World Markets Simplified

Global brands from Twitter to Amazon are buying up Colombian Internet addresses, as the country's .co domain attracts organizations unable to get their choice of .com address or who want a shorter name.

Colombia, which had only 28,000 registered Internet addresses before it opened up the .co domain a year ago, has just signed up its millionth customer.

"It's globally recognizable, it's short, and it's got an incredible technology behind it," says Juan Diego Calle, chief executive of .CO Internet, the registry operator for the .co top level domain.

He says the company mainly attracts small businesses which cannot get a .com address that suits them — some 90 million .com addresses have been registered.

But top brands are signing up too.

Twitter, for example, has bought t.co, Amazon has a.co, and U.S. online retailer Overstock is rebranding itself internationally as o.co.

Calle, a Colombian and a serial Internet entrepreneur, raised $5 million to start .CO Internet and beat rivals including VeriSign, which serves as the global registry for .com and .net, to win the government contract to operate the .co domain.

The Miami-based company took over the administration of .co in July 2010, and organizations or individuals can now simply buy a .co address for as little as $11.99 from Internet domain registrars such as Go Daddy.

Attractive single-character names such as t.co are not sold through registrars but through private negotations.

The highest price the company has disclosed for a name is $350,000 for the sale of o.co to Overstock, but Calle says growing awareness of the .co domain as well as increasing demand for short names for mobile applications is driving prices up.

"After Amazon and after a few of the other deals that we've done over the past few months, the price of one character is already north of $1.5 million," he told Reuters by telephone.

Other countries have also capitalised on their top-level Internet domains.

The Polynesian island of Tuvalu's .tv domain is used by many television organisations, while Montenegro's .me is increasingly popular for apps for smartphones like the Apple iPhone.

Country codes are administered by ICANN, the non-profit group that coordinates the Internet's naming system.

The codes were first established by the International Organisation for Standardisation in 1974, before the World Wide Web was invented.

Top-level domains are currently restricted but an impending liberalization will allow individuals or organizations to apply to register any TLDs they choose, for example .paris or .green.

Calle says he does not believe this will lower demand for .co addresses.

"We are very excited about the new TLDs coming out," he says. "People have become used to seeing .com, .co.uk, but when they see a new thing like .co they're not always comfortable with it. As new extensions are rolled out, and they're marketed, we're going to see more awareness at the consumer level."

( Source: Reuters )

Groupon Getaways with Expedia will launch in June with hotels in the US, expanding to airlines and car rentals, even cruises. Before the end of the year the service will roll out to Latin America, Europe and then Asia. It'll work a lot like Groupon — customers will have a limited time to buy a discount voucher, usually about half-off, for future travel. They'll be able to redeem the voucher within a certain redemption period, but the idea is that the period will be flexible, without blackout dates.

Together Groupon and Expedia will be able to reach a huge audience — 50 million people between Groupon and Expedia's members.

Who wins on the back end? The merchant will receive about half of what consumers spend, Expedia and Groupon sharing the rest. The companies didn't disclose any specific terms but Durchslag says Expedia isn't doing any deals that aren't accretive. This is certainly a crowded marketplace with the likes of Priceline,but Groupon and Expedia hope that the simple, straightforward approach will cut through the clutter.

All educational stocks have jumped most today and top gainers on NASDAQ as department of education ruled out soften financial aid requirements for private colleges, This decision was in favor of educational companies listed below.

(NASDAQ: COCO )Corinthian Colleges,

(NASDAQ:STRA) Strayer Education, Inc.

(NASDAQ:CECO) Career Education Corporation

(NASDAQ: EDMC) Education Management Corporation

( NASDAQ: LOPE )Grand Canyon Education, Inc.

(NASDAQ: LINC ) Lincoln Educational Services Corporation

(NASDAQ:CPLA) Capella Education Company.

(NASDAQ: CHRS ) Charming Shoppes, Inc.

(NASDAQ:APOL ) Apollo Group, Inc.

( NASDAQ:APEI ) American Public Education, Inc.

A rule that threatens to cut off tuition aid to some programs run by for-profit colleges was softened in the final version issued by the U.S. Education Department, ending a long regulatory process that has clouded growth outlook for education companies.

The changes to the rule are a big positive as they drastically lower the threshold for education companies to qualify for federal student aid -- the main source of profit -- and gives them more time to adapt to the rules.

The rule is part of the Obama administration's crackdown on for-profit schools, accused of overcharging students, burdening them with debt and not preparing them adequately for jobs.

The department finalized a set of 13 rules last year but delayed the hotly debated "gainful employment" rule after much opposition.

