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Overall consumer spending  in USA dropped 0.3 percent in September compared to the month before, while disposable income -- the money left after taxes -- barely crept ahead of inflation, increasing by 0.1 percent. A drop in spending on big ticket consumer items, particularly automobiles and parts, accounted for much of the decline in overall spending, with a drop of 2.9 percent in September compared to the month before.  Consumers shied away from big ticket items in September, as wages remained basically stagnant and households began to tuck more money into savings -- further evidence of a pullback by American households.

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 317 points at 9,362, on the back of on-going pull-back in the market. Intra-day profit taking saw the index pare gains during the day, the Sensex however ended on a firm note at 9,788 - up 744 points With today's gain, the main index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, gained over 27% (2,091 points) from it's Monday low of 7,697. However, the index was down almost 24% (3,072 points) for the month, and down nearly 52% (10,499 points) so far this year. The BSE Metal index surged over 10% to 5,368, and Oil & Gas index soared over 9% to 6,196.   The market breath was fairly positve - out of 2,575 stocks traded, 1,577 advanced, 915 declined and the rest were unchanged today. Mahindra & Mahindra zoomed 23% to Rs 372. HDFC soared 17.5% to Rs 1,765, and Jaiprakash Associates surged 16.5% to Rs 72. ICICI Bank rallied 15.5% to Rs 399. Sterlite gained 14.5% at Rs 282. Reliance and Reliance Communications moved up 13.8% each to Rs 1,37

Hindalco Industries has declared its second quarter results. The company's standalone net sales were at Rs 5,636 crore versus Rs 4,959.7 crore. Its standalone net profit was at Rs 719.95 crore versus Rs 642.8 crore.

Suzlon Energy, the world's fifth largest wind turbine manufacturer, reported 95.22 per cent dip in net profit to Rs 16.98 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, over the corresponding period a year ago. The company had a net profit of Rs 355.56 crore in the second quarter on the last financial year, Suzlon said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Total income rose to Rs 2,234.47 crore for the quarter under review, from Rs 1,594.57 crore for the same quarter last year.

BHEL has announced its second quarter numbers. Its Q2 net profit declined at Rs 615.77 crore versus Rs 687.66 crore, (YoY). Its standalone net sales went up at Rs 5,342.63 crore from Rs 3,965.36 crore (YoY). K Ravi Kumar, CMD of BHEL, said the company profits were down due to the one-time income during Q2 last year. Kumar said the company had booked about Rs 27,000 crore worth of orders, and the total outstanding order book stood at Rs 1.05 lakh currently, 85% of which came from the state and government. Kumar also added that he doesn’t see any slowdown in or cancellation of orders. Operating margins will be recouped over next two quarters, he said. While answering question raised by CNBC TV18 regarding order bookMr. Kumar said - ' As you know, we have booked record orders of Rs 27,000 crore during the first two quarters. We are likely to end up the year with similar orders like last year where he had added Rs 50,000 crore. Our orders estimate remains the same.   As of today we hav

Cairn India Ltd and its subsidiaries (consolidated) clocked a 12-fold increase in net profit for the third quarter ended September 30. The net profit stood at Rs 293.32 crore for the quarter (Rs 23.24 crore in same quarter last fiscal). Cairn India’s other income for the quarter under review was Rs 205.54 crore (Rs 34.30 crore), which included income from investments and gains from foreign exchange fluctuations. The consolidated results include the company’s standalone performance. The standalone profit of Cairn India stood at Rs 81.44 crore (net loss of Rs 8.39 crore). The average oil price realisation in the quarter was $116.3 a barrel ($77.2 a barrel). The gas price realisation in the quarter was at par with the corresponding quarter last year ($ 4.1 a million standard cubic feet). The company’s shares moved up by 7.44 per cent to close at Rs 116.55 at BSE on Wednesday. Cairn follows a January-December accounting period. Its consolidated revenue stood at Rs 320.6 crore (Rs 265.81 cr

