets, too, had a bad day following negative cues from the US markets. While the Hang Seng plunged 1,153 points (5.2%) to 21,085. Nikkei slumped 454 points (3.7%) to 11,788. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 143 points (3.6%) to 3,820.
SLIDE SHOW...
ICICI Bank crashed nearly 14% (Rs 121) to Rs 757. HDFC slumped 11% (Rs 277) to Rs 2,226. While HDFC Bank slipped nearly 6% to Rs 1,239, SBI declined 4.7% to Rs 1,633.
Jaiprakash Associates tumbled 12% (Rs 28) to Rs 208. DLF plunged nearly 8% to Rs 603, and Larsen & Toubro dropped 7% to Rs 2,704.
Hindalco slumped over 9% (Rs 17) to Rs 165. Tata Steel shed 8% at Rs 659.
Reliance Energy tumbled over 8% to Rs 1,191. Reliance Communications slipped nearly 7% to Rs 483.
Reliance declined over 6% to Rs 2,181. Infosys was down 2.5% at Rs 1,336.
Grasim dropped 6.5% at Rs 2,671. Ranbaxy slipped 5.6% to Rs 438. Tata Motors and BHEL dropped around 4.5% each to Rs 606 and Rs 1,796, respectively.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS...
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 274 crore followed by GSS America (Rs 237 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 232.50 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 215.50 crore) and Orchid Chemicals (Rs 207 crore).
Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.27 crore shares followed by Orchid Chemicals (1.55 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.37 crore), V Guard (1.30 crore) and Ispat Industries (1.11 crore).
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Priti and my 18th Wedding Anniversay photographs...taken on Sunday, March 16th, 2008...
Priti and my marriage has entered adulthood today (Sunday, March 16th). We are celebrating our 18th Wedding Anniversary today.
There has been a miraculous improvement in Priti's health between today and exactly eight weeks ago when (on Sunday, January 20th) she was admitted to Apollo Hospital ICU in a very critical condition and put on life support. She was on life support for the next four days.
We are celebrating our marriage anniversary today because of Priti's miraculous recovery caused by the prayers, wishes and support of hundreds of friends, relatives and office colleagues - and due to the dedicated efforts of our team of doctors and the wonders of modern medical science. After five weeks in hospital and three weeks on dialysis thereafter, she is completely cured of septecemia and recovering her strength gradually. Hopefully, her kidneys will also recover in due course.
I am thankful for all the support my family has received that has enabled us to see this day...and enabled our family to be together to take the attached photographs.
Friday, March 14, 2008
News snapshot...
Sensex ends up 403pts,JP Associates gains 8%
Debt waiver package to be Rs 60,314cr: FM
# Sonia Gandhi inaugurates new Hyd airport
# FY08 fiscal deficit to be 3.66% of GDP
# FIIs net sell Rs 358cr, DIIs net buy Rs 100cr
# MRTPC issues notice to IGL for overpricing
# Mukesh Amnbani on billionaire list: 'Sab maya hai'
# ICICI Prudential Life launches R.I.C.H. fund
# Inflation moves up to 5.11%
# Govt rules out banning BlackBerry services
# Normalcy restored at airports
Debt waiver package to be Rs 60,314cr: FM
# Sonia Gandhi inaugurates new Hyd airport
# FY08 fiscal deficit to be 3.66% of GDP
# FIIs net sell Rs 358cr, DIIs net buy Rs 100cr
# MRTPC issues notice to IGL for overpricing
# Mukesh Amnbani on billionaire list: 'Sab maya hai'
# ICICI Prudential Life launches R.I.C.H. fund
# Inflation moves up to 5.11%
# Govt rules out banning BlackBerry services
# Normalcy restored at airports
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani today termed the hype over the list of billionaires as "maya."
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani today termed the hype over the list of billionaires as "maya."
"There was much hype over the list of billionaires that India has thrown up... (but) this is a deceptive distraction," Ambani said while referring to Forbes' worldwide billionaire list that included 53 Indians.
"...It is like Maya (illusion) of our Indian philosophy .... It veils your vision, and we should be beware of this titillating illusion," Ambani said while speaking at the India Today Conclave here.
In its list published on March 5, Forbes magazine had ranked Mukesh as the richest resident Indian with a wealth of $43 billion.
