A rally in the Sensex, up 30 per cent since March 9, has brought back life into the sagging mutual fund business, with fund houses gearing for quick launches and filing offer documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
While ICICI Prudential launched its Target Return Fund only last week, fund houses have filed offer documents for six equity schemes since April 8, including three from Reliance Capital AMC.
But mutual fund managers say the rally has nothing to do with it.
“While things look much better now, we did not file the offer documents with SEBI because of the upward movement of the market as we started the process of filing when Sensex was at around 8,000,” said Sundeep Sikka, CEO, Reliance Capital AMC.
DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has lined up two funds schemes — World Mining Fund and World Energy Fund — while Reliance Capital AMC plans Nifty and Sensex based index funds and a micro capital fund as well.
“We feel that there is a need for these schemes in our portfolio,” said Sikka.
Canara Robeco Mutual Fund plans to come up with Force Fund, which will invest in companies operating in the financial sector, retail sector and entertainment sector. The market fall seems to have brought learning and maturity in the fund houses.
ICICI Prudential’s Target Return Fund will allow investors to withdraw gains at pre-determined triggers at 12 per cent, 20 per cent, 50 per cent and 100 per cent. This means that if the trigger has been fixed at 20 per cent, the fund house will pull out the 20 per cent return as and when the scheme’s NAV hits the target profit of 20 per cent. The remaining amount will, however, remain invested.
While ICICI Pru has launched its scheme, it is cautious. “Though we have launched the scheme now, we will invest the money only after the elections,” said Nilesh Shah, deputy managing Director.
Friday, April 24, 2009
MFs line up new equity schemes
A rally in the Sensex, up 30 per cent since March 9, has brought back life into the sagging mutual fund business, with fund houses gearing for quick launches and filing offer documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
While ICICI Prudential launched its Target Return Fund only last week, fund houses have filed offer documents for six equity schemes since April 8, including three from Reliance Capital AMC.
But mutual fund managers say the rally has nothing to do with it.
“While things look much better now, we did not file the offer documents with SEBI because of the upward movement of the market as we started the process of filing when Sensex was at around 8,000,” said Sundeep Sikka, CEO, Reliance Capital AMC.
DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has lined up two funds schemes — World Mining Fund and World Energy Fund — while Reliance Capital AMC plans Nifty and Sensex based index funds and a micro capital fund as well.
“We feel that there is a need for these schemes in our portfolio,” said Sikka.
Canara Robeco Mutual Fund plans to come up with Force Fund, which will invest in companies operating in the financial sector, retail sector and entertainment sector. The market fall seems to have brought learning and maturity in the fund houses.
ICICI Prudential’s Target Return Fund will allow investors to withdraw gains at pre-determined triggers at 12 per cent, 20 per cent, 50 per cent and 100 per cent. This means that if the trigger has been fixed at 20 per cent, the fund house will pull out the 20 per cent return as and when the scheme’s NAV hits the target profit of 20 per cent. The remaining amount will, however, remain invested.
While ICICI Pru has launched its scheme, it is cautious. “Though we have launched the scheme now, we will invest the money only after the elections,” said Nilesh Shah, deputy managing Director.
While ICICI Prudential launched its Target Return Fund only last week, fund houses have filed offer documents for six equity schemes since April 8, including three from Reliance Capital AMC.
But mutual fund managers say the rally has nothing to do with it.
“While things look much better now, we did not file the offer documents with SEBI because of the upward movement of the market as we started the process of filing when Sensex was at around 8,000,” said Sundeep Sikka, CEO, Reliance Capital AMC.
DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has lined up two funds schemes — World Mining Fund and World Energy Fund — while Reliance Capital AMC plans Nifty and Sensex based index funds and a micro capital fund as well.
“We feel that there is a need for these schemes in our portfolio,” said Sikka.
Canara Robeco Mutual Fund plans to come up with Force Fund, which will invest in companies operating in the financial sector, retail sector and entertainment sector. The market fall seems to have brought learning and maturity in the fund houses.
