Toyota increases hiring in Japan

Toyota is hiring 800 contract workers in Japan, its first increase in jobs in more than a year.

The Japanese carmaker said this was due to higher demand for its Prius petrol-electric hybrid in Japan.

Toyota now employs 1,300 contract workers in Japan, who are distinct from the 70,000 full-time workers that have guaranteed lifetime employment.

Toyota, struggling with the global downturn in auto sales, had stopped employing contractors last June.

The majority start work next month at its Tsutsumi plant in central Japan, which makes the Prius and other models for the Japanese market.

The Prius, launched in 1997, is now in its third generation. By the end of April, Toyota had sold 1,028,000 of the cars worldwide, more than half of them in North America.

At its peak in 2005, Toyota employed over 11,600 contract workers - who are hired for fixed periods of employment.

Gold returns back above $1,000

The price of gold has touched $1,000 an ounce for the first time in six months.

The move could be seen as a sign that investors believe the worst of the global recession is over and are worried about inflation.

Others who are less convinced about the strength of the recovery are moving into gold, which is usually sought as a haven from economic turmoil.

Gold - seen as an attractive investment in times of inflation - has risen 13.6% in value this year.

'Uncertainty'

The US dollar - which often moves in the opposite direction to gold - has been declining during that same time.

"Gold's rising price is due to uncertainty all the way from personal investors right through to institutions," said Sandra Close, an analyst at Surbiton Associates."There are questions out there over the health of economies, where interest rates are going. All that encourages gold hoarding," she said.

Gold reached an all-time record of $1,032 an ounce in March 2008.

The commodity is measured and sold in troy ounces. One troy ounce equals 31.1035 grams or 480 grains. One troy ounce is equal to 1.09711 avoirdupois ounce - those widely used to measure weights in the US and UK.

Gold has risen for each of the past eight years.

Oil rises in Asian trade on improved sentiment

The analysts are of the view that the oil extended its reach in Asian trade on Tuesday to lift in the part by improved investor capacity about the global economy's recovery prospects in the markets.

Oil extended its rise in Asian trade on Tuesday, lifted in part by improved investor sentiment about the global economy's recovery prospects, analysts said.


Comments by oil kingpin Saudi Arabia that the market was "very stable and healthy" were also seen providing support to prices, they said.


New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery firmed 20 cents to USD 68.22 a barrel.


Brent North Sea crude for October delivery put on 37 cents to USD 66.90.
"With growth picking up in virtually every country, a self-reinforcing process or positive feedback loop' is developing," analysts from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in a report.


"Growth in individual countries is stimulating global growth, via trade and confidence channels. This adds to our confidence in the sustainability of the recovery."
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on arriving in Vienna on Monday ahead of a meeting of the OPEC crude cartel that current oil price levels were satisfactory.


"The market is in very good shape: very well-supplied," Naimi told reporters. "The price is good for everybody, consumer (and) producer," hovering recently between 68 and 73 dollars per barrel, he added.


He reiterated the view of several fellow OPEC ministers that further cuts to oil production quotas were unlikely and said Wednesday night's meeting would seek to enforce compliance with existing reductions "as best we can.

Iran to import Venezuelan petrol

Venezuela has agreed to export petrol to Iran, in a sign of closer ties between two of America's most vocal adversaries.

At the end of a two-day visit to Iran, President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would supply 20,000 barrels of petrol a day to the country.

Iran is a major oil exporter but lacks domestic refining capability.

Iranian leaders expressed support for the Venezuelan socialist leader's anti-American policies.

Mr Chavez has been using Venezuela's oil wealth to counter US influence in Latin America and to boost ties with nations not friendly with Washington.

"Venezuela has agreed to export 20,000 barrels of petrol daily to Iran from October in a deal worth $800 millon (£485m)," he was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

He added: "This amount will be deposited in a fund established in Iran and will be used to finance purchase of machinery and technology from Iran."

ONGC to ramp up oil production at Imperial

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to rapidly ramp up crude oil production of Imperial Energy, the firm it acquired early this year, and consolidate operations even as it looks at opportunities to expand its presence in western Siberia.

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of the state-run explorer, is currently in the process of consolidating operations.



"When we took over (Imperial in January 2009), oil production had fallen to below 6,000 barrels per day. We were able to restore it to about 8,200 bpd by May and have now ramped it up to 11,200 bpd," an official said.



