Asian Markets Notch Up Modest Gains

Asian stocks rose for the third time in four days, led by finance and consumer companies, amid speculation the Bank of Japan will take more steps to ease deflation in the world’s second-largest economy.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 0.3 percent to 123.06 as of 4:03pm in Tokyo, with five stocks advancing for every four that fell. The Bank of Japan started a two-day policy meeting today, while the US Federal Reserve is due to announce an interest-rate decision after Asian markets shut.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 0.3 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.1 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.3 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex Index climbed 0.8 percent as Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. led memory- chip makers higher after chip prices increased.

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Asian Markets Notch Up Modest Gains

Water At Chashma Barrage Reaches Dead Level

After Mangla and Tarbela dams, water in Chashma Barrage has also dropped to dead level today.
According to IRSA sources, inflow of water in Chashma Barrage is 33,853 cusecs while outflow is 42,655 cusecs. At Marala, inflow of water is 9,156 cusecs while outflow is 1,056 cusecs. According to IRSA sources, due to shortage, discharge of water from Tarbela Dam was curtailed by 9,400 cusecs. Here, water’s level is 1,378 feet and outflow is 21,600 cusecs. Level of water in Mangla Dam is 1,040 feet.

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Water At Chashma Barrage Reaches Dead Level

Asian Stocks Trade In Narrow Range Again

HONG KONG : Asian stock markets were mixed in early trade on Wednesday due to a lack of firm direction as dealers awaited the impact of key Chinese economic numbers.

Beijing said its trade surplus reached 7.61 billion dollars in February and its exports for that month totalled 94.5 billion dollars — up 45.7 percent year on year.

With no strong signals from the United States, regional investors were awaiting the figures from China that could dictate Beijing’s monetary policy.

China’s much-anticipated inflation figures are due for release on Thursday.

Shanghai shares rose 0.39 percent and Hong Kong added 0.41 percent, although trade was cautious amid fears China’s leaders could move to put a lid on lending in a bid to put the brakes on its fast-growing economy.

Singapore rose 0.64 percent.

Tokyo stocks were flat, with dealers unmoved by data showing Japanese core private-sector machinery orders, a key indicator of capital spending, fell 3.7 percent in January from the previous month, reversing a 20.1 percent rise in December.

The news was in line with market expectations and still showed a general improvement, Yumi Nishimura of Daiwa Securities Capital Markets told Dow Jones Newswires.

However, Australian shares dropped 0.29 percent in early trade, while Wall Street gave little for dealers to hold on to, adding just 0.11 percent, although trade and weekly jobless claims are scheduled to be released on Thursday, which could give some indication to the strength of the US economy.

There were still some concerns over the state of eurozone economies, with many dealers worried that Greece’s massive debt problems could seep into other European nations.

Portugal said this week it would cut spending, delay investment and sell state assets in an attempt to fix its finances.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Tuesday that President Barack Obama offered a “positive” verdict on European plans to thwart speculators blamed for deepening Greece’s crisis, in talks in Washington.

The euro was at 1.3599 dollars in Tokyo morning trade, compared with 1.3598 in New York late Tuesday, and at 122.37 yen against 122.35. The dollar inched up to 89.99 yen from 89.96.

Oil was lower in Asia, with New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, 25 cents down at 81.24 dollars a barrel and Brent North Sea crude 20 cents off at 79.71 dollars.

Gold opened at 1,122.00-1,123.00 US dollars an ounce, down from Tuesday’s close of 1,123.00-1,124.00 dollars.

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Asian Stocks Trade In Narrow Range Again

Sabir Ali Wins 7th Stage Of Tour De Pakistan

RAHIMYAR KHAN PAKISTAN: The participants of the Tour de Pakistan reached Rahimyar Khan from Bahawalpur in the seventh stage which was won by Sabir Ali of the Sui Southern Gas Company.

