European Stocks Rebound From Rout; Actelion, Roche Shares Climb

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks rebounded from the biggest drop in four months as the European Union started work on a possible aid package for Ireland’s banks. Asian shares fell, while U.S. index futures fluctuated.

Actelion Ltd. jumped 8.5 percent, leading health-care stocks higher, after Amgen Inc. was said to be considering a takeover offer for the Swiss drugmaker. Roche Holding AG advanced 1.3 percent as the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs announced a cost-reduction program. Thales SA, Europe’s biggest maker of defense electronics, sank 3.9 percent as UBS AG downgraded the shares.

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.1 percent to 266.3 at 8:44 a.m. in London following yesterday’s 2.3 percent plunge. Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said talks with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on potential aid for the country’s banks will start tomorrow.

Finance chiefs from the 16-country euro region yesterday lauded Ireland’s budget cuts, echoing the rhetorical support offered in the early stages of Greece’s debt trauma before a rescue became necessary.

Ireland “did not commit to enter a facility, but there are serious market disturbances,” Lenihan said yesterday. European aid is “not inevitable.”

“Traders await any developments about Ireland,” said Jonathan Sudaria of London Capital Group.

Asian, U.S. Shares

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.9 percent today after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the cabinet is drafting plans to stem inflation. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose less than 0.1 percent, following yesterday’s biggest slump for the benchmark U.S. gauge since August.

A U.S. Labor Department report today may show the cost of living rose for a fourth month in October. The consumer-price index increased 0.3 percent after a 0.1 percent gain the prior month, the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey showed. Other figures may show housing starts fell to the lowest level since July.

A measure of health-care stocks climbed 0.8 percent for the biggest gain among 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Actelion surged 8.5 percent to 54.3 Swiss francs after two people with knowledge of the matter said Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, is considering a takeover offer and may approach the drugmaker as early as this week.

Roche Rises

Roche gained 1.3 percent to 144.3 francs after the drugmaker said it will cut 4,800 jobs as part of a cost- reduction program aimed at saving 2.4 billion francs ($2.4 billion) annually.

Roche also reiterated its forecast for this year, saying earnings per share, which excludes exceptional items and amortization and impairment of intangible assets, will probably increase at a double-digit pace at constant exchange rates.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc climbed 2.1 percent to 1,238.5 pence after the U.K. drugmaker and Human Genome Sciences Inc. won a U.S. panel’s backing to sell the first new lupus drug, Benlysta, in more than 50 years.

Thales slid 3.9 percent to 27.31 euros as UBS downgraded the shares to “sell” from “hold.”

ICAP Plc gained 2.1 percent to 475.7 pence as the world’s largest broker of transactions between banks said first-half profit rose, led by its electronic trading business.

Collected from- http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-17/european-stocks-rebound-from-rout-actelion-roche-shares-climb.html

The Value of Ancient Gold Coins

The ancient gold coins that carry historical memory have become the most sought after items. For this reason, those who are lucky to have them are actually sitting on gems that are of immense value. Well not very many are aware of this and they need to know more about these very rare coins.
Even though such coins were usually minted for the purpose of celebrating important events of history, those who have them now know that they are collector items that are cherished across the globe. It is because they store precious historical memories dating thousands of years and mark you, these have evolved over centuries.
Most rulers of nations used to produce the coins to commemorate great events in their countries in those donkey years, and that accounts for their historical value. It is not uncommon to see most of them engraved in a special manner to show the important, unique images of those periods and the rulers.
The coins are dearly cherished because they were minted for general use but the main aim was as celebrations of unique achievements and events in those countries. The people who really hold great pride in owning these precious historical coins are called Numismatists. To them, the coins are historical collectables just like valuable souvenirs.

