December 22nd, 2011
On Friday, the Yuan jumped to a record high on suspected intervention orchestrated by the central bank that was aimed at deterring speculators from betting on a fall in the currency.
Large amounts of dollars via major state banks were offered by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to propel the yuan to a record high of 6.3294 per dollar, currency traders said.
“This is a clear intervention by the government to support the yuan and is in the PBOC’s recent moves to use the mid-point to prevent the yuan’s fall,” said a trader at a European bank in Shanghai.
“The move indicates that the government is determined to maintain the stability of the yuan’s value in the near term, possibly even let it appreciate slightly.”
December 17th, 2011
If you are about to launch a new site or renew your existing webhosting contract, it is important for you to note that it is nearly impossible to have your website or blog perform optimally without the right kind of hosting. With the emergence of new market players in the segment of website hosting, quality choices before you have just become endless.
In order to get the best webhosting for your site, it is important for you to spend quality time in analyzing the market and hosting providers besides the products and services offered by them. Thereafter, you need to compare these providers and services to find one that suits the specific needs of your business at a budget-friendly price. However, you should always opt for a reputed webhost rather than opting for cheap web hosting as cheap hosting may not always be the best hosting.
December 16th, 2011
The Nokia C2-06, also known as the Nokia C2-06 Touch and Type, is one of those mobile phones that can make any mobile conversation and navigation interesting. This is not just because this Nokia mobile phone is high on looks, battery life, affordability, and features but also because it has everything that is expected by a modern day mobile user.
This mobile phone from Nokia has a 2.6-inch TFT resistive touchscreen that offers a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. It has an internal memory of 10 MB and its external memory can be upgraded to 32 GB with a microSD card. The Nokia C2-06 Touch and Type is empowered with Class 12 GPRS and EDGE, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0. It has dimensions of 103 x 51.4 x 17 mm and weighs only 115 grams. If that it not all to evoke interest, the C2-06 from Nokia has a 2 MP camera that offers a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. Available with the FM radio functionality, this phone also offers FM recording though this option is country specific. It also has Easy Swap SIM support (no reboot required), Dual SIM, FlashLite support, and JAVA MIDP 2.1.
The standard Li-Ion 1020 mAh (BL-5C) battery of this mobile phone from Nokia offers an approximate standby time of 400 hours and talktime of approximately 5 hours and music play for 37 hours.
In short, the Nokia C2-06 has everything that you want from a power-packed and feature-rich mobile phone.
December 15th, 2011
An official of the Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) said on Wednesday that the general economic slowdown is affecting infrastructure projects with loan offtake by borrowers coming down.
‘Compared to the last fiscal, there is a relative slowdown in the sanction and disbursal of loans. During the first six months of the current fiscal, our loan disbursal was around Rs.6,000 crore,’ S.J. Balesh, IDFC’s senior director (resources), told reporters.
From in.finance.yahoo.com:
IDFC hit the market with tax-saving long-term infrastructure bonds Nov 21 and Balesh said the initial investor trend is yet to be visible.
‘Last fiscal, IDFC raised around Rs.1,450 crore through bonds. The retail savings for infrastructure sector have to be channelised through such bond issue,’ Balesh said.
He said the bonds have been given the highest AAA rating by credit rating agencies and that would offer comfort to the investors though there are other companies planning to hit the market with similar issues.
The Rs.5,000 face value 10-year bonds, which opened for subscription Nov 21, will close Dec 16 or earlier as may be decided by the company board.
One bond is with nine percent interest payable annually and the other is with similar rate but compounded annually and payable cumulatively, Balesh said.
December 3rd, 2011
A foreign direct investment (FDI) of 26 percent has been allowed by the cabinet in the pension sector. The cabinet, however, refused any assured return to subscribers in the proposed pension regulatory bill.
A government official said the government would not mention any FDI cap in the legislation as it aims to retain the flexibility to later change it through an executive order.
The parliamentary standing committee on finance headed by BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha had suggested that a 26 per cent cap be mentioned in the legislation.
The government’s decision to keep the cap outside the legislation could face opposition from the BJP in Parliament.
The government has also turned down the committee’s recommendation to allow greater flexibility to subscribers of pension schemes for pre-mature withdrawal of funds from their accounts.
“The flexibility of withdrawals from funds under the pension scheme, however, would be tightened. It would be allowed only in case of genuine needs… It will not be allowed for frivolous reasons,” the official said.
However, the official said, “The proposed legislation will not provide assured returns to the subscribers of pension schemes.”
December 1st, 2011
If the U.S. Congress proves yet again it is too bitterly divided to deliver on its promise to reduce the gaping U.S. budget deficit, a brutal year for global investors may get even worse in this week.
A sharp, out-of-nowhere sell-off in U.S. markets recently was blamed in part on vague rumors that talks to trim federal spending had stalled.
