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MUMBAI (Reuters) - A new tax proposal by the government could hurt flows of anonymous foreign funds into shares, analysts said on Monday, dealing another blow to equity markets that have been buffeted by worries about slowing corporate earnings growth and stymied economic reforms.

Investments into Indian stock markets through participatory notes, or P-notes, is seen slowing if the government introduces the so-called General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) next month, they said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget presented on March 16 for the year starting on April 1 proposed to introduce the GAAR in order to "counter aggressive tax avoidance schemes." He said it would be ensured it was used in appropriate cases.

P-notes are issued by foreign portfolio investors registered with the SEBI, or by their sub-accounts, to investors overseas and they offer the buyer anonymity.

"P-notes generally avoid paying taxes in India and because of this GAAR the taxation of P-notes can definitely get impacted," said Sunil Jain, a tax expert with law firm J. Sagar Associates.

"If there is an adverse impact on the taxability of P-notes because of the wide power assumed by the government through GAAR, then obviously it can impact investments through P-notes and therefore general sentiment in the market," he said.

The BSE Sensex ended 1.8 percent lower on Monday hit by the uncertainty about the tax proposal, dealers said. The index fell nearly 2 percent during the day.

The benchmark index has fallen nearly 4 percent this month, after rising 15 percent in the first two months of this year on strong foreign fund inflows.

"We do not have clarity on the exact modalities, but this could have the effect of shutting down the P-note to invest in India," said Macquarie in an email to clients seen by Reuters, referring to the GAAR proposal.

The brokerage said stocks bought through participatory notes could be subject to short-term capital gains tax of 42 percent and long-term capital gains tax of 21 percent as a result of the new taxation proposals.

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GAAR tax proposal clouds foreign portfolio investment outlook

Shares of Singapore's oil and gas services firm See Hup Seng Ltd rose as much as 11.4 percent after it acquired a minority stake in an offshore drilling company.

See Hup Seng's shares were 6.8 percent higher at S$0.235 with more than 13.6 million shares traded, 4.3 times the average daily volume traded over the last five sessions.

"The company's expansion into offshore and drilling has attracted investors. Oil prices have been on a strong trend up so the oil sector is still considered lucrative," said a trader.

See Hup Seng, which mainly provides corrosion prevention services to customers in the oil and gas industry, said on Friday it will spend $10 million to acquire a minority stake in Energy Drilling Pte Ltd.

Related story: http://link.reuters.com/mym37s

1012 (0212 GMT)

(Reporting by Charmian Kok in Singapore; charmian.kok@thomsonreuters.com)

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10:06 STOCKS NEWS ASEAN-Hiap Hoe jumps on takeover talk

Shares of Singapore's property firm Hiap Hoe Ltd jumped as much as 12.7 percent on strong volume on market talk the firm could be a takeover target due to its attractive valuations and potential earnings growth, traders said.

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STOCKS NEWS SINGAPORE-See Hup Seng up on offshore drilling acquisition

NEW YORK -- Yahoo! YHOO appointed three directors to its board, setting up for a proxy fight with Third Point LLC, one of its largest shareholders. Hedge fund Third Point, which owns a 5.8% stake in Yahoo!, last week launched a bid to gain four seats on the Internet company's board. Yahoo!'s nominees to the board are John Hayes, chief marketing officer of American Express AXP , Peter Liguori, former chief operating officer of Discovery Communications DISCA , and Thomas McInerney, the outgoing chief financial officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp IACI . AOL AOL hired Evercore Partners to find a buyer for its more than 800 patents and explore other strategic options, Bloomberg reported, citing three people with knowledge of the situation. Private-equity firms, including Providence Equity Partners, TPG Capital and Silver Lake, have approached AOL about taking the company private, yet the overtures haven't resulted in a deal, said the people. Evercore is trying to help AOL wring value from a patent portfolio, which some estimate can yield more than $1 billion in licensing income. Roche, the Swiss drug giant, extended its $5.7 billion cash bid for Illumina ILMN , the U.S. gene-sequencing company, for a second time. Roche is offering $44.50 a share for Illumina. The acceptance period was extended to April 20. Illumina continues to reject the bid. "Illumina's board of directors continues to believe that Roche's offer is grossly inadequate, and that Illumina is positioned to create far more value than Roche has offered. Our stockholders clearly agree," the company said Monday in a statement. The biggest earnings names on Monday include Cal-Maine Foods CALM and Apollo Group APOL . -- Written by Joseph Woelfel >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Joseph Woelfel Related links: Apple's iPhone 5: What to Expect The 5 Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week: March 23

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Stocks to Watch: Yahoo!, AOL, Illumina

LONDON, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services, has been ranked #1 ahead of its peer group* in the latest annual R&M Survey of custody clients and fund managers.