In all, 47 cyclists left Bahawalpur for Rahimyar Khan in the seventh stage, which consists of 200 km. This distance was completed by 42 cyclists.

Sabir Ali was the first to reach the destination, winning second successive stage in the event. He crossed the distance in five hours, 39 minutes and 26 seconds.

Imtiaz Hasan of Afghanistan came second and Ovais Aslam of WAPDA secured the third position.

Tomorrow will be the rest day and the participants will leave Rahimyar Khan for Sukkur in the eighth stage on Wednesday.

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Sabir Ali Wins 7th Stage Of Tour De Pakistan

Remember The Time, Shahid Kapoor

MUMBAI INDIA: Everyone knows that Shahid Kapoor is a big star today and charges several crore for a film or endorsement.

However, few people are aware of his extra humble beginnings – he once stayed in a tenement in Andheri’s MHADA colony. Last week Shahid visited a small studio in the same locality and it was quite literally a walk down memory lane for him.

Shahid’s close companion Mamu, who has know his family for decades, was accompanying him when Shahid reached the area. He informed all of the actor’s old friends who live nearby, and they gathered at the studio to meet Shahid. Needless to say, it was an emotional moment for Shahid as well as Mamu.

Said Mamu, “I have known the family and been with them for over 30 years. There was a time when things were very bad and we stayed in the tenement for a brief period in 2000 and 2001 because we had no option. Shahid was learning dance from Shiamak Davar and the financial situation was quite dire. All this was before Shahid got Ishq Vishk and became a star.

Last week when we had gone there and Shahid was inside the studio, a couple of Shahid’s old friends came to know and told me they were keen to meet him, but they weren’t sure if he would be willing to meet them. I said of course he would, and Shahid came out to meet them.”

By this time, a huge crowd had gathered outside and everyone started singing Dhan te nan. Shahid got his pictures clicked with them and chatted with some of his old neighbours.

An emotional Mamu added, “I remember those times – during the rainy season, the roof leaked and I would constantly clean up to keep the place dry so the kids didn’t fall ill. I told Shahid that he has come a long way, ‘bachcha bada ho gaya hai’. When he lived here, no one gave him a second look. Now when we have left, the neighbourhood kids were running after his car. I am very happy for him.”

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Remember The Time, Shahid Kapoor

Global Stocks Pull Back From 6-Week Highs,Euro Slips

LONDON: European stocks eased lower Tuesday and Asia closed flat, as investors stepped back to assess the pace of the global economic recovery in the wake of last week’s strong U.S. jobs data and the debt crisis in Greece.

Britain’s FTSE 100 benchmark index was down 0.4 percent at 5,584.32 while Germany’s DAX was 0.3 percent lower at 5,856.79. France’s CAC-40 shed 0.3 percent to 3,892.31.

Asian indexes were little changed, with Tokyo closing down but Chinese benchmarks edging up, and Wall Street was expected to fall on the open. Dow industrials futures were down 22 points at 10,516.00 and Standard & Poor’s 500 futures were down 4.1 points at 1,133.00.

A few earnings reports mostly disappointed in Europe. Defence and aerospace company EADS NV reported that spiraling costs on its military transport plane and its A380 superjumbo led to losses in the fourth quarter and full year. Its shares fell 5.3 percent to €15.04 ($20.55) in Paris morning trade.

Financial shares were somewhat weaker after Moody’s credit ratings agency said the withdrawal of stimulus measures would leave some banks in Britain fragile. Barclays was down 1.1 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland was down 2.1 percent. Lower commodity prices, meanwhile, weighed on mining stocks.

Trading was subdued, however, as investors took stock of recent swings in sentiment.

“The market seems to be in the mood to take a breather at the moment with little appetite for the choppiness and volatility witnessed over the past week,” said Stuart Bennett, forex analyst at Credit Agricole CIB.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was due to meet President Barack Obama later Tuesday to discuss stricter regulations on hedge funds and currency traders that Athens believes aggravated their crisis. Shares of MAN Group, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund, were down 2.5 percent in London.

