Sensex settles on recovery hopes:

BSE benchmark Sensex and the 50-stock NSE Nifty have, so far, resisted deep cuts. Both indices stayed in green briefly and then slipped marginally to trade at 17,098 (down 32 points ) and 5,152 (down 8 points) respectively. The consolidation in market suggests what the experts have been saying -- that the sell-off was overdone and a recovery is on cards.

The market breadth started improving – about 532 shares advanced as against 558 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.
 Sensex sees moderate cut despite bloodbath in US

Defensive sectors like healthcare and FMCG were seeing buying interest. Even select financial stocks like HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak, Mahindra Bank and PNB gained 0.5-1%.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries and SBI too were quite supportive.

However, technology, auto, realty and select metal stocks were putting pressure on the market.Indian benchmark indices witnessed a moderate cut despite a severe sell-off in the US. The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 41 points to 17,089 and the 50-share NSE Nifty

lost just 15 points to trade at 5,146. Technology, metal and banks are in stress in the morning trade. Global benchmarks indices retreated post rumours that there may be downgrade in France, which commands AAA rating.

Among technology stocks, Wipro, HCL Tech, Infosys and TCS were down 1-1.5%.

Tata Motors, which rallied 6% yesterday, fell 1.5% on profit booking.

Metal stocks like Hindalco, Tata Steel, Sesa Goa and SAIL too were on sellers' radar.

Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Kotak Mahindra Bank were marginally in the green. Cipla gained 1%.

Heavyweights SBI, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, L&T and Reliance Industries slipped 0.5-1%.

Asian markets were quite volatile. Hang Seng, Nikkei and Straits Times fell 1-1.5%. However, Shanghai and Kospi gained 0.4-0.7%. Taiwan was flat.

HSBC rules out job cuts in India

The country's oldest foreign bank HSBC ruled out job cuts in the country as part of its global recast, saying India is a strategic market and one of the key profit centres and that it is in fact finding it difficult to offset the high attrition rates.

As part of the 30,000 job cuts announced globally yesterday.HSBC, which is the largest bank in Europe, had said it would shed 30,000 jobs as it retreats from countries where it is struggling to compete.

HSBC India Chief Executive Stuart A Davis told today,"There will be a re-allocation of resources  but it's not going to be a cut heads.We are trying to do is to eliminate bureaucracies at the back-end."

HSBC India, the fully-owned subsidiary of the largest European bank, reported a 33% rise in pre-tax profit to USD 451 million from the country, making this unit the sixth most profitable regional for the British lender.

The bank had also said it had already cut 5,000 jobs following restructuring of operations in Latin America, the US, Britain, France and the Middle East and that it would cut another 25,000 between now and 2013.HSBC had said on Sunday it would sell 195 US branches to First Niagara Financial for about USD 1 billion in cash, and close another 13 of the 470 sites it had. HSBC also intends to sell its US credit card portfolio, which has over USD 30 billion in assets to free up capital. The bank now aims to shut or sell retail operations in a further 20 countries.

"I think India already has a very high attrition rate. We are hard-pressed to even catch up on the replacements. There is a war for talent out there, but as I said, there will be reallocation of resources," Davis said.

While HSBC gives some the chop, it’s also giving jobs to others. Apart from the 15,000 people the bank wants to hire in emerging markets, hiring in Hong Kong is ongoing as well. An anonymous source told us that HSBC is on the hunt for mid to senior candidates in risk, finance, operations and prime services.

Study Suggests: France, U.S. Have Highest Depression Rates

According a survey found that More people are being depressed in France and the U.S. than anywhere in the world, more than 89,000 people in 18 different countries.

The World Health Organization, found that 21 percent of people in France and 19.2 percent of people in the U.S. reported having an extended period of depression within their lifetime. According to the study, on average, 15 percent of people in high-income countries compared with 11 percent in low-income countries,

There are a lot of people in the U.S. who say they aren’t satisfied with their lives. According to the Geneva-based WHO, Depression affects nearly 121 million people worldwide and is the second leading contributor to shorter lifespan and poor health for individuals 15-44 years of age.

 Kessler who is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, said, the disease is the third-largest contributor to lowered productivity in the workplace.
Depression Differences

Researchers took into account both clinical depression, a biological condition that leads to low self-esteem and loss of interest in otherwise enjoyable activities, and types of mild depression, which can be situational or caused by environmental influences.

“There’s no change in biological depression, but what’s going up is the more mild depression,” Kessler said. “Objective things haven’t changed. We have an expectation that everything’s going to turn out perfect but it doesn’t.”

Scientists from twenty different institutions worldwide worked with the WHO’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative, obtaining data by interviewing 89,037 people in 18 different countries from 2000 to 2005. Trained interviewers spoke with respondents in person or over the phone about traumatic events in that person’s life, substance abuse, relationships, happiness, and other factors that could influence mental health.

The report also found that women were twice as likely to experience depression, and the strongest link to depression was separation or divorce from a partner.

 Lead researcher Evelyn Bromet, a professor and epidemiologist at Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, New Yorks aid, “Most people that come out of medical school or residencies do not learn about depression, so they don’t know how to recognize it.”