Rupee may fall to 65 by December, Sensex expected to surprise on the upside

MUMBAI: The gloom surrounding the Indian economy may deepen in the next three months with the rupee expected to weaken and inflation projected to stay high, an ET poll of top fund managers and brokers shows.

The rupee may possibly touch 65 to the US dollar by December while inflation is expected to stay at elevated levels of 9% (retail) and 6% (wholesale). The US Federal Reserve could start slowing its bond purchases by the end of the year, a majority of participants said, and not September as is widely believed.

The Sensex is expected to hold its current position and may even surprise on the upside, the poll reveals.

Nearly 45% of the fund managers and brokers expect the rupee to trade between 62 and 65 to the dollar this year while 33% said it will be range-bound between 60 and 62.

Sensex seen at 18,000-19,000

The rupee, Asia's worst-performing currency so far this year, ended Monday down more than 2% to 63.13 to the dollar. It has fallen 9.83% since June.

About 40% of the participants said the Sensex will trade at between 18,000 points and 19,000 points by December while 20% were optimistic about the index crossing 20,000. The Sensex closed Monday down 1.56%.

It has fallen 7.35% since June this year. "The Indian economy is under pressure, not only due to fears of flight of capital ahead of the US Fed's expected move of QE tapering, but also due to the negative domestic economic fundamentals that are driving the rupee weaker," said Dinesh Thakkar, CMD of Angel Broking.

Fifteen fund managers and brokers participated in the poll conducted over telephone on Monday.

"The government measures so far to stabilise the currency are clearly not working. Tightening the liquidity has affected India Inc in terms of higher interest costs and lower growth," said Andrew Holland, CEO, Ambit Capital. "Countries with high current account deficits have got impacted."

All participants said the government needs to do more on the policy front while a majority believe that elections will be held as per schedule. Two-thirds of the participants suggested that investors should buy in a staggered manner while the rest feel they should wait for a few more weeks for more corrections. Nearly 90% of the participants said they had lost faith in the UPA government.
resource:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/rupee-may-fall-to-65-by-december-sensex-expected-to-surprise-on-the-upside-et-poll/articleshow/21924010.cms

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Parl passes banking bill, paves way for setting up more banks

New Delhi: Parliament Thursday paved the way for corporate houses to enter the banking sector by approving the banking bill, a key reform legislation pending for long.

Parliament also passed the amendments to the debt recovery laws or Sarfesi law after a reply by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the combined discussion on the two bills in Rajya Sabha.

These two Bills -- Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, and Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, -- he said, will strengthen the financial sector and help in establishing large-sized banks, besides promoting financial inclusion.

"We need 2-3 world-sized banks. China has three among the world's top 20. We have none. We need more banks," he said.

"Banks have opened 6,489 branches in 2011-12 alone that is around 18-19 per day. We don't have the capacity to open more branches. We need banks," he said.

The Lok Sabha had already passed these two Bills.

Chidambaram said the amendment was not intended to give banking licences to big corporate houses alone, but also to allow eligible public sector entities to enter the sector.

The Banking Bill was approved by the Lower House earlier this week after the government dropped the controversial clause concerning allowing banks to trade in commodity futures.

Referring to Thursday's strike by bank unions against reforms, Chidambaram said he could only request the bank employees to refrain from such activities.

"I don't know why they should go on strike. There is no longer greater public support for this (kind of) strike...I think any matter can be talked out. We are open to talks. Strike is not desirable," Chidambaram said pointing out that strikes have become "less and less frequent."

The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, which seeks to strengthen banking regulation, was passed by the voice vote in the Upper House.

The Bill will allow RBI to supersede boards of private sector banks and increase the cap on voting rights of private investors in PSBs to 10 percent, from one percent now.

Responding to queries by members, he said the government does not have any intention "at this point" to look for a new regulator alongside RBI.

The central bank wanted the government to amend banking laws before initiating the process of issuing new banking licences. The passage of the bill will prompt RBI to move ahead with the proposal of granting new licence.

The bill will keep banking merger and acquisitions under the purview of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well, Chidambaram said.

The bill, along with proposed legislations on pension and insurance, was one of the five key reforms measures on the government's agenda during the current session of Parliament.

The debt recovery bill is aimed at facilitating recovery of loans by banks.

At present, there are 14 Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) in the country. As many as 64,000 cases are pending before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT).
resource:http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/finance/parl-passes-banking-bill-paves-way-for-setting-up-more-banks_66721.html

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Miners take "rail-veyors" and robots to automated future