ICICI Prudential’s Target Return Fund will allow investors to withdraw gains at pre-determined triggers at 12 per cent, 20 per cent, 50 per cent and 100 per cent. This means that if the trigger has been fixed at 20 per cent, the fund house will pull out the 20 per cent return as and when the scheme’s NAV hits the target profit of 20 per cent. The remaining amount will, however, remain invested.
While ICICI Pru has launched its scheme, it is cautious. “Though we have launched the scheme now, we will invest the money only after the elections,” said Nilesh Shah, deputy managing Director.
Taliban militants edge closer to Pakistan capital
Emboldened Taliban fighters imposed control over towns and villages closer to Islamabad on Thursday, raising alarm among foreign governments and many in Pakistan that authorities are ceding swaths of the country's heart to Islamic hard-liners.
Authorities dispatched a small paramilitary force from the North-West Frontier Constabulary to the district of Buner, just 60 miles from the capital, where Taliban forces took control of much of the area this week.
But Pakistani news media said the Taliban repulsed the deployment, with unconfirmed reports saying at least one policeman had been killed.
Taliban fighters from the nearby Swat Valley have infiltrated the area, emboldened by a government-sanctioned peace deal allowing them to enforce Sharia, or Islamic law, in the onetime tourist paradise. Since entering Buner, the Taliban has reportedly set up checkpoints, begun patrolling roads and ordered barbershops to stop shaving beards.
In a meeting with tribal elders, Taliban militants agreed to lower their armed presence and not seek vengeance against residents who had resisted their arrival. But the militants said they would not withdraw from Buner.
"We will not leave the area," a Taliban commander, Mufti Bashir, told local journalists.
The moves have prompted some of the roughly 1 million Buner residents to flee, and unsettled observers in Pakistan and abroad who fear the government lacks the will to impose its authority.
The government has tried to downplay the threat to its sovereignty. Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani told reporters in Islamabad that the government would see to it that the peace agreement isn't violated. "The government will not allow anyone to challenge the government," he said in a statement.
But it was uncertain how much force the government was prepared to use. Thursday's limited dispatch of frontier guards, not the army, suggested that Islamabad was still not primed for a fight.
The Obama administration for a second straight day expressed deep concern over the advances by militants and Islamabad's failure to stop them.
"The news over the past several days is very disturbing," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called on Islamabad to take "appropriate actions" to stop the insurgents.
"We want to be helpful in any way we can," he said. "But it is important that they recognize the real threats to their country."
Supporters of the Swat deal, hammered out in February after two years of a bloody Islamist insurrection and signed into law by President Zardari just last week, had contended that it would secure peace and even divide militant factions. But any breathing room or disunity was apparently short-lived, if it ever existed.
The militants are "very organized," said Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia." "They're a faction of the main Taliban and they're spreading out from Swat to different valleys."
The Taliban's rule in Swat has been characterized by the burning of girls' schools, the killing and beating of officials who opposed its power, and punishment for unrelated men and women seen together in public.
On Thursday, militants attacked a truck terminal in the city of Peshawar, also in the northwest, and burned five tankers that were transporting fuel to North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan.
A local police official said dozens of attackers set fire to the trucks with gasoline bombs and that security guards fled. The attackers escaped.
Analysts said they didn't expect an immediate push by Taliban forces into Islamabad, saying it was more likely the militants would work to strengthen their grip in surrounding valleys.
In Pakistan's parliament Thursday, many lawmakers blasted the Taliban for its brand of Islam and fretted over its growing clout.
They are in Buner and coming toward the town of Haripur," lawmaker Haider Abbas Rizvi told reporters outside parliament.
"The government needs to take urgent steps and counOpposition lawmakers said Taliban militants were trying to impose their version of Sharia and divide the country along sectarian lines.
But Ilyas Bilour, a senator from North-West Frontier Province, where Swat and Buner are located, blamed inadequate security forces.
"The government should do something, as we have police that are weak and unable to stop the Taliban," he said.
Pakistan has long focused much of its energy and resources on national security, with India traditionally seen as its main threat.
