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Recession and credit woes rattle investors
Monday March 10, 5:51 am ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Recession fears following the biggest U.S. job losses in five years mixed with strains in the credit market on Monday to depress global stocks and the dollar and drive investors to search for safety.European shares got off to a poor start and Japan's benchmark Nikkei index (Osaka:^N225 - News) closed at a 2-1/2-year low.

"The real problem right now is the U.S., with the final toll of the subprime crisis still unknown," said Katsuhiko Kodama, senior strategist at Toyo Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Worries that the world-leading U.S. economy is heading for or is already in recession were fuelled on Friday when the U.S. Labor Department said 63,000 non-farm jobs had been eliminated in February, in contrast to Wall Street economists' forecasts that 25,000 jobs would be added.

Investors have already been pricing in a decline in U.S. growth but are not clear how far the economy will fall or how much impact it will have on other economies.

Many are waiting for the U.S. economic slide to bottom out before moving back into riskier assets such as stocks.

In the meantime, concerns have risen again over the health of the credit market. European credit spreads set record wide levels on Friday, although they have since pulled back a bit.

The Federal Reserve announced a series of term repurchase operations on Friday totaling $200 billion to ease liquidity pressures, adding to a sense that the money markets are in poor shape.

The mix of worries hit stock markets. MSCI's main gauge of world shares (^MIWD00000PUS - News), a benchmark for many professional investors, was down 0.5 percent for a more than 11.5 percent loss since the beginning of the year.

In Europe, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index (^FTEUS - News) was down 0.9 percent. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei finished down 250.67 points or 2 percent at 12,532.13, its lowest since September 1, 2005. The broader TOPIX (^TOPX - News) closed down 1.9 percent at 1,224.39.

SAFETY

One result was that investors sought safer assets.

Euro zone government bond futures for example, opened higher with the June Bund future up 36 ticks at 117.77.

The two-year Schatz yield fell 5 basis points to 3.209 percent as investors bought the paper. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Bund was slightly lower at 3.757 percent.

Top-rated German bonds were particularly in demand. Intra-euro zone yield spreads were close to levels not seen since the euro's inception in 1999.

Gold (XAU=), also seen as a safe haven, was also up. It was priced around $977 an ounce, for a year-to-date gain of more than 17 percent.

On currency markets, the yen and Swiss franc gained and the dollar slipped toward record lows.

"It's a carry-over from last week's payrolls data and the credit stories rumbling on," said Chris Turner, head of FX strategy at ING.

The dollar fell around 0.5 percent on the day to 102.24 yen, but held above an eight-year low of 101.41 yen struck on Friday, according to Reuters data.

The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.5380, edging back towards a record high of $1.5459 hit on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the dollar's value against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell to 72.806 (^DXY - News), edging back towards a record low of 72.462 hit on Friday

Hockey hits rock bottom; India `Chuck`ed out of Olympics ..............Santiago, March 10: India suffered a never before inflicted pain in its glorious past of hockey participation on Monday as it was ousted from even partaking in the Beijing Olympics 2008 hockey competition. Scoring twice in the first-half, Britain ended India`s Olympic dreams with a 2-0 win in the final of the World Hockey qualifying tournament at Santiago. Following this, the coach and the entire support staff of the hockey team also resigned from their posts.

The Indian coach, Joaquim Carvalho said,” Failure to deliver led to resignation” as his reason to quit and added that the team played only 50% of its potential in the final match. IHF vice-president, Narendra Batra slammed KP Gill for his policies regarding the running of hockey in the country as a major deterrent to the proliferation of the national sport.

Barry Middleton (4th minute) and Richard Mantell (10th) struck for Britain who then showed the discipline and character to withstand intense pressure to emerge deserving winners while qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Eight time gold medallists India thus failed to make it to the Olympics for the first time since their debut in 1928.

While the Britain players celebrated to the accompaniment of the song "We are the Champions", the Indian, heads bowed, shoulders slumped, could only watch the jubilant scenes of a team that played smarter if not better hockey.

On the day, it was Britain who showed a lot of steel in dealing with the massive pressure they were subjected to by the Indian forwards. The difference was that Britain, who had beaten India 3-2 in the league, capitalized on the two early chances that came their way, while the Indians did not.

In contrast, India could never really settle down and the two yellow cards to their key players, midfielder Sardara Singh and forward Prabhjot Singh filled their cup of woe. It brought the number of yellow cards to five in three matches.

India also blew five penalty corners with neither Ramachandra Raghunath with his drag-flicks nor Dilip Tirkey with his direct hits able to convert. In fact, their set-piece drill in the second-half was rather pathetic, as the ball was not even stopped cleanly.

JSW Steel, SISCOL merger ratio at 1:22

Mumbai, March 10: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel on Monday said that it will issue one equity share for every 22 held in Southern Iron and Steel Company Ltd (SISCOL) for merger of the two companies.

The company said in a filling to the Bombay Stock Exchange that as per the scheme of amalgamation, the equity shareholders of SISCOL would be issued one share in the merged entity for every 22 shares held.

With this share swap ratio, the equity capital of JSW Steel would stand increased to Rs 179.05, from the existing Rs 164.01 crore.

Last month, the Bombay High Court had approved the scheme of amalgamation between the two companies.

The scheme has been made effective from March 7, JSW Steel said

Microsoft will not rush ***** merger’

New York, March 10: Microsoft Corp would not rush to merge its technology platform with ***** Inc's after a takeover of the Internet company, according to the Financial Times, citing an interview with Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie.