(Reuters) - In an office trailer parked outside a mine shaft in northern Ontario, operator Carolyn St-Jean leans back in her chair and monitors a machine loading nickel-rich ore into rail cars deep underground.
Once filled, the automated train will snake through a series of narrow tunnels, emerge from a rocky outcropping, then loop past St-Jean's window and dump its payload for sorting.
Vale SA, the Brazilian company that owns the mine near this nickel-rich Canadian town, has spent nearly $50 million in two years to install and test the "rail-veyor." The company believes the transport system will revolutionize how it builds and extracts new mineral deposits.
The equipment is made locally by Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc. It is one of many mining technologies that developers hope will allow future production to be run almost entirely by people safely above ground.
Such advances may prove crucial as easy-to-exploit deposits run dry and miners drill deeper in more remote places to supply China, India and other emerging economies. The technology could make mining cheaper and safer, avoiding the need to dig wide tunnels and hire large numbers of expensive, skilled workers.
"As we go deeper, if we continue to apply existing thinking and existing technologies, it's a death spiral" for company profits, said Alex Henderson, who heads Vale's technology team in Sudbury.
"We need to begin to look at a step-change in mining rather than just incrementally improving our existing processes."
The rail-veyor is one such step-change. At the test site, it has halved the time to build a mine, and Vale expects a 150 percent boost in production rates before year end.
In Australia, Rio Tinto Ltd, one of the world's largest miners and an automation pioneer, is rolling out a fleet of self-driving trucks and trains at its iron ore operations. Vale, BHP Billiton and Chile's Codelco are in hot pursuit.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti is eyeing automation in South Africa, where miners spend hours each shift traveling up and down shafts and ounces of gold are left behind in support pillars each year.
Organized labor has made its peace with the automation drive, although there were some concerns that robots would displace humans.
"We're ok with automation, it's part of the changing times and it's a good thing for productivity," said Myles Sullivan of the United Steelworkers Canada, whose workers ended a year-long strike at Vale over bonuses and wages in 2010.
700 STORIES UNDERGROUND
New challenges in mining are driving technological changes. Large, accessible deposits have all but disappeared. Resources of tomorrow are in far-flung corners of the globe or hundreds of meters beneath the surface.
Add a shortage of skilled labor - expected to worsen as the baby-boom generation retires - and mining costs have surged.
While soaring demand means higher metal prices, rising costs are crimping profits. Canada's S&P/TSX Mining share index has fallen more than 38 percent since the beginning of 2011.
Experts say mining companies must change how they operate.
Making that shift is not easy for an industry steeped in tradition, especially when change doesn't come cheap. Rio Tinto is spending more than $500 million on train automation alone.
"This is a very conservative industry that has been very productive over the last 30 years doing it the way they're doing it now," said Douglas Morrison, chief executive of the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), an industry-funded research center in Sudbury.
"But is the old way going to work for us into the future? I think probably not, so we need to make some changes."
After decades of production, the nickel mines around Sudbury are getting deeper and deeper. At Vale's Creighton mine, the No. 8 shaft drops nearly 8,000 feet into the ground - equivalent of a 700-story condo tower.
At that depth it is very hot, around 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit), so tunnels must be pumped full of cooled air to make temperatures manageable for people and heavy machinery.
"The bigger issue is when we get much deeper we start to generate our own earthquakes - very small earthquakes - these are called 'rock bursts,'" said Morrison.
Smaller tunnels and new ways of digging can hopefully reduce the danger of these rock bursts, which create a safety concern and slow development.
Rio Tinto is working with CEMI on automated tunnel borers, currently used to build subway and sewer tunnels. By cutting through the rock instead of blasting, Rio aims to quadruple its underground advance rates to 20 meters a day.
But while automated tunnel borers will build shafts and tunnels more quickly, massive mining equipment still handicaps the industry, which is where Vale's rail-veyor comes in.
A train hauling 50 tonnes of ore uses a far smaller tunnel than a truck with the same load. By taking the massive trucks and scooptrams - large vehicles with shovels on the front - out of the equation, Vale can build more compact and stable tunnels.
The rail-veyor, built on tracks that zig-zag down to the deposit, actually eliminates the need for expensive shafts and may eventually move people and equipment, along with ore.
Vale's Henderson believes the technology - which the company plans to roll out in five upcoming projects - is a game-changer that will help usher in a new era of mining.
"Just as the scooptram was the key enabler for the mechanized era, is the rail-veyor a key enabler for the next?" he said.
MAN VS MACHINE
What that "next era" will look like is still up for debate. Some innovators believe robots will do most of the labor in mines of the future, as in automobile assembly plants. This would ease likely shortages in skilled labor in many countries.
Over the next decade Canada's mining sector will need more than 100,000 skilled new hires to sustain even modest growth, according to the Mining Industry Human Resources Council.
In Australia, the labor crunch is already so intense that truck drivers can make upwards of $100,000 a year, with turnover rates at some mines still near 40 percent.
"One of the biggest problems that the mining industry faces worldwide is trained personnel. We can't get them," said John Meech, director of CERM3, a mining research center at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
"One of the ways we are going to have to deal with that is to automate the systems so that the human becomes the supervisor, rather than the direct means of control."
It is a concept already used at remote open-pit mines in Australia, where Rio's new fleet of driverless trucks can be run from a control room hundreds of miles away.
Canada's Nautilus Minerals Inc is using automated rovers to explore the ocean bed for mineral deposits that underwater robots will eventually mine.
In addition to boosting productivity, the advances will enhance safety. As labor leader Sullivan says, "so long as there's underground mining, there will be women and men working underground."
Safety is the focus at a converted schoolyard just outside Sudbury, where a duo of mine rescue robots roll through a makeshift obstacle course. Their thick tires grind over logs and through mud pits.
Designed by Canada's Penguin Automated Systems Inc, the equipment is being tested by Codelco at its Andina copper mine in Chile, doing dangerous jobs like checking stability after blasting and surveying tunnels at risk of flooding.
resource:http://www.reuters.com/finance/smallBusiness

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Asian shares fall after disappointing U.S. earnings

A visitor looks at market indices displayed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo September 26, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Yuriko Nakao

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO | Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:36am EDT

(Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Monday as lackluster earnings from leading U.S. companies and a sharp drop in Japan's exports, a key driver of the world's third-biggest economy, dented risk appetites and prompted investors to take profits on recent gains.
The euro, however, crept higher after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy secured backing for his austerity drive in a vote in his home region of Galicia on Sunday, a result seen taking Madrid a step closer to asking for international aid.
Asian equities followed Wall Street, which had its worst day since late June on Friday when barometers of the overall U.S. economic health, General Electric (GE.N) and McDonald's (MCD.N), disappointed investors with their results.
Analysts said this provided an excuse for profit-taking in Asian stock markets, many of which had rallied to multi-month highs recently on new global central bank easing and the European Central Bank's plan to buy bonds of struggling euro zone countries that ask for aid.
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.4 percent but trimmed earlier losses. South Korean shares .KS11 fell 0.2 percent, recovering from an earlier drop of over 1 percent while Australian shares AXJO. also curbed earlier losses to fall 0.6 percent.
Hong Kong shares .HSI bucked the trend and inched up 0.2 percent, hovering near a seven-month high touched last week, with bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEx) (0388.HK) strong on expectation that further capital inflows into the territory could buoy trading activity.

