NEWS UPDATES

Standard Chartered PLC has agreed to sell Standard Chartered Trustee Company Pvt Ltd and Standard Chartered Asset Management Co, which handles its mutual fund manufacturing business in India, to IDFC for a total cash consideration of $205 million (over Rs 820 crore). The consideration is before deductions for local taxes and deal expenses.

IDFC will thus be paying about 70 per cent more that what UBS Global Asset Management, a leading international asset management company, had agreed to pay for the acquisition last year. UBS had struck the deal for acquiring Stan Chart’s mutual fund business in India for $120 million in January 2007.

Oil ends down, eases off record above $106 a barrel

Stocks Tumble Following Jobs Report

Wall Street ended a dreadful week with another big loss Friday after the government surprised investors with a report that employers eliminated 63,000 jobs last month. The news compounded fears that the U.S. economy, already hampered by an unrelenting credit crisis, is succumbing to recession.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 146 points, bringing its two-day slide to 370. This week's declines in the three major stock indexes to their lowest settlements since 2006 came despite the Federal Reserve's announcement that it would take steps to aid the credit markets.
The Labor Department's report that employers cut jobs by 63,000 last month -- the most since March 2003 -- unnerved investors worried about the health of the economy and who had been expecting a 25,000 gain in jobs. While the unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent, the decline reflects people leaving the labor force.