Asian markets were trading firm. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 3.61% or 772.85 points at 22,157.46.

Japan's Nikkei gained 3.23% or 386.06 points at 12,350.22.

Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted rose 2.04% or 164.32 points at 8,222.14.

Singapore's Straits Times rose 2.05% or 58.15 points at 2,891.73.

South Korea's Seoul Composite advanced 2.51% or 39.92 points at 1,628.67.

Asian markets @ 8:15am

Asian markets trading higher; Hang Seng up 552 points

Asian markets were trading higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.58% or 552.76 points at 21,937.37.

Japan's Nikkei rose 2.75% or 328.57 points at 12,292.73.

Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up 2.11% or 169.77 points at 8,227.59.

Singapore's Straits Times advanced 2.24% or 63.42 points at 2,897.

South Korea's Seoul Composite added 2.38% or 37.84 points at 1,626.59.

Source : MoneyControl

The markets are trading higher with buying support from oil, power, realty, technology, FMCG and capital goods stocks. Market breadth is negative, about 1034 shares have advanced, 1933 shares declined, and 88 shares are unchanged. Midcaps are almost flat. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed.

At 10:31 am, the Sensex was up 103 points at 14,912 and the Nifty up 43 points at 4,546.

Markets open lower mirroring weak global cues

The markets have opened lower following weak cues across the globe and selling pressure in banking, power, oil and capital goods stocks but turned volatile in morning trade.

At 9:56 am, the Sensex was down 83 points at 14725 and the Nifty down 26 points at 4476.

ICICI Bank, Reliance Energy, Tata Power, HDFC Bank, Tata Comm, HDFC, Satyam, L&T, Reliance Ind and SBI were major losers.

Asian markets were trading lower barring Nikkei. Shanghai Composite fell 1.79% or 68.21 points at 3,751.84. Hang Seng was down 2.37% or 499.75 points at 20,584.86. Jakarta Composite plunged 2.22% or 51.44 points at 2,260.88.

Straits Times was down 0.82% or 23.01 points at 2,769.74. Seoul Composite went down 3.74 points or 0.24% at 1,570.70. Taiwan Weighted fell 0.07% or 5.56 points at 7,999.90.

However, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.79% or 93.66 points at 11,881.17.

Wall Street did start off on a nervous note but markets recovered some ground in afternoon trade and the Dow finished with a small gain. Investors rewarded JP Morgan for its weekend move on Bear Stearns. But punished other banks on conerns that they might be over valued.

The Dow gained 21.16 points, or 0.18%, to 11,972.25. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 11.54 points, or 0.90%, to 1,276.60. The Nasdaq composite index declined 35.48 points, or 1.60%, to 2,177.01.

Market cues:

FIIs net sell $31.9 m in equity on Mar 14
NSE F&O Open Int down Rs 2909 cr at Rs 64335 cr
F&O cues:

Futures Open Int down by Rs 3,530 crore, Options Open Int up by Rs 621 cr
Nifty Futures shed 11 lakh shares in Open Int; at 4-point discount
Stock Futures shed 2.5 cr shares in Open Int
Nifty Open Int PCR at 0.85 vs 0.92
Nifty Puts Open Int unchanged, Calls add 12.3 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4400 Put adds 3.4 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4600 Put sheds 4 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4350 Put adds 2.6 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4700 Put sheds 2.4 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4500 Call adds 3.7 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4700 Call adds 2.2 lakh shares in Open Int
Nifty 4600 Call adds 2 lakh shares in Open Int

Source : MoneyControl

SHANGHAI: China's main stock index ended down 1.79 per cent on Tuesday as already weak market sentiment took further blows from a tumble on overseas stock market and pressure from possible further monetary tightening.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended the morning down at 3,751.839 points, after setting the low of 3,722.164, the lowest since July 6. Losing Shanghai shares overwhelmed gainers by 836 to 58, with more than 15 Shanghai A shares plunging by their 10 per cent daily limit.

The index shed 3.6 per cent on Monday at its lowest close in more than eight months. Turnover in Shanghai A shares remained thin at 37.4 billion yuan ($5.3 billion), although up from Monday morning's 33.6 billion yuan. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said it is not easy to achieve 4.8 per cent inflation target for 2008 during his annual news conference following the closing session of the National People's Congress, or parliament.