U.S. stock futures were up 0.3 percent to hint at a firm Wall Street open, but European shares will likely decline, with financial spreadbetters expecting London's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Paris's CAC-40 .FCHI and Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI to open down as much as 0.6 percent. .L .EU .N
"Profit-taking is overshadowing buying because any forward momentum has been exhausted," Oh Tae-dong, an analyst at Taurus Securities in Seoul wrote in a note to investors. He said he expects the Korea Composite Stock Price Index to hover around current levels for the time being.
The Korea's index was still up around 9 percent from lows hit in late July. The index hit a 5-month high in September.
Australian shares scaled a 15-month high last week and the benchmark index was up nearly 6 percent since a low on September 5.
"After a rally of several weeks, buying tends to run out of steam while profit takers become more trigger happy," said CMC markets analyst Ric Spooner.
Japan's Nikkei average .N225 turned positive, gaining 0.2 percent as the yen fell to a two-month low against the dollar, helping exporters. .T
The dollar hit a two-month high of 79.60 yen, as a break above a key technical level spurred further buying.
Data on Monday showed that, year-on-year, Japan's exports in September fell at their fastest rate since the February 2011 earthquake, and the mood among manufacturers was at its lowest since early 2010.
The reports reinforced concerns that Japan may slide back into recession as sales to China and Europe sag amid the global slowdown and domestic demand, led by rebuilding from last year's disaster, loses momentum.
A Reuters poll showed that China, the world's second-largest economy, could stage a tepid economic rebound in the fourth quarter on higher public infrastructure spending, though growth will remain lethargic through 2013.
U.S. crude erased earlier losses to rise 0.5 percent to $90.52 a barrel and Brent added 0.6 percent to $110.83.
Weaker equities weighed on Asian credit markets, pushing out the spread on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index wider by 4 basis points.
MIXED SIGNALS IN EUROPE
The euro was resilient despite mixed signals from the euro zone over the progress of its three-year debt crisis, trading up 0.3 percent at $1.3053.
Germany raised new hurdles on Friday to using the euro zone's rescue fund to inject capital directly into ailing banks from next year, limiting the impact of a key agreement by European Union leaders on Thursday to establish a single banking supervisor from 2013.
But Spain and Greece were still expected to get aid, possibly next month and improving investor confidence was evident in government bond yields for highly-indebted Italy and Spain, which tumbled on Friday to multi-month lows after successful debt sales in both countries.
Some indicators were more cautious as investor focus turned to the corporate earnings seasons now under way in the United States.
The CBOE Volatility index .VIX, a gauge of expected volatility in the S&P, jumped 13.5 percent to close at 17.06 on Friday. It hit a five-month high earlier on Friday.
resource:http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/us-markets-global-idUSBRE88901C20121022

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Vodafone has lowest customer satisfaction of all telcos, study reveals

VODAFONE customers just can't get no satisfaction.
The telco took out the top prize for the telco with the lowest customer satisfaction rating in a mobile lifestyle study released this morning.
Less than 50 per cent of Vodafone customers were satisfied with their provider, according to a study released by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association.
The Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index is an independent study conducted annually by the AIMIA.
Fifty-four per cent of Vodafone customers were not satisfied with the provider, which has been plagued by network issues over the last few years.
That figure represents a 42 per cent drop in customer satisfaction over the past two years.
Vodafone rated an 88 per cent satisfaction rate in the 2010 study and a 61 per cent satisfaction rate in 2011.
The drop in customer satisfaction, therefore, is significant.
The poor customer satisfaction rates follow almost two years of technical problems which caused prolonged network blackouts both for phone calls, text messages and internet access.
The problems were so bad it prompted the company's CEO, Nigel Dews to issue an apology to disappointed customers on Vodafone's blog in December of 2010.
The network problems followed a merger with the 3 Mobile network in 2009.
Dr Marisa Maio Mackay, Director of Complete the Picture Consulting and official research partner for the 2012 report told News Limited that the poor result for Vodafone "really reflected what had been happening in the market".
"It gains momentum," Dr Mackay said. "That probably is influencing the study result because of the significant drop in coverage for some users."
Dr Mackay said the merge with the 3 company and network drop-outs probably didn't help.
Virgin Mobile Australia took out the top satisfaction ratings when it came to smartphone choice, recording an 80 per cent satisfaction rate.
A spokesperson for Vodafone acknowledged that it had let its customers down."
"We know what it takes to be a market leader, and we know we’ve let our customers down," the spokesperson said.
"We are rolling out a range of initiatives to deliver a fantastic customer experience, teamed with our ongoing network improvement program and roll-out of 4G next year, we are confident we will lead the market again in customer experience."
Optus took out second place recording a 67 per cent satisfaction rate.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/companies/vodafone-has-lowest-customer-satisfaction-of-all-telcos-study-reveals/story-fnda1bsz-1226482324963#ixzz27eIIl0oq

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Job vacancies rise 4.2% in August

The number of job vacancies in Australia has risen by 4.2 per cent, ABS statistics show.