At close on Wednesday, the Sensex was up by 36.53 points at 9,044.51. The Nifty was up by 12.45 points at 2,697.05. The Sensex had initially opened higher due to buying interest by funds on strong global cues. At 9.58 a.m. the BSE Sensex was higher by 136.42 points at 9,144.50. The Nifty on the NSE too was higher by 52.40 points at 2,736.90. Hindalco has zoomed nearly 11% to Rs 50. Mahindra & Mahindra has surged 5.7% to Rs 296. ACC has rallied 4% to Rs 461, and Reliance has gained 3.7% at Rs 1,196. BHEL and Wipro have moved up around 2.5% each to Rs 1,177 and Rs 245, respectively. Jaiprakash Associates has added 2% to Rs 61. ICICI Bank, ONGC and TCS are up over 1.5% each at Rs 341, Rs 655 and Rs 549, respectively. Ranbaxy has slumped almost 13% to Rs 167. Reliance Communications has tumbled 11.7% to Rs 191. Satyam has shed 7% at Rs 279. Maruti and Tata Motors have plunged around 6% each to Rs 515 and Rs 146, respectively. DLF has dropped over 5% to Rs 206. Hindustan Unilever has sl

Gross revenues up by 91.47% to Rs 958.23cr Highlights for Q2 FY 2008 – 09 Vs Q2 FY 2007 - 08: ·           Gross Revenues up by 91.47% from Rs. 500.45 crore to Rs. 958.23   crore ·           Net Revenues up by 114.21% from Rs. 395.31 crore to Rs. 846.81 crore ·           EBITDA up by 58.72% from Rs. 155.71 crore to Rs. 247.14 crore ·          PAT (before    notional forex losses) increased by 36.80% from Rs.67.07 crore to Rs.91.75 crore ·           PAT (after notional forex losses) declined by 54.33% from Rs.71.85 to Rs.32.81 crore ·           PAT (after minority interest, but before notional forex losses) increased by 135.53% from Rs. 44.80 crore to Rs. 105.52 crore ·           PAT (after minority interest and after notional forex losses) declined by 6.05% from Rs. 49.58 crore to Rs. 46.58 crore   Highlights for H1 FY 2008 – 09 Vs H1 FY 2007 - 08: ·           Gross Revenues up by 83.75% from Rs. 1,062.84 crore to Rs. 1,953.00 crore ·           Net Revenues up by 98.68% from Rs. 871.90

Mahindra & Mahindra said on Wednesday its consolidated profit declined 4.92 per cent to Rs 373.30 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 on the back of increasing material cost and global economic crisis. The firm had a net profit of Rs 392.60 crore in the September quarter of last fiscal, M&M said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company said increase in material cost and the economic downturn, which resulted in appreciation of the Indian cu rrency and rising interest rates, have exerted pressure on the operating margins and profits. The revenues and other income rose 19 per cent to Rs 7,741.40 crore for the quarter under review, from Rs 6,502.6 crore in the year-ago period. For the six months ended September 30, M&M reported a consolidated PAT of Rs 782.9 crore, a 13 per cent growt h over the year-ago period. The firm had a PAT of Rs 692.2 crore in the first half of fiscal 2008. During the first six months M&M's revenue and other income rose

Unitech on Thursday announced selling of 60 per cent stake in its telecom venture for Rs 6,120 crore (about $1.23 billion) to Norway-based Telenor, which has mobile operations in 12 countries with 160 million subscribers. Unitech was awarded pan-India mobile telecom license for Rs 1,651 crore early this year and has got GSM spectrum in 13 circles. The company plans to launch services in the first half of 2009. Telenor, world's seventh largest mobile operator has operations in Europe and Asian countries, including 100 per cent subsidiary in Pakistan. This is the second deal among the new GSM operators. Earlier, Swan Telecom with license for 13 circles had sold 45 per cent stake to UAE-based Etisalat for $900 million.

Suzlon India, wind energy company, today informed Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that it has suspended Rs 1,800 cr rights issue plan on view of recent capital market environment. However, the company said in a statement the suspension would not impact the original plans of expansion. Suzlon informed that it had also agreed to suspend negotiations to conclude a domination agreement with its major subsidiary RE power systems.

