India gold futures hit 2-wk high; silver down

India gold futures rose by more than half a percent on Wednesday to hit their highest level in two weeks on firm global leads fanned by a weaker rupee at home.

* Silver traded down following sharp declines in copper, the other industrial metal.

* The most-traded gold for December delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.56 percent higher at 28,824 rupees per 10 grams, after hitting a high of 28,905 rupees, a level last seen on Nov. 17.

* The rupee plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the yellow metal, which is quoted in dollars.

* Silver for December delivery was down 0.17 percent at 54,874 rupees per kg.

* Rising prices of the yellow metal by as much as 0.8 percent pushed physical traders to the sidelines, who sought to stock for the wedding season in India, the world's biggest consumer of bullion. Weddings will last through December.

* "The rupee weakness has increased gold costs... If prices fall to 28,500 (rupees) there could be good buying," said Harshad Ajmera, proprietor of JJ Gold House in Kolkata.

* Silver imports to India would be marginally lower in 2011 from last year's 3,030 tonnes as traders are uncomfortable with prices ruling above 50,000 rupees per kg, a senior official at ScotiaMocatta said.

6 arrested for Pune blast, Jama Masjid attack

The Delhi Police has arrested six suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives in connection with crucial terror cases in the country, according to sources. The Delhi Police sources claim to have solved the Jama Masjid blast case, the Pune German Bakery blast case and Chinnaswamy stadium terror attack case.

Sources say a Pakistani national is also among the six arrested Indian Mujahideen operatives.

This came days after two Indian Mujahideen operatives were arrested in Chennai and brought to Delhi for questioning.

Police sources said the 'main man' Imran, who was allegedly providing finance and other logistics besides coordinating various modules, is on the run.

Imran had allegedly planted the bomb in a car outside Delhi's Jama Masjid on September 19, 2010, the sources said.

Sources said they also looking for one Tauqeer, a top IM leader who is wanted in 2008 Delhi serial blasts and is suspected to be involved in the September 7 High Court blast.

Those arrested are Mohd Afzal, Mohd Ajmal, Mohd Siddique, Zafar, Abdul Rehman and Irshad Khan, a senior police official said.

Afzal and Ajmal were arrested from Madhubani in a fake passport case while Rehman and an engineering student Irshad Khan were apprehended from Chennai. Siddique and Zafar were arrested from Delhi, the official said.

"All the arrests were made in the past few days. We have also seized some arms and ammunition from Delhi and nearby areas," the official said, adding all these were two-member modules.

The police have been conducting raids at other places including Bihar to find clues in terror cases like the Jama Masjid blast, the Delhi High Court blast and even the German Bakery blast.

Four people were also detained three days ago as the police questioned some people in connection with these terror cases.

17 people were killed and over 50 were injured in the German Bakery blast in Pune's posh Koregaon Park area in February 2010. 15 people were injured in two low intensity blasts near a packed Chinnaswamy cricket stadium in April the same year. The blasts took place less than an hour before an IPL match.

On September 19, 2010, two foreign tourists were injured when two men on a motorcycle opened fire outside Gate 3 of Delhi's Jama Masjid.

GDP at 6.9%, slowest in 9 quarters

India's economy—as measured by GDP or gross domestic produce—grew 6.9% in the July-September quarter, compared to a 7.7% growth during the same period last year. This is the slowest growth in nine quarters, as the economy grapples with runaway inflation, high interest rates, weak rupee and falling industrial output.

The decline was on expected lines, with the average of a CNBC-TV18 poll estimating it at 6.9%. Equity indices trimmed their losses immediately after the announcement, indicating that the fall was not as bad as feared.

The figure would have been even worse, but for a 9.3% growth in the services sector. Mining and manufacturing were the worst performing sectors, with mining logging a de-growth of 2.9% versus a positive growth of 8% last year. Manufacturing grew 2.7% versus 7.8%, farm sector growth fell to 3.2% from 5.4%, and the construction sector declined to 4.3% from 6.7%.

Google redesigns the Navigation Bar

Google gives its products a facelift throughout the year, be it their Maps, News, Search function or Translate. When Google's popular mail function, Gmail got a major facelift, it became the talk of the town. And, if you thought that Google was done with the makeover session for now, you may have to rethink. According to an official post on Google Official Blog, Google bar for swift navigation is the latest to have got a makeover.