"Everyone and his dog knows this is not a military trained for counterinsurgency," said Mosharraf Zaidi, a political analyst.
Nor is it clear that a political consensus will emerge any time soon on the need to wage a full-on fight against the militants, some of whom reportedly got started with the help of Pakistan's security services.
"People have been waiting for Pakistan's 9/11 moment," Zaidi added. "But this isn't America."
The country is extremely diverse, with a huge range of dialects, languages and traditions, analysts said, making a unified view on something as emotive as fighting Islamic fundamentalism very difficult.
"There's blame at India, Afghanistan, Russia -- basically everyone else," author Rashid said. "The government has its head in the sand. It's very bleak."
Still, trying to win over urban areas filled with cosmopolitan middle-class residents presents a tougher prospect for the Taliban than grabbing and intimidating rural areas.
"You can't possibly think the rest of the country, particularly the urban areas, is going to fall like a house of cards," Zaidi said. "Ultimately I think the country will overcome this. But it's going to get worse first."
The U.S. State Department called for "very decisive and aggressive action" by Islamabad. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who a day earlier described the situation as an "existential threat," said the administration was "deeply concerned by the increasing insurgency that is destabilizing Pakistan."
Also Thursday, Richard C. Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, telephoned Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. A vague statement issued a few hours later said only that the two had discussed security issues and Zardari's upcoming trip to the United States.
Authorities dispatched a small paramilitary force from the North-West Frontier Constabulary to the district of Buner, just 60 miles from the capital, where Taliban forces took control of much of the area this week.
But Pakistani news media said the Taliban repulsed the deployment, with unconfirmed reports saying at least one policeman had been killed.
Taliban fighters from the nearby Swat Valley have infiltrated the area, emboldened by a government-sanctioned peace deal allowing them to enforce Sharia, or Islamic law, in the onetime tourist paradise. Since entering Buner, the Taliban has reportedly set up checkpoints, begun patrolling roads and ordered barbershops to stop shaving beards.
In a meeting with tribal elders, Taliban militants agreed to lower their armed presence and not seek vengeance against residents who had resisted their arrival. But the militants said they would not withdraw from Buner.
"We will not leave the area," a Taliban commander, Mufti Bashir, told local journalists.
The moves have prompted some of the roughly 1 million Buner residents to flee, and unsettled observers in Pakistan and abroad who fear the government lacks the will to impose its authority.
The government has tried to downplay the threat to its sovereignty. Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani told reporters in Islamabad that the government would see to it that the peace agreement isn't violated. "The government will not allow anyone to challenge the government," he said in a statement.
But it was uncertain how much force the government was prepared to use. Thursday's limited dispatch of frontier guards, not the army, suggested that Islamabad was still not primed for a fight.
The Obama administration for a second straight day expressed deep concern over the advances by militants and Islamabad's failure to stop them.
"The news over the past several days is very disturbing," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called on Islamabad to take "appropriate actions" to stop the insurgents.
"We want to be helpful in any way we can," he said. "But it is important that they recognize the real threats to their country."
Supporters of the Swat deal, hammered out in February after two years of a bloody Islamist insurrection and signed into law by President Zardari just last week, had contended that it would secure peace and even divide militant factions. But any breathing room or disunity was apparently short-lived, if it ever existed.
The militants are "very organized," said Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia." "They're a faction of the main Taliban and they're spreading out from Swat to different valleys."
The Taliban's rule in Swat has been characterized by the burning of girls' schools, the killing and beating of officials who opposed its power, and punishment for unrelated men and women seen together in public.
On Thursday, militants attacked a truck terminal in the city of Peshawar, also in the northwest, and burned five tankers that were transporting fuel to North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan.
A local police official said dozens of attackers set fire to the trucks with gasoline bombs and that security guards fled. The attackers escaped.
Analysts said they didn't expect an immediate push by Taliban forces into Islamabad, saying it was more likely the militants would work to strengthen their grip in surrounding valleys.
In Pakistan's parliament Thursday, many lawmakers blasted the Taliban for its brand of Islam and fretted over its growing clout.
