Asian Investors Rattled by Dow's Plunge

Most Asian markets tumbled Friday in the wake of one of Wall Street's biggest drops of the year, although European markets rebounded modestly from sharp losses the previous day.

Japanese stocks fell to nearly three-month lows, Philippine stocks marked their steepest decline in 10 years, and South Korea's benchmark index - which had hit a record Wednesday - sank 4.1 percent, its biggest slide in more than three years. Chinese stocks, however, ended the day flat.

Investors in Asia were rattled after U.S. and European markets plunged Thursday amid worries over the U.S. mortgage and corporate lending markets. Those woes could cause global liquidity to dry up as international investors pull out of riskier assets, including Asian emerging markets, analysts said.

Read more in Financial Express

Dow, Reliance JV this week

Dow Chemicals, the US-based petrochem giant, may announce its intent of floating a joint venture with Reliance Industries this week.

Sources close to the development said the foreign company would announce this week, if not Sunday, that it would spin off its underperforming commodity businesses into a separate entity in which Reliance would pick up a majority stake. However, the valuation of the joint venture might be not immediately announced, they said.

It means the announcement may not give a sense of Reliance’s investment for picking up a majority stake in the venture. Dow, perhaps, would announce the appointment of a valuer to ascertain the worth of the venture, they added.

Both the companies are keeping mum on the issue. A Reliance spokesperson declined to comment while an e-mail sent to Dow remained unanswered. Read more at Business Standard

RIL inches closer to mega JV with Dow

There’s yet another big global deal brewing and this might turn out to be a real blockbuster. It’s actually a global petrochem powerhouse in the making. Reliance Industries, which has been talking to the $49-billion Dow Chemicals-the world’s second-largest chemicals company-has inched closer to signing an MoU with the US company.

According to sources, talks are at an advanced stage and the two sides are expected to make a formal announcement by this weekend. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, along with a top-level team, including Nikhil Meswani, Kamal P Nanavaty, Alok Agarwal and Haresh Shah, is scheduled to meet Dow CEO Andrew N Liveris and the rest of the senior team for the final round of negotiations.

The Reliance official spokesperson, however, denied that a deal like this was in the offing. Even an email to Reliance failed to elicit any response. Dow Chemical’s media relations leader Andrew Wood expressed his inability to answer ET’s queries, stating that it is Dow’s policy not to comment on rumours about the company or its activities.

Read more at Economic Times