Click here for full story

Sensex slips in red after flat opening

A volatile Sensex was looking for consolidation in the opening trade after yesterday's sharp upmove. It was marginally in the red due to fall in index heavyweight Reliance, ONGC and Infosys.

Nilesh Shah of Envision Capital said the market would be in a range of 4700 on the downside and 5100 on the upside for next few days.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down 1.6% as sources claim that the company will engage in arbitration to seek clarity, protection to production sharing contract. Govt may opt to hold on to inducting BP as co-owner in KG-D6.

Frontliners like ACC, Infosys, L&T, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI, HDFC, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp, Maruti, BPCL (on likely cut in petrol prices) and ONGC were leading the markets southward.

However, Ranbaxy Labs, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Cipla, HDFC Bank, HUL and ITC were gainers.

The CNX Midcap was flat. Even the market breadth was neutral.

Shares of Vishal Retail and Koutons tanked 6% ahead of all party meeting called by prime minister to break parliament logjam on FDI in retail today. Pantaloon Retail was down 2.8%.

Kingfisher Airlines, GVK Power, Crompton, Educomp and SKS Microfinance were down between 1% and 2%.

However, DB Realty shot up 3.5% ahead of Shahid Balwa bail plea today.

Sun TV, HOEC and Parsvnath moved up 2-3%.

Global cues

Asian markets were trading higher. Shanghai and Hang Seng rose 0.5% each. Nikkei and Taiwan went up 0.8% each. Kospi rose 1.5%.

10 things you should know before opening bell

Moneycontrol Bureau

The US markets finished sharply higher as the Eurozone optimism helped boost investor confidence and following robust retail sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.

On data front, US retailers racked up a record USD 52 billion in sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, a 16.4% jump from a year ago. And new home sales edged up 1.3% in October to a seasonally adjusted 307,000-unit annual rate.

And in key data to watch out in US today, S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index is expected to see a 0.1% decline. Also the consumer confidence may gain to 45.

Ratings agency Fitch maintains its AAA credit rating on US. However, they have lowered its outlook to "negative" from "stable" after congressional committee failed to agree on USD 1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures. They have also warned that they may cut the country AAA rating if policy makers fail to agree in 2013 on a plan to reduce the country's ballooning budget deficits.

And European markets also jumped, led by financials, as officials said Germany and France were exploring radical actions of securing deeper and more rapid fiscal integration among euro zone countries.

With Germany and France pushing for radical reforms to the region's financial stability pact. Germany's finance minister said that Berlin wants countries to set up funds to house debt exceeding EU limits of 60% of GDP as part of a drive to restore confidence in Europe's finances.

The global economic outlook looks increasingly bleak. The organisation for economic cooperation and development or OECD has revised down its forecast for global economic growth to 3.8% this year and 3.4% for 2012.

The OECD has warned that the Eurozone and UK could be entering a recession, as it sees the EU economy shrinking by 1% in the fourth quarter and 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012. The OECD has urged the European Central Bank of act decisively to prevent the debt crisis from getting worse.

The Paris-based think tank has cut US growth estimates significantly…it now expects the world's largest economy to grow by 2% in 2012, as against its earlier forecast of 3.1%.

And the chorus predicting economic pain is growing by the minute. Morgan Stanley has cut its forecast for 2012 global growth to 3.5% from 3.8%. The bank cited increasing risks from the Eurozone debt crisis and signs of bleak economic growth in US for the move.

This is the second time, Morgan Stanley has cut growth forecasts in just the last 4 months.

Japan's Nomura has cut its exposure to Italian government bonds and other Italian securities to USD 467 million from USD 2.82 billion in less than two months to reduce its risk in the region's debt crisis.

In the currency space, euro hold steady versus the dollar, currently at 1.33

Oil gains slightly with Brent above 108 dollar levels on Eurozone optimism and strong retail sales.

From precious metals space, gold holds firm above 1700 dollar levels

And back home, it was a blockbuster rally on Dalal Street -- Nifty gained 140 points to close above 4,850...Sensex surged 500 points.

ONTO SOME STOCK SPECIFIC ACTION

Retail companies will be in focus today as commerce minister Anand Sharma clarifies that FDI funded stores will have to mandatorily source 30% of their total procurement from Indian SMEs.

