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

Oil price touches high for 2009

The price of oil has hit its highest level of the year, boosted by sharp rises in Chinese stocks and rising shares on Wall Street.

The price of US crude rose to $74.15 a barrel before settling at $73.89, a gain of 98 cents. London Brent was up 86 cents at $74.19.

The oil price hit $147 a barrel last July and fell below $74 last October, a level it has not breached since.

Worldwide oil prices have been extremely volatile this year.

Prices have been affected as much by sentiment as by fundamentals of demand and supply.

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that prospects for a return to growth in the near term appeared good in the US and abroad.

Dreamworks seals Indian film deal

Hollywood's Dreamworks studio is finally set to receive a multi-million dollar film production deal from Indian company, Reliance Big Entertainment.

The first film from the investment will be Harvey, an adaptation of a play about a man and a giant invisible rabbit. Stephen Spielberg will direct.

Reliance is a key player in Bollywood. Dreamworks was co-founded by Spielberg.

Under the agreement, Dreamworks will make five to six films every year for global audiences.

The second movie, titled Dinner for Schmucks, will begin shooting in October.

Blackberry 'fastest-growing firm'

The maker of the Blackberry mobile phone, Research in Motion (RIM), is the world's fastest-growing company, according to business magazine Fortune.

Canada-based RIM has come top of the magazine's latest annual guide to the 100 fastest-growing businesses.

In second place was US chipmaker Sigma Designs, with Chinese internet business Sohu.com coming in third.

Fortune rates a firm's growth on a combination of its profits, turnover and investment return over three years.

Sensex wipes off some losses, ends 250 pts higher

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Tuesday surged over 250 points after the market dropped 4.07 per cent on Monday.

The Sensex, which had lost 626.71 in Monday's trading, bounced back to end with a gain of 250.34 points at 15,035.26.


The key index touched the day's high of 15,134.51 and a low of 14,740.26 as trading remained choppy because of funds and general investors adjusting their portfolios.


Similarly, the 50-share National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 71 points at 4,458.90, after rising to 4,491.45 and touching the day's low of 4,372.65.


Recovery in Asian as well as European stocks this afternoon further boosted trading sentiment following reports of a hike in new house sales data in the US and rising hopes of stability in the weakening global economies.


A major supporter to the markets were stocks in the capital goods, realty, metal, power and auto segments.


Overseas funds bought a net Rs 1,030 crore (USD 211 million) of Indian stocks on 14th August, the Securities & Exchange Board of India said on its web site.


The funds have bought stocks of Rs 37,600 crore this year, compared with record net sales of Rs 53,000 crore for the whole of 2008.

Recession ends but markets fall

Japan may be officially out of recession, but regional investors are still cautious, with East Asian markets closing lower in Monday trading.

Economists believe the falls are linked to the latest consumer data from the US, which showed that shoppers there are not yet ready to start spending.

Japan's export-oriented industry relies heavily on US demand.

China's main Shanghai index fell 5.8% to 2,870.63, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 328.72 points (3.1%) to 10,268.61.

However, the Nikkei is still up by almost 900 points since mid-July.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi also fell and the price of US light, sweet crude fell below $66 a barrel - its lowest level this month. It fell $1.73 to $65.78.

"Production [in Japan] is still at a low level, and worries remain that employment conditions will worsen. So we must watch the downside risks," said Japan's economy and fiscal policy minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Japan's economy leaves recession

Japan has come out of recession after its economy grew by 0.9% in the April-to-June quarter.

The growth comes after four consecutive quarters of contraction.

Correspondents say the rise is due to a huge government stimulus package and it is unclear whether the momentum will be sustained when this is concluded.

Recent figures show other economies coming out of recession, including Germany, France and Hong Kong, a sign the global slowdown is easing.

Despite Japan exiting recession, the country's main share index, the Nikkei, fell back as the rate of growth was not as large as analysts had hoped.

If Japan's latest quarterly rate were maintained for a full year, the economy would grow 3.7%, but this was less than market expectations of 3.9%.

The Nikkei ended down 329 points or 3.1% to 10,269.

Sensex falls most in more than one month, melts 626 points

The BSE benchmark Sensex on Monday suffered most in one month by losing nearly 627 points on frantic selling by funds because of a steep fall in global markets and investors booking profits.

The Sensex, which notched up nearly a 1.71 percent gain in the previous week, plunged by 626.71 points at 14,784.92, the biggest fall since 6th July, the day the Budget was presented.



The index touched the day's low of 14,740.63. All the Sensex stocks closed with moderate to notable losses.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 192.15 points at 4,387.90 as heavy-weights led by the realty sector showed hefty declines. The Nifty touched the day's low of 4,374.60 points.

Marketmen said the bourse tumbled here tailing weak Asian peers as concerns grew that global economic recovery may be more difficult than expected after data showed US consumer confidence fell to its lowest since March.

They said the selling wave was so strong that almost all sectoral indices showed biggest fall in recent times.

Market sentiment turned bearish also on reports of an international agency saying the stocks might decline up to 15 percent on concerns that lower monsoon rain would slash farm output and cut consumer spending.