INDIA

Commodities as an asset class competed well with others and some of them gave reasonably good returns to investors including gold which rose 26%. The holdings of world's largest gold backed exchange traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) reached a high of 1,134 metric tonnes in June 1 this year and presently hovers at 1,134 MT.

The 3-D extravaganza Avatar ruled the worldwide box office for a second weekend on Sunday, while the latest exploits of Alvin and the Chipmunks and Sherlock Holmes helped set a North American sales record.

Japan's prime minister, who has promised to forge a new place for east Asia in international diplomacy, opened three days of talks in India on Monday focusing on engineering a further thaw in relations and boosting trade.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure.

Lyondell Chemical Co asked a bankruptcy court on Thursday to approve a proposed settlement among warring creditors and said its secured lenders committed to support its plan of reorganization.

Creditors of bankrupt Lyondell Chemical Co asked a U.S. judge to expand the investigation of the company's court-appointed examiner on Wednesday to ensure the petrochemicals company is fairly evaluating proposals from potential suitors.

Ford Motor Company's exit from luxury car brands is nearly complete. The sale of Volvo Car Corp. to the parent company of Chinese automaker Geely is expected to close by June of 2010, more than three years after Ford began to dismantle its premium auto group which once included Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.

Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it is nearing an agreement to sell its Volvo Swedish cars unit to China's Geely in a deal that underscores China's arrival as a major force in the global auto industry.

Ford Motor Co.'s sale of Volvo Car Corp. to the parent company of Chinese automaker Geely is expected to close by June of 2010, the company said today, more than three years after Ford began to dismantle its premium auto group which once included Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.

Tata Teleservices [TATASL.UL], India's sixth-largest mobile operator, said it signed 3.3 million users in November, leading industry additions for the fourth straight month and taking its customer base to 54 million.

Research In Motion's Blackberry users in North America suffered another outage with their e-mail service, just a week after another outage hit the company. Late Tuesday night, RIM confirmed that its BlackBerry service had suffered its second e-mail outage in five days.

Russia has agreed to sell Myanmar 20 MiG-29 jets for 400 million euro ($572.2 million), the Vedomosti daily reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources in Russia's defence industry.

The grouping of China, India, Brazil and South Africa has emerged as a significant force in Copenhagen and they could lead the way in future negotiations, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Wednesday.

Indian and Australian shares led Asian stock markets higher on Wednesday, while oil and gold came under pressure as the dollar held firm thanks to optimism about the U.S. economy.

Next year will be crucial for global nuclear non-proliferation efforts and all eyes will be on the United States and Russia to see if the two top atomic powers can reach a deal to reduce their arsenals.

Fiat may offer to raise car production in Italy 50 percent when it holds preliminary talks with the government on Tuesday, in return for tax breaks on some car sales and possible help in reducing labour costs.

The overseas arm of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp is expected to set an 8.40 percent coupon on bonds it is selling to raise up to 24 billion rupees ($515 million), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

When A-Power Energy Generation Systems secured a deal to supply turbines for a U.S. wind farm project in October, the little-known Chinese firm had an ace up its sleeve to help it clinch the deal.

What's Christmas without a little indulgence and a lot of guilt, with a global survey showing two in three people occasionally treat themselves to a luxury purchase, but a third then feel bad about it.

Behind the scenes negotiating by major economies in Copenhagen to agree a climate accord may be a model for how to

India's Tata Steel is trying to bring down carbon dioxide emissions to 1.8 tonnes per tonne of steel produced by 2012 from 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide now, a top official said on Monday.