As a confidence building measure, India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora visited the Imperial Energy headquarters at Tomsk and met Tomsk Governor Viktor Kress.



The visit was aimed at helping the transition of the company from British parentage to an Indian one.



Deora, who flew into this sleepy western Siberia town on Sunday evening, was given a presentation on Imperial operations and was informed that the output would be ramped up to about 16,000 bpd by the year end. By the end of 2010, the production is targeted to cross 25,000 bpd.

Australia dollar at one-year high

The Australian dollar is at its highest in a year as confidence increases about the global economy.

The currency rose 0.5% to AU$ 0.86 against the US dollar. The Australian currency is up 21.5% this year.

Investors have been more positive about a global economic recovery, and the Australian currency has benefited from a rise in commodity prices.

Australia is one of the few developed countries to have avoided falling into a recession.

Chinese demand for its iron ore and other raw materials has also boosted Australian exports.

India to invest up to USD 10 bn to supplement IMF resources

As part of efforts to have a greater say in the running of the international financial institutions, India has decided to invest up to USD 10 billion from its reserves to supplement the IMF resources.

"India has decided to invest up to 10 billion dollars of its reserves in notes issued by the IMF," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters at London on Friday night after the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) ministerial meeting ahead of a G-20 conference.

Mukherjee said "the G-20 egged governments on to adopt an aggressive monetary and fiscal stance, and was particularly successful in raising reforms for International Financial Institutions that played a major role in stabilising developing country markets.

The communique issued at the end of the BRIC Finance Ministers' meeting said "for us, IMF notes or bonds are the best option to provide immediate resources to the IMF without undermining the quota reform process.

"We are together contributing USD 80 billion to supplement the resources of the IMF. The IMF is a quota-based institution and should remain so. We propose that the next quota review should at least double the overall size of quotas."



China accounts for USD 50 billion of the USD 80 billion contribution and the rest would be borne by India, Russia and Brazil.

Brazil's Finance Minister Guido Mantega told newsmen that the BRIC countries would like to have a greater say in the running of the IMF and other international financial institutions such as the World Bank and are prepared to have a larger share of quotas and voting.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner joined part of the meeting, which Mukherjee said was an acknowledgement of the group's emergence as a key voice in global economic and financial issues.

Need to regulate financial market but no protectionism: Pranab

India has said when there is a need to regulate the financial market; the same should not be used to devise any kind of protectionism.

"We shall have to strike a balance. First of all, I would like to... in the name of the financial regulation and to regulate the markets and as I started off, I mentioned protectionism need not come. Yes, there is a need of regulating the financial market," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in an interview to a news channel at Washington.

"At the other side of the picture, these instruments need not be used to devise protectionism in some forms. Therefore, there too, we shall have to keep in view the federal reserves -- the larger social interests -- interests of the society as a whole, not fragmented and fractured internally," he said.

Noting that there is no consensus among major economies on the lessons learnt from the current global economic crisis, Mukherjee said: "But if we look at the way G-20 responded and we have ourselves been made to address only those issues where there is the possibility of consensus."

The Finance Minister felt that G-20 should not pick up those issues where consensus is elusive.



"That there should not be, in the name of financial agreement...it should not be too much constructionist policies in the grab of another form of protectionism," he said.



Responding to a question, Mukherjee said India shall have to come back to the fiscal conservatism.



"That's why in my medium term plan, I have indicated that I am ending the year with a 6.8 percent of fiscal... but I will come around to 5.5 and four percent in the next two years," he said.

Russia, China, Brazil endorse India's stand on protectionism

India's stand that protectionism remains a real threat to the global economy and emerging economies need to guard against tendencies in some developed nations to extend it beyond trade to financial markets and investment has been endorsed by Russia, China and Brazil.

A joint communique issued at the end of the two-hour meeting of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries'

Finance Ministers on Friday evening asserted that "protectionism remains a real threat to the global economy and

should be avoided, both in direct and indirect forms."



Addressing a press conference along with his counterparts from Brazil, China and Russia, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that "emerging markets also need to guard against tendencies in some developed countries to extend protectionism beyond trade to financial markets and

investment."



He said it could "collectively undermine not only growth in developing countries but also the hard earned welfare gains from globalisation."



The communique also emphasised that the reform of international financial institutions is crucial to ensuring a stable and balanced global economy.