In the global list, Mukesh Ambani was ranked fifth after legendary investor Warren Buffett, Mexican telecom baron Carlos Slim Helu, software czar Bill Gates and ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
MAJOR US AND INTERNATIONAL INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT (March 7)
___________________________________
MARKETS DATA CENTER
from The Wall Street Journal Online
MAJOR US AND INTERNATIONAL INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT (March 7)
____________________________________
Major Indexes 4:54 p.m. EST 03/07/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ Industrials*
-146.70 -1.22 11893.69
DJ Transportation Average*
-38.07 -0.84 4490.24
DJ Utility Average*
-1.75 -0.36 478.86
Nasdaq Composite*
-8.01 -0.36 2212.49
Nasdaq 100*
-5.00 -0.29 1707.50
S&P 500*
-10.97 -0.84 1293.37
S&P 400 Mid-Cap*
-7.46 -0.97 760.81
S&P 600 Small-Cap*
-1.82 -0.51 352.19
DJ Wilshire 5000*
-112.58 -0.86 13052.41
NYSE Composite*
-89.17 -1.02 8676.24
NYSE Financial*
-7.47 -0.11 6940.28
Russell 2000*
-2.67 -0.40 660.11
Amex Composite*
-30.86 -1.34 2272.59
KBW Bank*
0.43 0.56 77.08
PHLX Gold/Silver*
-6.25 -3.08 196.52
PHLX Housing Sector*
-1.05 -0.82 126.89
PHLX Oil Service*
-6.96 -2.48 273.62
PHLX Semiconductor*
2.06 0.60 344.62
* at close
Major World Indexes 4:40 p.m. EST 03/07/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ World Index
-3.73 -1.37 268.78
DJ World exUS
-4.34 -1.74 245.20
DJ Stoxx 50*
-32.91 -1.07 3057.09
UK: FTSE 100*
-66.50 -1.15 5699.90
Germany: DAX*
-77.32 -1.17 6513.99
DJ Asia-Pacific
-4.04 -2.75 142.96
Japan: Nikkei Average*
-432.62 -3.27 12782.80
Hong Kong: Hang Seng*
-841.40 -3.60 22501.33
DJ Americas Index
-3.16 -0.93 336.67
* at close
MARKETS DATA CENTER
from The Wall Street Journal Online
MAJOR US AND INTERNATIONAL INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT (March 7)
____________________________________
Major Indexes 4:54 p.m. EST 03/07/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ Industrials*
-146.70 -1.22 11893.69
DJ Transportation Average*
-38.07 -0.84 4490.24
DJ Utility Average*
-1.75 -0.36 478.86
Nasdaq Composite*
-8.01 -0.36 2212.49
Nasdaq 100*
-5.00 -0.29 1707.50
S&P 500*
-10.97 -0.84 1293.37
S&P 400 Mid-Cap*
-7.46 -0.97 760.81
S&P 600 Small-Cap*
-1.82 -0.51 352.19
DJ Wilshire 5000*
-112.58 -0.86 13052.41
NYSE Composite*
-89.17 -1.02 8676.24
NYSE Financial*
-7.47 -0.11 6940.28
Russell 2000*
-2.67 -0.40 660.11
Amex Composite*
-30.86 -1.34 2272.59
KBW Bank*
0.43 0.56 77.08
PHLX Gold/Silver*
-6.25 -3.08 196.52
PHLX Housing Sector*
-1.05 -0.82 126.89
PHLX Oil Service*
-6.96 -2.48 273.62
PHLX Semiconductor*
2.06 0.60 344.62
* at close
Major World Indexes 4:40 p.m. EST 03/07/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ World Index
-3.73 -1.37 268.78
DJ World exUS
-4.34 -1.74 245.20
DJ Stoxx 50*
-32.91 -1.07 3057.09
UK: FTSE 100*
-66.50 -1.15 5699.90
Germany: DAX*
-77.32 -1.17 6513.99
DJ Asia-Pacific
-4.04 -2.75 142.96
Japan: Nikkei Average*
-432.62 -3.27 12782.80
Hong Kong: Hang Seng*
-841.40 -3.60 22501.33
DJ Americas Index
-3.16 -0.93 336.67
* at close
Friday, March 7, 2008
Sensex ends down 567pts, REL drops 13%
The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 330 points at 16,212 on weak global cues. Unabated selling saw the index slip below the 16,000-mark to a low of 15,690 - down 852 points from the previous close.
Buying at lower levels saw the Sensex finally close with a loss of 3.4% (567 points) at 15,975.
The index thus ended the week on a dismal note - down over 9% (1,604 points).
The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,710 stocks traded, 2,384 declined, 295 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.
