Where is the Bourse heading?

Rumours are that the Colombo Bourse is on the verge of a collapse stemming from a predicted market correction although analysts say the present downslide could only be temporary.

The upmarket Milanka Price Index at the Colombo Stock Exchange fell sharply by about 5 % a while ago (10.30 am) on Wednesday prompting Exchange authorities to halt trading under the 'cooling off' period rule.

Both indices at Colombo bourse took a beating right from  the start  go on Tuesday morning as selling pressure continued to materialized throughout the day, analysts said.

 Richard Pieris was the highest traded counter for the day. Aitken Spence came in at second, while Seylan Bank Non voting came in at third.  John Keells Holding was the top contributor to daily turnover with Rs.605 million.  Hayleys came in at second with Rs.4 million.





Analysts speculated that brokers have slowly started to unload debtors to the market and is trying to out do/out sell each other in to meet the credit granting timeline.

The All Share Price dipped 267.81 points to close at 6,566.79 points (-3.92%), whilst the Milanka Price Index also dropped  361.31 points to close at 7,141.72 points (-4.420%).

Turnover was Rs2.96 billion.

The stockmarket has been seeing sharps 'ups' and 'downs' in post-war Sri Lanka with punters having a field day, making millions of rupees in speculative trades.

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MR to be a guest at C'wealth closing ceremony

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa is set to be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in India, on Thursday night.Diplomatic sources and protocol officials in Delhi today confirmed that Rajapaksa had accepted a "joint" invitation from the Indian government and the event organisers, and would be flying to India on Wednesday.

Aslam Khan, head of protocol for the games, confirmed that the choice of guest for the closing ceremony in the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Delhi was a "joint venture between the Indian government and the organising committee". Rajapaksa is not expected to speak at the event, Khan said.

Sri Lanka however has been blocked from hosting the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders in 2011, after Britain and Australia joined forces last year to protest at alleged human rights abuses. 

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Tata Housing to launch projects in Sri Lanka

Tata Housing, a unit of Tata Sons, is foraying into international markets with the launch of projects in Sri Lanka and Maldives in the current quarter

, a recent foreign media report said. The real estate company, known for low-cost housing projects, plans to do a mix of luxury and affordable housing projects in these markets.



"We have got interest from other foreign countries also, which we are examining. But for now, we are planning to launch our projects in one of the cities in Sri Lanka or Maldives in the current quarter," said Brotin Banerjee, managing director and chief executive officer.



The company may partner with local governments and land owners to launch its projects, he said.



He denied that the company was going the Tata group way, which derives 70 per cent of its revenues from international markets through companies such as Tata Steel , Tata Motors and others.



"It (international markets) will be a significant portion in the coming years but we will go in the reverse way to our parent. Nearly 80 per cent of our revenues will come from India [ Images ] and the rest from abroad," he said.



The company today launched an arm by the name of Smart Value Homes which will sell houses in the range of Rs 500,000 to Rs 35 lakh (Rs 3.5 million).



Tata Housing today announced the launch of its second 'Shubh Griha' project at Vasind, on the outskirts of Mumbai [ Images ], part of Smart Value Homes.



The new company will sell low-cost homes below Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) and affordable homes between Rs 12 lakh (Rs 1.2 million) to Rs 35 lakh, he said.



The company has acquired five to six million sq ft of land and plans to acquire six-seven million sq ft more to launch its projects in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.



"All the segments of housing have high potential. But if Tata Housing did all of them, it would lead to dilution of our potential. Hence, we launched the new company," he said.

Source : Rediff.com

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Microsoft unveils first Windows Phone 7 handsets

Microsoft yesterday unveiled the first phones based on its Windows Phone 7 operating system. The first nine handsets are from Dell, HTC, LG and Samsung and all run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. 



A number of operators have announced plans to offer the phones, including America Movil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, Telus, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone. 



Microsoft said a "broad selection" of the phones will begin shipping in time for this year's holidays, with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. In addition, select models will be available at Microsoft Store locations and from Amazon. Unique features of the new OS include Live Tiles, similar to widgets which bring live updates form applications and services to the handset's home screen; mobile games over Microsoft's Xbox Live service; the Zune music service, available as a susbcription or via downloads and streaming from the Windows Marketplace; dedicated web search from the home screen with Bing; Windows Live to manage personal content, agenda and information from other Windows software; and the free Find My Phone service to remotely ring, lock, erase and show the location of the phone on a map.

Confirmed launches in time for the holdiays include AT&T with the HTC Surround, Samsung Focus, and LG Quantum; T-Mobile USA with the HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro; Telus with the HTC 7 Surround and LG Optimus 7; and America Movil with the LG Optimus 7 in Mexico. 



In Europe, O2 will offer the HTC HD7 in the UK and Germany; Orange will sell the HTC 7 Mozart and Samsung Omnia 7 in France and the UK; France's SFR has the HTC 7 Trophy and Samsung Omnia 7; Movistar will sell the LG Optimus 7, HTC HD7 and Samsung Omnia 7 in Spain; T-Mobile will offer the HTC 7 Mozart and Samsung Omnia 7 in Germany; and Vodafone has the HTC 7 Trophy in Germany, Spain and the UK and LG Optimus 7 in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.



In Asia, Singtel will sell the HTC HD 7 and LG Optimus 7 in its home market, while Telstra is launching the HTC 7 Mozart and LG Optimus 7Q in Australia. Vodafone will also sell the HTC 7 Trophy in Australia. Microsoft said that in total over 60 operators have confirmed plans to launch the phones in 30 countries.

