Industry and Company News

The BSE Sensex rose 0.8 per cent on Friday as investors built long positions after a 7.2 per cent drop over the past two weeks and strong Asian markets providing support.

Energy giant Reliance Industries, private-sector lender ICICI Bank and engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro led the gains.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries tumbled as much as 17.6 per cent after US officials said authorities seized all medicines produced by its Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories unit, following repeated violations of manufacturing standards.

By 11:19 AM, the 30-share BSE index was up 0.8 percent at 14,454.26 points, with 21 stocks advancing.

“The market has come off its highs in the past two weeks or so, and any good news from now on will only lead to investors taking up long positions,” Hitesh Agrawal, head of research at Angel Stock Broking, said.

The benchmark snapped a 14-week, 83 per cent jump, last week as investors took profits. There are also worries a below-normal monsoon forecast will hurt demand in the crucial rural heartland and hit corporate profitability.

Investors are, however, pinning hopes the government’s budget on July 6 will unveil pro-market reforms such as privatisations and relaxation of foreign investment rules.

“Everyone is eyeing the budget, and some may just take a shot at the budget expectations being met. So we could see a rally of about 700 points over the next week,” Agrawal said.

Larsen climbed 3.4 percent to 1,579.50 rupees, while ICICI Bank rose 3.2 percent to 721.35 rupees.

Reliance, which has the most weight in the main index, advanced 1.3 per cent to 1,984.10 rupees.

Sun Pharma, the country’s largest drugmaker by market value, was down 12 per cent at 1,142.65 rupees.

In the broader market, gainers led losers by almost 2 to 1 on relatively moderate volume of 109.4 million shares.

The 50-share NSE index was up 1 percent at 4,282.65.

Asian shares were higher on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei up 1 percent, while MSCI’s measure of other Asian markets rose 1.4 percent.

Main Top 3 by Volume

* IFCI on 7.6 million shares

* Reliance Natural Resources on 3.9 million shares

* Jaiprakash Hydro on 3.7 million shares

Stocks On The Move

* Non-ferrous metals firm Sterlite Industries rose 1.9 percent to 588 rupees after copper prices in Shanghai rose for a fourth straight session on Friday.

* Tata Steel fell as much as 1.6 percent to 391.60 rupees after the world’s sixth-largest steelmaker reported a 60 percent…

ONGC Videsh Ltd has earmarked capital expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore for the current fiscal during which it plans to drill exploratory wells and develop blocks in Vietnam, Syria, Nigeria, Egypt and Brazil, a top company official said.

“We’ve got (a capex plan of) Rs 45,000 crore for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012). So, our expenditure for this year comes to about Rs 9,000 crore … slightly less than USD 2 billion,” said ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) Managing Director R S Butola in New Delhi.

OVL has already expended Rs 20,000 crore in the past couple of years, he added.

The overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp has already spudded four wells in the North Ramadan block in Egypt and plans to drill an additional well in the field, Butola told an analyst conference in New Delhi on Thursday night.

The North Ramadan Block (Block 6) is an offshore block located in the Gulf of Suez in an area of about 290 square km.

OVL holds a 70 per cent participating interest in the block, while the rest is held by IPR Energy Red Sea (IPR). The consortium had discovered an oilfield in its first exploration well in 2007.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) assured on Friday that it would maintain ample liquidity in the system.

“There is plenty of liquidity in the system and we want to assure that it will be manitained,” RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat said, when asked by reporters whether the central bank would change its monetary policy in view of the falling rates.

Replying to a query whether India’s growth prospects would be affected due to the failing monsoon, Thorat said it was too premature to comment. “RBI will make a detailed assessment in July quarterly review of the economy,” she said.

Thorat was here to inaugurate the Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre promoted by Allahabad Bank. Thorat said that as indebtedness had become a major issue, Centres like these would help people seeking knowledge and making financial management in a prudent way to avoid a debt trap.

The Centre would act under the aegis of Allahabad Bank Rural Development Trust.

A total of 148 such centres promoted by the various public sector banks had been set up in the country so far.

After getting his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering in 1993, Chad Lundstrum worked for three successive companies, each with its own set of frustrations. The salary at the first one was low, the second one laid him off in a downsizing after only five months and the third required him to lay people off–more than once in a year.

“I wanted to be in a field that had stability and where I could go anywhere in the U.S. and find a job,” says Lundstrum, 37, of Joplin, Mo. “And when I decide to retire, I want a job where if I still want to work part time, I can.”

He decided to leave his full-time job as director of materials at Leggett & Platt ( LEG – news – people ) and go back to school to earn a doctor of pharmacy degree online from Creighton University, in Omaha.

In Pictures: Where Pharmacist Jobs Pay The Most

Those career wishes of his might sound like a tall order these days, but Lundstrum will likely get all he’s looking for. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment among pharmacists to grow by 22% between 2006 and 2016, which is much faster than most occupations.