Reliance Industries initiated arbitration proceedings against the oil ministry over its plans to reverse the cost recovery at the kg-d6 fields.

And telecom secretary states that they will continue talks on spectrum price, M&A guidelines proposals. They hope to conclude discussion on TRAI proposals within one week. Telecom Commission may meet on December 1 on licence norms.

Onto the latest from 2G case, Kanimozhi gets bail from the Delhi High court after six months in jail along with 4 others – Asif Balwa, Karim Morani, Rajeev Aggarwal and Sharath Kumar also get bail. And today there will be bail plea hearing of Shahid balwa and RK Chandolia.

Maoist top gun Kishenji killed in West Bengal

In what is being seen as a big victory for security forces and a huge setback for Maoists, top leader Molajula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji on Thursday killed in an encounter with security forces at Burishol village in Junglemahal area of West Bengal.

Kishenji, the dreaded military head of the Maoists, was killed in a joint operation by central forces and West Bengal Police in Kushboni forest in West Midnapore district on Thursday evening.

"There was an information coming for last two days that there is a movement of Maoist squad, probably led by Kishenji and Suchitra Mahato, with intention to launch an attack on joint forces. The joint forces, on receiving this information, organised operations for last two days," said Naparajit Mukherjee, DG, West Bengal Police.

Kishenji, a Maoist politburo member, was the third in-command of the outfit. It was from Kushboni forest on the border of Jharkhand that Kishenji had been operating since 2009. Kishenji's body was identified by the AK-47 rifle he was carrying.

"Most likely it is Kishenji. The officers on the spot said that it is Kishenji and most likely...99 per cent it is Kishenji," said Union Home Secretary RK Singh.

The CRPF has confirmed that Kishenji was killed in a gunbattle with security forces in the Junglemahal area of West Bengal.

Kishenji was believed to lead 22,000 armed Maoist insurgents. He and his cadres had succeeded to cut of the Junglemahal area in Bengal from the state administration for nearly 18 months since 2009. But with Kishenji's death, the Maoists have suffered a body-blow that security agencies believe, will cripple their organisational capabilities in not just Bengal, but in neighbouring Jharkhand and Orissa as well.

Rampaul wrecks Indian hearts, removes Sachin on 94

It's the biggest heartbreak ever and India is stunned.

Sachin Tendulkar is out at 94, excruciatingly close to his much-awaited 100th international ton. The big moment had promised to come on the fourth day of the third Test match against West Indies on Friday. But it was not to be. There is a hushed silence at the packed Wankhade. And a pall of gloom all over the country.

Sachin was caught in the slips by Darren Sammy of the bowling of Ravi Rampaul.

SC grants bail to 5 corporates accused

The Supreme Court of India has grated bail to all corporates accused in 2G scam case. Each corporate will file two sureties of Rs 5 lakh each. The corporates include Unitech 's Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom's Vinod Goenka and Reliance ADAG's Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair, Surendra Pipara.

Shahid Balwa has not got bail as the trail was not scheduled today.

This is the first set of bail granted in the telecom spectrum scam.

The Reliance executives are accused of cheating as part of an alleged conspiracy. They allegedly created a web of companies through subterfuge in order to conceal the real identity of the holding hands of Swan telecom.

Goenka is accused of being a part of this larger conspiracy whereas Unitech's Chandra is accused of being a beneficiary in the scam.

Chandra's firm was given the 2G spectrum licence by former Telecom Minister A Raja despite its ineligibility and that his company was tipped-off about the proponing of cut-off dates for applying for the 2G licence.

The CBI also alleged that after getting the licences, Unitech and co-accused Swan Telecom had sold their equity to foreign companies much before beginning to roll out of their services, thereby making huge profits.

The CBI is also expected to give its reply to a special court in response to the notice on another accused Shahid Balwa's plea.

Defenses by the accused in the Supreme Court are - no prima-facie case, no documents to suggest cheating or forgery against them. Even if a prima facie case exists, bail is the rule and denial of it is an exception.

Accused have no criminal past and had all along cooperated with the CBI during the investigation in the case.

Investigation in the case is over, chargesheets have been filed against the accused and they are no longer needed for further investigation hence they should be released on bail.

The CBI on the other hand says that, the accused are influential persons and if released on bail they could tamper with the evidence and that the offence committed by the accused is very grave.