INDEX LOSERS....
Reliance Energy (REL) slumped 13% to Rs 1,270. The company, on Wednesday, had announced a buyback at Rs 1,600 per share.
Bajaj Auto tumbled over 11% to Rs 1,889. ICICI Bank declined 7% at Rs 893, and Larsen & Toubro dropped 6.6% to Rs 2,988.
Hindalco declined 5.8% to Rs 196. NTPC was down 5% at Rs 185.
HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors slipped 4.5% each to Rs 2,629, Rs 665 and Rs 672, respectively.
Ranbaxy dropped over 4% to Rs 435. HDFC Bank and Wipro declined 3.7% each to Rs 1,286 and Rs 415, respectively.
DLF and ONGC were down nearly 3.5% each at Rs 658 and Rs 955, respectively.
..AND GAINERS
Reliance Communications gained 3% to Rs 543.
Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel also closed with gains today.
MAJOR U.S.INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT (March 6th)...
___________________________________
MARKETS DATA CENTER
from The Wall Street Journal Online
MAJOR U.S.INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT
____________________________________
Major Indexes 4:53 p.m. EST 03/06/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ Industrials*
-214.60 -1.75 12040.39
DJ Transportation Average*
-135.66 -2.91 4528.31
DJ Utility Average*
-10.99 -2.24 480.61
Nasdaq Composite*
-52.31 -2.30 2220.50
Nasdaq 100*
-41.07 -2.34 1712.50
S&P 500*
-29.36 -2.20 1304.34
S&P 400 Mid-Cap*
-21.71 -2.75 768.27
S&P 600 Small-Cap*
-9.03 -2.49 354.01
DJ Wilshire 5000*
-308.26 -2.29 13164.99
NYSE Composite*
-197.01 -2.20 8765.41
NYSE Financial*
-233.71 -3.25 6947.75
Russell 2000*
-20.96 -3.07 662.78
Amex Composite*
-14.00 -0.60 2303.44
KBW Bank*
-2.87 -3.61 76.65
PHLX Gold/Silver*
-0.55 -0.27 202.77
PHLX Housing Sector*
-6.43 -4.79 127.94
PHLX Oil Service*
-4.45 -1.56 280.58
PHLX Semiconductor*
-9.27 -2.63 342.56
* at close
MARKETS DATA CENTER
from The Wall Street Journal Online
MAJOR U.S.INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT
____________________________________
Major Indexes 4:53 p.m. EST 03/06/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ Industrials*
-214.60 -1.75 12040.39
DJ Transportation Average*
-135.66 -2.91 4528.31
DJ Utility Average*
-10.99 -2.24 480.61
Nasdaq Composite*
-52.31 -2.30 2220.50
Nasdaq 100*
-41.07 -2.34 1712.50
S&P 500*
-29.36 -2.20 1304.34
S&P 400 Mid-Cap*
-21.71 -2.75 768.27
S&P 600 Small-Cap*
-9.03 -2.49 354.01
DJ Wilshire 5000*
-308.26 -2.29 13164.99
NYSE Composite*
-197.01 -2.20 8765.41
NYSE Financial*
-233.71 -3.25 6947.75
Russell 2000*
-20.96 -3.07 662.78
Amex Composite*
-14.00 -0.60 2303.44
KBW Bank*
-2.87 -3.61 76.65
PHLX Gold/Silver*
-0.55 -0.27 202.77
PHLX Housing Sector*
-6.43 -4.79 127.94
PHLX Oil Service*
-4.45 -1.56 280.58
PHLX Semiconductor*
-9.27 -2.63 342.56
* at close
Thursday, March 6, 2008
MAJOR US AND WORLD INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT (March 5th)...
