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.

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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%.