Sensex snaps 8-day losing streak

Indian equity benchmark Nifty snapped 8-day losing streak on Tuesday -- bouncing back above the 4800 mark -- led by technology, banks, metals and auto (four-wheeler) stocks. But the market was extremely volatile during the day due to choppy trade in rupee. Both the benchmarks trimmed gains in late trade following cut in gains in European markets and downward spiral in the rupee. The 30-share BSESensex rose 119.32 points, to close at 16,065.42 and the 50-share NSE Nifty moved up 34 points, to end at 4,812.35.

Asia's worst-performing currency in 2011, the rupee today tumbled to an all-time low of 52.73 against the US dollar. In an intra-day trade, it appreciated to 52.30, which suggests that the RBI may have sold dollars; but it again moved down to 52.59 a dollar at the time of closing of Indian equity markets.

Anant Narayan, managing director, regional head of fixed income and currency trading, south Asia at Standard Chartered Bank and Sajjid Chinoy, Asia economics at JPMorgan suggest that despite the volatility being global, in the short term, it is only the central bank that can intervene and arrest the free fall.

European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were trading 0.5% higher, which rallied 1% in the opening trade. The Dow Jones futures turned flat.

Back home, the most beaten down stocks in the last eight days saw short covering in today's trade. Tata Motors was the biggest gainer among largecaps, rising 6% to Rs 173 a share.

In the technology space, TCS, Wipro and Infosys gained 1.7-2.3%. HDFC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, SBI, Sterlite and BHEL climbed 1-2%.

Jaiprakash Associates, which lost 15% in last seven days, gained 4%. However, Bharti Airtel was the major loser - dropped 2.5%.

ITC, HUL, M&M, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp among other largecaps were down 1-2%. HDFC Bank, ONGC and NTPC were marginally lower.

Total traded turnover on both exchanges was more than Rs 1.99 lakh crore. The broader indices were flat today and even the advance:decline ratio was equal.

Amtek Auto shot up 20% on buyback news. S Kumars Nationwide, Pantaloon Retail, Educomp, Suzlon, Kingfhisher and Jet Airways gained 3-10%. However, Parsvnath Developers crashed 20%.

Howrah-Doon Express fire

Railway Ministry officials confirmed that the death toll in the Howrah-Dehradun Express train fire which broke out late on Monday night, is now up to seven.

The Railway Ministry officials have also said that there was no pantry car attached to the train, so the investigations are on to find the source of the fire.

He added that the affected bogies have been detached and that rescue and relief operations are on.

"We have detached the affected bogies. Relief and rescue trains are on their way," he said.

According to a Railway Ministry spokesperson at New Delhi, the fire broke out at 2:30 am in B-1 AC coach and then it spread to B-2 AC coach.

The train is currently stationed at the Giridih district of Jharkhand which is four hours from Ranchi.

The Railway managers and medical teams were on the site. Eight trains have been held up from Gaya and Dhanbad.

The Railways have set up a helpline for the relatives of the passengers.

The helpline numbers are:

033-26413660

033-26402243

032-62220518

BWN Enq: 03422-561601

DHN Enq: 0326-2220518

Nifty holds 4800 amid choppy trade; Re hits low of 52.72/$

The 50-share NSE Nifty is still in its upward spiral amid a choppy trade, supported by oil & gas, capital goods, metals and financials (barring HDFC Bank). The current short covering-led upmove was despite falling rupee and weak Asian cues. The BSE Sensexrose 100.31 points to 16046.41, and the NSE Nifty moved up 28.15 points to 4,806.50.

The Indian rupee touched an all-time low of 52.72 to the dollar today as against 52.16 on Monday, which resulted outflow of foreign money. It depreciated by 74 paise at 70.99 to an euro. Nilesh Shah of Axis Direct points out to high gold imports as the reason for the weakness in rupee.

Sudarshan Sukhani of technicaltrends.com expects rupee to be at 55 to the dollar. He said he would maintain the short positions.

Major largecaps like Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank and ONGC gained 1-1.8%. Tata Motors, Hindalco and BHEL were top gainers, rising 2.5% each.

L&T and SBI rose 0.7% each. Tata Steel, JSPL, Cipla, NTPC and Maruti were up 1% each.

