India and Economic Cost of Bird Flu

[sharon sanders]

New Delhi, March. 26 (PTI): The domestic poultry industry has registered a loss of Rs 7000 crores due to the panic reaction following the localised bird flu outbreak, according to an apex poultry industry body.
"Estimated loss to poultry and allied industries stands at Rs 200 crore per day," Vice-President of Poultry Federation of India A P Sachdev, said.
The cumulative loss stands at Rs 7,000 crores for the last 35 days since the bird flu outbreak, he added.
This estimate includes loss to broiler, layer, egg, feed, breed, pharma segments and also loss of transport and other dependent industries, Sachdev said.
"The industry loss was due to drop in sales due to panic reaction to the localised outbreak at Navapur in Maharashtra," Sachdev said.
President of PFI in North Zone, Shabbir A Khan, said the price of chicken in the wholesale market has come down drastically affecting the small poultry farmers.
Chicken priced at Rs 32 per kg in the wholesale market before the outbreak is now selling at one rupee in Pune, five rupees in Mumbai and Hyderabad, Rs 10 in Delhi and Rs 14 in Coimbatore.
"This drop in price is due to wrong perception about bird flu," he said adding "it is safe to eat well-cooked poultry products including chicken and egg".
To remove doubts from the minds of consumer, Khan quoted the US-based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study that said: "There is no evidence that any human case of avian influenza has been acquired by eating poultry products".
<HR color=#9b72cf noShade SIZE=1>http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200603261323.htm

 

[sharon sanders]

India's Economy - Hedge Funds are Exiting

India's Economy - Hedge Funds are Exiting

<table class="TableClas" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="heading">Market watch: 6 factors to look out for this week</td></tr><tr><td height="11">
</td></tr><tr><td class="author">Our Markets Bureau / Mumbai May 22, 2006</td></tr><tr><td height="4">
</td></tr><tr><td style="background-image: url(/images/common/gn_005.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x;">
</td></tr><tr><td height="9">
</td></tr></tbody></table><table class="TableClas" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>After the 1,347-point fall last week that shaved off 11 per cent from the BSE Sensex, will the markets rebound this week? Business Standard spoke to an array of fund managers, investment bankers and brokers over the weekend in search of an answer. </td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>Nobody knows for sure but here is a list of six factors that marketmen will watch out for while walking down Dalal Street this week. </td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>F&O open interest
The rollover of futures and options (F&O) open interest will be the most crucial trigger for the markets this week. Though open interest positions have reduced with brokers trying to square off their exposures, the absolute number still remains rather high.
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>Open interest in the futures market was over Rs 44,000 crore on May 10. This has been reduced by about Rs 13,000 crore. The expiry of contracts is on May 25. With a lot of positions already squared off, market experts are expecting less volatility. </td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>Key support levels
In the short term, the market should find support between 3,175 and 3,250 for the Nifty and 10,750 and 10,950 for the Sensex. The Nifty ended trade on Friday at 3,247 and the Sensex at 10,937.
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>Technical analysts are predicting that this could be the end to the long-term bull market. </td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>Net FII flows
The biggest sellers in the market have been hedge funds and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). The argument about dollar inflows moving to safer markets in view of rising US rates still holds true but valuations in the Indian markets have also turned more attractive and the FIIs could use this opportunity to buy stocks cheap. If the FII inflows turn positive, this could be a big sentiment booster.
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
snip
</td></tr><tr><td>
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>
</td></tr><tr><td height="5">
</td></tr><tr><td>
</td></tr></tbody></table>

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?autono=91984&leftnm=0&subLeft=0&chkFlg

 

[DB]

Re: Impact of Bird Flu on India's Economy

Re: Impact of Bird Flu on India's Economy

India was down another 456 points, 4% today.

So that makes 15% in the past week.

 

[hawkeye]

India on alert for suicides after stocks slide

India on alert for suicides after stocks slide

India on alert for suicides after stocks slide

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian police are watching out for possible suicides by brokers and investors after a steep market slide wiped out billions of dollars in share values, officials said Monday.

Policemen were keeping a watch near lakes and canals, possible places where people in distress could head to kill themselves. They said rescue teams were on alert.

"A financial crisis can trigger suicides. We are just trying to prevent them. Till now, no such cases have been reported," said R.K. Patel, a police official in the western city of Ahmedabad.

India's Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd., which had a market value of $657 billion last week after falling 10 percent in the previous two sessions, slid as much as another 10 percent in early trade Monday following sales of stocks held by brokers as security on behalf of their clients.

"Gold has turned into brass. We are finished," said S.S. Gupta, a middle-aged Mumbai broker who said he had lost millions of rupees in two hours of trading Monday morning.

Ahmedabad is considered particularly vulnerable to stock market volatility.

With over five million retail investors, the city is one of India's main trading hubs where people have put in millions of dollars of their disposable income into the stock market.

"I borrowed money to trade in the market. I lost it all in the past two days," said 37-year-old Sanjay Joshi, a small investor. "I don't know how will I repay my loans."

In the 1990s, a stock market meltdown led to several bankrupt brokers and small investors committing suicide across India, some of them drowning in rivers or throwing themselves off highrises.

Analysts described the market slide -- which has been as much as 22.4 percent from an all-time high of 12,671.11 points on May 11 -- as a correction and said order should return soon.

"It seems overdone and the market should stabilize during the second half of this week," said Rajat Jain, Chief Investment Officer, Principal Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd.

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Impact of Bird Flu on India's Economy

Re: Impact of Bird Flu on India's Economy

Asia markets continue losses

Spooked Asian markets added to their two weeks of declines Tuesday as the Philippines saw the largest drop with a 4-per-cent fall in its Stock Exchange Index as Tokyo's Nikkei hit a new three-month low.

snip

Another reason the indices in the region have been taking a beating lately has been sell-offs by global fund managers of stocks in emerging markets as they seek safer havens for their money. The phenomenon has been seen in the Philippines, India and also South Korea, where foreign investors sold their stocks for a 10th-straight day Tuesday.

Benchmark indices also fell in China, Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand after heavy losses Monday in the United States and Europe, but Hong Kong's, Singapore's and Malaysia's indices bucked the trend.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng reversed early losses to rise 0.4 per cent to 15,864.56 on a rebound in commodities. Singapore's Straits Times Index also fell initially before some bargain hunting caused it to rise 0.5 per cent to 2,429.55.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=98629