State Bank of India (SBI) has posted an 11.5 per cent increase in net  profit during the August-September quarter of 2008-09. I n a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange today, the bank said that its consolidated profits in the quarter ended September 30 stood at Rs 2,458 crore compared to Rs 2,204.56 crore in the corresponding period last year. This performance  comes at the back of an increase in lending rates by the bank. Total income  of the bank increased by 26.41 per cent to Rs 27,083.47 crore for the August-September quarter this fiscal from Rs 21,424.26 crore in the same period last year. On stand-alone basis, the net profit of SBI increased by 40.23 per cent to Rs 2,259.72 crore in the September quarter, against Rs 1,611.42 crore in the same period last year.

 ICICI Bank reported a consolidated net profit decline of 27.44% y-o-y to Rs 651.48 crore for the quarter ended September 2008. Consolidated revenues went up 12.56% to Rs 15,590.46 crore. On a standalone basis, ICICI Bank has posted a 1.09% rise in net profit at Rs 1,014 cr for the second quarter, as compared to Rs 1,003 cr during the same period last year. During the July-September quarter, the bank's net interest income increased 20% to Rs. 2,148 cr from Rs. 1,786 cr for the corresponding period a year ago. The bank said it has expanded its current and savings account (CASA) base to 30% of total deposists during the second quarter, as against 25% a year ago. During the quarter the bank's fee income increased 26% to Rs. 1,876 cr, as comapred to Rs. 1,486 cr for the same period last year.  The bank's capital adequacy at the end of September 2008 stood at 14.01%, with Tier-1 capital adequacy being at 11.03%.  The bank has seen a reduction in costs by 12 per cent on a year-on

The Sensex slumped to a low of 8,567 - down 1,205 points from the previous close - towards the fag end of the day. The index finally ended with a hefty loss of 11% (1,071 points) at 8,701 - its third worst single-day loss percentage loss ever.  The market breadth was extremely negative with almost nine stocks for every advancing share - out of 2,628 stocks traded, 2,322 declined, 260 advanced and 46 were unchanged today. 11 out of the 30 index stocks were down over 15% each. DLF nose-dived 24% to Rs 204. Ranbaxy and Hindalco crashed 18% each at Rs 189 and Rs 43, respectively. Tata Motors and Reliance slumped 16.5% each to Rs 163 and Rs 1,015, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Communications tumbled 16% each to Rs 287 and Rs 193, respectively. ICICI Bank, ONGC, Sterlite and Reliance Infrastructure plunged around 15% each to Rs 310, Rs 660, Rs 209 and Rs 381, respectively. Only nine out of the 30 index stocks managed to record loss of less than 10% each. Tata Power slipp

The Reserve Bank today held steady its key rates, surprising bankers who said that customers would have to wait awhile for any cut in lending rates, even as the decision sent the stock markets tumbling. The central bank, which had infused Rs 1,85,000 crore liquidity into the banking system this month, decided to keep all key rates (repo, reverse repo, bank rate) and cash reserve ratio (CRR) unchanged in its mid-term review of the annual monetary policy. The review, the first by RBI under new Governor D Subbarao, lowered growth projections to 7.5-8 per cent for 2008-09 and kept inflation forecast unchanged at 7 per cent by end-March in the face of cooling crude and commodity prices. The slow GDP growth projection and distant prospects of lower interest rates - crucial to stimulating the economy - disappointed stock market investors, who hammered banking stocks sending the benchmark Sensex crashing below 9,000 points in intra-day trade. Only on October 11, the apex bank cut CRR, the perc

 Hit by rising material costs and currency fluctuations, country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Friday reported a 36.52 per cent dip in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30. Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 296.1 crore, against Rs 466.5 crore in the same period last year, the company said in a statement. During July-September quarter net sales stood at Rs 4,806.3 crore (Net of Excise), against Rs 4,529.7 crore in the same period a year ago, up 6.1 per cent. “The reduction in net profit has been mainly due to a rise in material costs, adverse impact of currency changes and a higher provision for depreciation, owing to more stringent depreciation norms adopted by the company in March 2008,” it said. For the half year ended September, net profit stood at Rs 762 crore, against Rs 966.1 crore in the same period last year, down 21.12 per cent. The company said its net sales in the first half of 2008-09 were at Rs 9,537.3 crore, up 13 per cent over the cor

