Sydney - Australian shares l

Washington - The US Federal Reserve Board late Sunday agreed to applications by investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to become bank holding companies.

The rate-setting central bank said in a statement said that the approval was granted, pending a five-day antitrust waiting period.

Sydney - Australia's securities regulator Sunday joined the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland in curbing the short-selling of shares.

In a short sale, a trader sells borrowed stock, hoping to make a profit by buying it back at a cheaper price.

Many argue that short-selling is behind the turmoil in global share markets. They claim hedge funds are deliberately driving down the price of shares in order to make windfall profits when they buy them back.

Last week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ruled that from Monday a temporary ban on what's called naked short-selling would take effect. In naked short-selling, traders sell shares they don't actually own.

The sell-off in the worldwide financial services stocks with disastrous impact on the market, following the crises at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch shook the Indian bourses too during the week resulting in the benchmark Sensex to fall down. 
 
Lots of stocks hit their lows because of the sharp fall. Around 250 companies hit their 52-week lows on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Washington - The US government is submitting a finance rescue package to Congress that is valued at 700 to 800 billion dollars, media reports said Saturday.

In the largest intervention in capital markets since the 1930s, the administration of US President George W Bush Friday proposed to mop up bad mortgage debt with its first system-wide attack on turmoil in the finance industry that threatens the nation with economic collapse.

Washington  - The US government is submitting a finance rescue package to Congress that is valued at 700 to 800 billion dollars, media reports said Saturday.

In the largest intervention in capital markets since the 1930s, the administration of US President George W Bush Friday proposed to mop up bad mortgage debt with its first system-wide attack on turmoil in the finance industry that threatens the nation with economic collapse.