MARKET WATCH:
The strong GDP figures at the beginning of the week brought good news for the market. Also, it helped to pacify the investors troubled by the Dubai debt fiasco. Though the week had its own share of ups and downs at both the major indices, the markets closed with a gain of 2.8 percent on Sensex and 3.4 percent on NIFTY.The BSE Sensex saw the intraday highest at 17,361 in past six weeks. It settled at 17,102 an increase of 470 points as compared to last week. The NIFTY closed at 5109 points as it soared up by 167 points from last week.

GDP grows by 7.9%
The gross domestic product (GDP) for India grew by 7.9% in July-September 2009 as compared to 6.1% of the previous quarter.Not only did this rise beat market expectation but also the anticipation of the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee who had envisaged it to be around 7% for this fiscal year. These figures are in line with the ones before the slow down period of July-September 2008. It gives an indication towards the revival of country’s economy.Although the agriculture sector saw a growth of less than 1% in its output but it was compensated by the other sectors like community services, mining and quarrying, boarding and lodging etc which had a considerably large increase in the last quarter for FY 2009-10.But the financial analysts speculate the third quarter to be critical as the agricultural GDP is expected to be negative. These improved growth figures is also increasing the anxiety of the industry regarding the government’s action for the stimulus packages.

Wal-Mart finalizes three retailers in India
Wal-Mart has chosen Infosys Tech, Cognizant Tech Solutions and UST Global as its vendors for handling their operations in India.These companies would be signing a contract worth over $600 million which would help them earn around Rs 250 crore to Rs 300 crore, annually for first few years. With Wal-Mart following the practice of in-house production, it would heighten the IT outsourcing scenario in India. Infosys and Cognizant would get a larger share of the pie as they would be looking after the application development for Wal-Mart which would be tested by UST Global, as per the contract.

US banks still feel the heat of loans
The number of closed downs for US banks increased to 130 as 6 more banks were seized by the FDIC regulators this Friday.Though the general economy is showing positive signs still the banking industry is slow to recover as FDIC speculates closing down of small banks for another year.
The bank failures in the state of Georgia numbered to 24 with three more being unable to bear the burden of loans last week. The other three were in Virginia, Illinois and Ohio.
The AmTrust Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, had the assets of $12 billion. The other 5 were holding assets of even less than $1 billion. The major reason of the failure of small banks is the fact that real estate was one field where they were actually at par with larger banks during the boom period.The FDIC would receive help of about $45 billion as the banks would prepay it the three years’ industrial assessment.