Sharp fall in sensex as players pare long positions
Mumbai: With funds refraining from buying and short term players paring their long term postions, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex and National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty were down on Monday. The Sensex closed at 4747.32, down 109.50 points or 2.25 per cent from Friday. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty closed at 1479.65, down 30.10 points or 1.99 per cent from Friday.

Investors looked for short-term gains and sold for profits shares which had risen in recent sessions. Sales were maximum in technology and media stocks such as Zee Telefilms, which had risen on Friday.

Information technology stocks continued to be sold as long positions in these stocks are high. Others such as Hindustan Lever, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Nestle India, ITC, Larsen & Toubro among others were sold for profits.

However, despite the all round fall in stock prices, front-line pharmaceutical stocks did well with several stocks such as Parke Davis India, Wyeth Lederle, Pfizer, Rhone Poulence India, Burroughs Wellcome, Novartis India, SmithKline Beecham, Glaxo India doing well as investors bought these stocks after selling others.
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HDFC finally enters mutual funds
New Delhi: HDFC, the country’s largest and most respected housing finance company, made a belated entry into the mutual funds industry by launching three schemes -- HDFC Growth Fund, Balanced Fund and Income Fund -- targeted to raise around Rs 400 crore.

For the mutual fund venture, HDFC has tied up with Standard Life, one of the leading insurance companies in the UK which has Rs 5,50,000 crore worth of funds under management.

According to Mr. Milind Barve, managing director, HDFC Asset Management, the launch of these funds marks the transformation of HDFC from a single product financial services provider to a multi product group offering housing finance, commercial banking, consumer finance.

While admitting that the late entry into the mutual funds game would be a negative aspect, the company believes that it can leverage on the strong retail marketing and distribution network that parent HDFC has built.
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Another mega merger in the offing
London: iX, the international stock exchange that is to be created through the planned merger of the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Bourse, announced that it was exploring exploring the possibility of a full merger with America's Nasdaq exchange.

If the planned merger comes through it will create the world’s largest stock exchange. Meetings will be held on September 14 in London and Frankfurt for shareholders to vote on the Nasdaq merger proposal.
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