April 2nd, 2009
New Delhi: In a precedent-setting judgement against criminalization of politics, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the conviction of Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate and Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts. A stay would have allowed him to contest the general election.Click here to watch video9d5ed306-1e18-11de-ad9e-000b5dabf613.flvAccording to legal experts, the apex court?s order is significant and could deny convicted politicians the opportunity to seek temporary stays from courts, enabling them to contest elections. This is because the existing law prohibits convicted criminals with a minimum sentence of two years from contesting elections.The focus will now shift to candidates who have been convicted and are yet to serve their sentence because they are appealing their punishment in one court or another. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 2nd, 2009
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India?s (RBI) aggressive buying of bonds from the market brought down the yield on the benchmark 10-year government paper to 7.01% on Tuesday, the last day of fiscal 2009, sharply down from 7.18% last week.The Indian central bank also bought bonds on Monday. The demand for bonds push their prices up and yields down as bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.Also See Quite Volatile (Graphic) With the sharp drop in bond yields and rise in prices in the past two days, commercial banks will be spared from booking huge depreciation in their bond portfolios.When bond prices drop and yields rise, banks need to book mark-to-market (MTM) losses to take care of the value erosion of their bond portfolio. MTM is an accounting practice of valuing a financial asset by its current price and not the cost at which it was bought.In the beginning of the last quarter of fiscal 2009, the yield on the 10-year paper was 5.35%. This means the yield on the 10-year government bond has moved 166 basis points in the quarter. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The last time when the yields moved sharply, in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, India?s top five banks had booked at least Rs2,000 crore MTM losses even though the yield rose about 80 basis points.The yields on government bonds are unlikely to remain at the current level?The spike in bond yields this time was not seen in the last many quarters. The fourth quarter hit in the banks? portfolio will be significant,? said Ravi Sankar, an analyst with Read the rest of this entry »
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April 2nd, 2009
Torah, land ownership, and the global economic crisis. Understand the most basic underlying problem of the world economic crisis.
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April 2nd, 2009
Mumbai: India?s benchmark bonds fell for the first time in three days on concern increasing government debt sales will reduce demand.Yields on the most-traded notes due 2018 rose from the lowest in more than a week as 11 states sold Rs12,210 crore of 10-year debt through auctions on Tuesday. The Union government plans to sell Rs10,000 crore of bonds on 20 March, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).?Appetite for bonds is limited as supply keeps increasing,? said Arvind Sampath, head of interest rate trading at Standard Chartered Plc. in Mumbai. ?Yields are higher today (Tuesday) ahead of Read the rest of this entry »
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April 2nd, 2009
Federal authorities seized disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s Palm Beach mansion, his vintage yacht and a smaller boat Wednesday, part of an effort to recoup assets to pay back investors he swindled.
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April 2nd, 2009
Mumbai: India?s banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India rejected all bids at a scheduled auction of Rs12,000 crore of government bonds on Friday, without giving any reasons for the move.The government will auction Rs10,000 crore of bonds on 20 March, the finance ministry said in a statement later. It will sell Rs4,000 crore of 6.72% 2014 bonds and Rs6,000 crore of 6.05% 2019 bonds.Bond yields tumbled from four-month highs. The 8.24% bond yield maturing in 2018 closed at 6.80% after rising as high as 7.37%, a level last seen on 20 November. It had ended at 7.17% on Thursday.?The central bank is probably trying to give some sort of a signal to the market, but they still have to come back to the market for auctions, it?s a temporary rally and I would wait and watch for further announcement,? said Vineet Malik, head of interest rates at HSBC India.During the day, public sector bank officials met the central bank individually to discuss the sharp surge in bond yields before the end of the fiscal year on 31 March, two industry sources familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 2nd, 2009
Shares of Anixter International Inc. fell Wednesday as an analyst downgraded the distributor of fasteners and electrical and electronic wire and cable, saying Wall Street estimates are too optimistic and fail to account for weak demand.
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April 2nd, 2009
London: Calling Pakistan the ?epicentre of terrorism?, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the world community ?has to come to grips with this harsh reality? and slammed Islamabad for failing to take ?effective action? to curb the menace.Ahead of his maiden meeting with US President Barack Obama tomorrow, Singh said the world has a responsibility that Pakistan lives up to the promise that it will not allow its territory to be used to promote acts of terrorism directed against India.He said not taking any action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks is a ?living proof? that Pakistan Read the rest of this entry »
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April 2nd, 2009
Kochi: Following a recent ruling by a World Trade Organization (WTO) appellate body, the US on Wednesday eliminated a bond requirement for shrimp from India and Thailand.The US Customs and Border Protection has asked shrimp exporters from the two countries to file requests for termination of any existing bonds. A WTO appellate body had in July 2008 ruled that application of bond requirement for shrimp from India and Thailand was inconsistent with WTO obligations. The continuous bonds were introduced as cash guarantees by US authorities in 2004.
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April 2nd, 2009
Shares of sportswear and outerwear maker G-III Apparel Group Ltd. fell sharply in trading Wednesday after the company reported a larger-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter.
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