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Airasia named the Best Asian Low-Cost Carrier

AirAsia was named the Best Asian Low-Cost Carrier by TTG, Asia Pacific’s leading travel news publisher.AirAsia was unanimously named Best Asian Low-Cost Carrier by the readers of TTG Asia, TTG China, TTGmice, TTG-BTmice China and ttgasia eDaily who cast 48,000 votes in a poll held from June to August this year.  The award reflects the airline’s popularity among travel trade insiders and the traveling public.Dato’ Aziz Bakar, chairman of AirAsia, received the award at the 21st Annual TTG Travel Awards 2010 Ceremony & Gala Dinner in Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld, Bangkok.  More than 700 travel industry professionals attended the event.

Dato’ Aziz said, “We are proud to be named the best low-cost airline again.  This award reflects AirAsia’s commitment to excellence and to growing travel and tourism in the region.  We have flown 100 million guests in only eight years of operations as a low-cost airline that has made it truly possible for everyone to fly.”

“The innovation that is AirAsia will go on serving the region with low fares, an extensive network of destinations, great flight frequencies and friendly ASEAN service,” he added.
Dato’ Aziz thanked the almost 8,000-strong AirAsians who have been instrumental in the success of the airline across all fronts.

In 2009, TTG’s editorial board also named AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes the Travel Personality of the Year for being the “most outstanding individual for taking proactive steps to develop the travel industry and for demonstrating innovation in his field.”  Tony has led the airline in revolutionizing air travel and popularizing low fares that now allow everyone to fly.

The airline has invested millions of dollars in quality improvement measures that include the running of its world-class training center, the AirAsia Academy.  Technology is integrated in operations across the airline’s entire network to improve operational efficiency, and training programs are in place to ensure high quality service.

AirAsia, the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia, services the most extensive network with approximately 136 routes covering destinations in Asia, Australia and Europe. In 8 plus years of operations, AirAsia has carried more than 100 million guests and grown its fleet from just two aircraft to approximately 96. The airline today is proud to be a truly Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) airline with established operations based in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, servicing a network stretching across all Asean countries, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Australia. This is further complemented by AirAsia X, its low-cost long-haul affiliate carrier that currently flies to destinations in China, Australia, Taiwan, India, Iran, Japan, Korea and the UK. AirAsia is the regional carrier with the largest destination network and highest flight frequencies. AirAsia was named World’s Best Low Cost Airline in the annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax for two consecutive years in 2009 and 2010.

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Sri Lankans arrested in major illegal immigration investigation

In one of the largest enforcement operations ever undertaken, the UK Border Agency and police officers undertook a series of raids on twenty-one locations in Sussex, Surrey and Kent at the end of September. These raids followed an eight month investigation by the UK Border Agency's South East Immigration Crime Team into a gang suspected of facilitating illegal working by immigrants for an employment agency in Crawley, Surrey.

Five people, including two Sri Lankan nationals, were arrested for various immigration offences including facilitating breach of UK immigration laws and money laundering. A further twenty-five people, mainly understood to be Sri Lankan nationals, were also arrested for immigration offences at a number of locations in Sussex and Surrey. The UK Border Agency will seek to remove those found to be working in the UK illegally.
Damian Green, Minister for Immigration, said:
“This was part of a nationwide UK Border Agency campaign to tackle illegal working and organised immigration crime.
“Working with the police and other law enforcement partners we are determined to tackle the organised criminals who prey on vulnerable immigrants, and take action against those who break the law. Today’s operation is an example of that.”

Andy Cummins, who heads up the South East Immigration Crime Team, said:
“We believe that we have disrupted a significant international organised criminal network, which aimed to assist people to enter and stay in the UK illegally.
   
“Today’s operation is the result of an extensive investigation involving both the UK Border Agency and the police South East Organised Crime Directorate. That investigation continues”


The South East Immigration Crime Team is a specialist unit of seconded police officers and UK Border Agency staff have been set up to investigate immigration crime, and prosecute those behind it. Officers from Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Kent and Thames Valley Police forces are involved.
 
Anyone who suspects that illegal workers are being employed at a business or any other immigration crimes can contact Crimestoppers on 0044 (0) 800 555 111 ,or visit www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/report-immigration-crime  where anonymity can be guaranteed.
 
A fine of up to £10,000 can be imposed on an employer for every illegal worker found in the business, unless the employer can prove that it carried out the correct right-to-work checks on the employees.

Employers can find guidance on how to employ workers legally at www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers or by calling the UK Border Agency’s Employers’ Helpline on 0044 (0) 300 123 4699.

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Fishing ban lifted

Sri Lanka has lifted all restrictions for fishing imposed due to LTTE terrorism making the country's territorial waters free and open for fishing.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratna said according to Defence Ministry the sea will now be free of restrictions except for areas where landmines were not yet removed.

The decision has taken by the Defence Ministry after a discussion held between Minister Senaratne and the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, early last week.

He said following the decision to lift the ban on fishing, the restrictions imposed on fishing boats with 40 HP engines has also been lifted. 

" This is the first time the government has lifted the ban on fishing boats with 40 HP engines. We expect a good harvest this time", he said.

The Defence Ministry has agreed to release the 141 fishing boats with 40 HP engines held in their custody to the Fisheries Ministry .

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