"For the IMF and the World Bank Group, the main governance problem, which severely undermines their legitimacy, is the unfair distribution of quotas, shares and voting power. Priority should be given to a substantial shift of quotas and shares in favour of emerging markets and

developing countries," the communique said.



"We propose the setting of a target for that shift of the order of 7 per cent in the IMF and 6 per cent in the World Bank Group so as to reach an equitable distribution of voting power between advanced and developing countries," it said, adding "this would lead the overall share of emerging markets and developing countries in the IMF and World Bank to correspond roughly to their share in world GDP."



Emphasising that emerging markets were not the cause of the ongoing financial crisis as their financial systems were conservatively regulated, Mukherjee said "their growth prospects have nevertheless been badly damaged. It is particularly gratifying that BRIC countries are leading the global recovery."



Stating that he expected India to grow between 6-7 per cent in both 2009 and 2010 on the back of strong fiscal and monetary measures that saw the central bank repeatedly lowering its benchmark interest rates by 425 basis points over a short period following the Lehman debacle, he added that government has also tried to cover the fall in private demand through fiscal stimulus equipment to 3-4 per cent of the GDP

in 2008-09, and this is being carried through to 2009-10.



Mukherjee, however, cautioned that a return to earlier levels of 9 per cent trend growth in India on a sustainable

basis hinged on stabilisation of western markets.



"The recovery would be greatly assisted if international trade is kept open. In this context, we are keen for an early, successful conclusion of the stalled Doha Round," he said.



The BRIC countries expressed their support for an open and merit-based selection of IMF and World Bank management.



"The next Managing Director of the IMF and the next President of the World Bank should be elected in such a manner, irrespective of nationality or any geographical preference," the communique said.



They also supported a revision in the composition of the executive boards of the IMF and the World Bank, of the IMFC and of the Development committee to allow for a more adequate representation of the emerging markets and developing countries.

US jobless rate at 26-year high

US employers cut 216,000 jobs in August, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.7%, a 26-year high, official figures show.

The unemployment rate rose after dipping to 9.4% in July but the Labor Department said the job loss figure was the smallest in a year.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 6.9 million jobs, the department said.

Jobs have been lost across manufacturing and service industries.

Total unemployment stands at 14.9 million.

Google China chief leaves company

The man who led Google's expansion into China is leaving the company to start his own business.

Lee Kai-Fu, who joined from Microsoft in 2004, will step down as president of Google in greater China in September, the company said.

When he joined, Microsoft sued Google and Mr Lee, claiming he had violated an agreement that prohibited him from working for a rival for one year.

The two sides later settled out of court, without releasing details.

Mr Lee went on to become the face of Google China.

But during his reign Google China had a difficult relationship with Beijing censors.

In June, access to Google in some parts of China was disrupted, amid a row over what Chinese citizens should be allowed to view over the internet.

A Chinese official also accused Google of spreading pornography and breaking Chinese law.

"Kai-Fu has made an enormous contribution to Google over the last four years, helping dramatically to improve the quality and range of services that we offer in China," said Alan Eustace, Google's senior vice president for engineering.

Mr Lee will be replaced by John Liu, who currently leads its greater China sales team.

Oil recovers in Asian trade ahead of US jobs data

Oil rebounded in Asian trade on Friday ahead of the release of a closely monitored US jobs report that will give fresh clues on the health of the world's biggest economy, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, advanced 14 cents to USD 68.10 a barrel.



Brent North Sea crude for October delivery was five cents higher at USD 67.17.



The US jobs report, seen as an indicator of economic momentum, will give analysts further clues on whether the American economy is recovering from a recession that began in December 2007.



"Commodity markets will be watching the US employment report for August to be released tonight," the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a report.



A smaller-than-expected decline last week in the number of US new claims for unemployment benefits, reported by the Labor Department Thursday, put investors on alert.



"The data are a sobering reminder that the labor market, and consumer spending, will be a drag on growth prospects," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.



A Credit Suisse report that predicted Asian economies would continue to rebound firmly from the global slump,

boosted by improving domestic demand and exports, is likely to bode well for oil demand.

eBay reaches deal to sell Skype

Online auction site eBay has agreed to sell the majority of internet phone company Skype for about $2bn (£1.2bn).

Skype is to be majority-owned by a group of private investors, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and private equity firms.

