Global trade war concerns hurt most S-E Asian stocks; Singapore rises

The Philippines stocks fell on Tuesday on the peso’s continued slide coupled with renewed trade war concerns, while Singapore extended gains for a fifth session thanks to “window dressing” attempts by portfolio managers ahead of the third quarter close. Broader Asian stocks struggled as the latest round of US-China tariffs revived fears the trade dispute would knock global growth, with neither side looking to be in a mood to compromise.

MSCI’s broadest index of APAC shares outside Japan edged down 0.3 per cent.

“The failure of China and the US to come to terms on the negotiation table ... is creating weakness in major economies in Asia, and has resulted in most Southeast Asian equities to retreat from what they gained last week,” said Manny Cruz, a Manila-based analyst at Asiasec Equities Inc.

Filippino stocks fell the most in the region, down about 0.7 per cent after two days of gains, with financials and real-estate stocks weighing on the index.

Business Standard

Infosys taps new technologies to map learning ability of employees

Infosys, India’s second largest IT services company, is using technologies such as machine learning, big data and analytics and artificial intelligence to map the learning ability of the employees and suggest training programmes that best suit them.

The Bengaluru-based company has developed an in-house platform –– Recommendation Engine –– which does a 360 degree profiling of employees, using their historical data including performance in various projects, educational qualifications and attitude and aptitude. Post this assessment, the engine recommends ...Read Full Story

Google is betting big on cloud services to woo Indian companies

In the face of rising competition from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, global tech giant Google is betting big on its cloud services to woo 44 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs), more than 20,000 start-ups and hundreds of major companies.

Google’s cloud customers in India include Ashok Leyland, goibibo.com, Hero MotoCorp, Policybazaar.com, Quikr, Yaatra, SBI Cards, Hike Messenger, Vistara and ShareChat.

The company, which currently has three data centres in Mumbai, is on an expansion spree.

Knowing that the demand is set to increase from the fintech sector in over the next couple of months as banks and non-banking financial institutions hurry to meet Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) directive to bring financial data back to India, the company is hoping for a rise in demand.

The tech giant is pitching its artificial intelligence and machine learning laden cloud service as an easy to use and secure option, which it claims is better than competition.

iPhone X debut: Should Apple worry as model 7 outsells 8 in US?

Apple Inc’s older iPhone 7 models are outselling the recently launched iPhone 8 ahead of the early November debut of the premium iPhone X, broker KeyBanc Capital Markets said, citing carrier store surveys.

Traditionally, new editions of the iPhone have sold quickly as fans queue for the latest upgrade, but early surveys have added to chatter that the iPhone 8 is not proving as popular as its predecessors.

US wireless carrier AT&T said last week its third-quarter postpaid handset upgrades were fewer by nearly 900,000 from a year ago, and brokerage Jefferies attributed it to weak iPhone 8 demand.

“Many respondents indicated that a meaningful portion of customers are buying iPhone 7 in lieu of the new iPhone 8, given the lack of significant enhancements in the new phone,” KeyBanc analyst John Vinh wrote in a client note.

Vinh also said feedback from stores indicated that customers were waiting to purchase the iPhone X or to compare the iPhone X with other models before buying the iPhone 8.

Apple last month introduced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which resemble the iPhone 7 but have a glass back for wireless charging. While iPhone 8 starts from $699 in the United States, iPhone 7 is retailing from $549 after a price cut.

Apple's iPhone 8 pops open due to bloated battery: Chinese state media

A fresh case of Apple Inc's new iPhone popping open due to a swollen battery has been reported in state media in China, the world's biggest smartphone market where the US firm is seeking to revive faltering sales.

The incident comes as Apple investigates similar cases reported in Taiwan and Japan of batteries in its latest iPhone 8 Plus becoming bloated, causing the device's casing to open.

On its website on Thursday, China's state-backed ThePaper.cn cited an iPhone buyer surnamed Liu as saying his newly purchased iPhone 8 Plus arrived cracked open on Oct 5. There was no sign of scorching or an explosion.

Liu told ThePaper he bought the handset through online marketplace of JD.com Inc. He said he did not charge the new device and returned it to the seller.

Pictures taken by Liu and displayed on ThePaper's website showed an iPhone 8 plus split open along the side featuring the sim card holding, with the phone's internal parts visible.

An Apple spokesperson said the company is looking into the matter and declined to comment further.

The incident comes as indifferent reviews of the iPhone 8, which comes 10 years after Apple released the first version of the revolutionary phone, drove down shares of the company since the handset's launch.

Some investors worry whether pre-orders for the device were well below previous launches, although some Apple fans are waiting for the premium iPhone X due out in early November.

Apple competes in China with local makers, including Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Oppo which sell phones with high-end features at lower prices.

Israel to pip US as India's largest arms supplier with Barak missiles, UAVs

BREAKING NEWS - Israel is set to overtake the US and become India’s largest foreign arms supplier in 2016-17 with lucrative contracts to supply advanced anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence systems to the army and navy.

On Thursday, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced the award of Indian defence contracts totalling “almost $2 billion” (Rs 13,000 crore).

One mega-contract worth over $1.6 billion, which an IAI release termed “the largest defense contract in Israel's defense industries’ (sic) history” is for the supply of Medium Range Surface to Air Missiles (MR-SAM) to the Indian Army.

In addition, IAI says it has been awarded a contract to supply additional Long Range Surface to Air Missiles (LR-SAMs) anti-ship missile defence systems for INS Vikrant, India’s first home-built aircraft carrier, which is being constructed in Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and IAI have jointly developed MR-SAM and LR-SAM. The DRDO developed the propulsion systems of the MR-SAM, while IAI developed the radar and guidance systems.

The LR-SAM, also called the Barak 8, detects and shoots down incoming anti-ship missiles (ASMs) at ranges out to 70 kilometres. Sea-skimming, hard-to-detect ASMs like the Harpoon and Exocet, which can be launched from aircraft, surface warships or submarines, are one of the greatest hazards a surface warship faces. The LR-SAM provides effective protection against the newest generation of these anti-ship missiles. (READ MORE)

Even Donald Trump building isn't immune to India's real estate woes

Latest Business News - After trying for four months to sell his apartment in a western suburb of Mumbai, Meher Verma decided to cut the price by 10 per cent. With property demand plummeting in the wake of November’s sudden ban on high-denomination notes, he’s not sure the reduction will do the trick.

“I was hoping to sell my house soon,” said Verma, who put his two-bedroom property in Andheri on the market for $400,000 in September. “Now it looks like I might have to cut my price or wait much longer for the market to improve.”

Real estate has long been a place where Indians have parked cash, often using money on which taxes haven’t been paid. Now, with the crackdown on so-called black money and the underground economy, real estate is taking a hit. The rate of home sales has fallen by about half since the government acted in early November, according to an estimate from Khushru Jijina, managing director of Piramal Fund Management. Home prices may decline 20 per cent and land prices could plummet as much as 25 per cent, according to analysts’ projections. 

“Those who were looking to buy property as an investment vanished overnight from the market after the cash ban,” said Aubrey Carvallo, a Mumbai broker who has never seen demand in Mumbai so low in his two decades of working in the industry. He’s been unsuccessfully seeking buyers for eight apartments with prices starting at Rs 1.5 crore. “They are thinking of moving to stock markets and other financial assets, as real estate prices are set to correct in the coming years with the government crackdown on unaccounted money.”(Read More)