Pledges of support for Greece from France and Germany over the weekend lacked concrete details, and investors will keep an eye on the country’s financial markets — particularly the rate at which is can raise money on capital markets — for signs that confidence in being restored.

Greece last week raised €5 billion ($6.83 billion) in a 10-year bond sale, but the 6.25 percent rate it paid is still considered too high. The country would like to borrow at more moderate rates.

To avoid future fiscal crises, France and Germany have floated the idea of creating a European monetary fund which would have the authority to enforce budget cuts and offer funds to countries facing debt trouble. Such a fund, however, would not be of help to Greece now as it would take months to agree.

In Asia, markets were cautious ahead of key reports on the region’s two biggest economies, China and Japan, that are due Wednesday. The strength of Chinese trade data could give investors a better sense of when and how Beijing will wean the country off its economy-boosting measures. A report on Japanese machinery orders, a key gauge of company spending, could provide more insight into the state of global trade and the world’s second-largest economy.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 18.27 points, or 0.2 percent, 10,567.65. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.1 percent to 21,207.55 and South Korea’s main benchmark edged up 0.1 percent to 1,660.83.

Shanghai’s market climbed 0.5 percent, while markets in Australia, Taiwan and Singapore rose as well. India’s market was down.

Oil prices slipped to near $81 a barrel, losing momentum after a monthlong run-up fueled by growing investor optimism about global economic growth. Benchmark crude for April delivery was down 84 cents to $81.03 a barrel after adding 37 cents overnight.

The dollar was lower at 89.76 yen from 90.28 yen and the euro weakened to $1.3590 from $1.3631.

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PS3 Network Down

Ps3 Network Down : Thousands or maybe even millions of PlayStation 3 gamers from all across the world were left frustrated yesterday, when some sort of glitch hit Sony’s PlayStation Network – the Internet-based service that connects PS3 consoles to online stores, downloads and multiplayer games.

According to a report at pcworld.com, the glitch meant that PlayStation 3 users were unable to connect to the online service. That meant that they were unable to connect to the PlayStation store, download any software, or even play certain multiplayer games online with their friends.

But according to messages posted on Twitter, the problem only appears to be affecting the older PlayStation 3 consoles, and not the newer “slim” models that were launched recently. The very first reports of the problem started surfacing online late on Sunday afternoon (U.S. time).

Acknowledgment of the problem came from Sony’s U.S. unit in the form of a blog and a Twitter posting. But according to Makiko Noda – spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo – as of 3pm Monday, Japan time, the company had still not determined the cause of the problem.

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PS3 Network Down was first posted on March 1, 2010 at 6:38 pm.

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PS3 Network Down

Earthquake in Delhi

Latest news update Earthquake Delhi Megacities: Earthquake Delhi are something new on the planet. Earthquakes are something very old. The two are a lethal combination, as seen in the recent tragedy in Port-au-Prince, where more than 200,000 people perished — a catastrophe that scientists say is certain to be repeated somewhere, and probably soon, with death tolls that once again stagger the mind.

In 1800, there was just one city with more than a million people — Beijing. Now there are 381 urban areas with at least 1 million inhabitants. Urbanization crossed a threshold last year when, for the first time, more people lived in city settings than rural ones. About 403 million people live in cities that face significant seismic hazard, according to a recent study by seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado.

The next Big One could strike Tokyo, Istanbul, Tehran, Mexico City, New Delhi, Kathmandu or the two metropolises near California’s San Andreas Fault, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or it could devastate Dhaka, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Cairo, Osaka, Lima or Bogota. The list goes on and on.