The pay is good too. The mean annual salary is $104,260, according to May 2008 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The mean salary for a pharmacist in a hospital is $103,480; in a grocery store, $102,310, and in a community pharmacy, $105,560.

Creighton started its online degree program in 2001 when there was a severe shortage of pharmacists throughout the country. “The profession was switching the way it trained pharmacists, and as a result there was a year when we had no pharmacy class,” says Jim Owen, director of professional practice for the American Pharmaceutical Association.

That severe shortage has ended as pharmacy degree programs have grown over the past decade. There are now about 112 of them, Owen says. Still, the demand for pharmacists remains strong. An aging population needs more prescription drugs. Also, pharmacists are now considered part of the medical team that treats patients at facilities like hospitals, long-stay care facilities and nursing homes. And in this economy some patients are consulting their pharmacists for advice instead of spending money to see a doctor, Owen says.

President Obama’s proposed health care reform may also help the profession. “His plan stresses a team-based approach to care,” Owen says. “There is a shortage of primary care physicians, so if pharmacists are included in a team-based approach there will be greater demand for them.” Pharmacists may possibly provide immunizations and do blood monitoring for people taking blood thinners, for instance.

It’s not an easy field to get trained in, particularly if you have a family and can’t afford to leave the workforce. A doctor of pharmacy degree takes four years to complete if you’ve already had core math and science classes. If not, those classes add another year or two. Three years are spent in the classroom and in lab work; the final year is a residency in a setting such as a community pharmacy or a hospital. Then you need to take a state licensing exam.

There are now several programs that condense the four years into 36 months, Owen says. He recommends checking the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education to find a program in your area.

At Creighton, the curriculum online is exactly the same as on campus. The lectures are video recorded so students can watch them at their convenience. Exams are given on the same day for distance and local students. Distance students go to campus for several weeks during the summer to do lab work.

“If it weren’t for this online program I’d never be able to pursue this,” Lundstrum says. He is married to a schoolteacher and has three children ages 11, nine and seven. “I would have to uproot my family, since there’s no pharmacy program in the area. I’m not sure that would have been a complete sell.”

He maintains a hectic schedule. In addition to schoolwork and being a father and husband, he also works at a friend’s lab. He arrives there around 8:30 each morning and takes a few breaks during the day to do schoolwork. When he gets home, after 8 p.m., it’s time to help with dinner, put the kids to bed and finish his class work. He’ll go to the campus for a week this summer to do lab work.

At 37, Lundstrum is a bit older than Creighton’s average. The typical age is 31 for telecommuters and 22 on campus, says Tom Lenz, the director of Creighton’s online doctor of pharmacy program. Clearly many of those older non-local students are career switchers. “We’ve had former lawyers, engineers, Ph.D.s,” Lenz says.

Despite his busy schedule, Lundstrum is pleased with his career switch and eager to get back into the workforce. “I wasn’t happy with the job I had, and I’m almost 40,” he says. “The next half of my life I want to feel good about what I do, instead of making a dollar for a corporation. My grandmother used to say–and I’ve had this in the back of my mind a lot lately–’What have you done good today?’ I wanted a job where I could do some good.”

Investors welcomed UBS plans to raise 3.8 billion Swiss francs ($3.5 billion) of new capital but said the bank will not turn the corner until it stems client withdrawals and settles U.S. legal problems.

UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager and one of the hardest-hit major banks in the financial crisis, said late on Thursday it was to place 293.3 million new shares at 13 francs with a few big institutional investors.

The Swiss National Bank and banking regulator FINMA have indicated they want UBS to strengthen its capital base before the government withdraws a 6 billion Swiss francs ($5.5 billion) investment made in October to bail out the bank.

“We welcome that the bank has strengthened its capital base,” FINMA head Eugen Haltiner told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of a banking event in Basel. “We can call the bank well capitalized … The bank is now prepared to weather an unexpected difficult economic scenario.”

UBS stock, which fell 6 percent on Thursday to 13.97 francs, was down 1.4 percent to 13.78 francs at 0920 GMT. The European banking sector was up 1.4 percent.

“UBS had to enhance its capital base after U.S. banks’ capital hikes and due to the high capitalization of its main competitor in Switzerland, Credit Suisse,” Vontobel analyst Tobias Bruetsch said.

“The capital raising should help restore confidence,” he said, adding the dilution amounted to about 10 percent.

UBS said the share placement would help increase its tier 1 capital ratio — a key measure of financial strength — to a proforma 11.9 percent from 10.5 percent at the end of March, almost at the 12 percent new minimum required by FINMA.

Credit Suisse said in April its tier 1 ratio was 14.1 percent, making it one of Europe’s best capitalized banks.