___________________________________
MARKETS DATA CENTER
from The Wall Street Journal Online
MAJOR INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT
____________________________________
Major Indexes 4:53 p.m. EST 03/05/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ Industrials*
41.19 0.34 12254.99
DJ Transportation Average*
50.80 1.10 4663.97
DJ Utility Average*
1.63 0.33 491.60
Nasdaq Composite*
12.53 0.55 2272.81
Nasdaq 100*
9.87 0.57 1753.57
S&P 500*
6.95 0.52 1333.70
S&P 400 Mid-Cap*
4.76 0.61 789.98
S&P 600 Small-Cap*
1.01 0.28 363.04
DJ Wilshire 5000*
75.88 0.57 13473.25
NYSE Composite*
70.97 0.80 8962.42
NYSE Financial*
-22.64 -0.31 7181.46
Russell 2000*
2.76 0.41 683.74
Amex Composite*
3.69 0.16 2317.43
KBW Bank*
-0.74 -0.92 79.52
PHLX Gold/Silver*
7.70 3.94 203.32
PHLX Housing Sector*
0.64 0.48 134.37
PHLX Oil Service*
8.99 3.26 285.03
PHLX Semiconductor*
3.54 1.02 351.83
* at close
Major World Indexes 4:41 p.m. EST 03/05/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ World Index
2.06 0.75 275.01
DJ World exUS
2.24 0.91 249.32
DJ Stoxx 50*
45.40 1.47 3140.77
UK: FTSE 100*
85.80 1.49 5853.50
Germany: DAX*
138.67 2.12 6683.71
DJ Asia-Pacific
-1.10 -0.76 144.12
Japan: Nikkei Average*
-20.22 -0.16 12972.06
Hong Kong: Hang Seng*
-5.53 -0.02 23114.34
DJ Americas Index
2.29 0.66 347.38
* at close
MARKETS DATA CENTER
from The Wall Street Journal Online
MAJOR INDEXES CLOSING SNAPSHOT
____________________________________
Major Indexes 4:53 p.m. EST 03/05/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ Industrials*
41.19 0.34 12254.99
DJ Transportation Average*
50.80 1.10 4663.97
DJ Utility Average*
1.63 0.33 491.60
Nasdaq Composite*
12.53 0.55 2272.81
Nasdaq 100*
9.87 0.57 1753.57
S&P 500*
6.95 0.52 1333.70
S&P 400 Mid-Cap*
4.76 0.61 789.98
S&P 600 Small-Cap*
1.01 0.28 363.04
DJ Wilshire 5000*
75.88 0.57 13473.25
NYSE Composite*
70.97 0.80 8962.42
NYSE Financial*
-22.64 -0.31 7181.46
Russell 2000*
2.76 0.41 683.74
Amex Composite*
3.69 0.16 2317.43
KBW Bank*
-0.74 -0.92 79.52
PHLX Gold/Silver*
7.70 3.94 203.32
PHLX Housing Sector*
0.64 0.48 134.37
PHLX Oil Service*
8.99 3.26 285.03
PHLX Semiconductor*
3.54 1.02 351.83
* at close
Major World Indexes 4:41 p.m. EST 03/05/08
Chg % Chg Last
....................................
DJ World Index
2.06 0.75 275.01
DJ World exUS
2.24 0.91 249.32
DJ Stoxx 50*
45.40 1.47 3140.77
UK: FTSE 100*
85.80 1.49 5853.50
Germany: DAX*
138.67 2.12 6683.71
DJ Asia-Pacific
-1.10 -0.76 144.12
Japan: Nikkei Average*
-20.22 -0.16 12972.06
Hong Kong: Hang Seng*
-5.53 -0.02 23114.34
DJ Americas Index
2.29 0.66 347.38
* at close
Buffett 'becomes world's richest'
US investment guru Warren Buffett has ousted his friend and occasional bridge partner Bill Gates as the world's richest man, Forbes magazine says. The Microsoft co-founder had earlier topped the Forbes business magazine's rich-list for the past 13 years. Now he has been overtaken by investment guru Warren Buffett
Mr Buffett's wealth increased by $10bn (£5bn) last year to $62bn.
Mr Gates's fortune climbed by $2bn during the same period, dragging him down to third on the list with a fortune of $58bn.
He was narrowly pipped into second place by the Mexican communications magnate Carlos Slim Helu, whose $60bn net worth has doubled in the past two years, Forbes reports.
A record 1,125 individuals with a combined net worth of $4.4 trillion made it into Forbes' 2008 list of billionaires.
The reason for this explosion in wealth is that we're in the midst of a phenomenal global boom," said Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes magazine.
"Never before in human history have so many people in so many parts of the world advanced so quickly economically as has happened in recent years."
Two-thirds of those on the list are classified as self-made billionaires, and 50 of them are under the age of 40.
Mark Zuckerberg, 23, the founder of the social networking site Facebook, joins the list as the world's youngest billionaire.
His $1.5bn fortune makes him the world's 785th richest person, Forbes reports.
Patrice Motsepe joins the list as South Africa's first black billionaire with a net worth of $2.4bn.
The world's richest woman is the French L'Oreal chief, Liliane Bettencourt, 17th on the Forbes list with a net wealth of $22.9bn.
