Hackers who hit JPMorgan attacked some 9 other firms - report

REUTERS - About nine other banks and brokerages were infiltrated by the same group of hackers who recently attacked computer systems at JPMorgan Chase & Co, the New York Times reported late on Friday, citing unnamed people briefed on the matter.

The report, which could not be independently verified and did not identify any of the victims beyond JPMorgan, said it was not clear how serious the attacks had been.

JPMorgan said on Thursday that names and contact information for some 83 million household and small business customers were stolen, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history.

The New York Times said the breadth of the attacks and uncertainty about the motives of the hackers are troubling U.S. policymakers and intelligence officials.

Representatives with the U.S. Secret Service could not be reached for comment on Saturday morning. The Secret Service is investigating the attack on JPMorgan.

FPIs seen to remain bullish on India market

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are expected to continue to pump in funds in the Indian equities market, as upbeat sentiment like weak global gold and oil prices and the upcoming quarterly results season makes it attractive.

"The FIIs will be watching the quarterly results closely. Plus the money flow is expected to continue as the Indian economy remains attractive," Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president- private client group research, Kotak Securities told IANS.

However, the FPIs had become net sellers in the equities market this week due to negative global cues such as slow growth in Europe and Chinese economy and Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to maintain key interest rates in its bi-monthly monetary policy.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) along with sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors have been clubbed together by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to create a new investor category called FPIs.

FPIs massively sold stocks worth Rs.653.95 crore or $105.29 million, according to data with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

For the week ended Sep 26, the FPIs had sold stocks worth Rs.2,487.02 crore and had only bought shares worth $75.40 million or Rs.458.34 crore.

Davendra Nevgi, chief executive, ZyFin Advisors who told IANS that due to weak global cues markets will watch developments like price drops in gold and oil keenly, this in turn will make the Indian markets more attractive.

Apart from low oil and gold prices positive global cues like the recent euphoria in the US market due to the strong employment numbers is also expected to have healthy impact on the market.

The U.S. Labor Department this week reported that the economy created 248,000 jobs last month, its strongest performance since pre-financial crises days.

Crude oil prices continued to decline after Saudi Arabia's state-run oil company cut prices.

Gold prices too dropped significantly to be sold below $1,200 an ounce for the first time this year.

The Indian equities markets had posted marginal losses in the current truncated week as profit booking led to volatile trade.

The benchmark Sensex was marginally down by 0.21 percent in the week ended Oct 1 from its previous weekly close on Sep 26. The index closed at 26,567.99 points, while it had ended trade at 26,626.32 points on Sep 26.

In the previous week the 30-scrip Sensitive Index had lost 1.71 percent in the week ended Sep 26 from its previous weekly close on Sep 19. The index closed at 26,626.32 points, while it had ended trade at 27,090.42 points on Sep 19.

Modi inspires investor confidence in US visit, $42 bn committed

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "extremely successful" US visit, especially his meeting with top business leaders there, has seen a US-India business body committing to $42 billion investment in India with many lauding the "Gujarat model" of development.

In a survey following Modi's five-day visit, the US-India Business Council (USIBC), in a survey, found that $42 billion was willing to be committed over the next two-three years for investment by just 20 percent of the members surveyed, said government sources Saturday.

If the rest of the USIBC members and the top US businesses had been surveyed, the figure would have exceeded $100 billion, the official added.

There was a "very positive" investor sentiment among the businesspersons in the US "based on the experience in Gujarat", said the source.

What added to the investor confidence was Prime Minister Modi being very conversant with the "nuts and bolts" of business during his interactions with the top CEOs of global firms like Google, Boeing, Black Rock and Pepsico.

Modi's position as being the head of a majority government, without being hobbled by the pulls and pressures of allies, also added to the confidence levels.

The prime minister conveyed with great clarity on assurances of his government of removing red tape and of making the business environment easy, which also helped, the sources added.

The US business leaders did raise the issue of taxes and the issue of "ease of doing business" in India repeatedly, said the official source.

But following talks with the prime minister, the US businesspersons were "all very positively inclined and committed to raising the investment portfolio in India", the source added.

This is a major initiative for increasing FDI and FII flows from US, the leading source of FDI and FII in the world, to India.

The Indo-US Investment Initiative is to be led by the India's finance ministryand the US Department of Treasury. It is to focus on raising investment by institutional investors and corporate entities primarily by facilitating individual investment proposals and projects.

Under the initiative, the finance ministry will set up a single-point problem resolution and facilitation arrangement for ensuring that prospective investments do not face unnecessary hurdles and actually materialize. It will have a particular focus on capital market development and financing of infrastructure.

An Infrastructure Collaboration Platform is also being set up between the finance ministry and the US Department of Commerce to enhance participation of US companies in infrastructure projects in India.

Among the list of Modi's one-on-one meetings on Sep 29 were: W. James (Jim) McNerney, chairman of Boeing, Laurence D. Fink, CEO of American multinational investment management firm Black Rock; Ginni Rometty, president and CEO of IBM; Jeffrey R. Immelt. chairman and CEO of General Electric; ALloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs and Henry Kravis, CEO of American private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. (KKR).

During the breakfast meeting he interacted with 11 leading individual CEOs, including Google's Eric Schmidt, David M. Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group, Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar Inc, AIndra Nooyi of Pepsico and AMicheal Ball of Hospira Inc. a U.S.-based global pharmaceutical company and Kenneth C. Frazier of Merck and Co.