Dr M Khalid's global village blog

The country's largest institutional investor Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) reduced its exposure in as many as 15 Sensex companies in July-September quarter, which is worth over $1 billion (a little over Rs. 5,400 crore)! LIC trimmed its holding in HDFC, RIL, L&T, SBI, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Power by about half a percentage point during the quarter, reported PTI. Sensex had rallied by about 9% or nearly 1,500 points during the quarter on the back of robust inflows from foreign investors. The recent shareholding data disclosed by Sensex companies suggests that the state-run insurance giant’s holding fell the most in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and GAIL, which was about one percentage point each. It also reduced its holdings in companies like Cipla, where it fell by about two percentage points.   It is estimated that LIC sold shares worth Rs 5,850 crore (over USD 1 billion) in these companies. However, LIC increased i...

Indian stock markets ended lower for the first time in three months in October. The 50-share Nifty benchmark declined 1.5 per cent to end at 5,620 against September's closing of 5,703. Here are 10 reasons for the fall in markets in October: Profit taking: The benchmark Nifty jumped 8.5 per cent in September so some profit booking and consolidation was expected in October. Liquidity: Indian markets received over $3.5 billion net purchases in September. However, the net FII inflow in October was less than $2 billion. Pace of reforms slowed down: Hopes that the government has gone in an overdrive on reforms were belied. The Cabinet's decision to raise the cap in foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance to 49 per cent (from 26 per cent) and allow FDI in the pension sector needs Parliament's approval, which is difficult in the face of widespread political opposition. Charges of corruption: Sentiment was also dented because of the many accusations by anti...

Greg Smith, the former  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)  salesman who publicly accused the firm of ripping off its clients, was denied a raise and a promotion in the weeks before he resigned in March, documents provided by Goldman show. Smith, 33, told one of his managers in a December 2011 meeting that he expected to earn more than $1 million a year, about double what he was making at the time as an  executive director  in  London , according to a summary of Goldman Sachs's investigation into Smith's claims. He also said in the meeting that he wasn't advancing up the corporate ladder fast enough and expected to win the promotion to managing director he had repeatedly stated as a goal in self-evaluations. His bosses were incredulous. New York-based Goldman Sachs, the fifth-largest U.S. bank, was about to book its second-lowest profit in a decade and that year had eliminated almost a tenth of its workforce -- 3,400 jobs. The equity-derivatives desk Smith worked for in Lo...

On September 13, the Federal Reserve announced it would extend Quantitative Easing until unemployment is "substantially" better. This unprecedented policy, called QE3,  adds much-needed certainty, and therefore confidence, to boost the economic engine of growth.   The Fed's promise was revolutionary in two more ways:   The policy is tied to jobs, not inflation. This is the first time any central bank has specifically tied its actions to job creation. The action was not based on fears of future economic contraction, but on a desire to boost a slowly growing economy. (Source: CNBC, Three Things the Fed Did Today It's Never Done Before, September 13, 2012) What exactly is QE3? The Fed will buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities from banks. It will continue Operation Twist, where it exchanges short-term Treasury bills when they become due for long-term 10-year Treasury notes. Combined, these two purchases will add $85 billion of liquidity into ...

  http://blog.securities.com/2011/10/retail-sales-in-australia-improve-in-july-2011/   Disclaimer : This message (including attachment if any) is confidential and may be privileged. If you have received this message by mistake please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this message from your system. Any unauthorized use or dissemination of this message in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. E-mail may contain viruses. Before opening attachments please check them for viruses and defects. While Napier HealthcareSolutions India Ltd. (Napier) has put in place checks to minimize the risks, Napier will not be responsible for any viruses or defects or any forwarded attachments emanating either from within Napier or outside.

US retail growth: Little reason to cheer from news like ‘Retail Sales Beating Forecasts Support U.S. Growth: Economy’   There is little reason to cheer from news like 'Retail Sales Beating Forecasts Support U.S. Growth: Economy' (From http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-15/retail-sales-in-u-s-increased-more-than-forecast-in-september.html )   The long term chart has something else to show:   Retail sales growth in developing countries is easing from high levels, even as sales levels in high-income countries stabilize after months of contraction.   After contracting during the three months ending July 2012 at a 1.7 percent annualized pace (3m/3m, saar), high-income countries retail sales showed signs of stabilizing in August. Indeed, retail sales in the United States were up 0.93 percent (m/m) for t     From http://blogs.worldbank.org/category/topics/macroeconomics-and-economic-growth Disclaimer : This message (including a...

Americans spending on petrol/Gasoline declining in last 5 years. Clear sign of reduced buying power From http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=a013600001&f=m Disclaimer : This message (including attachment if any) is confidential and may be privileged. If you have received this message by mistake please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this message from your system. Any unauthorized use or dissemination of this message in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. E-mail may contain viruses. Before opening attachments please check them for viruses and defects. While Napier HealthcareSolutions India Ltd. (Napier) has put in place checks to minimize the risks, Napier will not be responsible for any viruses or defects or any forwarded attachments emanating either from within Napier or outside.

By Stephanie Bodoni and Heather Smith -   Oct 15, 2012 11:07 PM GMT+0530 Google Inc. (GOOG)   was told by European Union regulators to bolster its privacy policy in a warning that may trigger a new round of clashes with data-protection watchdogs across the bloc. The company “empowers itself to collect vast amounts of personal data about   Internet users ” without demonstrating that this “collection was proportionate,” the privacy regulators said in a letter today to Chief Executive Officer   Larry Page , obtained by   Bloomberg News .   “Google should modify its practices when combining data across services,” according to the letter. The company should clarify why and how it combines data, and report on how it processes users’ personal information, the regulators said. Google, operator of the world’s largest search engine, is facing privacy investigations by authorities ar...