China State Shipbuiding tumbled 8.0 per cent to 129.80 yuan despite saying its net in 2007 is more than double. "Panic and gloomy sentiment spreaded across the board, no matter good news or bad, massive selling off has been triggered amid uncertainty," said Zhou Lin, analyst at Huatai Securities.

Source : The Economic Times

Asian markets were trading firm. Japan's Nikkei gained 1.46% or 172.05 points at 11,959.56.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.63% or 132.54 points at 21,217.15.

Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up 0.14% or 11.55 points at 8,017.01.

South Korea's Seoul Composite advanced 0.25% or 3.97 points at 1,578.41.

Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 2,793.06.

Source : MoneyControl

LONDON: The London Metal Exchange's steel billet futures firmed in light trade last week, tracking the physical market where strong demand from Turkey underpinned the prices, traders said.

Volumes remained small, as market attention mainly focused on the volatility in the overall commodities market, where gold and oil keeps hitting record highs. The Mediterreanean contract traded at $855 per tonne on Monday, rising from a last quote of $830/875 last week while the Far East contract was at $850/862, up from last week's $835/865.

"Although volumes remain limited, there is an overall feeling that LME prices have been tracking physical spot prices quite accurately," said Jean-Luc Fiorenzoni, head of steel price risk management at Stemcor, the world's biggest independent steel trader.

The "soft launch" of the LME's billet futures kicked off on February 25, when contracts started electronic and telephone trading. On April 28, when the "hard launch" is due, contracts will move to the floor of the Exchange for open outcry trading.

Traders see the price correlation with the physical market as a good sign, but LME brokers have been kept busy due to the recent turmoil in financial markets. "With uncertainties hanging over the U.S. economy and the general state of financial markets worldwide, LME brokers have been kept extremely busy by volatility and high activity in the more mature base metals markets," Fiorenzoni said.

Gold prices shot up more than 3 percent and traded over $1,000 per ounce as investors dumped equities to flee from riskier assets. On the physical steel market, prices have been strong as a result of limited supplies and demand for long products. The physical market's been climbing," said David Rawlings, senior metals trader at LN Metals.

"I believe the reason is the hot domestic market in Turkey where there is continuing very high demand." Billets are semi-finished products in the form of long steel mainly used in the construction industry. They account for almost half of the world's total crude steel production, which is around 1.3 billion tonnes annually.

The price of scrap, a major raw material in billet production, has risen markedly since the end of last year, as a tax on Chinese exports curbed the supplies from that country. "Scrap prices are also going up and Turkey works on scrap-based production," Rawlings said and added:" There is not as much capacity released to the international market and for the Far East contract, supply has been reduced due to very little Chinese product because of the export tax."

Crude steel production from China, which has lost momentum since November, rose only 7 percent in February, compared to the same month a year earlier. "Long steel production growth apparently has lost its momentum sharply, implying a potential further price surge in coming months when second quarter seasonal high demand kicks in," analysts at Macquarie Bank said in a research note.

Volumes at the LME remained thin, with traders citing interest from merchants and small producers in the Middle East. A number of steel giants such as ArcelorMittal have repeatedly dismissed the idea of steel futures. But last week, Europe's No. 2 steelmaker Corus, owned by India's Tata Steel, said it might use the contracts. "There could be certain situations where we could use steel futures, for example where we have surplus billets for trading," Chief Executive Philippe Varin told the media.

Source : TET

HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices closed down 5.2 per cent on Monday, pushed down by troubles on the US markets, the slide of the dollar and record high oil prices, dealers said.

The benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 1,152.5 points or 5.18 per cent at 21,084.61.

Sharp falls on the mainland Chinese market in Shanghai also helped drive shares down, dealers said.

A move by the US Federal Reserve to cut the interest rate charged on its direct loans to banks on Sunday failed to calm investor jitters, as it only underscored the crisis enveloping the financial sector, they said.

"The market's obsession with a few weak financial institutions like Bear Stearns outweighs many factors in the US economy which remain intrinsically sound," said Howard Gorges, vice chairman at South China Securities.

"There is a lot of negativity out there and we are in a situation in which a spate of bad news has rattled markets all around the world," he said.

"Many investors have taken two main lines of defense -- sell down stocks or stay on the sidelines."

Among large caps, HSBC bank was down 4.80 Hong Kong dollars or 3.9 per cent at 118.10 and the Hong Kong stock exchange, HKEx, was off $7.90 or 5.9 per cent at 125.60.

China financials were also sharply lower on worries of new credit-tightening measures in China.

Source : TET