Gold prices spurted by Rs 100 to regain the all-time high level of Rs 29,540 per 10 grams in the bullion market here, Saturday on strong demand triggered by the ongoing wedding season amid firm global cues.
The precious metal, which was last seen at this level on December 8, has gained Rs 550 in the last seven days.
Silver also gained Rs 100 to Rs 56,500 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and jewellery makers.
The size of China’s search engine market hit 5.53 billion yuan ($877 million) in the first quarter of 2012, according to new statistics.
The figure represents a 70.4 percent year-on-year increase, but a 4.7 percent decline compared to the last quarter of 2011, showed the statistics from Analysys International, a Beijing-based tech and internet information provider.
Dong Xu, an analyst with the firm, attributed the quarter-on-quarter decline to the traditional seasonality of Internet use.
India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves rose by $1.46 billion to $294.60 billion for the week ended April 20, official data showed. Forex reserves had risen by $213.8 million to $293.14 billion in the previous week.
Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, rose by $1.45 billion to $260.21 billion during the week under review, according to the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank.
The RBI did not provide any reasons for the upward change in foreign currency assets.
Calling for renewed efforts to revive India’s flagging structural reform agenda, the IMF on Friday said governance concerns have weakened business sentiment in the country.
IMF’s Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Outlook released today pointed out that domestic factors have also played a role in India’s growth slowdown over the second half of 2011.
Gold prices gained Rs 100 to touch over four-and-a-half-month high of Rs 29,440 in the bullion market here, Friday on strong buying by stockists and retailers to meet the wedding season demand.
The precious metal, which was last seen at this level on December 5, has gained 450 in the last six-sessions.
The price of silver also rose by 400 to Rs 56,400 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and coin makers, ending three-day losing streak.
Country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on Friday reported 31 percent jump in net profit at Rs 1,902 crore for the fourth quarter of the 2011-12 fiscal.
It had profit of Rs 1,452 crore in the January-March quarter, 2010-11, ICICI Bank said in a statement.
During Q4, its total income increased to Rs 11,403 crore, from Rs 8,797 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, the bank said.
Also, the lender’s net interest margin improved to 3.01 per cent in Q4 FY’12, from 2.74 per cent during the same period the previous fiscal.
A power-packed innings from Cameron White helped Deccan Chargers register their first victory of IPL 2012 as Ganguly-led Pune Warriors disappointed the home crowd at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune.
Scorecard »I Points table »
Pune never looked like they were going to make a match of it. None of their batsmen tried to setlle down and stabilize the innings. The run-rate kept soaring and towards the end, Ganguly’s boys fell short by 18 runs.
Washington – Search engine giant Google has backed a new network, which would link up former terrorists and former violent radicals online, in an attempt to extirpate and combat extremism worldwide.
The new network, ‘Against Violent Extremism’s is touted to collaborate over a thousand reformed Islamic, far-right, far-left and other extremists on counter-radicalisation, the Telegraph reports.
Victims of terrorism will also be participating in the project, including Jo Berry, the daughter of the Conservative MP Anthony Berry, who was killed in the IRA Brighton bombing in 1984.
US stocks extended rally Thursday as the housing data came in better than expected, offsetting a weak jobs report and some disappointing earnings.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 113.90 points, or 0.87 percent, to 13,204.62. The Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 9.29 points, or 0.67 percent, to 1,399.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 20.98 points, or 0.69 percent, to 3,050.61, Xinhua reported.
HSBC on Thursday said it would cut 3,167 jobs as part of previously announced plans to reduce the bank’s global workforce by 30,000 over two years to 2013.
The London-headquartered bank added that due to the creation of 950 positions, the net loss for British jobs would total 2,217.
“HSBC is today announcing a restructure of its business in the UK which means that 2,217 people will be leaving the UK Bank during the coming months,” Europe’s biggest bank said in a statement.
A day after global credit rating agency S&P cut India’s outlook to ‘negative’, RBI today said the country’s financial system is strong and sometimes these ratings are discounted by markets.
It also said that the Reserve Bank will intervene in the forex market only if there is high volatility in the currency market, not just because of the ratings.
RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty said the central bank will come out in June with its next financial stability report, which showcases the country’s financial strength, and it will reflect the position of the economy.
Interest rate on employees’ provident fund will be increased to 8.6 per cent for the current fiscal, a move which will benefit around five crore subscribers.
“The rates were brought down due to lower income (on investment in Special Deposit Schemes)…There is no question of minimum or maximum interest rates. We distribute it as per our revenue. Next time, it will be 8.6 per cent,” Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in the Rajya Sabha replying to a debate on working of Labour Ministry.
