Gold hits one-month high

Gold rose to its highest price in more than a month on Monday, as fears of a slowing US economy and expectations that Federal Reserve monetary policy would remain easy prompted safe-haven demand.

Bullion has gained nearly 6% in the past three weeks, boosted by a string of disappointing US economic indicators including Friday's weak jobs data.

"A lot of people are taking their risk off by getting out of the S&P 500 and other riskier assets. There is too much uncertainty with the US currency and the euro," said Phillip Streible, senior market strategist with Lind Waldock, a unit of futures broker MF Global.

"So, people think the safest place is the gold market at the moment."

Nifty volatile

Indian equity benchmarks slipped marginally in the opening trade amid volatility, could be tracking weak US cues. But overall it has been in a consolidation mode since yesterday. The Nifty still holds the 5500 mark.

Among frontliners, Maruti Suzuki, Jaiprakash Associates, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, IDFC, NTPC, L&T, HUL and ITC were pulling the markets down. However, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, Ranbaxy Labs, Reliance Infrastructure, Dr Reddy's Labs were supporting the markets.

At 9:18 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty was trading at 5,513, down 19 points and the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 54 points to 18,365.

Man tried to throw slipper at Janardhan Dwivedi

After he launched a fierce attack against the BJP and Baba Ramdev, Congress spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi was targeted at a press conference by a man who tried to throw a slipper at him.

The man, allegedly named Sunil Kumar, posed as a journalist. He was grabbed by Congressmen. "The attack was pre-planned", said Mr Dwivedi minutes later.

Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh has told NDTV that man was an RSS activist. He is said to be a resident of Rajasthan and has been arrested by the Delhi police. 

Earlier, Mr Dwivedi had mocked yoga guru Ramdev for dressing as a woman to avoid being arrested by the police on Saturday night. 

The yoga teacher's hunger strike against corruption was interrupted by the Delhi Police on late Saturday night. The government had ordered the police to dismantle the camp and force the yoga icon out of Ramlila Maidan. There were 65,000 people at the Baba's camp when the police lathicharged and teargassed the crowd. After a dramatic chase that ended with the yoga icon being discovered dressed as a woman, the Baba was flown to Uttarakhand.

The government has been submerged in criticism since then by every major political party and social activists. Mr Dwivedi was defending the government's decision to pull the plug on the Baba's camp at the official Congress briefing this evening. 

कांग्रेसी नेता जनार्दन द्विवेदी पर चप्पल तानी गई

बाबा रामदेव के मुद्दे पर कांग्रेस पार्टी का पक्ष रखने के लिए बुलाई गई प्रेस कांफ्रेंस में उस समय हंगामा मच गया, जब पत्रकारों की भीड़ में से एक व्यक्ति पार्टी नेता जनार्दन द्विवेदी की ओर चप्पल तानकर बढ़ गया। लेकिन इससे पहले कि वह वार कर पाता, वहां बैठे पत्रकारों ने ही उस पर काबू पा लिया, और उस व्यक्ति की जोरदार पिटाई भी की गई।
इस व्यक्ति का नाम सुनील कुमार बताया गया है, और वह खुद को 'संचार' पत्रिका का प्रतिनिधि बताता है। सुनील कुमार राजस्थान के झुंझुनूं का रहने वाला है। पत्रकारों ने ही उस शख्स को पकड़कर पुलिस के हवाले कर दिया।
इससे पहले कांफ्रेंस में कांग्रेस नेता द्विवेदी ने बाबा रामदेव पर हमला बोलते हुए कहा था कि सत्याग्रही चोरी-चोरी नहीं भागता। बाबा रामदेव की तुलना गांधी जी से करना गलत है। उनका कहना था कि पर्दे के पीछे से सारी गतिविधियां चला रहे लोग सीधे सामने आएं। कांग्रेसी नेता का कहना है कि सत्याग्रह दबाव बनाने के लिए नहीं होता।

Rupee up

The rupee is expected to rise early on Monday after a weak U.S. jobs data pushed the euro up, but defence and oil related payments and shaky shares could weigh. At 9:25 a.m., the partially convertible rupee was at 44.7525/7550 per dollar, 0.1% stronger than its previous close of 44.81/82.

At 0242 GMT, the MSCI index of Asian stocks ex-Japan was a tad up at 0.06%, but the Nifty India stock futures traded in Singapore were down 0.69%. The U.S. dollar slid to a fresh one-month low against a basket of major currencies in early Asia trade, finding no support after disappointing jobs data bolstered expectations that U.S. interest rates will stay low for longer.

The euro extended gains to reach its highest level in more than four weeks at USD 1.4656 , further helped by news that Greece will probably receive a vital slice of aid in July to avoid a default. The euro was later trading at USD 1.4642, compared with USD 1.4494 when the domestic market closed on Friday.

The index of the dollar against six major currencies was at 73.706 points from 74.310 points when the domestic market closed on Friday. The U.S. Labor Department on Friday said U.S. employers hired 54,000 workers in May, well below the median consensus of a 150,000 increase among economists polled by Reuters. This was the weakest monthly job growth since September 2010.