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 487 points at 9,683 as global markets were down. Unabated selling in metals, automobiles and finance stocks resulted in the index losing ground. An afternoon rally pushed the markets into the green but that didn't last long. Late afternoon, the markets tumbled again.  The Sensex touched a low of 9,681.28 and a high of 10,260.55 points but ended the day at 9,771.70, down 398 points.   The BSE Metal index lost 11.08%, while the BSE Auto was down 7.2%.  The market breadth was negative - there were 631 advances, 1,897 stocks declined and 67 stocks stayed unchanged.  The Nifty ended 122 points lower at 2943.  Metals continued to melt. Tata Steel lost 14.85% to Rs 208.45, Tata Motors lost 14.6% to Rs 195, and Hindalco declined 13.1% to Rs 52.75. Ranbaxy fell 10.9% to Rs 229.95.  Mahindra & Mahindra lost 9.8% to Rs 342, Maruti lost 8.8% to Rs 592 and ICICI Bank declined 7.8% to Rs 365.55.  Bharti lost 7.76% to Rs 615.60, HDFC declined 7.7% to R

Lower prices of food and non-food items pushed down inflation to 11.07 per cent for the week ended October 11, from 11.44 per cent a week ago. Inflation measured by movement in the Wholesale Price Index was 3.07 per cent a year ago. Among food articles, the prices of fruits and vegetables and eggs declined during the week. In the non-food category, sunflower and raw cotton became cheaper. The index of fuel group too declined marginally by 0.1 per cent on account of lower prices of furnace oil. The prices of other goods that declined during the week were -- imported edible oil, oil cakes, polyester, staple fibre and ingots of lead and zinc. Items which became expensive during the week were tea, ghee, maize, rice, masoor, raw tobacco, mustard s eed, lubricants, cotton yarn. Inflation for the week ended August 16 was revised upwards to 12.82 per cent as against the provisional figure of 12.40 per cent

Grasim Industries Ltd posted a net profit of Rs 419.50 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2008 as compared with Rs 499.78 crore reported during the same quarter in 2007. Total income for the quarter has increased to Rs 2,784.91 crore from Rs 2,555.89 crore in the year-ago period.

Bank of India reported an 80 per cent growth in second quarter net profit, beating analysts’ predictions.The bank’s net profit increased to Rs 763 crore from Rs 425 crore in the year-ago period. Analysts tracking the bank had predicted a 33-35 per cent growth in bottom line, in view of the rising cost of funds. However, the bank’s net interest margin (NIM) improved marginally to 3.2 per cent from 3.04 per cent, despite the cost of deposits increasing to 5.79 per cent from 5.53 per cent in the year-ago period. The average yield on advances fell marginally to 9.79 per cent from 9.99 per cent. The bank has made a provision of Rs 108.6 crore for the exposure to bonds of troubled Lehman Brothers in the second quarter.

Tata Consultancy Services reported flat growth in net profit for the second quarter ended September 2008 as it encountered losses related to forex hedging and made provisions for two customers impacted by the US sub-prime crisis. TCS  reported a 1.5 per cent growth in net profit, at Rs 1271 crore against Rs 1251.6 crore in the same quarter a year ago. On a sequential basis the company’s net profit was down 1.5 per cent. Revenues were up by 25.3 per cent on a year ago basis to Rs 6953 crore. The company currently has an open hedge position of $1.8 billion. During the immediate previous quarter the rupee reversed direction and depreciated by 8.3 per cent vis-À-vis the US dollar. TCS is currently pursuing 20 outsourcing deals of above $50 million, four each in the retail, manufacturing and BFSI space.