They are in Buner and coming toward the town of Haripur," lawmaker Haider Abbas Rizvi told reporters outside parliament.
"The government needs to take urgent steps and counOpposition lawmakers said Taliban militants were trying to impose their version of Sharia and divide the country along sectarian lines.
But Ilyas Bilour, a senator from North-West Frontier Province, where Swat and Buner are located, blamed inadequate security forces.
"The government should do something, as we have police that are weak and unable to stop the Taliban," he said.
Pakistan has long focused much of its energy and resources on national security, with India traditionally seen as its main threat.
"Everyone and his dog knows this is not a military trained for counterinsurgency," said Mosharraf Zaidi, a political analyst.
Nor is it clear that a political consensus will emerge any time soon on the need to wage a full-on fight against the militants, some of whom reportedly got started with the help of Pakistan's security services.
"People have been waiting for Pakistan's 9/11 moment," Zaidi added. "But this isn't America."
The country is extremely diverse, with a huge range of dialects, languages and traditions, analysts said, making a unified view on something as emotive as fighting Islamic fundamentalism very difficult.
"There's blame at India, Afghanistan, Russia -- basically everyone else," author Rashid said. "The government has its head in the sand. It's very bleak."
Still, trying to win over urban areas filled with cosmopolitan middle-class residents presents a tougher prospect for the Taliban than grabbing and intimidating rural areas.
"You can't possibly think the rest of the country, particularly the urban areas, is going to fall like a house of cards," Zaidi said. "Ultimately I think the country will overcome this. But it's going to get worse first."
The U.S. State Department called for "very decisive and aggressive action" by Islamabad. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who a day earlier described the situation as an "existential threat," said the administration was "deeply concerned by the increasing insurgency that is destabilizing Pakistan."
Also Thursday, Richard C. Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, telephoned Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. A vague statement issued a few hours later said only that the two had discussed security issues and Zardari's upcoming trip to the United States.
Blast carnage at shrine in Iraq
Aftermath of suicide bombing in Baghdad
Two female suicide bombers have attacked Baghdad's main Shia shrine, killing at least 60 people and injuring 125 others, officials in Iraq say.
The attack happened at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in the Kadhimiya area as people gathered for Friday prayers.
It comes a day after 84 people were killed in two separate suicide attacks in Baghdad and Baquba.
Many victims in Baquba and in Baghdad on Friday were Iranian pilgrims and the violence was condemned in Tehran.
Violence fell sharply in the last year and the latest bombing does not change this trend, but it is a worrying development, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.
'Explosion and fire'
Early reports suggested the attackers had detonated explosives belts near two gates of the revered shrine, which was crowded with worshippers.
The shrine is the Shias' most revered location in the city. Carrying out the attack on a Friday, when the shrine would be crowded with worshippers, was clearly aimed at maximising both the number of casualties and the degree of sectarian provocation involved.
It was attacks like this that helped fuel the cycle of sectarian violence that took many thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007. The past year or more has seen a huge improvement in the security situation.
But deadly suicide attacks seem now to be intensifying once again, raising fears of a return to the bad old days.
Many Iraqis will however be worried that it could be a sign of worse to come when the American troops complete their withdrawal, as they're supposed to do by 2011.
However, a senior Iraqi bomb disposal officer later told Reuters news agency that the suicide attackers had used two leather bags packed with explosives, which they set down among the crowds at two of the gates to the shrine.
"They used sidestreets to get there and this enabled them to avoid checkpoints," said Major-General Jihad al-Jabiri.
The howling of the wounded echoed through a nearby hospital where the victims were admitted, the hallways packed with security forces and anxious family members looking for loved ones, an AFP correspondent reports.
Sabiha Kadhim, 50, had come up from the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniya with her family, four of whom were killed in the blast.
Lying on a stretcher, her head and hand bandaged, she said: "I was near the shrine and suddenly there was a huge explosion and a fire broke out.
"I saw human body parts everywhere."
Qassim Zada, a 62-year-old Iranian pilgrim from Tehran, had come to the shrine with his wife. He now lay in hospital, his clothes soaked in blood.
