Markets and Industry Roundup - week ending March 27, 2009

Markets Roundup:

• Markets rose broadly during the week led by financials again amidst a bunch of positive economic data, though ended with profit booking on Friday
• The rally was fuelled by the release of details on the Obama administration's plan to remove toxic assets from bank balance sheets, better than expected home sales data, and in-line reports on Q4 GDP and weekly jobless claims.
• US existing home sales rose 5.1% month-over-month in February, a dramatic jump over the expected drop of 0.9% and new home sales increased 4.7% month-over-month against an estimated drop of 2.9%
• February durable goods orders increased 3.4% month-over-month compared to the expectation of a decline of 2.5%
• The fourth quarter GDP showed a 6.3% annualized rate of contraction, which wasn't as bad as the 6.6% decline that was expected.
• Weekly initial jobless claims climbed 8,000 from the prior week to 652,000 in-line with expectations. Continuing claims climbed more than expected to a record high of 5.56 million, though.
• Rumors surfaced again that SEC is considering modifying its uptick rules

Industry Roundup:

• Tech services sector was up 1.4% during the week
• IBM has set up the first electronic medical-record exchange for the US govt, whereby the system will give the US Social Security Administration online access to health-care records for disability applicants, cutting claim processing time to minutes from months.
• IBM announced a new offering, designed as a completely outsourced turnkey solution, that enables mortgage loan servicers to process large volumes of loan modification requests with greater speed, efficiency and accuracy
• HP has won a $50 million contract from Korea’s Shinhan Bank for a technology solution to help the bank improve its return on investment, enhance its business efficiency and expand its operations
• CSC and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) today announced the launch of the AORN SSPN, software content for perioperative care nurses that integrates into electronic health record systems & nursing documentation systems
• CSC won a 3-year contract from United Utilities, largest water & wastewater operator in UK, to provide infrastructure services, system integration & system support
• Accenture has helped Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) implement a significant operational & technology upgrade on-budget and ahead of schedule. The 2-year project replaced more than 20 legacy information technology systems to provide OFR with an integrated financial regulatory management system
• Accenture reported results for 2nd quarter ended Feb 28 - Revenues of $5.27 billion, a decrease of 6% year-on-year; Diluted EPS of $0.63 over $0.64 in Q2 last year; revised guidance of 0-4% growth in revenue for full year versus 6-10% earlier
• Perot won a 5-year $7.5 million contract from NASA to provide engineering, technical & program management support to NASA's Office of the Chief Engineer
• Telstra Corp. has ended one of its IT outsourcing contracts with IBM and has given it to Infosys; less than a week ago, Telstra had terminated its contract with Satyam and awarded it to EDS. This is part of its consolidation of its outsourcing partners from four (IBM, EDS, Satyam, Infy) to two (Infy, EDS)
• Infosys has launched a program where it has its top employees an option to work with a non-profit organization for a year but continue to earn half their income.
• WorkLight Inc and TCS have partnered to provide companies the ability to securely engage customers, partners and employees through consumer Web 2.0 tools
• ATCO has entered into a strategic relationship with Wipro to provide joint delivery of some customer care services and to pursue new opportunities in the utility business process outsourcing market
• Satyam won a contract to implement SAP(R) Business All-in-One solutions for Vijay Dairy & Farm Products, one of the leading dairy processors in India; meanwhile UN plans to terminate its outsourcing contracts with Satyam and to bar the outsourcer from bidding on future work
• HCL has entered into a three year contract with MJ Logistic Services, a leading third-party logistics solutions provider in India
• Patni announced signing two $10 million deals in Japan (one with Hitachi) in the recent past and said that it is witnessing increased traction in the region where it has close to 1,100 employees
• ACS announced the transition of about 500 of its US employees working primarily in the IT services space to Patni