Wipro Ltd said its second quarter profits grew almost by a fifth aided by a weak currency and operational efficiencies, but forecast a muted outlook for its IT business in the December quarter reflecting the challenging market conditions. Wipro beat street estimates to report a net profit of Rs 978 crore on a revenue of Rs 6,507 crore for the July-September quarter as compared to a net of Rs 823 crore on a revenue of Rs 4,776 crore in the quarter a year ago. IT services revenues that accounted for three-fourth of total earnings grew ahead of company’s forecast to Rs 4,750 crore ($1,110 million) aided by strong growth in verticals such as retail, transportation, manufacturing, healthcare and financial services. IT products revenues grew by half to Rs 1,002 crore and accounted for 15.4 per cent of total revenues. Consumer care business grew by 42 per cent to Rs 527 crore. “Credit is the lifeline of any economy and that lifeline seems to have got impaired. The overall sentiment is cautiou

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 228 points at 10,455 following negative cues from the global markets. Unabated selling in banking, metal, realty and technology stocks saw the index slip deeper into red as the day progressed. The Sensex touched a low of 10,128, and finally ended with a loss of 513 points at 10,170. The BSE Metal index slumped almost 8% at 5,619, and the Realty index plunged 7.5% to 2,434. The TECk, Oil & Gas and Bankex dropped around 5.5% each to 2,160, 6,398 and 5,505, respectively. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,588 stocks traded, 1,733 declined, 778 advanced and the rest were unchanged today. Tata Steel slumped 12% to Rs 245, and Sterlite plunged 10% to Rs 265. Reliance Communications tumbled 8.8% to Rs 236. ICICI Bank, Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel cracked around 8% each to Rs 396, Rs 73, Rs 228 and Rs 667, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra and ACC crumbled over 7% each to Rs 379 and Rs 452, re

Wockhardt Ltd, a leading drugmaker, has reported a 44 per cent fall in net profit in the third quarter ended September 2008, as it provided Rs 55 crore towards exchange rate fluctuation in its overseas borrowings.  The company reported a net profit of Rs 61 crore for the three months ended September 2008, as compared to a profit of Rs 108 crore in the same quarter last year. However, sales increased by 25 per cent to Rs 924 crore in the third quarter ended September 2008.  Wockhardt provided Rs 55.3 crore for exchange rate fluctuation on foreign currency borrowings, as Indian rupee depreciated rapidly against other currencies. The company had issued 1.1 million zero coupon foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) of $1,000 each and currently has a cumulative liability of Rs 116.5 crore.  Wockhardt said it is evaluating options to raise equity funds to repay the bonds when its due for conversion in September 2009, but did not reveal further details.    The company, which accounted mar

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 205 points at 10,428. Nervousness in early trades saw the index pare gains and touch a low of 10,250.However, renewed buying interest in the market helped the index bounce back to higher levels. The Sensex rallied to a high of 10,750, and finally ended with a gain of 460 points at 10,683. The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 1,613 stocks advanced, 975 declined and the rest were unchanged. Jaiprakash Associates zoomed over 16% to Rs 79. TCS soared almost 13% to Rs 561. Reliance Communications surged over 11% to Rs 258. Tata Steel and Satyam rallied around 10% each to Rs 278 and Rs 317, respectively. Tata Power gained 9.6% at Rs 790. Sterlite moved up 8.5% to Rs 295. ACC added 7.5% to Rs 494. Larsen & Toubro advanced over 6% to Rs 861. Reliance and Wipro moved up 5.7% each to Rs 1,397 and Rs 296, respectively. HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, DLF, Reliance Infrastructure and ICICI Bank were up around 5% each at Rs 1,977, Rs 252, Rs 286, Rs

A surprise 100 basis points repo rate cut by the RBI, saw the index surge to a high of 10,538. The index, however, soon pared gains and touched a low of 10,023. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 248 points at 10,223. The BSE IT index zoomed 8% to 2,741. The Realy index, however, shed 3.7% at 2,431. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,616 stocks traded, 1,643 declined, 920 advanced and 53 were unchanged today. TCS zoomed 9.5% to Rs 497, and Wipro soared 9% to Rs 281. Satyam surged 8.7% to Rs 289, and Infosys rallied 8% to Rs 1,298. HDFC Bank moved up 6% to Rs 1,085, and HDFC added 5.7% to Rs 1,878. ICICI Bank gained 5% at Rs 411. Bharti Airtel advanced 4.6% to Rs 708. ITC was up 4% at Rs 165. Maruti moved up 2.7% to Rs 658. Ranbaxy and Hindalco were up 2% each at Rs 262 and Rs 65, respectively. BHEL and Grasim slumped around 8% each to Rs 1,096 and Rs 1,191, respectively. DLF plunged 6.5% to Rs 273. ACC tumbled over 6% to Rs 459. Mahindra & Mahindra shed 5.5% at

