India’s Bharti up about 9 percent after stock upgrade

(Reuters) – Shares in Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO), India’s leading mobile operator, rose nearly 9 percent on Friday after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral.

At 10:10 a.m. (12:40 a.m. ET), the stock was trading up 8.4 percent at 304.50 rupees, after hitting 305.65. In comparison, the main Mumbai market .BSESN was up 1 percent.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

Low Stock Shares Prompt Fannie and Freddie to Act

In 2007 Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were trading above $60; now, with shares hovering around $1, the companies are delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, reports the Washington Post. While Freddie’s shares were trading above $1, Fannie has been below for 30 trading days. According to the NYSE rules, a company has to “take action to boost its shares or delist.” Shares for both companies tumbled more than 40 percent after the announcement. Both Fannie and Freddie plan to start trading on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board on July 8.

A complicated claims process helped bring about a new $20 billion fund set up by BP (BP) for damage claims related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to Reuters. The money would be paid into the fund over a period of four years. To help create the fund, BP agreed to “cut three quarters of dividends, significantly reduce its investment program and sell $10 billion of assets.” The company also has to pay $100 million to workers who are unable to work during the six months of halted deep-sea drilling. The deal seems to help both sides: Obama now has “his most tangible success since the crisis began 58 days ago,” and BP has little less pressure on it.

The $20 billion fund set up by BP could be dwarfed by potential criminal charges and rising civil fine estimates, according to the New York Times. For all the oil escaping into the Gulf, BP could owe $280 million. However, the real costs would come from legal costs and criminal fines that could reach $62 billion, according to Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov. Most likely, BP will be charged for environmental misdemeanors since “merely negligent actions can lead to misdemeanor penalties.” Any tougher penalties would require proving that BP “knew its actions would lead to the gushing well on the ocean floor.”

The circuit breakers put in place after May’s “flash crash” began operating this week and not a moment too soon: They were triggered Wednesday when the price of Washington Post Company (WPO) shares doubled in a second, reports the Financial Times. Three erroneous trades went through around 3 p.m., causing the breakers to kick in and halt trading on the company’s shares. The breakers were put in place to halt trading in an S&P 500 stock “if the price either rises or falls by 10 percent inside a period of five minutes.” Afterward, a total of 766 shares in three separate orders were determined to be incorrect.

Once again, AT&T (T) has proven itself incapable of handling the sheer amount of customers Apple (AAPL) brings in, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newest iPhone was available for preorder, but after 600,000 advance orders, AT&T had “difficulty processing orders.” The carrier had system malfunctions, and there were “reports that some customers had inadvertently gained access to others’ account information.” After the troubles AT&T stopped taking preorders yesterday but might take more orders before the phone is released on June 24. According to Apple’s site, “customers who preorder the iPhone 4 will receive their phones on July 14.”

After almost a week, Spirit airlines will no longer be grounded by a pilot strike when its planes take to the sky on Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal. The strike cost the airline “an estimated $2 million a day in lost revenue.” The airline left its passengers stranded—roughly 1 percent of U.S. passengers—even though it was supposed to “team up with other airlines to serve its customers in the event of a strike.” Spirit may have made the pilots happy, but it now has to work on winning back its customers.

Finally, companies that aren’t among the World Cup’s official sponsors are using “guerilla-marketing tactics” to get around FIFA’s restricted zones, according to the Wall Street Journal. The event is so exclusive that companies who didn’t pay the millions of dollars to become an official sponsor can’t advertise close to the venues. Despite the restrictions, companies have taken to plastering Johannesburg with advertisements. Others are resorting to drastic measures like the pair of women who supposedly were “involved in a large scale ambush marketing effort by Dutch brewer Bavaria NV.”

Taiwan’s Acer May sales rise 45 pct yr/yr

June 10 (Reuters) – Acer Inc (2353.TW), the world’s No.2 PC brand, said on Thursday its May sales were T$50.5 billion ($1.6 billion), up 45.3 percent from the same month a year earlier.

Technology

It did not give further details in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange.

The result came after the stock market closed. Acer shares fell 1.2 percent, trailing the main index’s 1.6 percent jump.

