Business News

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday said tight credit for small business would hinder the economic recovery and called on banks to boost lending to smaller firms.

Despite equity support from the government, the financial mess at Air India is unlikely to abate soon, as the cash-strapped carrier would not be able to bring in funds through disinvestment or an IPO for a period of at least five more years.

The Chinese government is planning to "form one or two super-scale steel complexes with individual production capacity in excess of 100 million tonne by 2015, as well as a certain number of 50-mt steel enterprises," according to a government statement.

In the last one month, at the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Dollar Index has moved opposite to the bellwether Sensex, except for five days.

Indian equity indices throughout the trading session remained upbeat and ended the day with smart gains following strong cues from global markets, coupled with buying in the benchmark heavyweight.

The country's vegetable oil imports, including edible, non-edible and vanaspati in 2008-09 (November-October), touched an all-time high of 86.6 lakh tonne, up 37% from 63.1 lakh tonne in the previous year.

Travel and hospitality firm Cox and Kings said it has fixed the price band between Rs 316 and Rs 330 for its maiden issue, that will see 29.08 per cent of the company's shares being offered to the public.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex gathered more than 194 points to trade over 17,000 points level, extending previous session's gains on continued buying by funds, driven by firming trends on the other Asian bourses.

The country's most valued firm Reliance Industries helped eight of the top-10 Sensex firms add over Rs 1 lakh crore in their market valuation during the last week, while the state-run MMTC and private telecom services provider Bharti Airtel saw value erosion.

Global factors that helped Indian bourses rise by over 10 per cent in November so far, may continue to power a short-term bull run next week as well as investors turn to risky assets following sliding dollar against a basket of currencies.

Capitalism is still alive and well, say the world's two richest men, despite lingering shocks from the longest, deepest recession since the Great Depression.

Boeing Co said on Thursday that it has completed work to address a structural problem on its delayed 787 Dreamliner, and still expects the airplane's maiden flight to take place before year's end.

China, India and Indonesia have been the fastest growing economies in Asia-Pacific and aided the region in staving off an overall contraction, said a Standard & Poor's (S&P) recent article, The Best And The Rest, which ranks the Asia Pacific sovereign credits.

US immigration authorities have announced that they would accept petitions for H-1B visas, popular among Indian professionals, without the certified Labour Condition Applications (LCAs) for a 120-day period till March 4 next year in view of processing delay at Department of Labour.

Two General Motors cars due in showrooms next year must be hits to help the automaker turn around sales and pay back its big debt to US taxpayers.

Tata Steel on Thursday said it has approved an exchange offer for an existing $875 million securities into foreign currency convertible bonds to reduce the company's future debt obligations.

Bill Gates said on Wednesday he believes Wall Street pay is "often too high" and that US government ownership of American International Group Inc worries him because it has devalued the giant insurer.

Hewlett-Packard Co is making a move into the network equipment market by striking a $3.1 billion deal for 3Com Corp, in a major challenge to Cisco Systems Inc.

Hyundai Motor Co expects its global sales in 2010 to be better than last year, its president and CEO said on Thursday.

The continuous slowdown in demand in developed markets like the US and Europe have led Honda Motor Corporation of Japan to focus on China and India for future growth.