"I was only a few metres [yards] away from the explosion and I don't know what happened," he said.
The shrine, in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood of the capital, has been a target for insurgents in the past.
'Hateful' attack
Around 25 of those killed on Friday were Iranian pilgrims, Iraqi police said.
WEEK OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS
Friday: Baghdad shrine attack kills 60
Thursday: Baquba restaurant attack kills 56, Baghdad street bomber kills 28
Wednesday: Bomber kills five in Dhuluiya
Monday: Bomber kills three policemen in Baquba
Most of the 56 people now known to have been killed when a suicide bomber blew up a restaurant in Baquba, Diyala Province, on Thursday were also Iranian pilgrims.
On the same day, a suicide bomber infiltrated a crowd of displaced families in Baghdad as they received supplies from police, detonating an explosives belt and killing 28 people.
At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani - the influential Iranian cleric and former president - condemned Thursday's attack on pilgrims.
"The incident yesterday was a very, very hateful example of those who harm religion in the name of religion," he said in a sermon broadcast live by Iranian radio.
"We feel sorry for the Iraqi people because such corrupt groups have penetrated into Iraq. We also criticise America for not having the serious will to preserve Iraq's security."
Meanwhile, new statistics from Iraq's health ministry say that since 2005 when violence worsened more than 87,000 Iraqis have been killed.
The figures are based on hospital and mortuary records and are seen as significant given the heated and highly politicised debate over the human cost of the war in Iraq, our correspondent says.
Two female suicide bombers have attacked Baghdad's main Shia shrine, killing at least 60 people and injuring 125 others, officials in Iraq say.
The attack happened at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in the Kadhimiya area as people gathered for Friday prayers.
It comes a day after 84 people were killed in two separate suicide attacks in Baghdad and Baquba.
Many victims in Baquba and in Baghdad on Friday were Iranian pilgrims and the violence was condemned in Tehran.
Violence fell sharply in the last year and the latest bombing does not change this trend, but it is a worrying development, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.
'Explosion and fire'
Early reports suggested the attackers had detonated explosives belts near two gates of the revered shrine, which was crowded with worshippers.
The shrine is the Shias' most revered location in the city. Carrying out the attack on a Friday, when the shrine would be crowded with worshippers, was clearly aimed at maximising both the number of casualties and the degree of sectarian provocation involved.
It was attacks like this that helped fuel the cycle of sectarian violence that took many thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007. The past year or more has seen a huge improvement in the security situation.
But deadly suicide attacks seem now to be intensifying once again, raising fears of a return to the bad old days.
Many Iraqis will however be worried that it could be a sign of worse to come when the American troops complete their withdrawal, as they're supposed to do by 2011.
However, a senior Iraqi bomb disposal officer later told Reuters news agency that the suicide attackers had used two leather bags packed with explosives, which they set down among the crowds at two of the gates to the shrine.
"They used sidestreets to get there and this enabled them to avoid checkpoints," said Major-General Jihad al-Jabiri.
The howling of the wounded echoed through a nearby hospital where the victims were admitted, the hallways packed with security forces and anxious family members looking for loved ones, an AFP correspondent reports.
Sabiha Kadhim, 50, had come up from the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniya with her family, four of whom were killed in the blast.
Lying on a stretcher, her head and hand bandaged, she said: "I was near the shrine and suddenly there was a huge explosion and a fire broke out.
"I saw human body parts everywhere."
Qassim Zada, a 62-year-old Iranian pilgrim from Tehran, had come to the shrine with his wife. He now lay in hospital, his clothes soaked in blood.
"I was only a few metres [yards] away from the explosion and I don't know what happened," he said.
The shrine, in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood of the capital, has been a target for insurgents in the past.
'Hateful' attack
Around 25 of those killed on Friday were Iranian pilgrims, Iraqi police said.
