Business News: General

The BSE Sensex has recovered marginally after slumping more than 8 per cent by Wednesday afternoon to its lowest in over two years as panic gripped investors after overseas markets tanked on concerns of a looming global recession.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday empathised with investors in equities and hoped that stocks would rise once normalcy returns to the global financial markets.

In a bid to promote off-season farming, authorities in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh are popularizing polyhouse cultivation among the farmers.

Oil prices retreated below $90 a barrel on Wednesday as concerns the global financial crisis will crimp demand for fuels overshadowed signs that producer group OPEC was considering a supply cut.

The rupee fell to its lowest since August 2002 on Wednesday, as slumping shares intensified concerns about foreign fund withdrawals.

The equities slumped 7 per cent on Wednesday morning on concerns about foreign withdrawals as a looming global recession sent overseas markets reeling.

The rupee clawed back some of its losses on Tuesday after dropping to its lowest since December 2002, but weaker Asian currencies and a fall in the local stock market kept pressure on the unit.

The government on Tuesday allowed companies operating in the refining, exploration & mining sectors to bring into India up to $500 million of external commercial borrowings (ECBs), a ten-fold expansion from the earlier cap of $50 million.

Indian equity indices witnessed huge volatility in intra-day trade and ended on a negative note. The domestic market started the day on a positive gap, but heavy selling pressure pushed the markets into the negative terrain.

Lotus stem collectors of Jammu and Kashmir are facing tough times to prevent their business from the mar of the government authorities.

After rising by over 379 points in early trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell back to quote in the negative territory with a fall of 70 points at 1115 hrs on Tuesday due to profit-taking by speculators as well as retail investors.

Oil rebounded more than $2 a barrel on Tuesday, recouping some of the previous session's $6 loss, after Australia's interest rate cut sparked guarded optimism global central banks may act to stem the credit crisis and its fallout on oil demand.

The rupee fell to its lowest since December 2002 on Tuesday, weighed down by a stronger dollar overseas and losses in the local stock market which raised concerns on more foreign fund outflows.

The rupee weakened past 48 per dollar on Tuesday for the first time since January 2003 as concerns intensified about foreign fund outflows amid a global financial crisis.

Notwithstanding the panic situation in global markets, the benchmark Sensex on Tuesday bounced by 290 at 1015 hours, riding on measures taken by the government to restore investors' confidence.

Oil rebounded above $88 a barrel on Tuesday, recouping some of the $6 losses that sent it to an eight-month low the previous day when investors bet the global economy would slip into recession and demand for fuels would sink.

With liquidity drying up and the Sensex plunging 42 per cent since it peaked in January, regulators today moved in to pump more cash into the system and lift the plunging morale of the market.

Tremors of the ongoing global financial crisis jolted the country's bourses badly, battering eight of the sectoral indices in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to their 52-week lows on Monday.

Stock markets tanked on Monday before Sebi relaxed rules governing participatory notes (PNs); PNs are offshore instruments used by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to buy shares without disclosing actual investors' identity.

Foreign investors withdrawing a net $9.5 billion from the Indian stock markets this year has made the Securities & Exchange Board of India remove the restrictions on the issue of participatory notes (PNs) by foreign institutional investors, against securities, including derivatives as underlying.