The company was ranked ahead of its peers in 11 categories in the survey, including the Overall Score category where it recorded an improved score on 2011's survey.

In addition, BNY Mellon was ranked #1 out of all surveyed providers in three key categories.

#1 overall:

#1 versus peer group:

[*Peer group: State Street, JP Morgan, Northern Trust, Citigroup]

Richard Hogsflesh, Managing Director of R&M Surveys, said: "Up until recently, high levels of client satisfaction were the domain of the smaller custodians, but not anymore. BNY Mellon[has] demonstrated [its] commitment to client satisfaction by putting a clear gap between [itself] and other major players like State Street and Citibank."

Tim Keaney, Vice Chairman of BNY Mellon and CEO of BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, said: "As always I'd like to thank our clients for their unstinting support in this prestigious independent survey. Our strong showing in the survey is testament to the expertise and dedication of everyone working within our investment services business during what remain challenging times for our clients, as they seek to manage risk, control costs and keep pace with today's fast-evolving regulatory environment.

"In today's ever more complex investment and operating environment, this latest vote of confidence in our organisation speaks to the breadth of our product offering and our long-term commitment to the investment servicing business, and our unwavering focus on innovation, quality and service excellence."

Sample BNY Mellon client survey comments included the following:

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BNY Mellon Takes Top Honours Amongst Peers in 2012 R&M Global Custody Survey

What if the city built a huge public park in the heart of Midtown, stretching half a mile over seven city blocks, about as big as the first phase of the High Line? What if that park already existed, dating to the 1980s, largely ignored but for the most knowing New Yorkers?

Were basically building a new pedestrian avenue in the heart of Midtown, one of the densest, busiest places on Earth, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said during an interview last week.

Call it 6th Avenue.

As Midtown began to creep West toward Times Square in the 1970s, a quirk in the zoning between Sixth and Seventh Avenues led to a string of towers in the middle of the block, all with public plazas, atria or arcades running through them. Everyday, thousands of people traverse this secret boulevard stretching from 51st Street to 57th Street, according to Department of Transportation data. They wind their way between parked cars, oncoming traffic and other obstructions, all in the hopes of shaving a few minutes off their walk and maybe avoiding the crowded avenues on either side.

Now, in an effort to create safer connections between these spaces while encouraging their use and also unclogging the avenues along the way, the Department of Transportation is creating a series of traffic interventions to link up these disparate shortcuts. The result should be somewhere between the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (though the Brooklyn Bridge may be more apt, given the crowds) and the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center. It should be a nice place to pass through, but also possibly to stop for a coffee or lunch, without fear of being mowed down on the way back to the office.

Weve been working very hard on the spaces between buildings and now were working very hard on the spaces within buildings, Ms. Sadik-Khan said. Were reprogramming underutilized road space while enhancing pedestrian spaces we already have and encouraging their use.

The plan calls for creating new pedestrian crossings between these public spaces, which generally are directly across the street from one another. Stop signs will be installed in front of new raised crosswalks. Warning markingsBUMP, STOP, chevrons and stripeswill all alert drivers to the new intersection while curbed cuts and painted street space will make crossing easier and prohibit parking. The goal, as with so many Sadik-Khan-era projects, is improved pedestrian circulation and traffic calming. The plan is currently parking neutral.

A tiny piece of the plans was implemented last fall, when a crosswalk was installed in the middle of 57th Street, with a traffic light instead of a stop sign. Commissioner Sadik-Khan said the results have been positive, with fewer illegal crossings and a reduction in accidents.

If it seems strange that all these public passageways should line up, that is how it was always meant to be. These spaces are a legacy of the same era that brought us Zuccotti Park. Privately Owned Public Spaces, or POPS, as they are often called, have been much in the news lately, thanks to Occupy Wall Street. The spaces in Midtown are at once similar and different. While none are as big as Zuccotti, they were all built to add precious square footage to the towers to which they are connected.

Sometimes this meant little more than opening up the lobby to the public, while other times developers would build soaring open air arcades. The stretch contains one of the greatest POPS in the city, the UBS Gallery at 1285 Sixth, the southern anchor of 6th Avenue, which houses works from the Smithsonian and not only runs north-south but also east-west. These spaces were not only created through POPS bonuses but also The Special Midtown District, codified in 1982 but in the works for almost a decade, that actively encourage developers to have their POPS line up with those of their neighbors. Without this provision, 6th Avenue would have been almost impossible to create.

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Meet Me on 6½th Avenue: DOT Planning Public Promenade Through Middle of Midtown Towers