Other inclusions in the ultra-rich list include US chat-show host Oprah Winfrey, ($2.5bn), property mogul Donald Trump ($3bn), and Harry Potter author JK Rowling ($1bn).
Mr Gates might have secured his place at the top of the wealth-pile had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for rival Yahoo! last month: Microsoft shares plunged 15% in the two weeks following the bid.
Nicknamed the "sage of Omaha" because of his phenomenal investment success, Mr Buffett, 77, has stakes in a range of companies, including Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble and Tesco.
Forbes says he filed his first tax return at the age of 13, claiming a $35 tax deduction for his bicycle.
After studying economics at New York's Columbia Business School under investment guru Benjamin Graham, he began purchasing shares in textile firm Berkshire Hathaway in 1962 before buying a controlling stake in 1965.
The company's stock price surged to a record $150,000 a share in December, just before Forbes formulated its 2008 ultra-rich list.
Two years ago, Mr Buffett pledged most of his Berkshire shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Sensex ends up 202pts, Satyam gains 7%, ITC zooms 5%, midcaps and smallcaps drop...
The Sensex opened marginally lower (11 points) at 16,329, and slipped to a low of 16,253 in opening trades. Nervousness in early trades saw the index move in and out of positive zone.
The index, thereafter, moved up steadily on buying in technology and metal stocks. The Sensex touched a high of 16,596 in noon deals, and finally settled with a gain of 202 points (1.2%) at 16,542.
The index thus ended its four-day losing streak after dropping 1,486 points.
The BSE Small-cap index, however, shed 143 points (1.6%) at 8,810, and the Mid-cap index dropped 68 points (1%) to 7,114.
The BSE Bankex and Realty indices slipped 1.5% each to 8,916 (down 141 points) and 8,335(down 132 points), respectively.
The BSE IT index soared 138 points (3.8%) to 3,752, and the FMCG index surged 63 points (2.9%) to 2,232.
The NSE Nifty ended 57 points higher at 4,921.
The BSE market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,750 stocks traded, 1,941 declined and 762 advanced today.
INDEX MOVERS...
Satyam zoomed 6.7% to Rs 434. Infosys surged nearly 4% to Rs 1,475. While Wipro advanced over 3% to Rs 431, TCS gained 2.5% at Rs 875.
ITC added 5% at Rs 194. HDFC gained 4.5% at Rs 2,755.
Hindalco and Maruti rallied around 4% each to Rs 208 and Rs 940, respectively.
ONGC moved up 3% to Rs 988. Tata Steel added 2.7% to Rs 798.
Reliance Communications advanced 2.5% to Rs 528. NTPC, Reliance and Grasim gained over 2% each at Rs 195, Rs 2,293 and Rs 2,863, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
Bajaj Auto slipped 3.3% to Rs 2,128. Reliance Energy dropped 3% to Rs 1,459.
Bharti Airtel declined 2.5% to Rs 750. Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Bank were down 1.5% each at Rs 226 and Rs 1,336, respectively.
ICICI Bank and SBI were down over 1% each at Rs 960 and Rs 1,854, respectively.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Sensex ends down 338pts, ICICI Bank drops 5%...
The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 64 points at 16,742, and moved up to a high of 16,754 in early deals.
Selling at higher levels saw the index slip into negative zone in late morning deals, which intensified in noon deals, and the index dropped to a low of 16,165 - a decline of nearly 590 points from the intra-day high.
Buying at lower levels saw the index recover around 250 points, and finally close with a loss of 338 points (2%) at 16,340.
The BSE Bankex was down over 4% at 9,057.
The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,737 scrips traded, over 2,190 declined today.
INDEX LOSERS....
ICICI Bank declined over 5% to Rs 972. Infosys and L&T declined over 3% each to Rs 1,420 and Rs 3,223, respectively.
Reliance slipped 2.7% to Rs 2,241.
ACC dropped over 5% to Rs 746. DLF and RCom were down 5% each at Rs 678 and Rs 514, respectively.
Cipla, ITC, Bharti and SBI also declined sharply today.
..... AND GAINERS
Hindalco gained over 5% to Rs 200. Maruti added nearly 3% at Rs 906.
HDFC added 2.5% at Rs 2,636. M&M, REL and Tata Motors also finished with gains today.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Essar Oil was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 314 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 280 crore), RNRL (Rs 238 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 232 crore) and RPL (Rs 230 crore).
