Washington  - The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday said a number of regions are reporting an easing of the country's economic downturn, adding to some of the small signs that the world's largest economy may be stabilizing.

Five of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks reported a "moderation in the pace of decline, and several saw signs that activity in some sectors was stabilizing at a low level," according to the central bank's Beige Book, a regional report on the economy.

Zurich  - The Swiss banking giant UBS said Wednesday it will take a first-quarter loss of almost 2 billion Swiss francs (1.7 billion dollars) and will cut 8,700 jobs worldwide by 2010.

"Unfortunately I am not able, as yet, to offer you any good news," Oswald Grubel, chief executive officer of the UBS Group, told shareholders at the annual meeting while pledging to return to profitability.

The crisis, he said, "was not over," and would likely lead UBS to being a smaller bank. Previously at the UBS rival Credit Suisse, Grubel took over his role in February.

On the sidelines of a press conference in Kolkata, the city-based Allahabad Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director, K R Kamath, said that the public sector lender has posted an 18 percent year-on-year growth in deposits and advances in 2008-09.

Kamath informed reporters that out of the bank’s total business of Rs 1.44 lakh crore as on March 31, 2009, deposits account for Rs 84,865 crore, while advances comprise Rs 59,177 crore.

Zurich - The Swiss banking giant UBS said Wednesday it will take a first quarter loss of almost 2 billion Swiss francs (1.7 billion dollars) and will cut 8,700 jobs worldwide by 2010. "Unfortunately I am not able, as yet, to offer you any good news," Oswald Grubel, Chief Executive Officer of the UBS Group was expected to tell shareholders later at an annual meeting. He took over his role in February this year.

Most of the new losses were in further writedowns and cash outflows in its wealth management divisions.

Nirmal Bang Research is bullish on State Bank of India (SBI) and maintained ‘Buy’ rating on the stock to achieve a target of Rs 1265.

Traders can buy the stock on dips with a stop loss of Rs 1240.

Shares of the company, on Monday (April 13), closed at Rs 1217.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 130.14 and 9.51 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 1840 and a low of Rs 894 on BSE.

On the eve of entering its 145th year of service, Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank, has made announcement about the retail selling of gold coins publicly.

The public sector lender said that it will shortly launch the scheme in other areas.

While speaking to media persons, Mr. KR Kamath, Allahabad Bank Chairman & Managing Director, stated that at first, the coins will be available in denominations of four (4), eight (8) and ten (10) grams in select core banking solutions branches of the bank.