“You can name about 25 cities that are like Port-au-Prince. They’re not going to shake but every 250 years [on average]. But if you can name 25 of them, you’re going to have an event like this every 10 years,” said David Wald, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

In many vulnerable cities, people are effectively stacked on top of one another in buildings designed as if earthquakes don’t happen. It is not the tremor that kills people in an earthquake but the buildings, routinely constructed on the cheap, using faulty designs and, in some cities, overseen by corrupt inspectors. The difference between life and death is often a matter of how much sand went into the cement or how much steel into a supporting column. Earthquakes might be viewed as acts of God, but their lethality is often a function of masonry.

“In recent earthquakes, buildings have acted as weapons of mass destruction,” Bilham writes in the journal Nature.

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Earthquake in Delhi was first posted on February 25, 2010 at 10:52 am.

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Bullish Trend Prevails Asian Markets

Bullish Trend Prevails Asian Markets, Asian stock markets witnessed a bullish trend on Thursday after an eight weeks low.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index Tokyo enjoyed 1 percent gain to 119.25. Nikkie Index Japan added 178 points while S&P powered 28 points. Hong Kong Hang Seng reached 20,396 with an increase of 63 points. Rise in dollar pushed the stock markets high.

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Bullish Trend Prevails Asian Markets was first posted on January 28, 2010 at 4:06 pm.

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Bullish Trend Prevails Asian Markets

Asian Shares Mixed Despite Fujii Resignation offer

HONG KONG : Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday as dealers eased off after two days of advances, as reports Japan’s finance minister offered to resign on health grounds failed to ruffle investors.

The Nikkei in Tokyo closed up 0.46 percent at 10,731.45 while Sydney ended flat at 4,925.90 points as optimism about resources stocks was offset by a fall in banking shares.

Hong Kong was 0.33 percent stronger in afternoon trade as Chinese shares rose 0.26 percent, rebounding from early losses with metals companies leading the gains. Singapore was 0.33 percent up.

Commodities companies were higher, although a stronger dollar offset crude’s recent gains on a severe winter in the northern hemisphere and expectations of further demand growth due to hopes for the global economy.

Japanese stocks gained in the first trading session since news broke that 77-year-old Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii had offered to resign for health reasons.

The market was awaiting developments as Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has reiterated his desire for his minister to remain in his post.

“The market is very calm about this,” said Masamichi Adachi, a senior economist at JPMorgan Chase.

“We don’t expect major changes from this. The budget proposal for the next fiscal year is already finished. It is unlikely that it will be changed.”

Asian auto makers were given a boost overnight when data showed they had overtaken their American counterparts in sales in the United States market.

The overall share of the Detroit Three — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — fell to 44.2 percent of their home market from 47.5 percent in 2008.

Asian brands captured a 47.4 percent share in 2009.

The news boosted Toyota Motors 2.4 percent.

And in Australia Jetstar and AirAsia unveiled plans Wednesday to slash costs and ticket prices by pooling some resources, taking the first step in an alliance which could transform the Asian budget market.

The arrangement was described by Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan as a world first between low-cost airlines.

Shares in Qantas, of which Jetstar is a subsidiary, rose 1.4 percent to 3.0 Australian dollars (2.7 US) shortly after the announcement but ended down one cent at 2.95 dollars.

Overnight, New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, edged down two cents to close at 81.75 dollars a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude was steady at 80.59 dollars in London trading.

Despite oil’s losses commodities companies were still upbeat on the general upward trend. In Australia miner BHP Billiton added 1.25 percent to 43.82 Australian dollars, while rival Rio Tinto was 2.92 percent higher at 78.58.

The US dollar rose to 92.09 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, from 91.70 yen in New York late Tuesday. The euro dropped to 1.4345 dollars after 1.4367 but rose to 132.18 yen against 131.74.

In Hong Kong, gold was at 1,123.70 US dollars an ounce in the afternoon, slightly lower than Tuesday’s close of 1,127.50 dollars.

Elsewhere, Seoul gained 0.87 percent to 1,705.32, helped by the US auto market data, while Taipei added 1.42 percent to 8,327.62.

Wellington was 0.10 percent up at 3,271.57 and Manila edged 0.38 percent higher to 3,039.93.

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