However, Bharti tumbled nearly 2% and Bajaj Auto lost 2.5%. Hero Motocorp, TCS and Wipro were other losers.

On the global front, Asian markets like Shanghai, Nikkei, Hang Seng and Taiwan fell 1% each. Straits Times and Kospi were flat.

At 9:20 hours IST : Sensex rebounds 100 points; Re hits 52.44/$

The Indian equity benchmarks—Sensex and Nifty—opened above the 16,000 and 4,800 mark, respectively. Short covering helped the market. It was warranted after a fall of more than 1,600 points on the Sensex in the last eight days.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 135 points at 16,081.10 led by 27 stocks. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 39.6 points to 4,817.95 amid volatility.

The market shrugged off the falling rupee. It hit an all-time low of 52.44 to the dollar today. It was trading at 52.43 a dollar, down 27 paise from the previous closing price. It was down by 46 paise to 70.70 a euro.

Tata Motors, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure, JP Associates, Reliance Communications, SBI, ICICI Bank, IDFC , DLF, Sterlite, Hindalco, JSPL, Reliance Industries, NTPC and SAIL gained 1-2%.

However, Infosys lost 1.6% post the management's outlook. HCL Tech and Bharti Airtel too were down. 

The CNX Midcap rose 31 points to 6,571.

Asian markets were mixed. Shanghai and Hang Seng fell 0.5-1%. However, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan were marginally higher.

The US equity markets managed to recover marginally from the day's low on Monday. S&P and Moody’s reaffirmed the US' ratings even after the congressional committee failed to reach an agreement to reduce the country's USD 15 trillion deficit. However, Fitch warned of a revision of negative, if the US deficit was not controlled.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan gives birth to baby girl

Mumbai: Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has given birth to a baby girl, the first daughter for the former Miss World and her actor husband Abhishek Bachchan. The delivery took place at the Seven Hills Hospital in Marol, Mumbai.

A proud grandfather, Amitabh tweeted on Wednesday morning, "T 561 - I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl !!"

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai had married on April 20, 2007 as per Hindu customs. The much publicised wedding had taken place in a private ceremony at 'Prateeksha', the Bachchan residence in Juhu, Mumbai.

Twitter has been the speculation ground for the Bachchan baby since long. There have been speculations on the exact date of delivery and the gender of the baby.

An irritated Amitabh Bachchan had even hit back after the interest shown by the media and people by tweeting, "Getting congratulatory messages on Aishwarya delivering a boy !!! Guess they know more than even she does !! False and incorrect news."

Even celebrities did not lag behind in expressing interest about the baby. Renowned novelist Tasleema Nasreen had tweeted that "I love Aishwarya Rai. But when I said 'I wish she would give birth to a baby girl', people asked me, Why do you hate Aishwarya?"

A set of guidelines, issued purportedly by the Broadcast Editors Association, recently surfaced prompting senior Bachchan to deny having tried to influence the coverage of the high profile birth. The much awaited birth of the year has made the child a celebrity in her/his own way.

It will be interesting to see how the Bachchan family will guard the baby from being exposed to the limelight even before it reaches a certain age.

The western world has seen many celebrity children such as David Beckham's son Brooklyn or Brangelina's twins in recent times where the paparazzi have hounded every step of the child and its parents.

The twitterazzi swooped down upon the news from the moment Bachchan broke the news on Twitter. A tweet confirming the pregnancy of a leading actress in the industry, perhaps for the first time in cinematic history, made front page news in major national dailies. As the sun sets on the era of star kids, celebrity babies usher in a trend imported from Hollywood show business.

As Bollywood's first family, the Bachchans have always been in the limelight, be it the intense coverage of the Abhi-Ash wedding or Senior B's illness.

As a celeb baby, every moment of its life is going to be of interest, the pregnancy photos, the delivery date, the first baby photos might go to the highest bidder as is the Hollywood trend, the baby's name will have the nation thinking and whether the new born will get the father's height and gait or the mother's looks. And post that, every action, every decision made by the celeb parents for the baby will be news. Tremendous pressure on a new-born isn't it?

The celeb baby phenomenon has just come in to Bollywood. Abhishek and Shweta had star parents as well, as did Esha Deol. But their birth and childhood was never half as high profile.