WEEK OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS
Friday: Baghdad shrine attack kills 60
Thursday: Baquba restaurant attack kills 56, Baghdad street bomber kills 28
Wednesday: Bomber kills five in Dhuluiya
Monday: Bomber kills three policemen in Baquba
Most of the 56 people now known to have been killed when a suicide bomber blew up a restaurant in Baquba, Diyala Province, on Thursday were also Iranian pilgrims.
On the same day, a suicide bomber infiltrated a crowd of displaced families in Baghdad as they received supplies from police, detonating an explosives belt and killing 28 people.
At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani - the influential Iranian cleric and former president - condemned Thursday's attack on pilgrims.
"The incident yesterday was a very, very hateful example of those who harm religion in the name of religion," he said in a sermon broadcast live by Iranian radio.
"We feel sorry for the Iraqi people because such corrupt groups have penetrated into Iraq. We also criticise America for not having the serious will to preserve Iraq's security."
Meanwhile, new statistics from Iraq's health ministry say that since 2005 when violence worsened more than 87,000 Iraqis have been killed.
The figures are based on hospital and mortuary records and are seen as significant given the heated and highly politicised debate over the human cost of the war in Iraq, our correspondent says.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
India sending two emissaries to Sri Lanka
With the killings of Tamil civilians continuing in Sri Lanka, India on Thursday underlined the need for "an immediate cessation of all hostilities" and announced that it will send two special emissaries to Colombo.
"We are very unhappy at the continued killing in Sri Lanka. All killing must stop. There must be an immediate cessation of all hostilities," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement here.
The strongly-worded message from the Indian government came on a day the DMK-sponsored shutdown called by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi crippled normal life in the state. "(The) government of India has been monitoring with deep concern and anxiety the evolving situation in Sri Lanka, in particular the conditions of the Tamil civilians in the conflict zones," he said.
"We understand that over 100,000 civilians have emerged from the no-fire zone into areas under government control in the past three days but the lives of several thousands of innocent civilians remain threatened," Mukherjee said.
"In order to convey these concerns to the government of Sri Lanka, the government of India has decided to send two special emissaries to Sri Lanka," he said.
India Wednesday sent 40,000 family packs of food, clothes and toiletries for civilians who have emerged from the war zone. The relief materials are expected to reach Sri Lanka on Saturday
"We are very unhappy at the continued killing in Sri Lanka. All killing must stop. There must be an immediate cessation of all hostilities," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement here.
The strongly-worded message from the Indian government came on a day the DMK-sponsored shutdown called by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi crippled normal life in the state. "(The) government of India has been monitoring with deep concern and anxiety the evolving situation in Sri Lanka, in particular the conditions of the Tamil civilians in the conflict zones," he said.
"We understand that over 100,000 civilians have emerged from the no-fire zone into areas under government control in the past three days but the lives of several thousands of innocent civilians remain threatened," Mukherjee said.
"In order to convey these concerns to the government of Sri Lanka, the government of India has decided to send two special emissaries to Sri Lanka," he said.
India Wednesday sent 40,000 family packs of food, clothes and toiletries for civilians who have emerged from the war zone. The relief materials are expected to reach Sri Lanka on Saturday
Zuma cheered as ANC heads for win
Mr Zuma - set to be the next president - said the ANC had put across its policies and people had understood.
With about half of all ballots in, the ANC had about 66% of the vote.
But it is still not clear whether the party will retain the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to push through constitutional changes.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has about 16% and the Congress of the People - formed as a direct challenge to the ANC - is trailing with about 8%.
The DA was ahead in Western Cape province, which is currently controlled by the ANC, with almost 50% of the vote.
Wednesday's poll was the country's fourth, and most competitive, general election since the end of apartheid 15 years ago.
Election officials put turn-out at about 77%. Formal election results are not expected until much later on Thursday or on Friday.
'Voters understood'
In Johannesburg, crowds of ANC supporters dressed in the party's black, yellow and green attended a celebration rally.
RESULTS SO FAR
ANC: 66.5%
Democratic Alliance: 16%
Cope: 8%
Votes counted: 53%
Turnout: 77%
Source: IEC
In pictures: ANC celebrations
The shape of a Zuma presidency
"I would like to thank you for tonight," Jacob Zuma told the crowd, after dancing on stage.
