It has been a week of curtailed trading with two holidays. Even so there was action in the markets as well as some notable political events. A slice of the conversation in the studio:

Prarthana: Wasn't it superb to see such heavy turnout for voting in Kerala and Tamil Nadu? It's rare to see 75 per cent kind of polling.

Vedant: We will have to wait it out. There are times when even heavy turnouts throw up hung assemblies! I will not be happy until I see some party or coalition being given a decisive mandate.

Prarthana: Huh…anyway, did you notice that the Sensex vaulted over 400 points on Wednesday. But just when it looked like investor confidence is back we have had below-par results from Infosys..

Vedant: Yeah, decline in volumes, tepid growth in revenues and profits, all of which were unexpected has led to a hammering of the stock. As if all of this is not enough, Mr.Mohandas Pai, a key executive and Mr.Dinesh, one of the founders are also quitting. Looks like succession planning would be tough task at Infy!

Prarthana: True! Hey it seems like Virgin Mobile is dialling out of its alliance with Tata Teleservices. Launched with fanfare and Richard Branson himself coming to India, the entity did not add too many subscribers.

Vedant: Yeah, it is believed that ever since Tata Teleservices got a GSM license it may not have shown enough interest in Virgin Mobile; more so, after DoCoMo picked up a stake in the GSM operations. Tata DoCoMo has focussed all energies on playing catch up with all other mobile operators.

Prarthana: Staying with telecom, Mr. Kapil Sibal has announced the broad contours of the new policy governing licenses, spectrum and mergers and acquisitions. See anything new in it?

Vedant: Nothing really! Much of it is what the telecom regulator recommended last year – delinking license and spectrum allocation, uniform license fee and period of validity. The only ‘surprise' is on the announcement of a softer mergers and acquisitions regime, though the specifics are yet to emerge.

Prathana: Hey did you see that the Munjals paid themselves a cool dividend?

Vedant: Yeah! The Hero Honda promoters paid themselves something to the tune of Rs 730 crore as dividends. Some money that!

Prarthana: Some good news from the US. Mortgage foreclosures there are supposedly at a three year low.

Vedant: It seems lenders worked through their backlog of possibly incorrect paperwork related to home seizures. But more clarity needs to emerge to say if the US mortgage market is healthy once again.

Prarthana: The woes of the Japanese people still do not seem to end. With a second earthquake and severe nuclear radiation fears…

Vedant: Not just the leaks, the Japanese government has downgraded the outlook for the economy and pegged the infrastructure rebuilding costs at over $295 billion.

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