Iceland gets swamped by the financial crisis

We have heard some of the major investment banks go bust during the current financial crisis but what a whole country? But it could really happen and pretty soon if things don't work out well for Iceland!

All the top 3 banks in Iceland have run into trouble and no Western European country has come to its rescue so far. All they need is 4 billion euro and none of its friends have come forward. On the contrary to its NATO members response Russia has shown interest and is in talks at the moment and obviously they are doing it for much more than economic reasons. But this does not come out well then Iceland can go bankrupt. The following is the excerpt from a news report

Iceland took control on Thursday of its biggest bank, Kaupthing, to try to shore up a teetering banking system.

The state has now seized control of three of the nation's major banks after Landsbanki and Glitnir were taken over earlier this week.

At the center of a financial hurricane which has claimed several of the world's biggest banks, Iceland's prime minister has warned of the risk of national bankruptcy.

The central bank has tried then abandoned attempts to prop up its battered currency.

Indian Stock Market News Round up - More bad news from Global Banks!!

The Indian Market did not do well yesterday and is volatile today. And to add to the misery global banks have again come out with fresh package of bad news that is sure to affect the market sentiment world wide.

Major head line news item is UBS writing down whopping 19 billion dollars!! Here is the snippet from one of the websites

UBS AG wrote down an additional $19 billion on U.S. real estate and related assets on Tuesday, causing a net loss of 12 billion Swiss francs ($12.03 billion) in the first quarter, and said it would seek 15 billion francs through a rights issue of shares.

The writedowns come at the upper end of expectations and on top of $18.4 billion in damage caused by the subprime crisis last year, which had already forced the bank to ask shareholder approval for 19 billion francs in capital-raising measures in February

Another news item that caught my eye today and which sounded so nonsensical and funny was this -

Day traders would abstain from trading on Tuesday to protest the Budget proposal on Securities Transaction Tax (STT), which would make their activity in the stock market unattractive.

But this one is definitely worth reading and is a positive move as far as I am concerned.

On the heels of rising inflation and slackening industrial output comes the latest change in accounting norms, requiring Indian companies to disclose losses arising out of derivative contracts.

The market is clueless as to how many companies have signed such deals. But that has only added to the already long list of worries; nobody knows which company may throw up a nasty surprise in its fourth-quarter numbers. Still, the dominant concern at the moment is inflation, which has now climbed to a 13-month high.

RK
Singapore Property