KODALI's

NEW YORK: Wall Street ended a lackluster session mostly lower Friday after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to give investors any hints about interest rate policy despite their concerns that the economy might be slowing too fast. The major indexes finished the week with losses. Further exasperating investors was a rally in oil and natural gas prices, which helped push blue chips lower and reinforced concerns that consumer spending will weaken. Stocks have retreated this week on questions about whether the economy is heading for a soft landing. With little to guide them in slow summer trading, investors dwelled on the week's sluggish housing and durable goods data. Traders had hoped Bernanke might sound a more dovish tone after another Fed official said interest rate hikes might still be in store this year. ``Without anything from Bernanke, the theme of the week is that there's now a negative shift in opinion about the economy due to housing data,'...

MUMBAI: Call it the effect of corporatisation. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Asia’s oldest stock exchange, may well find itself on the list of dividend-paying companies as it is likely to announce dividend for broker shareholders at its forthcoming annual general meeting. This will be the second AGM of the exchange in its corporatised avatar as BSE Ltd. Brokers are hoping to earn some returns on their investments in the BSE even before the exchange unlocks share value through placement of shares to strategic investors and the subsequent initial public offering. The BSE is currently in the process of diluting brokers’ collective stake from the current 100% to 49% as part of the corporatisation and demutualisation scheme approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). In addition, the exchange is planning to place 26% of its equity with strategic investors and issue another 25% to the public. There is a possibility that the shareholders may be offered one-time special d...

MUMBAI: Real estate loans grew 100% between June ‘05 and June ‘06, despite RBI raising the risk weightage on such loans to discourage banks funding builders, reports Our Bureau. The risk weights were raised twice since June’05, keeping in mind the adverse balance sheet implications in the event of a meltdown in property prices. RBI has also advised banks to have board mandated policy for their real estate exposures. According to the annual report, loans to commercial real estate rose 102% year-on-year (y-o-y) as at end June ‘06. Retail lending rose 47% in the 12 months to June’06, with growth in home loans being 54%. The y-o-y growth in industry and agriculture was 27% and 37% respectively, as of end June’06. It may be recalled that RBI had first increased the risk weight on exposures to commercial real estate from 100% to 125% in July’05. In April’06, it further increased the risk weight to 150%. The board mandated policy, according to the central bank, could include among other thin...

NEW DELHI: 1C is passe, 2C is par for the course, 4C is the elite new club that is swelling when it comes to professional salaries. Salaries in India Inc are going through the roof and the last year has seen close to a dozen professionals switch to new jobs with fat annual pay cheques of Rs 4 crore. Feel smug, if you belong; derive vicarious pleasure, if you don't. Sample this: According to sources in the executive search industry, Raghu Pillai and Gunender Kapoor joined Reliance Retail for Rs 4.5 crore and Rs 4.2 crore, respectively. Similarly, George Zacharias joined Yahoo India at Rs 4 crore. The investment banking plus private equity (PE) frat saw Munesh Khanna join DSP Merrill Lynch at Rs 4 crore, Mahesh Chabbria and Shankar Narayan join 3i and Carlyle, respectively, at Rs 4.5 crore. Last year, Neeraj Swaroop joined Standard Chatered Bank for Rs 4 crore as well. There are others who are knocking at the doors of the 4C club as well. Recently, Anil Chawla joined DE Shaw for Rs 3...

The individual-centric "rolling camp" for Indian cricketers ahead of next month's tri-series commenced at Bangalore on Wednesday with coach Greg Chappell focusing on making the players prepare better to face "tall" bowlers. A bowling machine has been installed at the Karnataka State Cricket Association (B) ground here and the former Australian captain made no secret of his intention to see that the Team India players faced tall quicks better, though he did not name the pacers he had on his mind.

The unit of Puri Jagannadh’s Allu Arjun starrer, Desamuduru, has left for the hill state of Himachal Pradesh. A month long schedule, beginning on 31st August, has been planned at locales in Manali, Spiti, Simla and Uttaranchal. The film has newcomer Hansika as the leading lady.