Petrol to be cheaper by Rs. 0.95/liter from midnight !!!

In a marginal relief to consumers, petrol prices have been cut by Rs 0.95 per liter with effect from midnight. Petrol prices were last revised on October 27 when they were raised by 29 paisa to Rs 68.19 per liter in Delhi following government raising the commission paid to petrol pump dealers. Petrol will be priced at Rs 67.24 from today. The government had in June 2010 deregulated petrol prices giving oil companies freedom to fix rates in line with the cost. However, prices have seldom moved in line with cost and oil companies buckled under political pressure to keep rates checked to help the government manage inflation. Last week Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had justified the recent "difficult" decision to hike prices of petroleum products and asked Congress cadres to have confidence in these measures arguing these were necessary. "We have to make all out efforts to change the conditions that affect the rapid growth of the country's economy," he said addressing a dialogue meeting of top Congress leaders.

Asian Markets retreat on US fiscal cliff fears !!!

Asian stocks mostly fell on Thursday as investors reacted to the prospect of drawn-out negotiations over the looming US "fiscal cliff" by shedding riskier assets, but Japanese equities bucked the trend as a sharp slide in the yen lifted exporters' shares. The retreat from risk also weighed on commodities, with the exception of oil, which jumped in the previous session due to rising tensions in the Middle East after Israel launched an offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza. "Of course we did just see a sharp sell-off on Wall Street as we approach that fiscal cliff," said Stan Shamu, market analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne. "It just seems that there's not much confidence out there." MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.9 per cent, with shares in South Korea , Australia and Hong Kong all losing 1 per cent or more. But Tokyo's Nikkei rose 0.9 per cent as the boost given to exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Canon Inc. by a slide in the yen the previous day outweighed global concerns.

Pre-market: Nifty seen opening lower on weak global cues

The 50-share Nifty index is expected to open lower on Thursday tracking weak global cues. The markets will also react to inflation numbers which eased marginally in the month of October. Inflation declined marginally to 7.45 per cent in October even though prices of food items like rice, wheat pulses and potato showed a rise, according to data released on Wednesday. At 07:30 a.m., Nifty India stock futures in Singapore were down 47.50 point at 5,657.50, indicating a lower opening on the domestic market. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 185.23 points, or 1.45 per cent, to 12,570.95 at the close. The S&P 500 dropped 19.04 points, or 1.39 per cent, to 1,355.49. The Nasdaq Composite lost 37.08 points, or 1.29 per cent, to 2,846.81.

Nifty near day's low; Bharti, Idea rise post 2G auction

The NSE Nifty was trading near day's low due to weakness in ITC and Infosys. Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, TCS and Tata Motors too added pressure whereas Bharti and HDFC outperformed other bluechips. The 30-share BSE benchmark dropped 171 points to 18,448.08 and the 50-share NSE benchmark was down 51 points to 5,615.80. In the second line shares, Tata Coffee surged 17.5 percent. Amtek Auto, Biocon, Shree Global and M&M Financial were up 3-4 percent while Jindal Saw, Muthoot Finance, HDIL, Indiabulls Real and Pantaloon Retail were down 4-6 percent. Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel and its rival Idea Cellular gained 3-4 percent after 2G spectrum auction. Housing finance company HDFC rose 0.5 percent and FMCG major Hindustan Unilever was up 0.23 percent. Shares of ITC, Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, TCS and Tata Motors tanked 1-2 percent. Lenders HDFC Bank and State Bank of India were down 0.6 percent each. The market breadth was negative as about 822 shares advanced while 1596 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Among Asian markets, Shanghai, Hang Seng, Straits Times and Kospi fell 0.4-1 percent but Nikkei extended gains to 1.8 percent after Japan's main opposition leader, Shinzo Abe, who is expected to win next month's election, said he wants the Bank of Japan to adopt interest rates of zero or below zero to enhance lending. (with inputs from Reuters)

Oil slips to USD 85 a barrel

Oil prices fell below USD 86 a barrel Wednesday in international markets. West Texas Intermediate crude oil in New York lost 25 cents overnight to USD 85.13 a barrel. Reformulated blendstock gasoline added 1.96 cents to USD 2.6734 per gallon overnight. Home heating oil prices added 0.57 cents to USD 2.9665 per gallon. Natural gas prices rose 2.3 cents to USD 3.762 per million British thermal units.