The US is not tightening the reins on the reckless monetary policy that undermined its savings, diminished industrial output, inflated asset bubbles, and led to reckless speculation on Wall Street and excess consumption on Main Street.

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Strong manufacturing data pushed up Indian bourses

After slipping on the back of weak global cues, Indian markets regained momentum and ended flat after the latest data showed that the manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in almost 1-1/2 years in January 2010. The Sensex declined 2 points from Friday’s (29 January 2010) close at 16,356 while the Nifty was up 18 points at 4,900.

At 10:00 hrs IST the Sensex was trading at 16,279, down 79 points from the previous day’s close, while the Nifty was down 19 points at 4,863. However, at 13:00 hrs IST the Sensex was trading 10 points down from the previous day’s close at 16,348, while the Nifty was up 9 points at 4,891. We expect Indian markets to continue this rally tomorrow.

At the end the day, Titan Industries shot up massively by 14% after the company posted 81% growth in operating profits and 30% growth in sales in the December 2009 quarter over the same period last year.

Unity Infraprojects has been awarded with a project by the ministry of external affairs for construction of the Indian High Commission Complex at Baridhara Diplomatic Enclave, Dhaka, Bangladesh, amounting to Rs99.98 crore, to be completed in 24 months. The stock was up 1%.

Indoco Remedies has entered into a business partnership with Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc, USA. Under the agreement, Indoco will develop, manufacture and supply sterile products to Watson for the US market. The stock ended up 5%.

JBF Industries Ltd has signed an MoU with Oman Oil Company (part of Oman Refinery) owned by the government of Oman for setting up a 1.2 million (12 lakh) tonne per annum purified terephthalic acid-PTA plant at Oman. The project will be a joint venture, for an approximate cost of $680 million. The stock was down 2%.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation remained flat after the new oil secretary, S Sundareshan, said that the government will take a decision on the merits of raising the price of natural gas pumped by state firms in the coming weeks.
Areva T&D India rose 4% after the company bagged two orders aggregating Rs110 crore from Delhi Transco for installing two 220/33 kilovolt GIS substations in Delhi.

IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects rose 3%, after the company secured a road construction contract worth Rs1,125 crore.

As per data released by the government, India’s exports rose an annual 9.3% in December to $14.60 billion, the second consecutive rise after 13 straight months of decline. Imports rose 27.2% from a year earlier to $24.75 billion. Exports for April-December, the first nine months of the 2009-10 fiscal year, were down 20.3% at $117.59 billion from the same period in the previous year.

The HSBC Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), based on a survey of 500 Indian companies, rose to 57.7 in January 2010, its strongest reading since August 2008 and up from 55.6 in December 2009. The new orders’ index rose to 62.9 from December’s 60.1. India’s manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in almost 1-1/2 years in January 2010, boosted by a sharp rise in new export orders that underpin a recovery in the industrial sector, the survey showed.

Rising prosperity will increasingly put pressure on food supply in India and the country urgently needs to boost farm productivity, prime minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday. He urged state governments to take steps to boost food output and tackle shortages of essential commodities.

The capital market regulator has reportedly shut its doors on several foreign funds amid concerns that they may turn out to be vehicles for round-tripping of money by local residents. The Securities and Exchange board of India (SEBI) is taking a closer look at the structure of new investors, as well as those seeking renewals, following misreporting of transactions by blue-chip foreign institutional investors (FIIs) like Barclays and Societe Generale, a report said.

During the day, Asia’s key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea rose by between 0.07%-0.61% whereas indices in China, Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia fell by between 0.29%-1.60%.

As per reports, China’s Purchasing Managers' Index fell to a seasonally adjusted 55.8 from 56.6 in December 2009, as export demand improved.

On Friday, 29 January 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 53 points while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index were down 11 points and 32 points. Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama on Friday proposed $33 billion in tax credits to coax small businesses into hiring workers as he underscored his commitment to pushing job creation to the top of his agenda.
In premarket trading, the Dow was trading 37 points up.
 

France has renewed its attacks on "monetary manipulations" in general and the supremacy of the dollar in particular.

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