     University of Texas Joining Harvard, MIT Online Venture     The University of Texas System plans to put up $5 million to join the EdX online school, started by   Harvard University   and the   Massachusetts Institute of Technology , to help meet demand for low-cost college courses. The Texas system, based in Austin and overseeing nine universities, will quadruple the number of schools involved in the venture, which offers free online courses to anyone on the Internet. The state-supported Texas schools have been encouraged by Governor   Rick Perry   to cut the cost of college education. “To meet the growing demand for higher education in Texas, we must give our students affordable and predictable options, and reduce the debt that they carry with them as they start their careers,” Perry wrote in a newspaper article posted on his website last week. Texas follows the   University of California , B...

Goldman paid bulk of Rajat Gupta's legal fees: NYT Goldman Sachs (GS.N) has paid for the bulk of former board member Rajat Gupta's legal defense in an insider trading case that ended in his conviction Gupta, a consummate business insider who also sat on the board of Procter & Gamble (PG.N), was convicted on Friday of leaking secrets about Goldman at the height of the financial crisis, a major victory for prosecutors seeking to root out illicit trading on Wall Street. Procter & Gamble also paid some of the $30 million in legal fees, the paper reported. Under a deal reached before the trial, Gupta agreed to reimburse Goldman for the legal costs if he were convicted, the New York Times said. However, the investment bank must continue to pay the bills until Gupta's appeal, which may take a couple of years, the paper reported.     http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/19/us-goldman-rajatgupta-idUSBRE85I04720120619 ============= Rajat Gupta faces m...

Three years after industrializing nations led the world out of the U.S. mortgage meltdown-induced recession, the reliability of the power source is waning as Europe’s debt crisis persists. The International Monetary Fund sees them growing an average 5.8 percent in the half-decade through 2016, almost two percentage points less than the five years before the 2009 slump.   The global economy is facing its third major brake on expansion in five years as emerging markets slow from China to Brazil, provoking debate about how much policy makers should respond.   Finance chiefs at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings left Tokyo this weekend at odds over how to address the issue, with South Korea’s central bank chief urging Asia to add stimulus as Russia and Brazil called on rich nations to fix their own challenges. At stake is a world economy Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer calls “awfully close” to recession. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-14/globa...

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/mortgages/escape-routes-for-pensioners-caught-in-a-mortgage-trap-8210139.html We all recognise the plight of the first-time buyer trying to get their foot on the housing ladder but increasingly, pensioners face just as serious a battle simply to stay put. More than 100,000 homeowners aged over 65 are on interest-only mortgages and face losing their home as they have no way to repay at the end of the term. With rapidly dwindling options experts are warning that Britain faces a mature mortgage crisis. Five years ago mortgage lenders offered loans to people well past the age of retirement but new rules intended to stop another financial crisis have seen mortgage options for borrowers heading into later life virtually dry up. "Many of my clients are affluent, educated individuals who have a clean credit history. Their circumstances mean they want to borrow for just five more years but they're finding it can't be done competitively,...

4 June 2012 The gender pay gap is real and more unequal then ever according to new statistics. PayScale.com, an online compensation data company, polled 1.6million people to find that women make less than men from their first jobs and continue to pull in lower salaries until they retire. Adding insult to injury, the margin between male and female workers only grows the more experience they have, until women make nearly $30,000 less than their counterparts. Unfair: The gender pay gap is real and more unequal then ever Survey Says: PayScale.com polled 1.6million people to find that women make less than men from their first jobs until retirement The company created an elaborate 'apples-to-apples' comparison model of what men and women make, matching years of experience, location, education level and several other factors. Women make a median yearly salary of $31,900 at age 22, compared to $40,800 for men; and by their early 50s, women pull in just $60,000 compared to t...

As the economy has worsened and millions of job seekers are chasing after fewer and fewer jobs, what you put on your resume has become more important than ever. Before you send your resume anywhere, run it through this quick five-point checklist to determine if it needs a tune-up or a complete overhaul. 1. Clear Objective There has been a lot of debate lately among the resume writing "chattering classes" about whether today's resumes even need an objective. After 15 years of reading resumes for my clients, my answer is definitely, "Yes". However, I should clarify. By "objective", I'm not referring to the fluff that most job seekers concoct. The objective should be your targeted job title and nothing more. This focuses the resume and necessitates that you use the rest of the resume to support why you're the best candidate to fill this particular job title. It also leaves no doubt in your reader's mind about who you are. 2. Opening...

#1  C2 or C3 17/09/2010 20:06 newstr Hi, I had my interview with ACN 3 days back and interview went pretty fine. It looks like I might be offered C2 or C3. I have 6 years of experience in consultancy working for financial services client throughout. My question is what would the salary range I should expect as an offer . Also when am I eligible for M1 promotion cycle? I wud imagine 2012 Setember ? Please correct me if I am wrong. Please help :-) Reply    Quote       #2  RE: C2 or C3 18/09/2010 01:29 RustyNail  to newstr  (#1) For 6 yrs worth of experience, I would expect to come in as M1 (range: 65k - 70k). If not M1, then you should be looking to hit at least c.60k at the top pay band of C3. Normally, ACN take on experienced hires bringing them in one year below i.e. it takes normally 5 years to reach Manager, so in your case as I mentioned, I'd expect entry to M1, but C3 would be acceptable providing th...