"We went to the voters of this country, talked to them and put across our polices - and they have understood what we are saying," he said.
Parliament will elect South Africa's next president by a simple majority, putting Mr Zuma in line for the post when the new assembly votes in May.
Mr Zuma, a populist who spent 10 years in prison during the apartheid era for ANC membership, faces challenges including a struggling economy and soaring violent crime.
Charges of corruption against the 67-year-old were dropped just two weeks before the poll after state prosecutors said there had been political interference in the case.
'Doubled our numbers'
The election commission said it was pleased with the peaceful way in which the poll was conducted.
Leaders of the rival parties said that the early results brought some positive news.
DA leader Helen Zille said her party was pleased. "We are just above 50% in the Western Cape, that is what we were hoping for because it means we have doubled our numbers since last time," she said.
The Cope leader, former Bishop Mvume Dandala, told the BBC that the party did not see the result as a rejection. "We are saying that we have been given a critical mass upon which to build," he said.
Cope was formed by ANC dissidents who supported former President Thabo Mbeki, who resigned last year after losing a power struggle with Mr Zuma.
Analysts say Cope's emergence energised the early stages of the election campaign but the party's popularity seems to have diminished in recent weeks.
It is thought that Cope and the DA could enter into a coalition after the election, presenting a real threat to the ANC's continued dominance of South Africa
With about half of all ballots in, the ANC had about 66% of the vote.
But it is still not clear whether the party will retain the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to push through constitutional changes.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has about 16% and the Congress of the People - formed as a direct challenge to the ANC - is trailing with about 8%.
The DA was ahead in Western Cape province, which is currently controlled by the ANC, with almost 50% of the vote.
Wednesday's poll was the country's fourth, and most competitive, general election since the end of apartheid 15 years ago.
Election officials put turn-out at about 77%. Formal election results are not expected until much later on Thursday or on Friday.
'Voters understood'
In Johannesburg, crowds of ANC supporters dressed in the party's black, yellow and green attended a celebration rally.
RESULTS SO FAR
ANC: 66.5%
Democratic Alliance: 16%
Cope: 8%
Votes counted: 53%
Turnout: 77%
Source: IEC
In pictures: ANC celebrations
The shape of a Zuma presidency
"I would like to thank you for tonight," Jacob Zuma told the crowd, after dancing on stage.
"We went to the voters of this country, talked to them and put across our polices - and they have understood what we are saying," he said.
Parliament will elect South Africa's next president by a simple majority, putting Mr Zuma in line for the post when the new assembly votes in May.
Mr Zuma, a populist who spent 10 years in prison during the apartheid era for ANC membership, faces challenges including a struggling economy and soaring violent crime.
Charges of corruption against the 67-year-old were dropped just two weeks before the poll after state prosecutors said there had been political interference in the case.
'Doubled our numbers'
The election commission said it was pleased with the peaceful way in which the poll was conducted.
Leaders of the rival parties said that the early results brought some positive news.
DA leader Helen Zille said her party was pleased. "We are just above 50% in the Western Cape, that is what we were hoping for because it means we have doubled our numbers since last time," she said.
The Cope leader, former Bishop Mvume Dandala, told the BBC that the party did not see the result as a rejection. "We are saying that we have been given a critical mass upon which to build," he said.
Cope was formed by ANC dissidents who supported former President Thabo Mbeki, who resigned last year after losing a power struggle with Mr Zuma.
Analysts say Cope's emergence energised the early stages of the election campaign but the party's popularity seems to have diminished in recent weeks.
It is thought that Cope and the DA could enter into a coalition after the election, presenting a real threat to the ANC's continued dominance of South Africa
Wells Fargo accused of securities fraud by state lawsuit
California today sued investment subsidiaries of Wells Fargo & Co. for securities fraud, alleging that the San Francisco financial services company misled investors by selling $1.5 billion worth of risky securities that it peddled as being as safe as cash.
The securities "were sold to customers on the basis that they were like cash and people could get their money back in eight days," Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in an interview. "Now, it turns out they were not like cash and people can't get their money back even after many, many months, and they're mad as hell."