THE number of job vacancies in Australia has risen by 4.2 per cent, official statistics show.
The total number of vacancies in August 2012 was 179,300, in seasonally-adjusted terms, compared with 172,100 in May, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) quarterly survey released on Thursday.
There were 165,900 private sector job vacancies in August, up 5.9 per cent on May's 156,700.
But the number of public sector vacancies in August, at 13,500, was down 12.9 per cent on August.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/job-vacancies-rise-42-in-august/story-e6frfm9r-1226482585958#ixzz27e4JdTKh

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Fueled by Higher Gas Prices, Consumer Inflation Rises

• 
  REUTERS

Consumer prices rose in August by the most in three years as the cost of gasoline jumped, but there was little sign of a pick-up in underlying inflation pressures, which should allow the Federal Reserve to stay on its ultra-easy policy path.

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.6 percent last month after being flat in July, the Labor Department said on Friday. That was the first increase in five months and was slightly above economist's expectations for a 0.5 percent rise.

Gasoline prices, which recorded their largest increase since June 2009, accounted for about 80 percent of the rise in consumer inflation last month.

However, underlying inflation was fairly muted. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.1 percent for a second month in a row.

In the 12 months to August overall consumer prices increased 1.7 percent, staying below the Fed's 2 percent target, but advancing from July's 1.4 percent rise.

The U.S. central bank on Thursday launched a third round of bond purchases and extended its pledge to hold interest rates near zero to at least through mid-2015 from late 2014, in an effort to tackle stubbornly high unemployment.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he believed inflation would remain close to the Fed's target, noting that longer-term inflation expectations were quite stable.

Last month, overall inflation was boosted by a 9.0 percent surge in gasoline prices after a 0.3 percent rise in July. Gasoline prices at the pump increased 28 cents in August and could squeeze household budgets.

Food prices rose 0.2 percent last month after edging up 0.1 percent the prior month. Prices are expected to rise significantly later this year as the impact of a severe drought, which has caused a spike in corn and soybean prices, works its way through to the supermarket.

Away from gasoline and food, the cost of apparel declined 0.5 percent, breaking five months of gains. New motor vehicle prices gained 0.2 percent after falling 0.1 percent in July.

Prices for used cars and trucks fell 0.9 percent after dropping 0.5 percent the previous month. Housing costs edged up, with owners' equivalent rent rising 0.3 percent, the largest rise since November 2008.

In the 12 months to August, core CPI increased 1.9 percent, the smallest rise since July last year, after advancing 2.1 percent in July.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/09/14/consumer-inflation-rises-fueled-by-higher-gas-prices/#ixzz26S0uhunp

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Share this page * Facebook * Twitter * Email * Print Share this page Lenovo shares slide as NEC sells its stake in the firm

Lenovo has been working with NEC to boost its market share in Japan

Shares of Chinese PC maker Lenovo have dipped in Hong Kong after Japan's NEC sold its entire stake in the firm.

The Japanese firm sold nearly 281 million shares of Lenovo in a deal estimated to be worth HK$1.86bn ($240m; £151m).

NEC had acquired these shares in exchange for a 51% stake in a joint-venture the two companies had announced last year.

Lenovo shares fell as much as 8% to HK$6.08.

However, Lenovo said that the sale will not affect the venture which the two firms announced last year to manufacture PCs in Japan in a bid to increase their market share in the country.

As part of the deal, NEC was allocated the said Lenovo shares, worth about $175m at that time. It was agreed that NEC will not be allowed to sell or transfer the shares for a period of two years beginning 1 July 2011.

However, the Japanese firm had requested Lenovo to grant it permission to offload the stake.

In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Lenovo said that keeping in view "the business relationship and ongoing cooperation" between the two firms and "the financing needs of NEC", it had agreed to the request.

"In reality, NEC could sell those shares after two years anyway as per contract" said Roderick Lappin, vice president of Lenovo Group and executive chairman of the joint venture Lenovo NEC Holdings.

"All we have done is to let them do it 10 months earlier."

resource:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19485410

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Longer working week suggested for Greece

There have been many demonstrations against the austerity measures agreed so far

Greece's international lenders have suggested measures including increasing the maximum working week to six days.

It is one of several unofficial proposals to liberalise the labour market and increase government revenue, contained in a paper seen by the BBC.

The proposals were not included in the original bailout agreement signed with the Greek government.

Inspectors from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank, known as the troika, are due in Greece this week.

They are writing a report, due in October, that will decide whether Greece receives its next instalment of bailout funds.

Greece needs the next payment of 31.5bn euros ($39.6bn; £24.9bn) to allow it to continue servicing its debts.

Proposals in the document from the troika included:

• Setting a single rate statutory minimum wage
• Reducing regulatory burdens
• Making work schedules more flexible
• Setting a minimum daily rest of 11 hours
• Eliminating restrictions on the minimum and maximum time between morning and afternoon shifts.

Also, on Wednesday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble ruled out a third package of aid for Greece, but stressed that it would be staying in the eurozone.

"The costs for Greece are already very high and therefore we cannot have a new programme for Greece," he told German radio.

Greece was given a 110bn-euro package in May 2010 and a further 130bn euros in October 2011, along with a 100bn-euro debt write-off.

European President Herman Van Rompuy is due to meet Greek leader Antonis Samaras on Thursday.

Euro bailout

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission - the group of donor bodies known collectively as the "troika" - are examining whether Greece is making sufficient progress towards reforming its public finances.

Greece is currently trying to finalise a package of 11.5bn euros ($14.4bn; £9.1bn) of spending cuts over the next two years.