EBay will keep a 35% stake in the firm, which it has been trying to sell for some time. It has said that Skype had "limited synergies" with it.

The deal values Skype at $2.75bn. EBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2005.

The new owners are Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures - which originally invested in Skype - as well as private equity firm Silver Lake and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

They will pay $1.9bn in cash, and give a $125m note to eBay, meaning that it promises to pay that amount on demand or at an agreed time.

For sale

Earlier this year, eBay had said that it planned to spin off Skype and list its shares in the first half of 2010, an announcement many took as a signal that the firm was for sale.

Ebay wrote down the value of the firm to $1.2bn a year after it was taken over.

Including payouts to Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who founded Skype in 2003, eBay paid over $3bn for the company.

Skype's software lets computer and mobile phone users talk to each other for free and make cut-price calls to mobiles and landlines.

Unlike traditional mobile calls, which are transmitted over a cellular network, Skype turns your voice into data and sends it over the internet.

Since being acquired, the number of registered Skype users has risen to 405 million from 53 million, though free user-to-user calls still dominate the service.

The deal should be finalised by the last three months of the year.

Government may sell 15 pc stake in Coal India

The government is planning to increase its disinvestment target in Coal India from 10 per cent proposed earlier to 15 per cent as it wants to put a sizeable number of shares in the market and also offer them to employees and farmers displaced by its mines.

"The company wants to offer a chunk of shares in the market so that there is an adequate floating stock for

trading," a Coal Ministry official said, adding that it would be only through enough offering that Coal India Ltd would be able to discover its valuation.



The official said the CIL's initial public offering of about 15 per cent would be done in one go and not in bits and

pieces.



The company, which has a paid-up equity capital of about Rs 6,316 crore, clocked a pre-tax profit of Rs 8,738.46 crore in the last fiscal.



It plans to offer stock options to over 4 lakh employees. Besides, it would also offer shares to the displaced farmers as part of the compensation.



CIL has mines spread in Chattishargh, orissa and Jharkhand on land acquired

from farmers.



While the officials did not specify any time-frame on the IPO, the company and the ministry is in touch with market regulator SEBI on the proposal.



CIL Chairman P S Bhattacharyya had met Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitral last month to discuss the stake-sale proposal.

Sensex falls for third day on weak global cues

The stock markets extended losses for the third day on Wednesday with the barometer index shedding 83.73 points on selling by funds that took cues from weak Asian markets.

The 30-share Sensex, which had lost nearly 370 points in the last two trading sessions, fell by 83.73 points, or 0.54 per cent, to close at 15,467.46 points.



The key index touched the day's high of 15,628.10 points and a low of 15,392.68 points as the market remained choppy.



Blue-chip stocks led by realty, auto and banking segments recorded heavy losses. Among the 30 Sensex scrips, 21 counters closed with losses, while eight ended higher.



The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 17 points to 4,608.35 points.



Marketmen said a steep fall in the US Stock markets on Tuesday night and a weak trend in Asian region mainly dampened investor's confidence.



They said the market sentiment further affected after a weak opening in European stock markets this afternoon.



In Asian region, Japan's index fell by 2.37 per cent, Hong Kong's by 1.76 per cent, Singapore's index by 1.02 per cent.



The US Dow Jones Industrial Average index lost 1.96 per cent and the Nasdaq by 2 per cent on renewed concerns about a global economic recovery after reports of more US bank failure.



Reports said three more US banks failed on Friday last week, bringing the total number of failures to 84 this year so far as the banking industry grapples with deteriorating loans.



The European stocks opened lower by one per cent with banking stocks taking the most points off the index, which pulled down the Sensex maximum in the fag-end trading.



Metal sector stocks led by Sterlite, the biggest copper producer, retreated 3.16 per cent after the metal tumbled the most in more than two months on the London Metal Exchange.



ICICI Bank fell by 1.15 per cent, Maruti Suzuki by 2.27 per cent, Mahindra and Mahindra by 2.09 per cent, DLF by 1.18 per cent, Grasim by 1.44 per cent and Larsen and Toubro by 1.07 per cent.



The realty index suffered the most falling by 1.76 per cent to 4,202.65 points followed by the auto index by 1.36 per cent to 5,940.58. The capital goods index fell by 1.26 per cent to 12,772.07, the power index by 1.08 per cent to 2,910.61 and the banking index by 0.61 per cent to 8,228.20