Ozzie described technology companies that rush to merge things together as "reckless", according to the paper.

The paper reported that Ozzie said he was "very optimistic" Microsoft could achieve the main goals of the USD 41 billion deal, provided it concentrated on not disrupting the experience of Internet users and advertisers, rather than on racing to get all the financial and other benefits from a consolidation of the two companies' operations.

Not interested in Ferrari stake: Tatas

Mumbai, March 10: India`s Tata Group, which is in final talks to buy Ford Motor Co`s Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, denied on Monday a magazine report that it was interested in a stake in Ferrari.

Italy`s L`Espresso weekly news magazine on Friday had quoted Chairman Ratan Tata as saying in an interview he would like to buy a stake in Fiat`s luxury sports car unit Ferrari.

"Tata Group wishes to clarify that the statement has been misquoted and taken out of context," a spokesman for Tata Group said on Monday.

"The report is completely untrue," he said in a statement.

Tata Motors Ltd has manufacturing and distribution ventures with Fiat for cars and engines in India and for commercial vehicles in South America. Both companies have said they would explore other areas of co-operation.

-Power trying hard to woo investors
Friday, February 22, 2008 (Mumbai)
Anil Ambani wants to get power back into Reliance Power with a bonus bonanza and after a lacklustre listing where Reliance Power investors lost big money, he is busy doing the calculations to make sure that his bonus ratio matches up with shareholder’s expectations, at least this time around.
If R-Power issues one bonus share for every five share held, then the acquisition cost per share for investors will be Rs 350 per share while the acquisition cost will improve to Rs 336, if the company announces a 1:4 bonus ratio.

At a bonus ratio of 1:3, acquisition cost for R-Power shareholders works out to Rs 315 while at a liberal 1:1 ratio, cost per share works out to Rs 210 per share. R-Power board is meeting on Sunday to finalise the terms of the bonus issue.

"Anil Ambani needs to get back confidence of his shareholders and if he is successful, that will get reflected," said Ketan Karani, VP, Kotak Securities PCG Group.

While scores of R-Power shareholders are keeping their fingers crossed, the bonus bonanza has clearly lifted the spirits of many.

"This bonus issue would go down as a landmark decision in the history of corporate India," said Manoj Alimchandani, a Chartered Accountant.

Its been difficult time for these investors as many of them, despite getting allotment of RPL shares, had to face procedural delays and the registrars are also at the receiving end.

"We had to upgrade our human infrastructure as well as the systems for meeting the demand of this issue. Although there were some issues, this was mainly due to the incorrect details provided by the applicants,” said Ramaswamy, Spokesperson, Karvy.

Anil Ambani is going all out to woo the R-Power shareholders to make sure the Ambani magic works this time and that is why most investors are confident that the ADAG chairman could be quite liberal with his bonus terms which could help power up the fortunes of R-Power.

Ford cuts price of Fusion diesel by Rs 22,000

New Delhi, March 10: Car major Ford on Monday cut the price of the diesel variant of its compact car Fusion by Rs 22,000.

The company said it was passing on the benefit of the reduction in the excise duty on small cars from 16% to 12% in the Union Budget 2008.

After the price cut, the diesel variant of Fusion would be available at Rs 6,43, 500 (ex-showroom Delhi), it said.

The revised pricing would be effective with retrospective effect from March 1, it added.

RBI limits bank ATM fees on cash withdrawals
10 Mar, 2008, 1927 hrs .........................

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India on Monday asked banks to limit charges for customers using automated teller machines (ATMs) of other banks to 20 rupees per transaction from March 31.

This service should be offered free of cost to customers from April 1, 2009, the central bank said in a statement.

Banks can, however, levy charges for withdrawals using credit cards and from ATMs located overseas, the Reserve Bank said. India has 32,342 ATMs as of December 31, 2007, the central bank said.

Kotak announces dividend in Kotak Opportunities
10 Mar, 2008, 1848 hrs...........................................

MUMBAI: Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund on Monday announced a tax-free dividend of Rs 2 per unit on a face value of Rs 10 per unit in Kotak Opportunities.

The dividend record date is March 14, a press release issued here said.

Dividend distribution is, however, subject to the availability and adequacy of distributable surplus, the release said.

Bharti Airtel gains nearly seven per cent on BSE
10 Mar, 2008, 2045 hrs.........................

MUMBAI: Shares of top mobile services provider Bharti Airtel surged nearly seven per cent on Monday while the scrip of Bharat Heavy Electricals plunged more than five per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Bharti Airtel shot up 6.85 per cent to close at Rs 802.80. It had touched an intra-day high of Rs 826 and about 4.6 lakh shares changed hands during the day's trade.

The scrip of pharmaceutical firm Dr Reddys Laboratories rose about one per cent to Rs 575.05 following the announcement that it has signed an agreement for drug discovery collaboration with Denmark-based 7TM Pharma, in the area of metabolic disorders.

It had reached an intra-day high of Rs 579. Further, shares of Tata Steel soared 5.13 per cent to end the day at Rs 812.20 after touching an intra-day high of Rs 818.80.

On the other hand, the scrip of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd declined 5.69 per cent to Rs 1,910.40. It had touched an intra-day high of Rs 1,990.

In addition, offshore drilling services provider Aban Offshore fell 4.17 per cent even after the firm said it will raise funds to the tune of Rs 194 crore through issue of securities under private placement.

Shares of the company closed at Rs 3,460.20 after touching an intra-day high of Rs 3,575.