The colleges were preparing for a tough rule and had made changes to their admissions policies, leading to sharp declines in enrollment numbers.

"We no longer expect gainful employment to limit growth at the majority of for-profit institutions," Jarrel Price and Heights Analytics said.

Morgan Stanley analyst Suzanne Stein said the sector has arguably become "more investable" given clarification on the rule, but slowing enrollment will continue to be a overhang.

Analysts said the rules benefited every company across the sector. Companies like Apollo and Capella Education, which were in the restricted zone to access federal aid based on the repayment rate metric, will now not have barriers to grow their student base.

Officials delayed until 2015 before a program can be denied tuition loans over too many former students in the same course having defaulted on their loans.

According to the rule, due to go into effect mid-2012, at least 35 percent (down from 45 percent) of graduates and dropouts of programs must be paying back loans, or their loan payments must equal 30 percent of discretionary income or 12 percent of total earnings.

"The most significant change for this group is that they will now have more time to improve their rates and try to cross the 35 percent all-clear threshold -- much more obtainable than the draft rule's 45 percent," said analyst Price.

( Source: Reuters )

Westinghouse Solar Inc ( NASDAQ: WEST ), stock has logged more than 99% upside yesterday, we have given a buy call to initiate a small positions for intraday gains, when stock was just trading 18% up. Again stock is not for investment purpose, positions may be cut off. Read More about

our call

The problem of deteriorating output growth in spite of regulations in the coal sector is casting a huge shadow on the coal market of India. The problem now appears to have escalated to a level that is persuading the government to issue further regulations to ensure increasing and steady supply of coal from the industry.

Coal industry has always been a highly regulated one; however, the policies undertaken by the ministry seem to be proving inadequate even for a sector such as power, which the government has prioritised with regard to the distribution of coal. The CIL said recently that the company can only deliver 41 metric tonnes of coal out of the 306 metric tonnes mentioned in the Letter of Assurances issued to the power sector for producing 65 gigawatts of energy in an expansion scheduled during the year 2011/12. The supply from CIL will ensure production of only 12 gigawatts.

Under the current policy regime of the Indian coal ministry, captive mining is set up for players apart from Central government and other central or state owned companies such as CIL and SCCL and Mineral Development Corporations of the State governments.

Companies engaged in production of iron and steel, power, washing of coal from the mines and other end-uses the government notifies are allowed to produce coal, but only for captive consumption.

The government has also facilitated sub-leasing of isolated small pockets of coal deposits that cannot be developed in a large scale for the benefit of economic development and those which do not require rail transport for other private parties.

Despite this seemingly inclusive regime, coal production is below desired levels in the country, unable to cater to industries.

The Isolated mining pockets leased out to private parties are often under developed and present with insurmountable geological challenges. Mines with infrastructure, on the other hand, is rarely leased out. Since 1993 almost 40 such mines were allocated, and that too on a joint basis, which has lead to problems such as varied economic interests of the recipients and thus time bound development get strained and delayed. Out of these 40 mines allocated, only a few of them have been developed.

The government also reported of 46 delayed projects of CIL earlier during the month of May. The supply shortfall of output has brought the state owned CIL to the verge of dishonouring Letter of Assurances (LoA) that promise delivery of 450 million tonnes.

The Indian power sector was reported of receiving only 303 million tonnes as against the expectation of 335 million, down 10 percent, during 2010-2011. The total coal production on the other hand fell 6 percent during the same time.

In addition, environmental issues, land acquisitions problems and relating snags have lead the CIL to reduce its output target to 447 million tonnes as opposed to the preliminary target set at 520 million tonnes for the 2011/12 fiscal.

The government might free the CIL from such LoAs, in search of alternative amendments to the coal distribution policy to make it more inclusive and assure prompt delivery. However, the coal industry in India is yet to emerge, with possession of 10 percent of the world's total coal reserves.

Impact: Positive for CIL. It will be able to issue the coal that has been mined under LoA to other parties.

Stock Name: Pitti Laminations Ltd

Trading : NSE and BSE

CMP:Rs. 43/-

BSE Code:513519

Book Value 73/-

Operators are Accumulating daily slowly any time will go 67/- to 75/-

In this Market Value Buy for this stock; No risk and No Tensions Just invest and hold it for 1 month to 3 months will get 50% to 100% minimum.

EPS 12/- (Declared Good Results for 2011 March Quarter EPS 12/- Annual and Total year 9/-).

Estimating EPS for 2011-2012 : 17/- to 19/- (Company having Huge Orders from GE and Margins also Improved)

Dividend : 10%

Target : 69/- & 75/-in Short Time.

