Japanese stocks on a rise

The Nikkei index of leading Japanese shares has closed above 10,000 points for the first time in eight months.

The Nikkei-225 stock average closed up 154.49 points at 10,135.82 points, as global recovery hopes grew.

Investors were encouraged by a revised 5.9% rise in industrial output in April, the biggest gain in half a century.

Better-than-expected US sales and jobs data on Thursday also spurred hopes of a recovery.

The April data was revised up from 5.2% and was the biggest monthly gain since 1953.

The Nikkei has risen 44% since it reached a low of 7,000 on March 10 and 3.8% in the past week.

Among the gainers on Friday were CSK Holdings, up 19.05% at 500 yen, Nippon Soda, up 11.48% at 476 yen and Yahoo Japan, up 8.29% at 30,550 yen.

Industry grows 1.4% in April; solid show power generation

Giving early signs of economic recovery, industrial production grew 1.4 per cent in April after contraction for months together since September when global financial crisis deepened.

However, certain crucial sectors like consumer non-durables, including processed food products and capital goods posted negative growth.



Processed food items declined by a whopping 34 per cent.



Also, 1.4 per cent growth in factory output is no match for the 6.2 per cent expansion it clocked in the same month last year.



Nonetheless, slowdown in industrial growth, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), appears to be bottoming out.



Provisional figures showed industrial contraction for almost every month since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in mid-September last year which deepened the global financial meltdown.



"We have bottomed up and we are on a path of recovery," economic think-tank National Institute for Public Finance and Policy's Director Govinda Rao said.



However, the good news on industrial production failed to enthuse the stock markets with benchmark equity index Sensex shedding nearly 153 points at 15,355 points at mid-session.



The biggest surprise in IIP data was the electricity generation which grew by 7.1 per cent in April against 1.4 per

cent in the same month a year ago.

Oil above USD 72 as traders eye economic recovery

Oil prices hovered above USD 72 a barrel on Friday in Asia near an 8-month high as investors eyed signs that the global recession may be easing.

Benchmark crude for July delivery fell 31 cents to USD 72.37 a barrel by midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.



On Thursday, it rose USD 1.35 to settle at USD 72.68, the highest since October.



An improving crude demand outlook helped bolster prices. yesterday, the International Energy Agency in Paris said in its monthly survey that global oil demand would fall by 2.9 percent this year, better than its May forecast of a 3 percent annual fall.



It was the organisation's first upward estimate of demand in 10 months.



"Oil prices are discounting positive economic growth by around the end of the third quarter," said Christoffer Molke-Leth, head of sales trading for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. "If that doesn't happen, prices at this level are overbought."



Prices have more than doubled since March as investor optimism grew that the worst of a severe US recession was over.



The Labor Department on Thursday reported that the number of newly laid-off Americans filing for jobless benefits fell last week by 24,000 to 601,000 - better than economists had forecast.

Is it wise to spent 100 million euros on a player ?????

Real Madrid in a span of days spent 56 million pounds on Kaka and agreed a deal worth 80 million pounds for Christiano Ronaldo . Is it worth to pay such high amounts for a single player ? That too on time of recession when the number of unemployment is on rise and people are spending with strings tied around their wallet ..

Whatever be the reason that the Spanish outfit is paying such heavy sums on players is ridiculous and their shopping list is not complete yet . Some new players will find a place on their hit list and they will publicly go for the player like what happened to United


It is the time for Michael Platini to act rather than accusing English clubs . For the last one year Madrid was after Ronaldo and Platini was trying to regulate the transfer activities of English clubs . With the amount they are spending on a single player is more than the budget of many nations it is time for somebody to act