Business Recorder! Business and Finance syndication. http://www.brecorder.com Fri, 24 May 2013 01:31:00 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.brecorder.com/images/M_images/livemarks.png http://www.brecorder.com Business Recorder! Business and Finance syndication. http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/managed-funds/120823-prices-gain-after-solid-tips-auction.html NEW YORK: US Treasury debt prices rose on Thursday after the Treasury saw solid demand for new inflation-linked bonds, though benchmark yields held above 2 percent as traders worried about how high yields might rise whenever the US Federal Reserve decides to taper its bond purchases.The bond market was on another rollercoaster ride on heavy volume, a day after remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the US central bank's bond purchase program prompted a massive selloff in Treasuries.Bernanke told a congressional panel that a decision on whether to scale back the Fed's current monthly pace of $85 billion in purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities could come at one of the Fed's "next few meetings" if data shows the economy is gathering steam.Traders fear that any reduction in the bond purchases would mean less cash to fuel the stock rally that has driven major Wall Street indexes to all-time highs. A reduction in the bond-buying program would also send Treasury yields higher."It was a trial balloon from Bernanke. The market reacted poorly," said Thomas Roth, executive director of US government bond trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities USA in New York.Benchmark 10-year notes at times struggled to recover after... Thu, 23 May 2013 19:44:04 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/managed-funds/120772-bank-of-canada-to-auction-c2bn-in-21-day-t-bills.html TORONTO: The Bank of Canada on Thursday said it plans to auction up to C$2 billion ($1.94 billion) in 21-day treasury bills in a cash management operation on May 24.Copyright Reuters, 2013 Thu, 23 May 2013 10:54:30 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/industries-a-sectors/120768-indiaa39s-tata-steel-reports-loss-on-europe-weakness.html NEW DELHI: Tata Steel Ltd, India's largest steelmaker by market value, swung to a loss in its fourth quarter, hit by weak demand in Europe, its top market and production region.The company is under pressure from investors to cut costs and idle or sell factories, especially its older plants in Britain, to turn around its loss-making European operation.Two thirds of Tata Steel's 27 million-tonne annual capacity is in Europe. However, demand there has fallen by almost a third since 2007, largely because of economic weakness in the region, forcing Tata Steel to write down goodwill and assets by $1.6 billion in the past financial year."Europe's economic deterioration last year reversed the modest recovery in European steel demand that had been going on since 2009 and our deliveries fell as a consequence," said Karl-Ulrich Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel Europe.The "severely depressed" conditions in Europe are expected to continue over the short to medium term, a company statement said.The January-March net loss was 65.29 billion rupees ($1.2 billion), compared with a 4.33 billion rupee profit a year earlier. Net sales rose about 1 percent to 341.8 billion rupees.Analysts had expected profit of 3.64 billion rupees on sales of 350.16 billion... Thu, 23 May 2013 10:44:07 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/industries-a-sectors/120759-mining-giant-vedanta-raising-17bn-through-bond-offering.html MUMBAI: London-listed resources giant Vedanta Group, controlled by tycoon Anil Agarwal, said Thursday it had raised $1.7 billion through a high-yield bond offering that it plans to use to refinance debt.The mining and resources group said in a statement the money raised would be used to refinance a loan taken out to buy a controlling stake in oil and gas explorer Cairn India three years ago.Vedanta, which has annual revenues of around $14 billion, said the bond offering was one of the "largest corporate high-yield bond issuances out of Asia ex-Japan" and the success of the transaction showed "its financial strength".Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2013 Thu, 23 May 2013 10:10:33 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/industries-a-sectors/120722-nissan-says-to-recall-841000-cars-over-steering-glitch-.html TOKYO: Japan's number two carmaker Nissan said Thursday it would recall some 841,000 compact cars worldwide due to a steering wheel glitch.The recall will cover the Micra, known as the March in some markets, and Cube models produced in Japan and Britain between 2002 and 2006, a company spokeswoman said.Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2013 Thu, 23 May 2013 06:03:39 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/banking-a-finance/120690-bank-of-japan-moves-after-key-bond-yield-spikes.html TOKYO: The Bank of Japan unleashed a torrent of liquidity Thursday to quell government bond yields amid concern that higher long-term interest rates could squeeze mortgage payers and crimp spending.The central bank announced a two trillion yen ($19 billion) fund-supplying operation after the yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond hit 1.0 percent, its highest level in over a year.The BoJ is active in supplying finance to banks and other potential buyers in the bond markets every day, but the scale of Thursday's operation was large by recent standards.The bank's financial operations division said in a statement the operation to provide fixed-rate short-term loans to financial institutions was to respond to "the unreasonable increase in the volatility of long-term rates". Yields on the benchmark 10-year government bond sank to a record low of 0.315 percent on April 5, a day after the BoJ introduced its current easing programme that includes bond purchases to enhance liquidity and beat deflation.But confusion over the ultimate effects of the BoJ scooping up as much as 70 percent of newly issued bonds from the market quickly set the yields on an upward march.Investors started selling due to uncertainty over how yields would move when... Thu, 23 May 2013 02:54:58 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/industries-a-sectors/120679-first-china-manufacturing-shrinkage-in-7-months-hsbc.html BEIJING: Manufacturing activity in China contracted in May for the first time in seven months, HSBC said Thursday, in another sign of the weakness of recovery in the world's second-largest economy.The banking giant's preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49.6 this month from a final 50.4 in April, putting it below the 50 mark that indicates contraction. A reading above signals expansion.It was the lowest figure since October's 49.5, according to the bank's data, and the first time it had been below 50 since then.The index tracks manufacturing activity and is a closely watched barometer of the health of the economy. The final result for May will be released on June 3.Analysts said the figure was the result of both domestic and overseas economic woes."The cooling manufacturing activities in May reflected slower domestic demand and ongoing external headwinds," said Qu Hongbin, HSBC's economist in Hong Kong, adding the slowdown cast "downside risk to China's fragile growth recovery".The government should provide more support for the sluggish job market, possibly through measures such as training subsidies and tax cuts for employers, he said in a statement.China grew at its slowest pace in 13 years in 2012, with gross domestic product expanding... Thu, 23 May 2013 01:50:12 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/managed-funds/120666-yields-jump-as-bernanke-remarks-unnerve-investors.html NEW YORK: US Treasury yields on the benchmark 10-year note rose above the key 2 percent level on Wednesday, the highest level in two months, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke added to bond investor fears that the US central bank might slow its bond purchases later this year if the economy improves further.Bernanke initially delivered what bond bulls had hoped for following dovish remarks from two top Fed officials on Tuesday, telling federal lawmakers in prepared remarks the Fed's current policy has produced significant benefits and cautioning that a premature pullback would hurt the economy. These remarks lifted bond prices to session highs in early trading.A half hour later, however, the bond market's gains swiftly evaporated when Bernanke said during a question and answer session that tapering of the Fed's bond purchases was possible in the next few meetings if data show US growth is on a sustainable path."He made the statement that they could taper in the next three meetings and everybody got caught," said Charles Comiskey, head of Treasuries trading at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York. "The dislocations were everywhere, then the selling came in. Then it just cascaded."Benchmark 10-year Treasuries were last down 27/32... Wed, 22 May 2013 19:52:16 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/banking-a-finance/120596-kenya-central-bank-seeks-to-mop-up-13bn-shillings.html NAIROBI: Kenya's central bank sought to mop up 13 billion shillings ($154.3 million) from the market on Wednesday through repurchase agreements (repos) and term auction deposits.The bank has regularly soaked up liquidity since last year to support the shilling by making it slightly more expensive to fund long dollar positions.Copyright Reuters, 2013 Wed, 22 May 2013 05:58:47 +0100 http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-finance/industries-a-sectors/120585-airbus-wins-oman-air-order-for-three-a330-planes.html PARIS: Airbus has won an order for three A330-300 aircraft from Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, the European planemaker said on Wednesday.The order, which Airbus said would bring Oman Air's A330 fleet to 10 aircraft, is worth about $720 million based on list prices.The planes will be operated on long-haul routes and can seat close to 300 passengers, Airbus said.Copyright Reuters, 2013 Wed, 22 May 2013 05:07:07 +0100