Upside : 99%

Downside: 1%

Operators Will Active soon in this counter; So Accumulate at this CMP and get 50% minimum Return in Short term.

Incorporated in 1983, Pitti Laminations Limited (PLL) is engaged in the manufacture of electrical laminations for use in various Motors, Alternators, Direct Current (DC) Machines, Pumpsets, Hydroelectric generators etc. The company also manufactures Die-Cast Rotors and Assembled Stators, besides manufacture and sale of Press Tools, Progressive Tools Jigs and Fixtures. PLL's manufacturing facilities are located at Nandigaon (Andhra Pradesh). The company has established business relationships with Siemens, BHEL, Alstom Projects, VA Tech Hydro, Crompton Greaves, Cummins Generator Technologies, ABB, Marathon Electric India, and Bharat Bijlee etc. in the domestic market and GE Consumer Products (Canada), GE Transport System (USA), Groupo Electromechanico (Mexico), E-Mod (Germany), and Welco Technologies (USA) in the overseas market.

Pitti Laminations, an ancillary manufacturer for the electrical & capital goods industry, is poised to register robust growth on the back of a strong order book position, upward movement along the product value chain and increased thrust on exports.PLL's fortunes are linked to those of the electrical & capital goods industry.Growth in the electrical and capital goods industry will benefit the company, as it will boost the demand for stampings & laminations.There has also been a buzz that Reliance Energy (REL) is eyeing a minority stake in the company. Pitti manufactures electric-grade steel stampings and laminations, the key components in motors, rotors and other electricalcomponents.Its clients include ABB, BHEL, Siemens, Suzlon and GE (US).REL is looking to have strategic tie-ups with key vendors for effective inventory management as it will be handling large projects.If it fructifies pitti would get catapulted to a new level and certainly would attract tremendous investors fancy.The company has been very aggresive in expanding its capacities to cater to the heavy demand.Though the present environment been challenging but it should be prudent to note that stock market is a place which discounts future in no time.At present prices its quoting at 4 PE its forward earnings which is cheap for a company growing great guns.It has a good dividend cover ratio and yield is hefty enough to satiate ones desire.A decent buy at present levels.

The economic environment has been improving and the company has received orders worth over Rs.160 crores (US $ 36 mn) from GE, to be executed over the next 2 years.

From initially starting off with manufacture of electrical laminations for use in general purpose industrial motors (25 to 30 HP), the company's sales mix has steadily shifted away from this segment in favor of application in machines used in the infrastructure sector (transportation, earth moving equipment, oil and gas exploration etc) and the power sector having relatively lower competitive intensity and lower business risk.

The company's has registered much higher operating margins for 9 months ended Dec 09 over the same period last year. (17.32% against 10.58%). In view of the recent orders from GE and the initiatives undertaken by the company in the domestic markets, we believe the revenues of the company in FY11 can be significantly higher compared with FY10. Significantly higher revenues coupled with improved margins would have a multiplier effect on the profitability of the company. In view of the above factors, we expect the profitability of the company for FY 12 to be significantly higher compared to the current FY.

The company currently has a market cap of roughly Rs.42 crores. In view of the order from GE & domestic sales, Sales of Rs.350 crores in FY12 may not be difficult to achieve. Assuming Operating margins of 15% conservatively (as against Margin of over 17% achieved in 9 months ended Dec 09), would result in an Operating Profit of Rs.30 crores. Factoring Interest, Depreciation and Tax, the company can easily achieve an EPS of Rs,17-19. The stock available at a PE of less than 4 and a Market Cap of Rs.42 crores for a company which can potentially make Operating Profit of Rs.30 crores in a single year, therefore looks very attractive. Stock will go easily 69/- to 75/- in Short term.

C.S. Verma had told Reuters last month the share sale was likely to be launched on June 14 and close three days later.

"There was no time limit for the offer but mid-June was one of the options we were considering," Verma told Reuters on Wednesday. "It will be difficult to meet that timeline."

The long delayed issue is part of the government's plan to shed stakes in nearly 60 state-run firms over the next few years, to raise funds for its social welfare programmes and to cut its fiscal deficit.

The SAIL share sale was earlier expected to be launched in the last fiscal year that ended in March.

"Once market conditions are more stable we will launch the offer," Verma said.

The pipeline of government share sales also includes deals planned by Indian Oil Corp, Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Hindustan Copper -- all of which have been delayed from the last fiscal year.

The BSE Sensex is down more than 9 percent this year, and concerns about slowing domestic economic growth, high inflation and rising interest rates have doused the appetite for equities.