Gold hits record high of Rs 28350/10 gms

India's benchmark gold futures jumped nearly 2% on Monday afternoon to hit a record high of Rs 28,350, buoyed by a rally in the world market and on a weak rupee.

At 2:42 pm, the October contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange rose 1.96% to Rs 28,334 per 10 grams.

Moser Baer approves raising up to $125 mn

Loss-making Moser Baer India has approved raising up to USD 125 million by issuing equity or bonds in India or overseas, the compact disc maker said on Monday, sending its shares up as much as 4.8%.

The company has also approved getting into a consulting agreement with France-based Harcourt, it said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, without giving details.

Moser Baer, the world's second-biggest maker of optical storage media, has been posting losses for the last five quarters, and has been forced to look more aggressively at expanding its solar business.

Moser Baer shares, valued at Rs 370 crore, were up about 1% at Rs 22.30 at 12:40 pm. They earlier touched a high of Rs 23.15.

Not possible to deregulate diesel at current prices

Although the government is keen on deregulating diesel, it has remained a distant dream for it.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, RPN Singh, Minister of State of Petroleum & Natural Gas said, it is not possible to deregulate diesel at current prices.

However, he said, the Finance Ministry is keen on deregulating diesel and may do so, if prices cool off. 

He further said, the government will not deregulate kerosene and domestic LPG. “We will continue to subsidise kerosene and domestic LPG,” he added.

The government, he said, is mulling options to bring down oil marketing companies' (OMCs) under-recoveries and is looking at limiting subsidised cylinder supply.

Commenting on KG basin, he said, it is unfortunate that the gas production has fallen. “We are monitoring the natural gas production in KG basin. We are certain that RILwill manage to up the gas production.”

Sensex closes 108 pts down

Despite closing in deep red, Indian equity benchmarks recovered more than half of its losses in the second half of the trade, outperforming global peers. The world markets crashed post dismal report on US job growth and euro debt worries. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell closed 108 points lower at 16,713 after seeing a recovery of over 100 points from day's low of 16,561.46. The 50-share NSE Niftymanaged to hold the 5,000 mark. Experts feel that 5000 is likely to be a crucial support level for the market. The index dropped 23 points from its previous close to end at 5,017.

On the global front, European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 2-3%. The Dow Jones futures too fell 110 points. Asian markets closed down 2-4%.

Rajat Rajgarhia, head of research, Motilal Oswal Securities, said that global trade may continue to remain uncertain and hence, domestic sectors that have got hit by global headwinds will see reduced exposure by investors even if the respective stocks witness a bounce back.

Market is still unclear whether it has any catalyst in the near term, which will help boosting the trade, feels Rajgarhia.

Brooks Laboratories to list shares on September 5

Brooks Laboratories , a pharmaceutical contract research and manufacturing services company, will list its equity shares on exchanges on Monday, September 5.

The company has fixed the issue price at higher end of price band of Rs 90-100 a share.

The Rs 63-crore issue was opened for subscription during the August 16-18, 2011.

Brooks intends to use issue proceeds for setting up a new manufacturing unit at JB SEZ Pvt Ltd, Panoli, Gujarat for manufacturing various pharmaceuticals formulations with cost of Rs 51.8 crore. It also needs Rs 5 crore for long-term working capital.