Construction firm Patel Engineering today announced a consolidated net profit of Rs42.58 crore for the second quarter ended 30 September, up 19.84% over the corresponding period a year-ago. The company had a consolidated net profit of Rs35.53 crore in the same quarter in 2007, Patel Engineering Ltd said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The consolidated net sales of the company rose to Rs441.81 crore for the quarter under review from Rs338.77 crore in the year-ago period. For the six month ended 30 September, 2008, the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs77.57 crore, against Rs 62.57 crore a year ago, up 23.97%. On a standalone basis, the company posted a net profit of Rs33.49 crore in the September quarter as against Rs32.44 crore during the same period last fiscal. The standalone net income of the engineering firm rose to Rs 309.18 crore in the Q2 of the current financial year from Rs 235.77 crore over the same period previous fiscal.

The Reserve Bank on 20 October reduced its key short-term lending rate (repo) by 100 basis points with immediate effect, a move that will help lower interest rates and spur consumption to keep the economy ticking. The repurchase rate will stand reduced at 8% now.

US consumer confidence fell to its lowest recorded level this month and the number of houses being built fell to a new seventeen and a half year low last month, down 6.3% to 817,000 and well below forecasts of 880,000. 

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 182 points at 10,763, and soon touched a high of 10,787. The index, however, could not go further up as weakness crept into metal and realty stocks. Selling intensified in the second half of the trading day with forced the index break the 10,000-mark in late trades. The index tumbled to a low of 9,911 - down 876 points from the day's high - a level last seen on July 24, 2006. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 606 points at 9,975. In the process, the index has shed a whopping 53% (11,232 points) from its all-time high of 21,207 touched on January 10, 2008. The BSE Realty index plummeted over 10% to 2,525. The Power index tumbled 8% to 1,712. The Metal and TECk indices were down 6% each at 5,802 and 2,068, respectively. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,652 stocks traded, 1,877 declined, 719 advanced and the rest were unchanged. Reliance Infrastructure slumped 12% to Rs 491. Jaiprakash Associates plunged 10.7% to Rs 67, a

The net profit after tax of HDFC grew 32.4 per cent to Rs 534.23 crore for the quarter ended September 2008 against Rs 403.44 crore excluding exceptional items in the corresponding quarter last year. The company had reported an exceptional item in Q2 FY08 of Rs 313.25 crore, which was the profit made on sale of its stake in BPO firm Intelent Global Services. The net interest income was up 29 per cent at Rs 857.80 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 when compared with Rs 664.9 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. During the six months ended September 30, 2008 aggregated approvals went up 28 per cent to Rs 24,180 crore as compared to Rs 18,948 crore during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Aggressive selling in index heavyweights saw the index tumble to a low of 10,018 - down 791 points - a level last seen on 21 July 2006. Renewed buying at lower levels helped the index cut losses and touch a high of 10,787 - a recovery of 769 points. The Sensex, however, witnessed some selling pressure towards the end of the day and finally settled with a loss of 228 points at 10,581. While the BSE Mid-cap index slipped 63 points to 3,657, the Small-cap index declined 107 points to 4,286. The BSE Oil & Gas  and Capital Goods indices plunged over 5% each to 6,828 and 7,665, respectively. The IT index shed 4% at 2,669, and the Auto index dropped 3.5% to 3,196. On the other hand, the BSE Realty index surged over 5% to 2,813, and the FMCG index added 1.7% to 1,903. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,623 stocks traded, 1,733 declined, 833 advanced and the rest were unchanged today. Hindalco tumbled over 12% to Rs 70. Tata Motors slumped over 11% to Rs 251. TCS tanked over

Citigroup Inc, battered by the global credit crisis, posted its fourth straight quarterly loss on Thursday, hurt by more than $13 billion of credit costs and write-downs tied to complex and low-quality debt. The bank said it was making good progress on shedding assets and cutting costs. But tight credit conditions and potential recessions globally could cut into its other businesses, from retail brokerage to credit card lending.

