Sensex ends 230 points up, shies away 10k level

Mumbai: Amid volatile trading, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today closed higher by over 230 points - still below 10,000 points level - on emergence of buying by funds in heavyweight stocks led by Reliance Industries and select power segment stocks.
The Sensex, which commenced the day lower at 9,631.59, shot up in volatile trade to regain 10,065.37 in the mid-session, but ended at 9,964.29 with a gain of 230.07 points.
A firm opening for the European stock markets also helped the upsurge to some extent.
The National Stock Exchange’s 50-share benchmark index Nifty rose by 90.35 points at 2,973.00, after touching the day’s high of 3,010.00, as most of the heavyweight stocks recorded handsome gains.
Reliance Industries, the Sensex-heaviest, surged by Rs46.30 at Rs1,217.85. The scrip rose to Rs1,239 and a low of Rs1,152 during the day.
Oil and gas sector index gained the most by 196.63 at 6,013.57 followed by metal sector index by 158.89 points at 5,152.33.

Oil tumbles to 21-month low of $58 a barrel

LONDON: Oil prices on Thursday tumbled under 58 dollars a barrel, reaching the lowest level for nearly 21 months as recession fears gripped markets, said. On London's InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December dived more than four dollars to 57.46 dollars a barrel -- the lowest level since February 2007. At about 1555 GMT, the contract recovered slightly to stand at 58.08 dollars, down 3.79 dollars compared with Wednesday's close. On the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), light sweet crude for December fell dropped 3.80 dollars to 61.50 dollars a barrel.
Fears of a deep recession and hence weaker energy demand intensified on Thursday as European central banks slashed interest rates. The Bank of England's monetary policy committee cut British borrowing costs by a record 1.50 percentage points to 3.0 percent -- the lowest level in more than half a century. The European Central Bank reduced eurozone borrowing costs by 0.50 percentage points.
"Market participants may be taking the view that for the MPC to slash rates in such a dramatic manner, things must be really bad," said David Evans, an analyst at BetOnMarkets.com. Oil prices had already tumbled by more than five dollars Wednesday on NYMEX as US data showed demand falling in the world's biggest energy consuming nation, highlighting worries about a slowing global economy .

Demand slump: Tata Motors may shut Pune unit for 6 days

NEW DELHI: A day after it announced plans to briefly shut down its heavy commercial vehicles plant in Jamshedpur, Tata Motors appeared to be mulling similar closure of its passenger vehicle plant in Pune. "Production will match demand" is all that a Tata Motors spokesperson had to say when asked about reports that the Pune facility would be shut down from November 22-27. He however, neither confirmed nor denied the reports. Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company, had yesterday announced shutting down its Jamshedpur unit, the mother plant for its heavy commercial vehicles, for three days due to slump in demand.
"Tata Motors is taking a block closure at Jamshedpur from November 6 to November 8, 2008, to match production with demand of vehicles produced at the Jamshedpur plant to avoid build-up of inventory either in the company or with our dealers," the company spokesperson had said yesterday.

US financial crisis may hit India's exports in Q4: Deloitte

NEW DELHI: Country's exports, including BPO services, software and financial services
exports, are likely to be hit by the global meltdown in the fourth quarter of 2008, says a report by global research firm Deloitte. "The ongoing slowdown in the US economy will likely to affect the future growth in India's exports. Experts predict that US businesses would likely either reduce outsourcing or withhold expansion plans," the report Deloitte Global Economic Outlook for the fourth quarter of this year said. Consequently, as a result of the financial crisis, the BPOs, financial services and other software exports contributing to about 2 per cent of India's GDP are likely to be affected, the report said. Software industry body NASSCOM has also predicted that there would be a significant impact of the global crisis on the Indian BPO sector. The financial turmoil and recessionary tendencies in major economies have already impacted India's export growth, which slowed to 10.4 per cent in September even as the country increased its imports by 43.3 per cent over September 2007.

Read more at The Economic Times

Buffett, Soros continue to buy stake in companies

NEW YORK: In the midst of people selling their stocks as market values touch the nadir, legendary investors-- Warren Buffett and George Soros-- seem to be swimming against the tide and shopping for stakes in companies worldwide. With the economic crisis ravaging global markets, the two billionaires are making investments in firms from America to Australia, which are expected to yield long term benefits. As Buffett wrote recently in a newspaper column, a simple rule dictates his buying, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." Recently, Buffett pumped in about eight billion dollars in two American corporates. The legendary investor had pumped in five billion dollars to battered Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs and another three billion dollars into diversified conglomerate General Electric. According to reports, Soros snapped up a five per cent stake in Australian firm Sphere Investments. The company is reportedly looking to develop a multi-billion dollar iron ore mine in Mauritania.

Read more at The Economic Times

World economies to decline in 2009: IMF

WASHINGTON: Barely 10 days ahead of the Summit of the Group-20 here called by President George Bush, IMF has revised its global economic outlook and forecast that advanced economies would slip into recession
next year, while the growth rate of Asian nations would come down. In its World Outlook Report published today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the global growth would slow down by 0.2 per cent in 2008 and 0.9 per cent in 2009, thus leaving the revised growth figures at 3.7 per cent for this year and 2.2 per cent for the next. The outlook is not too different for India as well, since IMF sees the country's economic growth going down to 6.3 per cent, 0.6 per cent less than what it had projected last month, as the financial meltdown envelops the globe.

Read more at The Economic Times