It is also being asked to put in place economic and structural reforms, including changes to the labour market and a renewed privatisation drive.

The measures are needed to qualify for the next 33.5bn-euro instalment of its second 130bn-euro bailout.

Greece needs the funds to make repayments on its debt burden. A default could result in the country leaving the euro.

Resource:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19491266

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Drought putting a drain on Midwest economy

A monthly survey suggests that the continuing drought and lessening export demand for U.S. products are among the drains on the economy in nine Midwest and Plains states.

A report released Tuesday says August's Mid-America Business Conditions Index remained below growth neutral for a second month. It rose to 49.7 from 48.7 in July. June's figure was 57.2.

The survey of business leaders and supply managers uses a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Any score above 50 suggests growth while a score below 50 suggests decline for that factor.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says supply managers remain pessimistic about future economic conditions.

The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/04/drought-putting-drain-on-midwest-economy/?test=latestnews#ixzz25VRxt2ai

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Investors land a dividends touchdown

SHOW me the money!

Forget Jerry Maguire - it was the plea on every shareholder's lips before this reporting season and by and large companies have heard it loud and clear and responded with big, fat dividends.

What this tells us about the share market is that there are two ways to make money from it - from capital growth as share prices rise and from dividends as profits are distributed to the owners of companies.

After five years of highly volatile share prices since the global financial crisis and with deposit rates on bank accounts falling in line with lower official rates, investors and companies have now firmly fixed on dividends as the best way to extract a return from owning shares.

And companies delivered those dividends big time, even if it meant giving up on long-planned growth strategies such as BHP Billiton's $80 billion of spending on the outer harbour at Port Hedland and Olympic Dam mine expansion.

Apart from the fact that those decisions now look inspired as the iron ore spot price sinks to US$90 a tonne, they allowed the BHP dividend to rise by 11 per cent even as profit slid by 35 per cent.

Figures assembled by CommSec economists Craig James and Savanth Sebastian show that dividends announced during the just finished company reporting season rose by an impressive 7.5 per cent even as overall profits fell by 22.9 per cent or $12.5 billion.

Of 145 companies covered by the research, 72 increased dividends while 21 cut them, with the rest steady.

These higher dividends may help to tempt some of the wall of cash that is being held by cautious households back to the share market

So how have companies squeezed more juice from a smaller lemon?

The answer is twofold - they have scaled back on capital investment and they have made a conscious decision to hold less cash on their well-padded balance sheets to encourage their shareholders to hang on and not dump their shares.

Even companies with challenges ahead, such as insurance/banking group Suncorp, managed to keep some positive share price momentum courtesy of a 15c special dividend on top of a 20c dividend plus a commitment to pay out between 50 and 80 per cent of future earnings.

These higher dividends may help to tempt some of the wall of cash that is being held by cautious households back to the share market, particularly as term deposits gradually ratchet lower despite red hot competition between the big banks for deposits.

Other than the rising tide of dividends, the other positive to come out of the reporting season was the resumption of some merger and acquisition activity.

City Index analysts pointed to the $4.2 million initial payment for Ausenco to buy Rylson Group, the $165 million purchase of Best Tractor Parts Group by Ausdrill and Graincorp's $472 million deal to buy Gardner Smith group and Goodman Fielder's commercial oils business as clear signs that the market is moving into a long awaited mergers and acquisitions cycle.

They point to mining services and gold mining as the sectors with the highest chance of seeing merger and acquisition activity in the next six months, with a takeover of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank an outside chance given that its market capitalisation is a little over the $3.1 billion mark compared to its book value of $4.2 billion.

However, the world is full of banks trading below their book value and without the local big four banks being able to snap up Bendigo and Adelaide due to competition concerns, it is hard to see an offshore predator swooping in to pick up a bargain.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/markets/investors-land-a-dividends-touchdown/story-e6frfm30-1226461984385#ixzz258CEh03k

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Samsung wins patent ruling in Japan

A COURT has dismissed Apple Inc's claim that Samsung had infringed on its patent - the latest ruling in the global legal battle between the two technology titans over smartphones.

The Japanese court case addressed only the synchronising technology that allows media players to share data with personal computers and was not comparable in scope with the much larger victory that Apple won in the US last week.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, the world's largest maker of phones, welcomed the Tokyo District Court ruling on Friday that its technology that allows media players and personal computers to share music files and other content did not infringe on Apple patents as confirming "our long-held position".

"We will continue to offer highly innovative products to consumers, and continue our contributions toward the mobile industry's development," the company said in a statement.

The Apple lawyer present at the courthouse declined comment and the company said later it had no comment, including whether it intended to appeal. In the past, Apple has accused Samsung of copying Apple products.

In a session lasting just a few minutes, Judge Tamotsu Shoji said he did not think Samsung products fell into the realm of Apple technology and dismissed the lawsuit, filed by Apple in August last year.

Apple, based at Cupertino in California and the maker of the hit iPhone and iPad, is embroiled in similar legal tussles around the world over whether Samsung smartphones, which rely on Google Inc's Android technology, illegally used Apple designs, ideas or technology.

In one such case, a jury in California ruled last week that Samsung products illegally used such Apple creations as the "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end image, and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.

The jury awarded Apple $US1 billion ($A975.47 million) in damages, and a judge is now evaluating Apple's request to have eight Samsung products pulled from shelves and banned from the US market, including popular Galaxy model smartphones. Samsung's latest hit, Galaxy S3, was not part of the US ruling.

Friday's ruling was the first held in Japan in the Samsung-Apple global court battle, but other technology is being contested by the two companies in separate legal cases in Japan.