You would find these coins store memories that were as celebrations of great events in the countries that minted them. When a ruler took over the throne, or wars were fought and worn, such events were marked by new coins being released and distributed to the citizenry. The purpose was to either endear them to the new ruler or to commemorate their achievements.
The coins have even more value since they are often found to have been made of pure gold or silver.
Why are they a very rare type? Well, after the World War II, the world economy suffered a big blow. No countries could afford to mint anymore of such coins. That is why most of the coins after the period were made of base metal.
The coins are now priceless and it is due to their very rare nature. The collectors treasure them because of their history but also because they are mainly of pure gold or silver. The engravings on them tend to tell a history long forgotten but now of great importance to historians.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Warren_Haynie 

Iran no Need of Gold For 10Years

Tehran - The Central Bank of Iran ( CBI) Tehran has imported " hundred of tons of gold" and now it is free from importing the precious metal for at least ten years. for the next 10 years there will be no need to import gold, last year , when the price of each ounce of gold worldwide was on average $656, a few hundred tons of gold import said CBI Governor Mahmoud Bahmani.
" At present, the price of each ounce of gold is $1.230 consequently the value of the national reserves has risen by a few billion dollars" Iran has changed 15 percent of its foreign exchange reserves into gold as the number is 1.7 percent for countries such as China and India.
Iran transferred hard currency deposits that had been kept in certain countries back to the Islamic Republic as a precaution against potential moves to freeze the funds and impose sanctions.
" If we consume 30 tons of gold a year, Iran has gold reserves for the next ten year" CBI governor.
This article taken from- http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7275326-iran-no-need-of-gold-for-10years

NSE and BSE Sensex News - The Best Indicator of the Current Market Conditions

The stock market of India comprises of Bombay stock exchange as well as National stock exchange. Though there are various other indexes, but these two are the key ones that accounts for most of the trading shares in India. There are almost 6000 companies enlisted in this stock market. Most of these Indian companies are multinationals and hence their performance in the stock market drags worldwide attention. Bombay stock exchange has a partnership with Deutsche Borse. In short these two indexes indicates the profit making as well as loss making of a company. In fact, there are the share-holder who are also connected to these. These shareholders buy stakes of the company and sell them when the market of that company is booming and the share prices are high. In fact, the amount of profit depends on the profit making of the company.
Since the market is very unpredictable, hence the business news channels constantly bring regular updates on NSE and BSE sensex News to indicate the present market situations. Such news may not be important for many, but has great significance for share holders to decide when to sell their shares or which company share to buy. BSE is the most widely used market index in entire Asia, whereas NSE has Nifty as its market index.
In fact, NSE is mutually owned by various banks, insurance companies, financial institutions etc. As far as the present Indian stock market updates are concerned, the present world recession has badly hit the stock markets. In the mid day session everyone suffered severe losses. Nifty scored 2899 which indicates a down by 35 points, whereas the sensex showed 9496 which indicates a down of 125 points. Other than this, the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap also showed .5 percent and .2 percent loss, respectively. Other than the loss indications, all the sector trading indices are also showing a negative drop. All sectors like metal, oil and gas as well as banking sector showed substantial loss in the mid day trading session. Even the US market was worst hit by this recession. Companies like Asian peers, Nikkei and Straits Times suffered a loss of .23 to .6. Even the highly renowned Hang Seng suffered a loss of 3 percent.
Further NSE and BSE sensex news update showed a sign of improvement for Indian companies. Though things improved for the Indian companies in the ending session, the US peers still showed a down by 88 points with a score of 8130, and the NASDAQ was down with 13 points with a score of 1263. As for the Indian stock market, the sensex showed a gradual rise of 64 points and the Nifty ended the day with a decent gain of 15 points. Other than this, even the CNX Midcap and the BSE Smallcap improved with a rise of 1.6 and .2 percent respectively. Sectors like capital goods, realty, pharma also showed performance improvement. According to the recent NSE and BSE sensex News updates, the companies that were worst hit are Kriti, Cranes, KSB and Gujarat. On the other hand, the top gainers are Surya, Himadri, GSS and Ansal B.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Crerar