In the recent past, Ajay Devgan and Kajol's children and Twinkle and Akshay Kumar's son – has been in the news only when spotted with their star-parents. They aren't stars yet. The Abhi-Ash child will come in to an industry that worships the parents and the grandparents.

Aishwarya gives birth to a girl

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has delivered a baby girl today at the Seven Hills Hospital in suburban Andheri here.

"IT'S A GIRL!!!!!! :-)))))," Abhishek Bachchan wrote on social networking site twitter. "I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl !! Dadaji... ecstatic!!!!," Amitabh Bachchan wrote on twitter.

It was in June this year that Amitabh Bachchan had broken the news that his daughter-in-law was 

Nifty slips towards 5000

The 30-share BSE Sensex has continued to trade with 100 points fall due to sell-off in private banking, capital goods, select technology and auto stocks. Heavyweight Reliance Industries too fell into bears' grip, falling 2%. The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 164 points to 16,719 and the 50-share NSENifty slipped 57 points to 5,011.

Among the largecaps, SAIL, BPCL, GAIL, Hero Motocorp, Jaiprakash Associates and Coal India dropped 2-4%. BHEL was the biggest loser on the street, losing 5% while L&T crashed nearly 4%.

However, M&M, Jindal Steel, SBI, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and DLF gained 1-2%.

SBI, L&T, ICICI Bank, Idea Cellular, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank were most active shares on exchanges.

Indian rupee has depreciated by 20 paise to 50.86 a dollar today, though it showed some recovery.

PN Vijay, portfolio manager shares that the midcap damage over the past few days could be courtesy the earnings performance. He says the Q2 earnings has been primarily hit by two reasons — the rupee-dollar scenario and the demand destruction. He expects RBI’s intervention to get rupee back to sub 50 levels.

In the midcap space, DB Realty, Shriram City, Sterling Tools, Shree Global and Bajaj Hindusthan rallied 3-10% while Kwality Dairy plunged 20%. Sintex Industries, KSK Energy Ventures, Rashtriya Chemical and SKS Microfinance slipped 5-7.5%.

The market breadth has remained in favour of declines; more than three shares slipped for every share rising on the National Stock Exchange.

At -:20 hours IST : Sensex falls 100 pts in opening; rupee nears 51 per dollar

Indian equity benchmark Sensex fell 100 points in the opening trade due to depreciating rupee to near 51 a dollar (falls 0.5%). Weak Asian cues on eurozone debt crisis too weighed on the India; Shanghai, Hang Seng dropped 2%. Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan fell 0.5-1%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 97.55 points to 16,785.12 and the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 34 points to 5,034.45.

Oil marketing companies like BPCL, IOC and HPCL fell 2-3% after cut in petrol prices with effective from midnight.

Capital goods space: L&T, BHEL and Siemens were down 2% each.

JSPL, SAIL, Sesa Goa, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, Cola India, Tata Power, Hero Motocorp, Ranbaxy and Reliance Industries too were under pressure.

However, Bharti Airtel, DLF, Dr Reddy's Labs and Reliance Infrastructure were on buyers' radar.

The CNX Midcap fell 25 points to 6,837. About two shares declined for every share rising on National Stock Exchange.

Stocks in news

Jet Airways lost 2% while Kingfisher Airlines was up 1.5%.

MSCI added in its portfolio: PFC was up 2% and Idea rallied 3.5%.

Educomp Solutions rose 1% on short covering as it lost 25% in previous three days.

Shree Renuka Sugars too saw short covering, gaining 2% after losing over 30% in earlier three days.

Tech Mahindra declined over 1% post Q2 numbers.

IVRCL dropped 3.5% and UCO Bank lost 2%. Sintex crashed 7%.

Petrol cheaper by Rs 1.80 per litre across India tonight

New Delhi:  There is finally good news for all of us. After a nationwide outrage over the recent fuel price hike, oil marketing companies have reduced petrol prices by Rs 1.80 per litre before VAT.

What this means is that in Delhi, petrol will be Rs 2.25 cheaper per litre. Price cuts are expected to be higher in other cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, where VAT is higher.

Prices have been raised four times this year, the last two price hikes coming within two months of each other. Petrol prices went up by Rs 3.14 in September and then by Rs 1.82 two weeks ago, causing much outrage among people and political parties.

