STOCK BUZZ

Amid reports that Pakistan has rejected India's dossier holding it complicit in the Mumbai attacks external affair minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday demanded that Islamabad should honour its deadline and disclose the findings of its internal probe.   We have not given any deadline. It was Pakistan itself that mentioned a deadline for bringing the probe report to light," Mukherjee told reporters when asked whether India set a deadline to Pakistan to respond to its dossier on the Mumbai attacks. "Pakistan should honour the deadline it had given and make it public," Mukherjee said. "It is for them to reply." According to Pakistani media reports, the probe conducted by the country's interior ministry has concluded that the Mumbai terror strikes were planned outside its territory. The report that was to be submitted to India by Wednesday is now likely to be shared with India by the end of this month. Dawn TV quoted sources saying that the Mumbai...

WASHINGTON: Indian IT professionals working for Microsoft Corp in the US could be among those who lose jobs after it announced plans to sack 5,000 employees with the software giant indicating some of the affected would likely be non-Americans amid calls to first target foreigners working on H-1B visas. The world's biggest software company has been asked by an influential Republican Senator from Iowa Chuck Grassley to first fire foreign workers hired on H-1B visas, a majority of whom are Indians, while implementing the layoff plan and "protect" the jobs of Americans. An indication that foreigners who also include Indians could be targetted during the layoffs came when a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement said, "We care about all our employees, so we are providing services and support to try to help every affected worker, whether they are US workers or foreign nationals working in this country on a visa." The company has been in the forefront for expandin...

Source : TimesofIndia     Defence ministry sources said the Rs 592-crore order for 4,100 Milan-2T missiles, pending for quite some time, was cleared after 26/11, with the government finally fast-tracking several military procurement plans. Though tanks are slowly losing their relevance in the modern-day battlefield, and chances of face-to-face armoured confrontations diminishing, they will continue to play a critical role in the India-Pakistan context. Both India and Pakistan, who share a long land border, are currently reorganising their mechanised forces to achieve strategic mobility and high-volume firepower for rapid thrusts into enemy territory. India, of course, has plans to progressively induct as many as 1,657 Russian-origin T-90S main-battle tanks (MBTs), apart from the ongoing upgradation of its T-72 fleet. But with Pakistan now looking to procure T-84 MBTs from Ukraine to bolster its already strong fleet of T-80UD, Al-Khalid and other tanks, India also wants i...

India's second-largest lender and largest private lender, ICICI Bank, has posted a Rs 1,272.18 crore net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, as compared to Rs 1,230 crore in the year-ago period, showing a rise of 3.41%. The total income of the bank during the quarter grew to Rs 10,351 crore against Rs 10,338 crore in the same period of 2007-08.

Ending a long break, MNS chief Raj Thackeray resumed his virulent campaign against north Indians describing Uttar Pradesh as a "den of terrorism" and accusing the state's Chief Minister Mayawati and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad of playing caste politics. Defying Maharashtra government's order asking him not to make provocative speeches, Raj, addressing a rally here, spewed venom against north Indians justified his agitation against them who he said encroached on job prospects of locals in Maharashtra. He said it would not be possible for him to abide by the government's gag order and he cannot be a "mute spectator when interests of Maharashtra are at stake". "Let the government do whatever it wants. I will not watch things and will express my views. I cannot be a mute spectator," Raj said. Alleging Uttar Pradesh was a den of terrorism in the country, Raj pointed to "criminals hailing from Azamgarh and Jaunpur". Several criminals from ...

Celebrating "Republic Day" Jan 26 2009 Hoist a flag Now and Celebrate Republic Day January 26th 2009. Click here to Hoist Flag

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh police on Saturday arrested two top officials of auditing firm Price Waterhouse who worked on the Satyam account, in connection with the financial fraud disclosed by the IT firm's founder Ramalinga Raju. The state CID arrested PwC's Chief Relationship Partner S Gopalakrishnan and Engagement Leader Srinivas Taluri. The police had earlier questioned Gopalakrishnan. Raju, his brother Rama Raju and Satyam's former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas are already in judicial custody awaiting charges to be filed in connection with the Rs 7,800 crore accounting fraud in the IT company. PwC had said that its auditing of Satyam accounts may not be reliable given Raju's disclosure of falsifying profits

When Barack Obama steps up to the podium to deliver his inaugural address, one man standing anonymously in the crowd will be paying especially close attention. With his cropped hair, five o'clock shadow and boyish face, he might look out of place among the dignitaries, though as co-author of the speech this man has more claim than most to be a witness to this moment of history. Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is the youngest chief speechwriter on record in the White House, and, despite such youth, was at the centre of discussions of the content of today's speech, one which has so much riding on it. For a politician whose rise to prominence was largely built upon his powers as an orator, Obama is well versed in the arts of speech-making. But today's effort will tower over all previous ones. It is not just that Obama has set an extremely high bar by invoking the inaugural speeches of Abraham Lincoln as his inspiration - admit...

