LSD News Digest

July 08, 2012

LSD News Digest

India
Delay in monsoon is a cause of concern for the Indian economy. IMD said that the advance of Indian monsoon into the North-West region would happen only after July 09. The advent of monsoon into the subcontinent was delayed by four days, and has been erratic. Rainfall has been deficient in 83% of the crop areas this season so far. Click here for more.

Macroeconomics
ECB cut the rates to a record low, in an attempt to stem the European financial crisis. It lowered its lending rates by 25 bps, bringing it down to 0.75%, which is the lowest level in its thirteen year history. It also reduced the rate it pays banks that deposit funds overnight with the central bank by 25 bps, to zero. The move has brought it closer to US, Japan, and UK central banks, which have all reduced the rates to near zero. Click here for more. Christine Lagarde, the head of IMF said that IMF would cut the global growth forecasts next month. The IMF growth forecasts (economic outlook) is revised quarterly, and it had forecasted a growth of 3.5% in 2012. Click here for more. Weak job growth for the third consecutive month has caused worries to the Obama government, complicating his reelection prospects. US employers added 80,000 jobs in June, almost the same as May. US added a total of about 225, 000 jobs for the quarter, making it the weakest quarter of job growth since 2010. Click here for more.

Electronics and Telecommunications

HTCs profits fell 58% y-o-y for its second quarter earnings. On a sales of USD 3 billion, its net income was USD 247 million. The news came on the same day as Samsung announced its spectacular performance. Click here for more. Aided by superb increase in sales of Galaxy smartphones, Samsung profits jumped to USD 5.9 billion for the second quarter. Although the profit growth has doubled in the smartphone category, other businesses like the chips and consumer electronics

LSD News Digest

July 08, 2012

have come under pressure following the euro crisis, and lower demand. Click here for more.

Finance
Top executives at Barclays resigned this week following the LIBOR scandal. Marcus Agius, the Chairman, Robert Diamond, the CEO of Barclays and Jerry del Missier, the COO stepped down this week. Click here for more.

Auto
Renault India introduced its fourth vehicle, an SUV in India this week. The Duster sport-utility vehicle costs a little over seven lakh rupees for the base model and would be competing with Tata Safari and Mahindra SUVs as well. Compared with a y-o-y increase of 3.1% in car sales, SUV sales increased by 51% in April-May 2012. Click here for more. Volkswagen bought the remaining half of Porsche share for Euro 4.46 billion. The deal would help VW escape a tax bill of Euro 1.5 billion. Click here for more.

Pharma
GlaxoSmithKline Plc agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanour criminal charges and agreed to pay USD 3 billion, which has been described as the largest healthcare fraud case in US history. The settlement includes USD 1 billion in criminal fines and the rest in civil fines. GSK had targeted an antidepressant to patients under the age of 18 when it was approved for adults only and had pushed a drug for uses which it was not intended for. Click here for more.

Others
CERN announced the discovery of Higgs-like particle earlier this week. The existence of the particle was revealed by the Large Hadron Collider. This discovery would help unravel some of the cosmic mysteries, including those regarding dark matter. Click here for more. Manchester United filed plans for a USD 100 million IPO in the US (NYSE) for providing financing to the club. The club has revenues of about USD 520 million, but

LSD News Digest

July 08, 2012

debts of some USD 664 million which is preventing the acquisition of talented players. The club had earlier shelved the plan of a USD 1 billion IPO in Singapore following volatile markets. Click here for more.