($1=T$32.4)

(Reporting by Jonathan Standing)
Technology

Lagardère SCA: Declaration of the Total Number of Voting Rights and Capital Stock Shares of a Company, the Shares of Which Are Admitted for Trading on a Regulated Market (Euronext)

in Accordance with Article 223-16 of the General Regulation of the French
Securities Regulator

(Règlement Général De L`autorité Des Marchés Financiers (A.M.F.))
PARIS–(Business Wire)–
Regulatory News:

Declared by Société LAGARDERE SCA
4, rue de Presbourg

75116 PARIS
Number of capital stock shares 131,133,286
Number of voting rights (1) 160,502,230
Number of theoretical voting rights (2) 169,594,668
Date 05.31.2010

(1) Used for voting on resolutions in annual general meetings and to calculate
the crossing of statutory thresholds.

(2) Now used to calculate the crossing of legal thresholds.

This English translation is for the convenience of English-speaking readers.

However, only the French text has any legal value.

Corporate name of issuer: Lagardère SCA (Paris:MMB)

Partnership limited by shares (Société en Commandite par Actions)

Share capital: € 799,913,044.60

Registered under No. 320 366 446 RCS Paris

Registered office: 4, rue de Presbourg, Paris 16° (75) – France

Lagardère SCA

Copyright Business Wire 2010

Stock Futures Shed 1 Cr Shares In OI

Stock futures lost 1 crore shares in Open Interest, OI. FIIs remained net buyers to the tune of Rs 614 crore in Nifty futures, in which OI went up by 52,896 contracts.

They purchased Rs 235 crore in Nifty options, in which OI stood up by 49,134 contracts.

Nifty futures marked their closure with 13-point premium whereas OI PCR remained unaltered at 1.60 on Thursday.

Nifty 3300 Put appended 13 lakh shares in OI and Nifty 3400 Call added up 5.4 lakh shares in OI.

Unwinding of arbitrage positions were seen in Ispat Industries and Nagarjuna Fertilisers. Ispat fell 0.7% and its cost of carry, CoC was down as well. Its futures Open Interest was down by 10%.

Nagarjuna Fertilisers shed 2.4% and its CoC remained weak also. Its futures Open Interest lost 11%.

IRB Infra surged 7% and its futures appended 10 lakh shares in open interest. Fresh arbitrage positions were there in the stock.

Jaiprakash Associates increased 7.3% and its futures also remained up by 6.8%. Futures Open Interest descended 9%.

Fresh long positions were seen in Mercator Lines. The stock gained 13.7% and its CoC was up as well. Its futures Open Interest was up by 43%.

Stock Futures Add 7.2 Cr Shares In OI On April 08

*

Stock Futures Add 7.2 Cr Shares In OI On April 08Stock futures added 7.2 crore shares in open interest, OI on April 08, 2009 (Wednesday). In Nifty futures, FIIs remained net buyers to the tune of Rs 909.6 crore wherein Open Interest surged by 41,654 contracts.

Reliance Industrial Infrastructure was the best performer on Wednesday. It gained 46% and its Open interest (OI) doubled to 3.5 lakh shares. The stock climbed up 93% in 2 trading sessions.

Stock futures on April 08 appended 7.2 crore shares in open interest.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the equity segment worth Rs 909.6 crore in Nifty futures on April 8.

The Open Interest went up by 41,654 contracts. But, they net sold Rs 636.8 crore in Stock Futures in which Open Interest remained up by 9,799 contracts.

The Nifty April futures appended 27 lakh shares in OI and marked their closure with 12.5 points premium as against 4 points premium a day ago.

Nifty 3300 put added up 8.6 lakh shares in OI and Nifty 3500 call appended 6.4 lakh shares in Open Interest.

The discount of Unitech reduced to 0.2 points, and the stock surged 7% and its futures zoomed up by 8.5%. Its futures Open Interest was up by 10%.

The arbitrage positions were seen in Ispat and SCI. Ispat gained 8.3%, but its cost of carry, CoC was down and futures Open Interest was up by 8%.

On the other hand, SCI stock surged 3.4% whereas its CoC remained weak. Its futures open interest was up by 78%.

On Wednesday, fresh long positions were seen in NTPC, which climbed up 6.6%. Its CoC was up as well and futures Open Interest was up by 11%.

The star performer on Wednesday was Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, which zoomed 46% and its open interest (OI) increased two fold to 3.5 lakh shares. The stock went up 93% in 2 days.