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.  I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.  Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.  The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.  At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents. So it has been.  So it must be with this generation of Americans.  That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.  Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence an...

Citigroup Inc unveiled a broad restructuring plan designed to shed weaker businesses and troubled assets, and also reported an $8.29 billion fourth-quarter loss, its fifth straight quarterly loss. The company also said on Friday that it anticipated more departures from its board, which is losing Robert Rubin as a director later this year. Nevertheless, Citigroup shares rose 8.6 per cent to $4.16 in premarket trading. Citigroup's fourth-quarter loss equaled $8.29 billion, or $1.72 per share, and compared with a year-earlier loss of $9.8 billion, or $1.99 a share. "I think people knew it was going to be bad, but I'm surprised it's this bad," said Matt McCormick, portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati. The bank said it was splitting into two operating units, one of which will focus on universal banking, the other on brokerage and retail asset management, local consumer finance, and a pool of assets that require special managemen...

source : TimesofIndia     While senior vice president and director Virendra Agarwal has gone to Singapore Satyam's former interim CEO Ram Mynampati is not the only one to quietly go abroad. Two other senior staffers of Satyam are also currently out of India , another senior VP and director Keshub Panda has pushed off to London. Mynampati, now in the US, is an American citizen. Most of his immediate family members also have US passports . Satyam insiders claim that all three executives have journeyed overseas to reassure clients and make collections for bills due. "But the possibility of their travelling overseas to avoid questioning by the police and other regulatory bodies cannot be discounted," a senior Satyam staffer admitted. He felt that the chances of Mynampati ever returning are very remote. It is learnt that the three decided to go abroad on January 9. Satyam insiders claimed that letters to clients were dispatched after Ramalinga Raju quit. The lett...

Trading in the securities of Indian IT company, Satyam Computer may resume on Monday, if the New York Stock Exchange finds its assessment of the company satisfactory but the exchange has warned that it may also suspend the shares if dealings were not advisable. "Trading on NYSE may resume on Monday, January 12, 2009, as NYSE continues its assessment. The NYSE notes that it may, at any time, suspend a security if it believes continued dealings in the security are not advisable," the stock exchange said. In a statement issued here, NYSE said it had continued with the trading halt of the American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of Satyam Computer that had been in place since January 7. NYSE is reviewing the company's suitability for continued listing in light of all relevant circumstances and news including recent filings made by the company with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission, it added. Earlier on January 8, Satyam Computer had submitted 6-K filing to t...

Satyam seems to be sinking ship and captain has just abondon the ship. Please read Resignation letter of SATYAM chairman : Ramalinga Raju CLICK ON LINK TO VIEW

Source : Timesofindia   The irony lies in the name - Satyam, meaning truth. The real truth is that Ramalinga Raju, the politically-connected promoter-chairman of Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam Computers, was lying for years to shareholders, employees and the world at large, building up to India's largest-ever corporate fraud of over Rs 7,000 crore. The country's fourth largest IT company - after TCS, Infosys and Wipro and ahead of HCL - was for several years cooking its books by inflating revenues and profits, thus boosting its cash and bank balances; showing interest income where none existed; understating liability; and overstating debtors' position (money due to it). The 54-year-old US MBA Raju's letter of guilt and resignation to the Satyam board and Sebi on Wednesday morning sledge-hammered India Inc, dumbfounded regulators, pummelled the company's stock, knocked the bottom out of the market, and cast a long shadow over industry in general and the IT se...

Source : Rediff   T he ice is broken. The chairman of a company that was considered one of the torchbearers of India's new economy has confessed to one of the country's biggest corporate frauds. Satyam [ Get Quote ] is the company and B Ramalinga Raju the chairman, who has now resigned from his post following the revelation of a fraud that might even give scamsters like Bernand Madoff and Charles Ponzi a run for their money. Satyam's last month's gaffe of transferring funds to promoter group companies by buying stakes in the latter already raised a stink. It led us to doubt the faith that investors had put on a company's management, its independent directors, auditors, consultants and rating agencies. Simply put, it shook the entire chain of belief that investors had on these parties. Mr Raju's confession has put nail in the coffin. What is even more glaring is his statement saying that that Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion), or 94 per cent of total ca...

Happy New Year to everyonne !!  Over to Market Condition >>   Tip for Jan 5th 2009     Buy Larsen and Toubro>827.1,837.7 sl 824 Buy Mundra Port>335.1,340,344 sl 331 Buy Sriram Finance>194.55,195.9,197.4 sl 193 Buy SBI>1333.1,1350 sl 1328.8 Buy IVRCL Infra>161.1,163.4,165.8 sl 158.25 Buy Bajaj Hind>75.1,77.8,80 sl 73.8 Buy Adlabs>193.1, 197 sl 191.8