The BSE Sensex was on track for its second weekly fall in a row as the market seesawed on Friday after a muted response to a government stake sale in Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.NS) raised concerns about divestment programmes.
Austerity and reform finely balanced to bring back growth in Europe in face of record unemployment rates.
Euro zone manufacturing contracted in February for the sixth month in a row, according to a Markit Economics report published Thursday, but the sector may be stabilizing as increases begin to offset decreases.
Greece has approved pension and health care cuts as part of the reforms agreed in return for the 130 billion euro ($171 billion) bailout deal approved by the Eurozone.
Spot gold rose more than 1 percent Thursday, recovering from its biggest fall in more than three years in the previous session when U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to signal further monetary easing.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday job growth was better than expected and inflation under control, leaving markets thinking central bank intervention was a long way off. The upshot was a dollar rally that hammered gold, stocks and government bonds.
The Nasdaq Composite Index briefly crossed the 3,000 mark Wednesday for the first time in 12 years, boosted by the European Central Bank's action to increase liquidity in the euro zone financial system and a better-than-expected revision to the U.S. quarterly economic growth.
The European Central Bank gave the world's financial system a €529.5 ($712) billion Leap Year Day gift, providing financial institutions with that amount in one percent-interest, three-year loans this week, the bank announced Wednesday morning.
European stock markets gained in early trade Wednesday ahead of second 3-year long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) by the European Central Bank.
Market participants are seemingly expecting European banks to take up a massive amount of euro over the next 24 hours, as the European Central Bank offers them a second helping of ultra-low cost loans. The banks themselves, not so much.
Indian gold futures, which struck a two-month high last week, could extend gains to top 29,000 rupees, a level keenly watched by the market, due to higher crude oil prices and weakness in the dollar versus the euro, analysts said.
Stock index futures rose in low volume on Tuesday a day after the S&P 500 hit a fresh 4-year high and ahead of economic data and this week's liquidity injection by the European Central Bank aimed at supporting the euro zone's ailing banking sector.
Stock index futures rose in low volume on Tuesday a day after the S&P 500 hit fresh 4-year highs and ahead of economic data and this week's liquidity injection by the European Central Bank aimed at supporting the euro zone's ailing banking sector.
Standard & Poor's has announced that its rating on Greek sovereign debt has been downgraded to selective default, subsequent to agreement by banks to write off more than half of their Greece debt holdings.
The European Central Bank is ready to engage in a new round of aggressive liquidity provision this week, flooding European banks with hundreds of millions of euro worth of cheap financing meant to prop up the tattered European banking and sovereign credit funding systems.
Greece plans to recapitalize its struggling banks after a bond swap largely through common shares with restricted voting rights and convertible bonds, according to a draft law submitted to parliament over the weekend.
Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said on Saturday policy makers are closely watching the impact of looser monetary policy on crude-oil prices. Along with the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan is taking unconventional steps to boost the economy.
Germany is easing its opposition to a bigger European bailout fund, officials said, smoothing the way for the world's leading economies to secure nearly $2 trillion in firepower to prevent more fallout from the euro-zone's sovereign-debt crisis.
A rally on Wall Street will be put to the test next week, with the S&P 500 index at its highest closing level since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008 and the European Central Bank about to flood the financial markets with a new wave of cheap money.
Leaders in the euro zone may not be able to meet international demands to bolster their own funds for bailing out the bloc's debtors when they meet next week because Germany is showing no sign of dropping its opposition to the plan, officials in the euro zone said.
World economic powers at a Group of 20 gathering in Mexico City told Europe on Friday it would have to do more to fight its financial crisis before they agree to provide backup in the form of a bigger International Monetary Fund war chest.
No matter which direction investors faced Friday, whether it was the recent past or the immediate future, all the signals were positive. Investors responded by boosting prices for stocks, bonds and commodities.
