Business News: General

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.

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.

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

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.

Cuba, Papua New Guinea, Iraq and Nigeria, first time participants in the 29th India International Trade Fair.

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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.

Equities soared and pushed a key index above the 17,000-point mark Monday as sentiments were buoyed by the positive weekend numbers on Tips to pick potential stocks industrial output and some positive cues from the government on its divestment plans.

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.

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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.

India's civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Saturday said that Ailing state-run carrier Air India will be receiving its first tranche of equity of 8 billion rupees by December.

Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma while speaking at the inaugural event if The Trade fair in New Delhi said he was optimistic about India soon moving towards positive growth in global trade.

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.

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Addressing the final day of the three-day World Economic Forum's India Economic summit in New Delhi on Tuesday India's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee said that the country would focus on driving domestic demand until developed markets recover.

After months of delays following differences over their ultra low-cost car's branding, concept and pricing, joint venture partners Bajaj Auto, Renault and Nissan on Tuesday signed an agreement formalizing roll-out plans for 2012-a year behind schedule.

In the wake of increase in demand and high prices of saffron in international markets, farmers in Kashmir are returning to saffron cultivation.

Even as the Sensex closed down 58.16 points at 16,440.56, PSU stocks continued to make waves on Dalal Street following the government's bold plans on the disinvestment front.

Blame it on the human nature to be averse to changes or real operational issues, marketmen don't seem to be quite pleased with the approval by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for extension of trading hours in the stock markets.