BSE ties up with Google

NEW DELHI: The next time you log on to the Bombay Stock Exchange website, be prepared for advertisements staring at you alongside stock quotes.

Asia’s oldest stock exchange has tied up with the Internet world’s current darling, Google, for cashing in on the latest advertisement garnering tool – that is through website ads related to the content on the page.

This means that ads could be of financial products when quotes are searched for banking stocks and of mobile phones for telecom stock pages.

“BSE has tied up with Google for a couple of months initially on a trial basis for posting non-broker advertisements on its website,” sources with direct knowledge of the issue said.

The BSE is experimenting with this revenue model after similar steps taken by global exchanges like the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, the source added.

The website of the Bombay Stock Exchange is the most popular stock exchange website, according to data compiled by web information company Alexa.

“The site is being visited by 1 million people in a day and the page is opened 100 million times,” the study added.

The Bombay Stock Exchange is facing stiff competition from its peer, the National Stock Exchange, while another player, MCX-SX, is also vying to enter the space.

Both the BSE and NSE have been embracing new Internet- based technologies in the recent past through steps like offering quotes on micro-blogging sites like Twitter.

In order to increase its membership base, the BSE in April this year had reduced the deposit amount for new members by 90 per cent to Rs 10 lakh from the existing Rs 100 lakh.

The exchange sold a 4 per cent stake on Friday to billionaire investor George Soros for about USD 35 million (over Rs 160 crore).

Currently, foreign investors hold a 30 per cent stake in BSE, lower than the permissible limit of 49 per cent.

SBI hikes interest rates, EMIs to increase

Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today increased base rate or the minimum lending rate for new borrowers by 0.10 per cent to 7.6 per cent. The bank has also increased its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 0.25 per cent to 12.5 per cent. The new rates will be effective from Thursday.

The hike will impact existing customers more than new ones because the hike in BPLR (which is applicable to existing customers) is more than the hike in the base rate (for new customers). This means that EMIs or installments for all types of loans including car, home and consumer durables will increase.

The bank has hiked the base rate by a smaller amount to lure new customers in the festive season, analysts said.

This is the first review of the base rate since it was introduced in July this year. As per the RBI guideline, banks have to review their base rate every quarter.

The revision in base rate follows the RBI's move to raise short-term lending (repo) and borrowing (reverse repo) rates in its September monetary review. After RBI raised its policy rates, the cost of funds for banks have incresed. However, SBI's rates are competitive as compared to other banks because it has access to a large base of low cost deposits called the current account savings account deposits or CASA.

Earlier this month, SBI hiked fixed deposit rates by up to 0.75 per cent. The bank raised deposit rates from 0.25-0.75 per cent across various maturities.

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/sbi-hikes-interest-rates-emis-to-increase-110392?cp

Sensex slips 150 points on weak global cues

The markets have opened with a 15-minute delay today for the pre-session call auction. The session, to reduce volatility and for better price discovery, will be a norm from today.

The Sensex was trading 93 points lower at 20,031 and the Nifty declined 29 points to 6,033 at 9.20 am.

Sectorally, most sectors were trading flat. On the downside, the auto and banking stocks saw some selling pressure. The Oil and gas stocks rose in early trade.

On the broader markets, small caps rose.

Shardul Kulkarni of Angel Broking said that the markets are likely to consolidate in a range of 6,100-6,300. However he did not discount the possibility of a breakdown when the Nifty might touch 5,950-5,930 levels. Kulkarni added that if the Nifty breaches the 5,930 level on the downside, it might head for 5,800. He added that liquidity might dry up in the next few days and the market might trade sideways or there might be a price correction.

Global cues were weak. The Asian markets were trading lower. The Nikkei 225 in Japan was trading 0.21 per cent higher at 9,520 at 9.16 am. The Hang Seng was trading 0.80 per cent lower and the Straits Times in Singapore was flat, trading 0.02 per cent lower.

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/sensex-slips-150-points-on-weak-global-cues-109077?pfrom=Business&cp