Swedish home products retailer, Ikea, said on Monday it has decided to delay its planned entry into India’s market because of concerns about local sourcing requirements, according to an FT report. Chief executive Mikael Ohlsson noted that the country’s rule for single brand retailers was a hindrance and needs to be re-evaluated. He said: “We will need to see what this means for us.” Currently companies operating in the Indian market must supply 30 percent of produced goods from regional, small and medium-sized companies. However, The world’s biggest furniture vendor has increased its expansion in China, where it has opened three new stores each year. Ikea is moreover planning to open further stores in Russia.

India’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that telecoms group Vodafone will not be liable to pay more than RS13,500 crore ($2.7bn) in tax related to an acquisition five years ago. Vodafone, which is the world’s largest mobile phone company, won a landmark tax dispute regarding an $11.5bn purchase of a 67 percent stake in mobile phone operator Hutchinson Essar. The country’s highest court found that Indian tax officials did not have jurisdiction over a deal between two international companies, even with the assets located in India. The original agreement in 2007 was between Vodafone International Holdings, the Dutch subsidiary of Vodafone, and CGP Investments, a Cayman Islands-based company which holds assets in Hutchison.

Israeli hackers on Tuesday claimed to have taken down the Saudi Arabian and UAE stock exchange websites. The group of hackers, who call themselves IDF Team- an acronym for Israeli Defence Forces, was able to temporarily paralyse the two websites. The IDF Team said that the hits came in retaliation for an attack on Monday by a group of Saudi-based hackers, named Nightmare, who shut down the sites for Tel Aviv stock exchange and Israeli airline El Al’s. The  hackers warned in a statement: “Pathetic hackers from Saudi Arabia decided to launch an attack against Israeli sites (…) if these continue, we will move to the next level, which will disable these sites longer term (…) to weeks or even months. You have been warned.” The actions taken by hackers involved appear to be the beginning of a cyber war, with both sides willing to release hacked data to the public. Israel’s foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, said that hacking attacks are “comparable to terrorism,” and will require a forceful response.

Egypt’s government is in discussions with the International Monetary Fund about the possibility of obtaining a $3.2bn loan package to help support its economic reform. An IMF delegation arrived in Cairo on Monday to discuss the loan package which is to assist Egypt in bridging the gap in its state budget for the fiscal year 2011/2012. Follow-up discussions are due to be continued by the end of the month. Egypt’s deficit pushed wider last year following almost a year of economic and political turmoil. The country’s previous army-backed authorities had earlier turned down $3bn in IMF assistance, but since then the situation has worsened and the currency has experienced increasing pressure.

The euro on Monday fell to an 11-year low versus the yen following a mass downgrade that stripped France and Austria of their AAA rating and cut eight further sovereigns. Europe’s currency dropped to its lowest point since 2000 to reach 97.10, compared with 97.59 on Friday.  Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average dropped 1.43 percent, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9 percent and China’s Shanghaio Composite lost 1.71 percent. Standard & Poor’s late on Friday also cut the ratings of Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal by two notches. Italy, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia all saw their ratings dropped by one notch. Portugal’s downgrade has now relegated the country to junk status. Ireland maintained its rating. Meanwhile, negotiations between Greece and private sector creditors about the restructuring of debt broke down at the weekend, adding also to market instability.