Indian companies operating in 40 US states have invested over $820 million in manufacturing facilities in America, creating thousands of jobs, revealed a survey.
The 2012 India Business Forum (IBF) survey “Indian Roots, American Soil: Adding Value to US Economy and Society”, released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at a reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, highlights the significant economic and social impact made by Indian companies on American communities.
China’s Shanghai city is facing a shortfall of migrant labour. The city’s human resource watchdog says it is happening mainly due to the rising cost of living and the labour’s attraction to booming labour markets elsewhere.
But a survey has found that the soaring cost of living and lack of opportunities to merge into the local culture are some of the prominent reasons that have turned millions of migrant workers in China’s Shanghai city a frustrated lot.
Indian equities markets benchmark indices witnessed choppy trading Thursday, a day after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook to “negative” from “stable” on India’s long-term sovereign ratings and also on major firms.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the positive at 17,191.02 points, closed at 17,130.67 points, down 0.12 percent or 20.62 points from its previous close at 17,151.29 points.
The Sensex was largely range bound following the expiry futures and options for April series.
DMK MP Kanimozhi may appear before Enforcement Directorate on Thursday to record his statement in connection with its probe into alleged financial irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation case, according to reports.
Reportedly, Kanimozhi has been asked by the agency to either come herself or send an authorised representative for submission of financial documents and recording of statement on April 26 (today), ED sources said.
This Akshaya Tritiya, while the meteoric rise in the prices of the yellow metal had cast its impact on sales, the delay in passing on the interest rate cut by a few banks appears to have forced prospective automobile buyers to postpone buying.
Generally people consider buying gold, automobile and other commodities on the day considering it auspicious. Cashing in on this belief, jewellery outlets and automobile dealers announced many offers, but their tactics seem to have failed in influencing many people.
Global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s Wednesday cut its outlook to negative from stable on 11 financial institutions, including the top three banks State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, to negative from stable, but kept their ratings unchanged.
The country’s largest lender State Bank of India’s ratings is kept unchanged at BBB(-) with outlook being lowered to negative from stable.
Proving the sceptics wrong again, Apple nearly doubled its profit last quarter thanks to much stronger-than-expected iPhone sales to raise the cash hoard of world’s most valuable company to an astounding $110.2 billion.
Apple said Tuesday it sold 35.1 million iPhones during the first three months of 2012, soundly beating analysts’ expectations. That was a relief to investors, following weaker-than-expected iPhone activations from Verizon and AT&T during the quarter.
The United States is working with India to flesh out an initiative to set up hundreds of community colleges in India on the American pattern, according to state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.
“Well, obviously, we support this initiative,” she told reporters Tuesday when asked about the visit of education ministers from several Indian states to explore the possibility of opening such publicly funded two-year institutions that primarily attract students from the local community.
Punjab Tuesday asked the central government to allow the export of wheat to Pakistan and CIS countries through the Attari checkpost as the state’s produce may cross a record 115 lakh tonnes this year.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that allowing export of wheat to Pakistan and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) would help farmers to get remunerative prices for their agriculture produce.
The government has “in-principle” agreed to deregulate diesel prices, but there is no such proposal for cooking gas, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said Tuesday.
“Government has, in principle, agreed to make the prices of diesel market-determined,” Meena said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
“However, in order to insulate the common man from the impact of rise in international oil prices and the domestic inflationary conditions, the government continues to modulate the retail selling prices of diesel,” he said.
Alstom Bharat Forge Power Limited has won a Rs.1,570-crore contract to supply turbine islands to the government-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the company said Tuesday.
The joint venture between Alstom and Bharat Forge emerged as the lowest bidder in the bulk tender for supply of 11 units of 660 MW super critical turbine generator islands, the company said in a statement.
The new order is for NTPC’s coal-based power plant in Solapur, Maharashtra.
The Supreme Court Tuesday gave the central government three more months till August 31 to fulfill all requirements and auction 122 2G licenses which were cancelled by it in February.
An apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, while extending the time, observed that the government was aware that something was wrong and this could have been avoided if a little effort was made.
While partially accepting the government’s plea seeking 400 days time till March 2013, the court extended the time by three months till Aug 31.
The government on Tuesday said it has agreed in-principle to deregulate diesel prices, but is not considering similar proposal for the cooking gas.
“Government has, in principle, agreed to make the prices of diesel market determined,” Minister of State for Finance Namo
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BJP slams govt over decision to deregulate diesel prices
Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
While petrol prices are market-linked, the government fixes the rates of LPG, kerosene and diesel, which results in a large budgetary expenditure on subsidies.