From Reuters.com:
While not expected, a deal to cut the full $1.2 trillion would probably provoke a relief rally in markets, investors said.
Marc Doss, regional chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank in San Diego, said that could be a green light for hedge funds and other money managers who are underinvested in stocks because of recent market turmoil to kick off a year-end rally.
“Expectations are low after the debt ceiling debacle, but if they get to $1.2 trillion, it would instill some confidence in the political process,” he said.
“This thing is incredibly difficult to handicap,” said Jacob Oubina, senior U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets. “But the last thing you want is to introduce another element of volatility into the markets, and that’s exactly what these guys are going to do because they can’t get their act together.”
November 29th, 2011
On Friday, U.S. stocks fell for a seventh straight session to lead global equity markets to their worst week in two months on fear that Europe’s debt crisis is dragging on without a credible solution.
The single currency euro hit a seven-week low against the dollar and the USD climbed to a near eight-month high against the Swiss franc.
On Wall Street, stocks traded higher for most of an abbreviated session on hopes that “Black Friday,” the traditional start of the U.S holiday shopping season, would support major retailers. But negative headlines out of Europe forced the market to concede gains just before the close.
Fewer participants in U.S. markets after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday also made it difficult to counter the move lower. Stocks in Europe and other major exchanges also suffered their worst week in two months, although European shares ended the day up following Wall Street’s initial bounce.
“Trading remains cautious (since) the poor auction of German bonds mid-week raised concerns the debt crisis is spreading to Europe’s core,” said WhatsTrading.com options strategist Frederick Ruffy.
November 27th, 2011
On Friday, stocks took another pounding after borrowing rates of Italy ratcheted higher following a pair of hugely disappointing auctions from the eurozone’s third-largest economy.
The auction results are another sign that the new technocratic government of Italy faces a big battle to convince the markets it has a strategy to get a grip on the country’s massive debts.
Italy had to pay an average yield of 7.814 percent to raise euro2 billion ($2.67 billion) in two-year bills. That rate was sharply higher on the 4.628 percent it had to pay in the previous auction in October. And even raising euro8 billion ($10.7 billion) for six months proved exorbitantly expensive. The yield for this auction spiked to 6.504 percent, nearly double the 3.535 percent rate in the last equivalent auction last month.
Following the grim news on the auction front, Italy’s borrowing rates in the markets skyrocketed, with the ten-year yield spiking 0.34 percentage point to 7.30 percent — above the 7 percent threshold that is widely considered unsustainable in the long-run and eventually forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to seek financial bailouts.
Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 2 cents at $96.11 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
November 26th, 2011
Italy is hoping to end a disastrous week for itself, the euro zone’s third largest economy, and anxiously awaiting the reaction of financial markets Monday to the appointment of former European Commissioner Mario Monti to head a technocratic government.
The Parliament of Italy approved a package of economic reforms agreed with European leaders, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned, and President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Monti.
From news.yahoo.com:
The whole hurried process, much faster than is normal, was designed to calm markets which last week pushed Italy’s borrowing costs to the levels that forced Portugal, Greece and Ireland to seek bailouts.
The first test will come Monday when the Treasury offers up to 3 billion euros worth of 5-year BTP bonds in an auction that will show how far fragile confidence in Italy’s battered public finances has been restored.
Because the euro zone cannot afford the much bigger bailout that would be needed to save its third largest economy, the crisis threatened a European financial meltdown.
“I intend to fulfil this task with a great sense of responsibility in the service of our country. In a moment of particular difficulty for Italy, in a turbulent situation for Europe and the world, the country needs to meet the challenge,” Monti said after his nomination.
November 25th, 2011
The Reserve Bank of India has approved extension of the tenure of loans to the troubled state-run carrier Air India by five years with the loans now being due for repayment after 15 years.
A consortium of 26 lenders to the debt-laden carrier that include State Bank of India , ICICI Bank , Bank of Baroda among others will be meeting on Monday for discussing the loan recast, one of the sources said, adding the process would be completed within 120 days of the approval.
From in.finance.yahoo.com:
Air India’s lenders had submitted a restructuring proposal to the Reserve Bank of India seeking its permission to extend the loan tenure, among other things, the sources said.
Air India, with total loans of $9.5 billion, is in talks with banks to restructure its working capital debt and is in the midst of implementing a turnaround plan to generate cashflows.
The carrier is expected to post a pre-tax loss of 70 billion rupees for the year-ended March, as per government estimates, hit by a bloated cost structure and stiff competition.
The CAG had in September criticised Air India’s decision to buy 111 Boeing and Airbus planes in 2005/06, saying it imposed an “undue long term financial burden on the carrier”.
“I think banks will approve it on Monday. It is in the best interest of banks to do it soon,” the source said.
