T20 - March 24th 2010

Global Markets
1. S&P500 trades firmly on the backdrop of sweeping U.S. health care measure announcement. S&P500 chart
2. Health Reform - The Drug industry’s big win: Among big businesses, Pfizer, Amgen and other big drug companies are emerging as big winners
3. Knives out on Chinese currency: Nobel laureate Paul Krugman is in favour of a revaluation of Yuan. However, Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley says, “…it is ludicrous to blame China for the financial crisis,"
4. Gold slips to $1092 on RBI raising bank rates. Gold chart
5. Crude Oil Finishes Above $81 a Barrel: Crude oil prices rebounded settling above $81 a barrel as the dollar's momentum against the euro reversed. Crude oil chart
Economy
6. Repo and reverse repo rates hiked by 25bps: To tame down inflation and anchor inflationary expectations, RBI raised the repo and reverse repo rate by 25bps to 5% and 3.5% respectively with immediate effect
7. Govt sticks to 7.2% growth for this fiscal: Projections for 2010-11 stands at 8.5%
8. Govt. move on price hike in natural gas soon: Expectations rife that hike in natural gas produced by the state-run oil firms by as much as 30%
Indian Markets
9. Nifty interrupted by rate hike announcement. Nifty chart
10. FIIs and DIIs have different perspectives: FIIs were net buyers this week pumping over Rs. 3500 Cr into the market, DIIs remained net sellers by pulling out over Rs. 520 Cr
11. India 10-yr yield jumps to more than 17-month high: Yield on the 10-year benchmark 6.35%, 2020 bond was at 7.94% after rising to 8.03%, which was its highest since Oct. 8, 2008
Sectors
12. PSU Banks may get lucky over the next fiscal: Public sectors Banks may get more than the budgetd INR 165bn($3.6bn) capital infusion in the next fiscal year
13. 3G to announce applicants on March 29, 2010: 11 companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Aircel, have bid for broadband wireless spectrum
14. Shipping Industry finally in limelight: Shipping Ministry to award Rs 14,000-cr port projects in FY'11
Stocks
15. Sahara mulls IPO for new IPL team: London soccer team, industrialists want minority stakes, says promoter
16. L&T bags INR 9.77bn($215mn) order for interceptor boats. L&T chart
17. ICICI Bank gets full license for Singapore operations. ICICI chart
18. Jindal Steel & Power to set up INR 420bn ($9.13bn) CTL plant. Jindal steel
Quotes
19. "Keep it simple and remember what you set out to do." - Charlie Munger
20. "We don't have to be smarter than the rest; we have to be more disciplined than the rest." - Warren Buffett