The lawsuit, filed in state court in San Francisco, seeks to recover money invested in what are known as auction-rate securities, which Wells Fargo subsidiaries sold to Californians. As the name implies, interest rates on auction-rate securities are reset in periodic auctions. Billions of dollars worth of the securities were sold to investors nationwide in recent years.
Regulators have charged that many investors were misled into believing the securities were safe and the equivalent of cash. But when the $330-billion market for auction-rate securities collapsed early last year, many investors couldn't sell the securities, or could only sell them at a loss.
About 2,400 Californians bought auction-rate securities from Wells Fargo, according to the attorney general's office.
Brown's lawsuit names Wells Fargo Investments, Wells Fargo Brokerage Services and Wells Fargo Institutional Services as defendants.
Wells Fargo disputed the state's allegations, saying that it had taken steps to help customers hit by the collapse of the auction-rate securities market, including offering loans to tide them over.
"We fully understand and deeply regret the effects this prolonged liquidity crisis has had on our clients," Charles W. Daggs, chief executive of Wells Fargo Investments, said in a statement.
"Wells Fargo could not have predicted these extraordinary circumstances, and even with the benefit of hindsight is not responsible for them."
Several financial services companies that marketed auction rate debt to investors have agreed to repurchase billions of dollars worth of the devalued securities.
Last month, Wachovia Corp., the bank acquired by Wells Fargo last year, agreed to repurchase $1.5 billion of the securities from California investors in a settlement with regulators. Brown said that case didn't involve the securities at issue in the lawsuit he filed today.
Last June, the attorney general sued Countrywide Financial Corp., accusing the mortgage lender of causing thousands of home foreclosures by deceptively marketing risky loans to borrowers. That suit, which sought restitution for borrowers who were deceived by Countrywide, was settled in October when the lender agreed to reduce loan payments and provide other benefits that could total as much as $8.7 billion nationally.
The securities "were sold to customers on the basis that they were like cash and people could get their money back in eight days," Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in an interview. "Now, it turns out they were not like cash and people can't get their money back even after many, many months, and they're mad as hell."
The lawsuit, filed in state court in San Francisco, seeks to recover money invested in what are known as auction-rate securities, which Wells Fargo subsidiaries sold to Californians. As the name implies, interest rates on auction-rate securities are reset in periodic auctions. Billions of dollars worth of the securities were sold to investors nationwide in recent years.
Regulators have charged that many investors were misled into believing the securities were safe and the equivalent of cash. But when the $330-billion market for auction-rate securities collapsed early last year, many investors couldn't sell the securities, or could only sell them at a loss.
About 2,400 Californians bought auction-rate securities from Wells Fargo, according to the attorney general's office.
Brown's lawsuit names Wells Fargo Investments, Wells Fargo Brokerage Services and Wells Fargo Institutional Services as defendants.
Wells Fargo disputed the state's allegations, saying that it had taken steps to help customers hit by the collapse of the auction-rate securities market, including offering loans to tide them over.
"We fully understand and deeply regret the effects this prolonged liquidity crisis has had on our clients," Charles W. Daggs, chief executive of Wells Fargo Investments, said in a statement.
"Wells Fargo could not have predicted these extraordinary circumstances, and even with the benefit of hindsight is not responsible for them."
Several financial services companies that marketed auction rate debt to investors have agreed to repurchase billions of dollars worth of the devalued securities.
Last month, Wachovia Corp., the bank acquired by Wells Fargo last year, agreed to repurchase $1.5 billion of the securities from California investors in a settlement with regulators. Brown said that case didn't involve the securities at issue in the lawsuit he filed today.
Last June, the attorney general sued Countrywide Financial Corp., accusing the mortgage lender of causing thousands of home foreclosures by deceptively marketing risky loans to borrowers. That suit, which sought restitution for borrowers who were deceived by Countrywide, was settled in October when the lender agreed to reduce loan payments and provide other benefits that could total as much as $8.7 billion nationally.
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