Oil price rally comes to a halt

Oil prices have fallen back with investors growing more cautious as oil approaches the $70-a-barrel mark.

US light, sweet crude oil was down 86 cents at $67.69 a barrel, while Brent crude fell 61 cents to $67.56.

US President Barack Obama has begun a tour of the Middle East, where he will raise the issue of volatile oil prices with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

He is also expected to reassure Saudi that demand for oil will not dry up. Earlier, oil prices had reached $68.64.

"The Saudis want to be assured that there will be a future for oil consumption. They want security of demand," said Simon Wardell, senior oil analyst at Global Insight.

"Obama for his part will be persuading them to continue investing in new production, which is not likely to have too much impact on spot prices in the near term, but will come five or 10 years down the road."

Weaker dollar

The price of oil had initially risen in early trading on Wednesday.

The weakening dollar had pushed up oil prices, which tend to rise when the US currency falls.

In recent weeks, the dollar has declined against a range of currencies, hitting a seven-month low against sterling on Wednesday.

"The continuing softening of the dollar will go on adding strength to oil and equities," said Peter McGuire of Commodity Warrants Australia.

"I think $70 is possible by the end of the week and $74 to $75 by the end of the month."

Oil had briefly touched $69 a barrel on Tuesday, a new seven-month high, before closing at $68.55.

Although the oil price has more than doubled since January, when it was trading at $32.70 a barrel, it is still well below the record $147 a barrel seen in July last year.

Rs 150 cr spent to buy speed boats by Maharashtra Govt

In the aftermath of 26/11 terror attacks, Maharashtra government has set aside Rs 150 crore to buy 28 hi-tech speed boats for patrolling the sea.

The first boat, equipped with bullet-proof jackets and sophisticated communication systems, was provided to the Thane (rural) police and was tested at the Versova creek on Ghodbunder Road in neighbouring Thane on Monday.


Thane Superintendent of police said, "We are expecting to get one more such boat and it would be used for coastal patrolling. Coastal belts like Utan and Pali fall under our jurisdiction."


The government has made a proposal for acquiring 28 such boats after the November 26 terror attacks, carried out by a group of ten terrorists who entered the city via the sea.


The boats, manufactured by Goa Shipyard Ltd, have a 550 horsepower capacity and will be equipped with bullet-proof jackets along with weapons.



The boats will have ultra-modern navigation tools and Global Positioning System (GPS) for constant communication with the police control room, Pandey said.

India need not import LWR after 2050: Kakodkar

India need not import light water reactors (LWRs) after 2050 as it would by then have a matured fast breeder technology and be ready to use Thorium technology, said Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.

Indian nuclear community should not have any confusion regarding this as there are talks going around about using Thorium even before the fast breeder technology is matured, Kakodkar said, delivering Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Foundation day lecture.

Although country has large amount of Thorium and would be a priority for long time in the future, India has to follow the well thought out plan of three-stage programme of Homi J Bhabha as Thorium does not provide fast growth.

India needs fast growth and such growth can be sustained by fast breeder reactors (FBRs) with a multiplier effect.

"If you deploy thorium out of turn (before stage II maturity), which does not support growth out of turn, then you will not get large generating capacity," he said, talking on 'Developing Nuclear Technology for our energy independence: the grand challenge', in Mumbai on Monday.

Sensex down 182 pts in early trade

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex opened 182 points down on Thursday, tracking a weak global trend, on profit-selling by funds at prevailing higher levels after the recent hefty gains.

The 30-share barometer, which touched the 15,000 mark in intra-day trade yesterday after nine months, fell 181.86 points to 14,689.04 in the first five minutes of the day's trade.



The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty was also down 54.35 points at 4,476.35.



Marketmen said selling pressure picked up on the domestic bourses, in line with a weak trend in the global markets, with investors locking in cash after a strong rally.

Rupee weakens by 17 paise against USD

The Indian rupee depreciated by 17paise to 47.24 against the dollar in early trade on Thursday as banks bought the currency (dollar) on behalf of importers and after the USD stabilised against a basket of currencies in Asian markets.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit, which had ended six paise costlier at 47.07/08 on Wednesday, fell further to quote at 47.24.



Besides the greenback strengthening against other Asian currencies, expectations of a weak opening in the equity markets, in tandem with other Asian bourses, affected the rupee sentiment, forex dealers said.



The Asian markets are trading low by 1.5 per cent in early trade on Thursday.