Reliance Communications declined 1.2% to 677 rupees despite Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India, granting approval to Reliance Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, for providing CDMA services in Assam and North East service areas.

Reliance Industries rose 0.9% to 2,616 rupees. The Bombay High Court will hear petitions on the gas supply dispute between Reliance Industries and Reliance Natural Resources on Tuesday.

ICICI Bank Splits Home Lending Unit

ICICI Bank fell 1.7% to 1,189.8 rupees ICICI has reportedly decided to split its home loans business between itself and an unit called ICICI Home Finance Company. The bank will fund home loans of up to 20 lakh rupees, with the unit handling the rest.

Maruti Suzuki Product Launch

Maruti Suzuki India declined 2.7% to 872.35 rupees. Maruti Suzuki may launch a 1.5 rupees lakh car by end of this year or early next year to challenge Tata Motors' Nano.

The reports said the car will have a Suzuki 660cc engine, bigger than 623 cc engine in Nano produced by Tata Motors. The new car from Suzuki will be priced at 150,000 rupees compared to 125,000 rupees for Nano. Tata Motors declined 1.9% to 755.5 rupees.

International Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 114.20 or 0.82% to 13,745.50, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index decreased 223.38 or 0.89% closed to 24,808.70, in Australia ASX 200 index lower 74.50 or 1.27% to close 5,792.90.

In South Korea Kospi Index increased 6.44 or 0.38% to close at 1,696.57, in Thailand SET index closed lower 3.88 or 0.48% to 807.68, and Indonesia JSE Index edged increased 2.62 or 0.10% to 2,704.25. Sensex index in India increased 2.84 or 0.02% to 18,663.16.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 158.20 or 2.63% to 5,868.00, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 196.78 or 3.96% to close at 4,776.86 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 235.24 or 3.36% to close at 6,765.25. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 234.29 or 3.02% to close at 7,517.41.


6:00AM New York, 6:00PM Hong- Chinese Yuan rises to record at 7.1846 against the U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Hong Kong declined on profit taking before the markets close for the Lunar New Year holidays and concern on the deterioration of the global economic outlook. Shipping lines, realty stocks and financial institutions fell as a result.

In Hong Kong trading the Hang Seng Index dropped 0.89% or 223.38 to 24,808.70, and the China Enterprises index of H-shares slumped 0.57% to 14,040.68.

Daily turnover on main-board was HK$85.03 billion compared to HK$117.6 billion yesterday.

Hong Kong trading will close after the morning session tomorrow and will be opened again on Monday next week.

The China People’s Daily online edition reported that the International Commercial Bank of China has been given regulatory approval to acquire 20% equity in South African bank Standard Bank for $5.46 billion.

Shareholders from both financial institutions have approved the transaction, and the South Africa Registrar of Banks and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange have also sanctioned the deal.

Separately, the online publication reported that a Lishui municipal intermediate people’s court in the eastern Zhejiang Province yesterday jailed former securities director of Shanghai listed Hangxiao Steel Structure Chen Yuxing and slapped two accomplices with a fine of Rmb 80.74 million for insider trading after recovering illegal gains of Rmb 40.37 million worth of illegal gains.