NEGATIVE NEWS CONTINUES

Analysts said they were not surprised UBS said it would likely post a second-quarter loss although the bank also said its operating results, helped by improved investment banking conditions and lower losses and write-downs, should be better.

However, investors were disappointed the bank said it has seen net client outflows in its three wealth and asset management units so far this quarter.

“We find it extremely disappointing that the bank suffered another loss, albeit apparently lower than the 2 billion franc loss for Q1,” said Kepler Capital Markets analyst Dirk Becker.

“Even more disappointing was the fact that net new money flows were negative again.”

A string of negative headlines about UBS in the past year has prompted big client withdrawals, particularly over a U.S. case seeking the names of 52,000 Americans suspected of using the bank to hide nearly $15 billion in assets from the taxman

The U.S. Justice Department denied earlier this week it was planning to drop the case and said it would file a brief seeking an enforcement of the summons on June 30 although it was still willing to consider a settlement.

Merrill Lynch analyst Derek de Vries said that to turn positive on UBS he wanted to see net new money inflows, a disposal of the Swiss government stake, a resolution of the U.S. tax case and a clearer communication of strategy by management.

“The decision to raise 3.8 billion francs in the market doesn’t change our investment thesis as we continue to worry about a number of issues at the bank,” he said.

Switzerland said earlier this month it was in talks over its investment in UBS with various parties but had not yet decided to convert its mandatory convertible notes — that would give it a 9.3 percent stake in the bank — or sell them.

In connection with the capital raising, the government said it had agreed not to sell any UBS shares before August 4 — when second-quarter results are due — without UBS’s consent.

SNB Vice-Chairman Philipp Hildebrand said last week a sale of the government stake could be a positive signal but everything had to be done to improve UBS’s resilience first.

“It’s certainly something the national bank welcomes,” SNB spokesman Werner Abegg said on Friday. “UBS’s resilience has been improved in times when the economic situation could make things difficult.”

(Additional reporting by Rupert Pretterklieber; Writing by Sam Cage and Emma Thomasson; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Dan Lalor)

($1 = 1.099 Swiss francs)

Providing details about capital contributions and risk-sharing, Italian carmaker Fiat has “sweetened” its buyout offer for General Motors Corp.’s (GM) Opel unit and its UK brand Vauxhall, in its effort to go past rival bidders – Canadian car-parts maker Magna International Inc. and RHJ International SA, a fund with earlier holdings of private-equity firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC.

Interestingly, the improved Fiat offer came after the German politicians appeared to be inclined towards the Magna bid, which they said was closest to their “hopes and wishes.”

About Fiat’s new offer, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said that it reflects the carmaker’s desire to get hold of Opel’s technology.

However, German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg – who is piloting efforts for finding a “viable” bid for GM’s European operations – largely remains unaffected by any of the three bids.

Guttenberg told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper: “We must first have a high degree of certainty that the significant tax money we will have to provide is not lost. From my point of view, none of the three offers so far provides this certainty in a sufficient way.”

Meanwhile, GM wants to sell Opel before the June 1 US government deadline for restructuring or facing bankruptcy, and will have the final say in the Opel bids!

World leading mobile telephone maker Nokia on Tuesday announced plans to cut 170 jobs worldwide in its efforts to cut costs and “adapt to the market situation.”

The Finnish-based group said the cuts would impact staff in logistics, production management and production support.

In addition, the group said it would offer voluntary resignation packages to 320 employees at its plant in Salo, Finland.

A similar package was offered in February to 1,000 Nokia employees and “raised a lot of interest among production employees, who were excluded from this particular global programme,” Ville Valtonen, head of human resources at Nokia in Finland, said in a statement.

In April, Nokia reported lower sales and a sharp drop in operating profit for the first quarter of 2009 citing the ramifications of the global financial crisis.

Web browsers are not particularly loyal programs. When pushed, they reveal more about our surfing behaviour than we might prefer. A few tweaks can help protect your private sphere, but they do impact browser performance.

It’s amazing just how well online shops understand the preferences of their buyers. Simply registering with an online website reveals much to curious third parties about your PC and the user’s origins.

Want to see for yourself? One trip to http://www.anonym-surfen.com/anonym-surfen/test, a free self-diagnostic site, will show you have much of your data is there for the taking. Tracking services like Google Analytics are also dedicated to following and analyzing your behaviour.

You aren’t completely helpless, though. Your browser can make it easier or harder for companies to collect that data. The default settings on browsers tend to reveal a lot of information, says Christian Krause from the Independent State Centre for Data Protection (ULD) Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, Germany. That information is not in and of itself personally identifiable, but combined with other information can be used to create a user profile.

This includes information sent to the page being called up about which operating system and screen resolution should be used. That can be helpful for formatting the webpage properly.