Last week, RS Butola, the Chairman of the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), India's largest fuel retailer, said the oil companies would cut petrol prices by today, as long as crude prices continued to fall globally.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Butola had said that oil companies were committed to passing on any benefit from lower prices to consumers, even though they had already incurred a loss of around Rs. 2,500 crores  on the sale of petrol this year.

Petrol was deregulated or freed from government control in June 2010. This allows oil companies to raise or lower prices in keeping with global market dynamics.

Sensex opens volatile

The BSE benchmark gained 50 points in the opening trade on Tuesday after a long weekend, tracking positive global cues. A confidence vote in Italy is awaited later in the day, which will have an impact on the markets. In the morning, oil & gas, capital goods, metal and select financial stocks were on buyers' radar. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 57 points at 17,620.02 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 16 points to 5,300.45 amid volatility.

ONGC surged 3.5% post stellar performance in Q2. It has posted a net profit of Rs 8642.23 crore for the quarter ended September 30, up 60% year-on-year boosted by lower subsidy payments and gains from high crude oil and gas prices.

Tata Motors, Reliance Infrastructure (ahead of numbers today), Bharti Airtel, Hero Motocorp, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco, SBI, BHEL and L&T were leading the market higher.

The CNX Midcap went up 30 points to 7,350. About two shares gained for every share falling on National Stock Exchange.

Results Reaction: SKS Microfinance fell 10%; Parsvnath Developers down 2.5%; Motherson Sumi fell 5%; Jain Irrigation rose 2%; Emami lost 1.6%; Punj Lloyd surged 3.5% and MTNL gained 0.8%.

Voltas and Petronet LNG jumped 2%.

Global cues

Markets are happy to see these ministers (Greece, Italy) resigning. SGX Nifty rallied 1%.

Asian markets were trading higher. Shanghai, Hang Seng and Straits Times rose 0.5-0.8%. Kospi and Taiwan were flat.

petrol price hike as retail losses increase

State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) is considering a further increase in petrol prices as it struggles to cut down on retailing losses.

Talking to CNBC-TV18, B Mukherjee, director of finance at HPCL, he says, "We are losing about Rs 1.50 per litre. To cover up this loss, since, there are sales taxes too that need to be taken into account, there needs to be a price hike to the tune of Rs 1.82 per litre. And, that is the position of OMCs (oil marketing companies)."

The oil refining and marketing firm, which posted a quarterly loss of Rs 33.6 billion on Tuesday, is in talks with other retailers on the issue and a price increase could come as soon as within the next two weeks.

The company also said it is looking to buy overseas oil and gas assets in Australia and Africa, and may partner with other firms in that effort, he said, without giving more detail. HPCL owns stakes in three exploration blocks in Australia and Egypt.

Raising the petrol price by Rs 1.82 per litre would be an increase of 2.7%from the current Delhi price.

"It may happen. We will see," he replied, when asked if the increase was likely within the next two weeks.

HPCL and its fellow state oil product sellers Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corp last raised petrol prices by nearly 5% in September to ease their subsidy burdens, but added to stubbornly high inflation in Asia's third-largest economy.

The three state giants tend to move their prices in tandem.

India's headline inflation in September stood at 9.72% and has topped 9% for nearly a year, prompting the RBI to lift its policy lending rate last month for the 13th time since March 2010.

India granted autonomy to state-run firms last year to fix retail prices for petrol, but the government continues to control prices of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene. The government last allowed a diesel price increase in June.

Last week, BPCL posted a loss of Rs 32.3 billion and said results had been adversely affected by high crude oil and product prices that did not fully pass that cost on to consumers.

Meanwhile, a falling rupee, the Indian currency is down 11% against the dollar since a late July peak, adds to the imported oil bill for India's three big state oil marketers.

HPCL's net loss for the July-September quarter compared with net profit of 20.9 billion a year earlier. Net sales rose to Rs 370.3 billion, from 307.1 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Gross under-recoveries for the quarter nearly doubled to 46.86 billion rupees, from Rs 24.24 billion a year ago, Mukherjee said.

Gross refining margins, a key measure of profitability, fell to USD 1.92 per barrel for the quarter, from USD 2.66 a barrel in the same quarter last year.

Shares in HPCL, valued by the market at USD 2.3 billion, ended 0.4% higher, outperforming a broader market that ended 1.3% lower. The stock has dropped 14.6% in the year to date, in line with the main stock index.