Over the weekend, UBS said it will buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion francs ($3.2 billion), and assume up to $5.4 billion in losses, in a deal engineered by Swiss authorities.
Soon after the announcement, U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and other major central banks came out with statements to reassure markets hurt by fears of contagion in banking. But investor sentiment remained fragile.
At least two major banks in Europe are examining scenarios of contagion and are looking to the Fed and the ECB for stronger signals of support, two senior executives close to the discussion told Reuters. In the U.S., First Republic Bank had its credit rating pushed into junk status by S&P Global.
Market participants are keenly awaiting the Fed policy decision on Wednesday. Interest rate futures pricing implies about a 60% chance of a Fed rate hike. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were down 0.74%. Foreign institutional investors (FII) extended their selling streak to a seventh straight session on Friday, selling a net 17.67 billion rupees ($214.13 million) worth of equities.
Stocks to Watch:
** Rail Vikas Nigam : Co emerges as lowest bidder
for project worth 10.88 billion rupees
** Tata Consumer : Co drops acquisition talks with
Bisleri
** Torrent Pharma : U.S. FDA issues Form 483 with
one observation for co's Gujarat facility
** HDFC and HDFC Bank : National Company Law
Tribunal approves merger between HDFC and HDFC Bank
($1 = 82.5200 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; editing by
Eileen Soreng)