Other functions are more problematic. Yet simply shutting them off isn’t always the answer. Turning off browser functions can reduce surfing speed and convenience tremendously, explains Michael Knott from the online magazine netzwelt. de.

The “Referrer” function, for example, provides the current website with information about the last one you visited. This is helpful for example when filling out a multi-page form. Anyone considering that too intrusive can circumvent the referrer: In Opera select the option “Tools/Preferences/Advanced/Network.” Firefox users can install the add-ons “No-Referrer” or “RefControl.” Internet Explorer (IE) does not provide a deactivation function.

Cookies are files stored on a computer to establish which web page preferences the user wants. They allow a website to recognize a surfer every time he or she returns to the page. That makes it easier to work with favourite forums or other sites that are used frequently. Yet cookies are also excellent tools for websites to puzzle together a user profile.

“Third-party cookies” are considered especially problematic. These are the cookies typically set by advertisers using banners. Simply blocking them isn’t enough: new techniques are blurring the lines between third-party cookies and normal cookies, Krause says. The smart move is hence to allow cookies for the duration of a session and block permanent storage.

Yet not all cookies are deleted in that process, Krause notes. One example of this are “Flash cookies,” used to operate clip portals. IE’s cookie management function is available under “Tools/Internet Options/Privacy/Advanced,” while under Firefox 3 it is under “Tools/Options/Privacy.” Under Opera it is under “Tools/Preferences/Advanced/Cookies.”

Website elements composed in JavaScript are also capable of snooping around. Unfortunately, Web 2.0 applications rely on JavaScript, Krause explains. He recommends separate approval and denial of access. Firefox users can also take advantage of the add-ons “NoScript” and “AdBlock Plus.” Opera uses a filter list to block out unwanted JavaScript. This type of targeted blocks is not available in IE.

Even those who make all of these adjustments are still personally identifiable, Knott says. The only way to prevent that is to falsify your IP address. This can be done using services like www. anonymouse. org or software like “JAP” (anon. inf. tu-dresden. de). They reroute the addresses through various computers so that visited websites cannot determine the user’s actual origin. The catch: much slower surf speeds.

As per media report, real-time push email service would be unveiled by Nokia next week in New Zealand, simultaneously with the release of its new flagship smartphone, the E75, on May 18.

Nokia Mail, the BlackBerry-style service, will function on two levels.

Free middleware would be acquired by business users who buy the E75 and future models in Nokia’s E series, which would enable them to connect to their office email server via Microsoft Exchange or IBM’s Lotus Notes. Nokia says set up is DIY.

“The push email market (for real-time synchronization between email on your phone and PC) will be worth $US25 billion by 2010. While BlackBerry maker RIM is already a huge player in the corporate market, Nokia sees a major opportunity in the consumer space,” expressed Nokia.

Good news is that Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are all supported, along with thousands of ISPs worldwide. Till now, in New Zealand, Telecom Broadband (formerly Xtra) and Vodafone (via its ISP formerly known as Ihug) have signed on.

All that the customer needs to know is their web mail or ISP log-on name and password to set up the consumer version of Nokia Mail.

Astonishingly, Nokia Mail’s ability to push new email messages to your phone in real-time, plus the ability to view and edit attachments with QuickOffice is being heavily advertised by Nokia, even when there are a number of ways to get web mail on your cellphone.

Furthermore, a Smart Forwarding feature is also included in Nokia Mail that would allow the users forward an email, and its attachment, without downloading the attachment to their handset.

It should be noted that Nokia that does provide one menu for jumping between up to 10 inboxes from different email accounts, but does not support a BlackBerry-style universal inbox for email, voicemail and SMS.

The users would be able to buy Nokia Mail for all of the company’s handsets running its Symbian 60 software (around a quarter of its models, running toward its high-end).

Trials of a Harry Potter-inspired tracking device which can monitor movements of family members through their mobile phones have been completed.

Microsoft’s Whereabouts Clock features a screen which has the ability to show the approximate location of an individual – such as “school”, “work” or “gym”.

The revolutionary device works by identifying which cell of a mobile phone network a family member is in at any given time. When users set up the Whereabouts Clock they have to give each cell a name, such as “work” or “school”, by downloading software onto their phone. The device recognises their location each time they enter that cell.

Users who don’t want others to know their location can switch off the application, reports The Times.

The system was installed in the homes of several families living near the company’’s research laboratories in Cambridge.

The company is now looking at how to market the product.

Richard Harper, who heads Microsoft’s socio-digital systems research group, said: “We want it to give enough information to be comforting without giving so much that people feel they are being watched.”

The system is reminiscent of a device in Rowling’s novels.

The parents of Ron Weasley, Harry’s friend, own a magic clock with a hand representing each family member. The hands point to locations on a dial including “home”, “work” and “mortal peril”.