An analyst at Seoul-based Korea Investment & Securities, Seo Won-seok, said the Tokyo verdict showed that the lawsuits around the world are largely isolated and may not be affected by Apple's major victory in California.

"The favourable ruling for Samsung convinces me that lawsuits in other countries may play out differently from the one in the US," he said.

Apple products are extremely popular among Japanese consumers, but major Japanese carriers such as NTT DoCoMo sell Samsung smartphones as well. Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp also makes smartphones and tablet devices similar to Samsung's, using Android technology.

Samsung has sold more than 50 million Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 smartphones around the world. The legal battle also involves Samsung's Tab device, which Apple claims infringes on patents related to the iPad tablet.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/samsung-wins-patent-ruling/story-e6frfkur-1226462583534#ixzz258BvcBuF

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Budget 2012: Income tax liability comes down, telephone bill goes up in new fiscal

With some of the key budgetary proposals coming into effect from 1 April, the tax payers will save some money on account of lower income tax liability, but will have to pay dearly towards essential services like telephone calls, beauty parlour visits and insurance payments. (Budget Impact: What costs more or less)

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget for 2012-13 had given some relief to tax payers by proposing to raise the income tax exemption limit for individuals to Rs 2 lakh per annum from Rs 1.80 lakh and readjusting the slabs that attract higher tax rates.

Under the new proposal, persons with income up to Rs 10 lakh per annum will save about Rs 1,030 and those earning more than Rs 10 lakh will see their tax liability coming down by up to Rs 20,599.

Although the Finance Bill 2012 is yet to be approved by Parliament, it is unlikely that Mukherjee will make any major changes in his proposals with regard to direct taxes which entail a sacrifice of Rs 4,500 crore on the part of exchequer.

On the other hand, his proposal of hiking service tax from 10 per cent to 12 per cent, which comes into effect from 1 April, will make telephone calls, beauty parlour visits, eating out in restaurants, insurance and travel by air and air-conditioned rail coaches expensive. The effective rate of service tax would now be 12.36 per cent, up from 10.30 per cent.

Mukherjee proposed to collect an additional Rs 18,660 crore during 2012-13 by hiking service tax rate.

Currently about 120 services including advertisement, dry cleaning, health clubs, credit card etc attract service tax.

In order to expand the base of service tax, the Minister also proposed a negative list, a notification regarding which, however, would be issued later.

Under the negative list proposal, the service tax will be levied on all services expect those mentioned in the list. At present, the tax is levied on the basis of a positive list, meaning that it applies only to specified service.

The government proposes to collect about Rs 1.24 lakh crore from service tax during the current financial year, up from Rs 95,000 crore during 2011-12. The services sector accounts for about 59 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

There will, however, be some relief for senior citizens (above 60 years) who will be relieved of the burden of paying advance taxes from this fiscal.

In order to reduce compliance burden of elderly persons, Mukherjee had proposed that "senior citizens, not having any income chargeable under the head 'Profits and gains of business or profession' shall not be liable to pay advance tax and such senior citizen shall be allowed to discharge his tax liability (other than TDS) by payment of self-assessment tax."

Individual assesses under the Income Tax Act are required to pay advance tax in three installments on September 15, December 15 and March 15 every year.

On the other hand, taxpayers, who hold foreign bank accounts or properties, however, will have to furnish details of their foreign assets which include information like country name, address of the bank, name mentioned in the account and peak balance during the year, after converting the value of the foreign currency in Indian rupee.

The government has already modified by the Income Tax Return (ITR) forms by introducing a new column about details of foreign assets. The taxpayers will have to furnish the details in their returns for assessment year 2012-13.

Resource:http://profit.ndtv.com/News/Article/budget-2012-income-tax-liability-comes-down-telephone-bill-goes-up-in-new-fiscal-301026?microslug=livebudget2012

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Gold hits fresh high of Rs 31,400; gains Rs 860 in last six sessions

Scaling a new peak, gold prices today touched all-time record of Rs 31,400 per 10 grams in the bullion market here on strong cues from global markets.

Traders said gold registered gains for the seventh trading session in a row, rising by Rs 100, on sustained buying by stockists amid rally in overseas market.

The investors were also seen shifting funds from melting equities to firming bullion, they added.

The metal has gained Rs 860 in last six trading sessions.

However, silver lacked necessary buying support and declined by Rs 100 to Rs 57,700 per kg.

In global markets, gold rose to a four-month high on speculation that central banks from the US to China will act to spur economic growth and investment holdings in the metal climbed to record, supporting its rally in domestic market.

In Singapore, the yellow metal rose by 0.4 per cent to USD 1,676.90 an ounce, the most expensive since April 13.

Back home, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity advanced by Rs 100 each to Rs 31,400 and Rs 31,200 per 10 grams, respectively.

Sovereign rose by Rs 100 to Rs 24,800 per piece of eight grams.

Silver ready declined by Rs 100 to Rs 57,700 per kg, while weekly-based delivery spurted by Rs 1,000 to Rs 58,200 per kg on speculative buying.

Silver coins met with resistance at higher levels and plunged by Rs 1,000 to Rs 72,000 for buying and Rs 73,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

Resource:http://profit.ndtv.com/News/Article/gold-touches-fresh-high-at-rs-31-400-per-10-grams-309953

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Limiting Liability When Choosing a Messenger Service

What characteristics should you look for when choosing a messenger service? Unless you work in the transportation industry, you may be out of your element-and as every savvy entrepreneur knows, making business decisions without total knowledge of the service puts your enterprise at risk. The fact is that virtually every messenger service will do a superb job of getting your delivery to its destination, but package delivery is so much more than simply driving somewhere with a shipment in hand. So what does matter?

