Euro stabilises after Greek vote

The euro stabilised below USD 1.44 in early Asian trade on Wednesday after the Greek government, under pressure to pass spending laws as it grapples with a debt mountain, won a vote of confidence as expected.

The next key moment for investors will the US Federal Reserve's news conference at 1815 GMT, when chairman Ben Bernanke will give his views on US growth.

The euro last traded at USD 1.4366 , extending its recovery from a three-week low of USD 1.4073 it hit last Thursday, but below the high of USD 1.4435 it touched after the vote in Athens.

Japan's Nikkei average was up 1.2% at 9573.38, and MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific stocks excluding Japan was up 0.6%.

Brent crude oil for delivery in August was largely flat at USD 111 a barrel after falling more than 70 cents on Tuesday, largely on ongoing worries about the euro zone.

Gold inched up to USD 1,545.10 per ounce by 0027 GMT, little changed from Tuesday's close. Gold, one of the chief beneficiaries of worries about the security of currencies and other assets, set a record high of USD 1,575.79 per ounce in early May.

Stocks in news today

Sun Pharma announces USFDA approval for generic Imitrex® injection

• First ANDA approval for a Sumatriptan AutoInjector 
• Annual sale for Sumatriptan Succinate Injections in the US is approximately USD 190 million.

Tata to challenge Bill scrapping Singur deal
Tata Motors at this point of time we have no guidance on this. 

Read more:  Here are stocks that are in news today

Anna to fast from Aug 16

After acrimonious meetings, the last two meetings were cordial and both sides "agreed to disagree".

Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said the mandate of the committee was to prepare a Lokpal Bill and not to rewrite Constitution.

While government claimed that discussions with civil society have helped to bring out a "strong and robust" bill, the Hazare camp expressed "deep disappointment" with the government draft.

"The government has no intention to bring a strong Lokpal Bill. It is misleading the people. Now, there is no option but to go on fast from August 16 as announced earlier," Hazare told reporters after the meeting.

"People will teach them (government) a lesson," he said adding his agitation will be against the government and not Parliament as contended by Union Minister Salman Khurshid.

The Hazare camp said major differences persisted with government rejecting all their major demands like inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary, MPs'' acts inside Parliament under the ambit of Lokpal and procedure for selection and removal of the ombudsman.

The various proposals in the government draft include powers to take suo motu cognizance of act of corruption, powers to investigate cases against officials above Joint Secretary rank, recommend transfer and suspension during the course of probe and provision for time-bound trial by special courts.

The government draft does away with provision for securing sanction for prosecuting a public servant.

Nifty struggles to hold 5300

Indian equity benchmarks started the trade on a positive note following strong global cues, tracking winning of confidence vote by Greek PM. But indices have not been holding early gains since yesterday - they have been consolidating after a big fall on Monday. The Nifty has been struggling to hold the 5300 level.

IDFC, Sesa Goa, Tata Steel, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Tata Motors, ONGC, L&T and Reliance Industries were pushing the markets higher in early trade.

However, HDFC, HUL, JSPL, BHEL and BPCL were on sellers' radar.

SBI was down a bit after SBI Chairman said FY12 credit growth was expected to be 16-19% as against 19-20% seen before. "We are witnessing some slowdown in corporate lending," he said.

At 9:20, the NSE Nifty was trading at 5,298, up 23 points and the BSE Sensex went up 69 points to 17,629.

Sensex Erases gains

Equity benchmarks shaved off some gains on the back of profit booking at higher levels. The Nifty could not able to hold the 5300 mark - it was gyrating around the same level. Heavyweights like ONGC, SBI, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel came off their day's high.

BSE Sensex was trading at 17,633, up 126 points and NSE Nifty gained 40 points at 5,298.