• According to the Ernst & Young Institutional Investor IPO Survey 2009, a handful of Initial Public Offering (IPO) markets would show recovery by the end of 2009. Of over 300 institutional investors surveyed across the world, 57% believe that India and Brazil are most likely to lead recovery by the end of 2009.

• India's financial hub Mumbai and the capital Delhi, along with other emerging markets are likely to make it to the league of the world's wealthiest cities by 2025, says a report.

• SEBI has recently amended 'employee reservation' for allotment of share to employees in case of Follow-on Public Offers (FPO) to Rs 1 lakh and has also altered the discount to employees on the issue price from 10% to 5%.

• To bridge the fiscal deficit which is at Rs 401,000 crore, or 6.8% of GDP, the government hopes to raise Rs 25,000 crore, which is 6.2% of the fiscal deficit. This will be raised from stake sale in public sector companies in the current financial year ending March, as a divestment strategy.

• IRDA and SEBI are paving the way for guidelines for listing insurance companies. A committee set up for the said purpose will look at the level of divestment that a company could undertake with the stock market and also discuss the valuation norms. The move will pave the way for life insurance companies to get listed on the exchange.

• UTI Dividend Yield fund, an open ended equity scheme declared a 5% tax free dividend. The record date for the dividend is fixed as November 13, 2009.

• Subscribers to CRA Lite - the low cost version of the New Pension Scheme, will not be able to open the Tier II accounts like the normal subscribers. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is negotiating the annual maintenance charges for this account with the central record keeper National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) to bring charges to Rs 60.

• MFs online trading platform would be available by March 2010. The platform is currently subject to regulatory clearances. The platform will allow retail investors to trade, switch over and compare schemes online through a single window.

• The repurchase (repo) of corporate bonds on the stock exchange is likely to begin in the year 2010. This move is expected to give the much needed fillip to the development of the listed corporate bond market in the country.

• World confidence slips as the Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index fell to 60.3 from 61.7 in October. The index exceeded 50 levels for a four month period, which means there were more optimists than pessimists. The fall in this index is mainly due to the central banks' look to withdraw stimulus.