Safety matters. Does the service you choose have a valid Motor Carrier number? With a quick search of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration site, you can validate the messenger service's MC number and easily cross reference their Dept. of Transportation safety rating. The last thing you want to do is tender your shipment to an unqualified company. Trusting an unqualified company with your cargo is like jumping in to a taxi driven by someone without a license.

But even for the safest of messenger services, things do go wrong. Does your messenger service have insurance? Most companies have just enough liability insurance, but very few keep a worker's compensation policy for its drivers and contractors; instead, many companies will purchase 'work accident' insurance to create the illusion of coverage, in some states, work accident insurance does not protect the shipper or consignee if the contractors gets injured on the customer's site. Most services will try to show you a worker's comp policy that covers their employees, but not the people making the deliveries. What does this mean for you? Liability exposure.

For instance, say that you hire a local contractor to paint your house. He provides you a great rate because he's a local small business. If he falls off the ladder while painting your house, and he does not have a worker's compensation policy, your homeowners policy is liable to pay for his medical expenses. The situation is the same when hiring a messenger service; do your research ahead of time to limit your liability.

Regulations, safety, and insurance are common topics that businesses often forget to ask about when searching for a messenger service, instead looking only to price, service levels, and security.

So let's talk about price. You'll find that the cheapest services may not be your best option. In order to cut costs, they cut corners, hiring unqualified contractors, forgoing necessary insurance coverage, refusing to invest in the 'intangibles' that make for a quality business. It's like the old saying goes: "You get what you pay for."

Always do your own research, but also check references when choosing a service. Customers who have had exceptionally positive or negative experiences with the company will find a forum to express them.

You get what you pay for, so make sure to pay for what you need.

Questions to ask when picking:

• Does messenger company provide the service levels and vehicle sizes you need to meet your time constraints?
• Does it provide security-not only vehicle security, but driver security, as well?
• Does the company perform background checks on every driver?
• Does your messenger service perform an annual review of driving records? If not, your security is jeopardized every time you place an order.

Customers should require company ID badge and uniforms on every driver. A clean, professional messenger service should be able to provide these things without question. Never jeopardize your company's security by using a messenger service that doesn't care about your safety.

So, remember: Safety, security, price, and service.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7245855

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Boston Market yanks shakers to help cut salt

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Boston Market is pulling salt shakers off its tables and has pledged to reduce the amount of sodium in some of its signature dishes.

The Golden, Colo. based company says it plans to reduce the amount of sodium in three of its dishes -- rotisserie chicken, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes -- by 20 percent in the next six months. All of its dishes would have 15 percent less sodium in the coming years.

While the salt shakers will be banned at the tables, Boston Market says they’ll keep a set at the beverage station. And if you're wondering, pepper shakers will keep their place at the table.

According to the Boston Market nutritional information on its website, half of a rotisserie chicken currently contains 1380 mg of sodium. A large portion of meatloaf has 1640 mg of sodium.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, current dietary guidelines for Americans recommend that adults in general should consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day.

Health advocates are applauding the move, but not all consumers are happy. Some took to the company's Facebook page to voice their outrage.

"Why does Boston Market think they should tell me or any other consumer how and what to eat? Good on lower sodium in the food BUT don't tell me I can't put salt or anything else on it. Just lost my business," read one post.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/22/boston-market-cutting-salt/#ixzz24NP6LZ8l

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Sound Advice on Noise Measurement in a Work Environment

Most places of work expose their employees to noise. Although some places may be louder than at others, it is important for employers to be aware that excessively loud noise can cause long-term, irreversible damage to their employees hearing and senses.

Hearing loss in the workplace was relatively unheard of prior to the latest reports in the press surrounding the complaints made by various insurance groups of the sudden rise in claims by employees seeking compensation for hearing problems.

It has however highlighted the real risks of noise induced hearing loss and the importance of protecting employees because although the Law does cover them, the severity of noise induced hearing loss is more than often overlooked.

Once noise induced hearing loss has occurred, the affects are permanent. Therefore, as the famous saying goes, prevention is better than cure, especially in the UK were 1 in 7 of the population are either deaf or hard of hearing.

Due to the harmful effects that excessively loud or long lasting noise levels can have on our hearing, it has become something that the Health and Safety Regulations now take very seriously. With over a million Britons at work exposed to potentially dangerous levels of noise every day, it's no surprise that companies are being urged to comply with the necessary 'legal limits' to protect their employees from suffering permanent hearing damage.

By appointing, training and equipping health and safety staff with the right type of noise measurement equipment, employers will be able to monitor and manage the noise levels on the premises and determine whether or not there is a problem, and if so, who is at risk.

Once a noise control system is in place, it should be reviewed regularly for maximum effect. Particularly if, for example, new equipment has being introduced for employees to manage or if there has been changes to the layout of the company as this could mean that some members of staff who were not previously at risk to high noise levels might be now.

If the general atmosphere at work involves people having to shout at each other in order to be heard, or that people often find it difficult hearing one another, then the noise levels are probably too high and need to be addressed.

For companies whose employees move around a lot during the day, personal noise measurement devices are available. These are usually worn on the shoulder to get an accurate reading of the noise levels they are exposed to on a daily basis.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7222030

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Change Management - Small Business Executive Team Turnover

Change happens we all know that, but when it happens in a small company, a growing company with your executive team that's when the challenges really set in. There are many books on change management and the problems which occur with organizational capital on corporate boards. Still, with a proper leadership structure in place, they are able to deal with these things with just a little bit of intervention, and the right consultant to help them with the transition.