 Merrill Lynch  Co reported a third-quarter net loss of $7.5 billion on write-downs and credit losses on complex debt securities. The brokerage house, which last month accepted a takeover bid from Bank of America, said on Thursday that the net loss applicable to common shareholders widened to $5.58 per share from $2.3 billion, or $2.82 per share, a year earlier. The loss was worse than analysts' expectations of a $5.18 loss per share, according to Reuters' Estimates.

Switzerland's two biggest banks today turned to the country's government and sovereign wealth funds to bail them out in a fresh wave of instability in the global financial sector. UBS, Europe's biggest casualty of the sub-prime crisis and the larger of the two, received a Sfr6bn (£3bn) capital injection from the government in the form of mandatory convertible notes.In a deal financed at least initially by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Swiss National Bank will buy a host of "currently illiquid securities" from UBS, attempting in one step to cleanse UBS's balance sheet of the mortgage-backed and other assets that have tangled the global financial system. Credit Suisse is raising Sfr10bn from private investors and the Qatar Investment Authority as it wrote down a further Sfr2.4bn in its investment bank which delivered a pre-tax loss of Sfr3.2bn in the third quarter. CS as a whole said it expected to announce a net loss of around Sfr1.3bn next week.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd has posted 32 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 460.2 for the second quarter ended September 2008 against Rs 348.02 crore in July-September 2007.The engineering and construction major posted a 42 per cent increase in its total income for Q2 at Rs 7,842.2 crore as against Rs 5,523.2 crore in same periods last year, according to filing with Bombay Stock Exchange. The earnings per share after extra-ordinary item was Rs 15.74. On October 08, the company allotted bonus equity shares of Rs 2 each, fully paid up, and in the ratio of one bonus share for every existing share to all registered shareholders as on the record date (October 3, 2008). The earnings per share data disclosed above exclude the effect of the allotment of bonus shares.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said that there will be lower growth in 2008-09. CMIE has revised the real GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal from 9.4 per cent to 8.7 per cent. According to CMIE, the real economy is largely insulated from the financial turmoil that is currently being seen in the equity markets. "There is a liquidity crunch in the short term money markets. But, there is no serious credit squeeze for industry, yet. Given sufficient liquidity infusion, growth of the real economy is likely to remain robust," CMIE said. Commenting on the downward revision of GDP numbers, at a time when the financial markets are in turmoil, CMIE said that its was not entirely because of the turmoil. "The Indian equity markets fell the most in January 2008. Foreign institutional investors have repatriated $16.2 billion since February. Also, interest rates and inflation have been high for several months now. During this period of capital flight and ti

Unabated selling mainly in capital goods and metal stocks saw the index drift deeper into red as the day progressed. The Sensex tumbled to a low of 10,760 - down 723 points from the previous close, and finally settled with a loss of 674 points at 10,809. The BSE Capital Goods index slumped almost 9% to 8,088. The Consumer Durables index crashed 8.8% to 2,126, and the Metal index shed 7.8% at 6,316. The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,730 stocks traded, 1,849 declined, 811 advanced and the rest were unchanged today. All index stocks ended in the negative territory today. Jaiprakash Associates slumped 14.5% to Rs 73. Reliance Communications and Reliance Infrastructure tanked over 12% each to Rs 236 and Rs 556, respectively. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) tumbled 11% to Rs 893. Tata Steel and Sterlite plunged over 10% each to Rs 273 and Rs 292, respectively. TCS shed 8.5% at Rs 542, and ICICI Bank dropped 7.4% to Rs 414. HDFC and Hindalco slipped nearly 7% each to Rs 1,713 an