India's FDI into London second biggest

LONDON: India has become the second-biggest source of new foreign investment into London, behind only the United States, a report released on Friday said.

According to the Financial Times, a new report from Think London, the capital's foreign direct investment (FDI) agency, says that India has accounted for 16 per cent of all new foreign investment into London between 2003 and 2007.

That has helped investment into London jump to 52 billion pounds (76.1 billion euros, 103.4 billion dollars), from 38 billion pounds two years ago. The United States topped the list, with 31 per cent of new investment, while France was third with seven percent. China, Japan and Canada with six percent each followed.

"London does not have the same resonance in China, Russia or Brazil as it does in India," Think London's chief executive Michael Charlton noted. The United States still dominates total foreign investment into the capital, though, accounting for about half of it, followed by France with 12 per cent.

Read more at Economic Times

ABN Amro buyer will get strong India base

Dutch banking giant ABN Amro, the target of intense takeover speculation, would give the winner enhanced presence in a range of financial sectors such as retail banking, mutual funds and brokerage services in India, the world's second fastest growing economy.

Even as UK's third largest bank Barclays Plc said in a statement it will make an announcement tomorrow on reports about its interest in ABN Amro, industry observers say that India could be one of the key reasons behind a possible bid.

Barclays CEO John Varley said at an analysts conference last month he was looking for "aggressive" growth and would consider acquisitions to enter the emerging markets.

Read more at Business Standard

Overseas bourses take cue from India markets

Often, in the absence of a visible domestic trigger, the behaviour of Indian stock markets is explained as a result of global developments, mainly the rise or fall of overseas markets. Curiously, it will not be far-fetched to state the contrary, that the global stock exchanges follow the Indian markets’ cue.

A study of the movements of world markets since May 2006 by Mumbai-based Man Financial shows that the S&P CNX Nifty recorded its high ahead of all major international indices. It recorded its intermediate top during February 6-12 this year and all-time intra-day high of 4,245.30 on February 8.

This was followed by all major international indices recording their respective highs. The only exception has been the Hang Seng index of Hong Kong, which recorded its high on January 24 this year.

Read more at Business Standard