All too often small companies perhaps only 50 to 100 employees going through such a challenge can wreak havoc on quarterly profits and earnings. This means layoffs, lost sales, and curtailing future expansion plans. It also gives a leg up for the competition, as during the transitional chaos the company becomes vulnerable to any changes in the marketplace. Changes such as competitor sales, new technologies, new market entrants, or additional regulatory rules being made. When a company fails it's usually a comedy of errors, several things go wrong, it is not just one thing.

In that regard perhaps the worst possible scenario is to be caught flat-footed in any change management crisis where the executive team has turnover, or the loss of one of their key players. You see, philosophically speaking it's just like a chain. If every piece of the chain is strong the chain holds. If one of the links are weak the chain cannot support the weight, and that's when the big letdown occurs. Often the changes in management are known or suspected in advance, and that allows time for a strategic transitional change.

The big problems occur when it is unexpected. When one team member leaves the company unannounced to take up work in another industry, pursue personal interests, or decides to leave after a personality dispute abruptly. Then there are the issues where one of the small business executives dies, and there is really no one ready to fill their shoes including perhaps their right-hand man or assistant. So what's the answer? The answer is not only to anticipate that there will be changes, but to consider what to do in the unfortunate potential eventuality that any one member of the team or even a couple decide to leave.

Mapping out a plan in advance of what to do, who to move up the ladder is essential. Also making sure the up-and-coming individuals who are next in line are trained and ready to fill those shoes. All this can be done in advance preventing any type of change management crisis. The problem is most companies don't do this even though they should. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

resource: http://ezinearticles.com/?Change-Management---Small-Business-Executive-Team-Turnover&id=7228244

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Selecting the Right Claims Processing System to Reduce Claim Costs

Driving technology into the heart of the process has significantly been brought to the forefront in the insurance software industry. There is now a clear recognition that a modern claims management system can considerably increase the effectiveness of managing claims, reduce time for labor intensive tasks, and increase satisfaction for employees, and claims staff. Selecting the right claims processing system is important to make effective decisions.

The growing demand for quality reporting and a smoother integrated claims processing system is pushing technology within claims departments into focus. Concise and timely data has increased the need for claims staff to forego the traditional spreadsheet approach. A light has now been shined on the traditional administration system to ramp up their functionality needed to manage a claim through its life cycle and to deliver extensive and more robust claim reporting.

With companies now going full speed to improve their workflow process and more effectively manage claims, it has also resulted in claims management system performances to become more intuitive, responsive, and flexible. In this time of rapid change, both in the risks and claims faced, implementing an updated claims processing system has become an important task that requires focus.

There are several factors to consider when selecting suitable claims management software that will increase your productivity and give claims staff the ability to analyze patterns to prevent future accidents. For example claims adjusters will spend most of their day working on the system, reviewing claims, entering data and notes, approving payments and running reports, so the system needs to be user friendly and simple to navigate.

Recognizing that a good insurance claim tracking system can change the landscape and the potential to present inaccurate facts and figures due to manual human error has given an even greater importance to revolutionizing the process.

Key questions to keep in mind during your search are:

• Does their system meets the guidelines?
• Do they focus on streamlining each process?
• Do they display requisite knowledge and have a commitment to research and development moving forward?

Creating an effective process will help to improve accuracy of information entered into the system, that will reduce the amount of manual human error submissions. Creating robust reports and analyzing facts to create a safe working atmosphere will build a safe working atmosphere for employees. Proactive organizations need to be sure they are equipping themselves with the right technology to manage claims process with efficiency.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7185843

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India’s youngest CEO Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran

This is an incredible achievement by two brothers Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran as they have launched their own mobile applications firm. Aged only 12 and 10 respectively, Shravan is the Co-Founder and President of Go Dimensions while his brother is Co-Founder and CEO. The two brothers are the youngest chief executives of India and also youngest promoters of a company who are studying in Class VIII and Class VI at a Chennai school.

When most adults have trouble understanding Java code, these two kids have used the code to build mobile applications. The brothers have together developed four apps for the Apple Store, which have been downloaded more than 10,000 times from 20 countries.

Clad in grey suits and ties, these two highly-confident children demonstrated their apps to the media, on the iOS and Android platforms, for games, education and entertainment.

Students of Vaels Billabong High International School, both Shravan’s and Sanjay’s interest in computers started early at home when their father got them a desktop computer. Starting with Paint and games on the PC, the two started to make presentations at school and teachers encouraged them to do more. That’s how they turned into mobile app developers.

The first product Catch me Cop, a mobile application was showcased at Apple’s App Store in only two months of its launch. In the CatchMeCop game application, a convict escapes from prison and there is a nationwide hunt for the convict. The convict has to run through a desert, a beach and a maze to outsmart the cops. There are multiple levels of this application, which saw nearly 2,000 downloads in the first month of development. In fact, tech media Web site CNET has reviewed this application too.

The popular applications include Apple’s App Store Alphabet Board which is a learning app for iPhone and iPad, Prayer Planet for religious prayers of distinct communities and Colour Pallette, a learning app for kids to learn colours.

Cnet.com approaching with lists of well-known apps. The apps are free for download, says Shravan. The company will make money on advertisements in their apps, he said.

The brothers are currently working on another application with an Olympics torch which will be surely appreciated by the people world-wide. Christened as Olympic Thief, they are striving hard to bring it to the stores during the games held in London.

Read more:http://www.thenextseo.co.in/startup/indias-youngest-ceo-shravan-sanjay-kumaran/1262.html

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