Selling at higher levels saw the index slip into negative zone in late morning deals, which intensified in noon deals, and the index dropped to a low of 16,165 - a decline of nearly 590 points from the intra-day high.
Buying at lower levels saw the index recover around 250 points, and finally close with a loss of 338 points (2%) at 16,340.
The BSE Bankex was down over 4% at 9,057.
The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,737 scrips traded, over 2,190 declined today.
INDEX LOSERS....
ICICI Bank declined over 5% to Rs 972. Infosys and L&T declined over 3% each to Rs 1,420 and Rs 3,223, respectively.
Reliance slipped 2.7% to Rs 2,241.
ACC dropped over 5% to Rs 746. DLF and RCom were down 5% each at Rs 678 and Rs 514, respectively.
Cipla, ITC, Bharti and SBI also declined sharply today.
..... AND GAINERS
Hindalco gained over 5% to Rs 200. Maruti added nearly 3% at Rs 906.
HDFC added 2.5% at Rs 2,636. M&M, REL and Tata Motors also finished with gains today.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Essar Oil was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 314 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 280 crore), RNRL (Rs 238 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 232 crore) and RPL (Rs 230 crore).
Monday, March 3, 2008
Sensex ends down 901pts, SBI drops 9%...
The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 351 points at 17,228 on weak cues from the global markets. Selling gained momentum after the benchmark index slipped below the 17,000-mark.
The index tumbled to a low of 16,635 towards the end of the trading session. The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 901 points (5.1%) at 16,678 - the second-biggest single-day loss in absolute terms in history.
The NSE Nifty ended below its physchological 5,000-mark at 4,953 - down 271 points (5.2%).
The BSE market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,766 stocks traded, 2,333 declined, 393 advanced and 40 were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS....
SBI slumped nearly 9% to Rs 1,923. DLF and HDFC dropped around 8.5% each to Rs 715 and Rs 2,571, respectively.
BHEL tumbled 8% to Rs 2,099. Hindalco and NTPC declined 6.5% each at Rs 190 and Rs 189, respectively.
Reliance, ICICI Bank and Reliance Communications dropped around 6% each to Rs 2,305, Rs 1,024 and Rs 541, respectively.
Reliance Energy, Satyam and Larsen & Toubro slipped over 5% each to Rs 1,486, Rs 412 and Rs 3,344, respectively.
Infosys declined nearly 5% to Rs 1,472.
ITC, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel shed around 4.5% each at Rs 193, Rs 1,391 and Rs 791, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
Cipla and Hindustan Unilever gained 2% each at Rs 212 and Rs 232, respectively. Ranbaxy added 1% to Rs 451.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Essar Oil topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 257.70 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 237.80 crore), OnMobile Global (Rs 235 crore), Reliance (Rs 230.50 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 208 crore).
Reliance Petroleum led the volume chart with trades of around 1.42 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.21 crore), IFCI (1.09 crore), Essar Oil (1.02 crore) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (99.70 lakh).
The index tumbled to a low of 16,635 towards the end of the trading session. The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 901 points (5.1%) at 16,678 - the second-biggest single-day loss in absolute terms in history.
The NSE Nifty ended below its physchological 5,000-mark at 4,953 - down 271 points (5.2%).
The BSE market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,766 stocks traded, 2,333 declined, 393 advanced and 40 were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS....
SBI slumped nearly 9% to Rs 1,923. DLF and HDFC dropped around 8.5% each to Rs 715 and Rs 2,571, respectively.
BHEL tumbled 8% to Rs 2,099. Hindalco and NTPC declined 6.5% each at Rs 190 and Rs 189, respectively.
Reliance, ICICI Bank and Reliance Communications dropped around 6% each to Rs 2,305, Rs 1,024 and Rs 541, respectively.
Reliance Energy, Satyam and Larsen & Toubro slipped over 5% each to Rs 1,486, Rs 412 and Rs 3,344, respectively.
Infosys declined nearly 5% to Rs 1,472.
ITC, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel shed around 4.5% each at Rs 193, Rs 1,391 and Rs 791, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
Cipla and Hindustan Unilever gained 2% each at Rs 212 and Rs 232, respectively. Ranbaxy added 1% to Rs 451.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Essar Oil topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 257.70 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 237.80 crore), OnMobile Global (Rs 235 crore), Reliance (Rs 230.50 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 208 crore).
Reliance Petroleum led the volume chart with trades of around 1.42 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.21 crore), IFCI (1.09 crore), Essar Oil (1.02 crore) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (99.70 lakh).
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