Oct

13

GE Stocks Rally in a Gloomy Market

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Stocks of General Electric Co rose by 13% in New York trading as the company’s third quarter profit matched forecast by analysts despite a financial climate riddled with chaos and panic.

The rise in the value of GE stocks is the greatest in the last 28 years and owes to the company’s positive performance in the third quarter period. GE sales increased by 11% to $47.2 billion in the last quarter. However profits from continuing operations declined by 12% from last year’s $5.11 billion or 50 cents a share to $4.48 billion or 45 cents a share. The announcement of its third quarter results and the fact that they met estimates by analysts pushed GE stocks up by $2.49 to $21.50 at 4:15 p.m in the New York Stock Exchange.

GE Co. is more than a hundred years old and based at Fairfield, Connecticut. It has interests in a wide spectrum of sectors and its products range from light bulbs to power plant turbines and financial services. This year, GE earned the major part of its earnings from its energy, technology as well as NBC Universal businesses. However the crisis prevailing in US credit markets have given rise to investor concerns about the health of the company’s finance units under GE Capital.

Oct

6

Asian Markets Plunge as Financial Crisis Spreads

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Stock markets across Asia dived Monday with major indexes plunging 4% or more in a wave of selling driven by a global credit financial crisis.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average closed at 4.3% lower at 10473.09, the lowest since February 2004. Japanese stocks sank for a third session, leading shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial to fall by 9% while those of Sony Corp hit the lowest in more than five years.

In China too stocks plunged sharply as the markets opened after a week-long National holidays. In keeping with the southward trend of the rest of the region, the Shanghai composite plunged by 5.2% to 2173.74 while the Shenzan All Share Index slipped by 3.8% to 590.91.

this downward trend dragged along China-related stocks in Hong Kong too as the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell by 6.6% to end at 8416.90 while the Hang Seng Index slid by 5% to close at 16803.76, the lowest in over two years. Jakarta stocks, on the other hand dived by whopping 10% amid fears of a raging financial crisis across the globe. India’s Sensex too dropped by 5.4% to 11855.72, thus falling below the 12000 point mark for the first time since September 2006.