Indian shares, Asia's second biggest gainers in 2003, are expected to stretch rises into a seventh straight week and hit record highs on buying stoked by expectations of strong earnings in a rapidly expanding economy.
Hong Kong stocks are expected to face profit taking early this week after strengthening last week, but traders said bullish momentum should gather as investors position themselves for a traditional New Year rally.
Investors are gearing up for gains in the first full trading week of 2004 as Alcoa Inc kicks off what is widely expected to be a strong earnings season.
London-listed South African insurer Old Mutual has approached several banks about selling its 53-percent stake in banking subsidiary Nedcor, The Business newspaper reported on Sunday.
London-listed South African insurer Old Mutual has approached several banks about selling its 53-percent stake in banking subsidiary Nedcor, The Business newspaper reported on Sunday.
Asian dollar bond investors pocketed high single-digit gains in 2003, but the going may be tough next year as regional spreads are likely to be threatened by slowing growth in China, high oil prices and election-related political risks.
Asian dollar bond investors pocketed high single-digit gains in 2003, but the going may be tough next year as regional spreads are likely to be threatened by slowing growth in China, high oil prices and election-related political risks.
Stocks have just finished their first year of gains since 1999 - and most forecasters are calling for gains approaching double digits in the year ahead.
UK stocks are set to kick off the first full week of 2004 with trading updates from clothing chain Next and jewellery retailer Signet, which may offer some clues to how the retail sector fared over Christmas.
Retailers Carrefour: and Ahold as well as sales updates from French and US carmakers this week will give a taste of just how much consumers have dug into their pockets to keep economic recovery on track.
The median interbank overnight rate on Egypt's pound rose to two percent on Sunday from one percent on Wednesday with demand low because most banks had met central bank reserve requirements, bankers said.
Anticipated strong 2003 results from MobilNil and the short-listing of Orascom Telecom (OT) for a mobile phone licence in Iran pushed big-cap Egyptian stocks to a higher close on Sunday, traders said.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said recently that judgement was crucial to sound monetary policy, even at central banks like the BOE that have inflation targets as policy guides.
Oil-rich Gulf Arab neighbours Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are to discuss later this month joint oil operations in their shared border areas, including the Dorra gas field, a Kuwaiti official said Sunday.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Saturday that policymakers have been proven correct in their decision not to try to prick a 1990s stock-market bubble that subsequently broke on its own.
Oman on Sunday set its 2004 budget with spending at 3.425 billion rials ($8.9 billion) and forecast a deficit of 500 billion rials, 25 percent higher than in 2003.
South Korea's finance minister Kim Jin-pyo said on Sunday he expected the country's record number of credit defaulters to begin falling in coming months.
The US Food and Drug Administration, which has not implemented any new safeguards since the discovery of the first US mad cow case, faces growing pressure to bolster its ban on the use of cattle remains in certain animal feed.
One of the German government's panel of independent economic advisers, Wolfgang Wiegard, has urged the government to cut taxes on capital income to make the country a more attractive destination for investment.
The Japanese government will soon show it is making progress in efforts to return to a balanced budget, despite record debt issuance planned in the next fiscal year, Economics Minister Heizo Takenaka said on Sunday.
Hopes that the long-ailing German economy this year will finally put behind it three long years of stagnation - and help pull the entire eurozone with it - could soon fizzle if the euro continues to soar, experts warn.
British Airways, which has seen profits cut by terrorism fears and wildcat strikes, plans to slash another 500 million pounds (715 million euros, 900 million dollars) a year from its costs, it was reported on Sunday.
South Korean prosecutors said Sunday that 48 people have been indicted for bribery and other irregularities in a corruption probe involving the local subsidiary of US technology giant IBM Corp.
Malaysia's budget airline AirAsia is to continue with advertisements for cheap fares despite a claim that they are misleading, a press report said Sunday.
Parmalat's rescue managers prepared on Sunday to ask creditor banks for new loans to keep its factories running, as prosecutors broaden a multi-billion euro fraud probe to examine the role of financial institutions.
Parmalat's rescue managers prepared on Sunday to ask creditor banks for new loans to keep its factories running, as prosecutors broaden a multi-billion euro fraud probe to examine the role of financial institutions.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said his Social Democrats (SPD) could renounce a run for the presidency if it helped the country get its first female head of state, in remarks to be published on Monday.
Iranian authorities were Sunday starting to draw up a multi-million-dollar reconstruction plan for earthquake-hit Bam, but the foreign ministry said the time was not yet right to receive a high-level US delegation to follow up on Washington's dispatch of
A senior minister warned Sunday that Israel risked an international boycott over its West Bank barrier similar to that faced by apartheid-era South Africa, as more settlement outposts were ordered to be evacuated.
More Americans believe that contracts to rebuild Iraq are awarded to politically well-connected firms than to the best-qualified companies, according to a survey released Sunday.
Mikhail Saakashvili, who led the "rose revolution" that forced Eduard Shevardnadze from office six weeks ago, won Sunday's Georgian presidential vote by a landslide, according to an independent exit poll.
Search teams hunted with nets on Sunday for the remains of 148 people, mostly French tourists, who died in an Egyptian plane crash France said was most likely due to a loss of power.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended the Iraq invasion in a surprise visit to the southern port of Basra on Sunday, while US troops arrested a senior Kurdish official in the ethnic tinderbox of Kirkuk.
Military ruler Senior General Than Shwe called on Sunday for Myanmar's various ethnic groups to support the junta's "road map" to democracy as the country commemorated its 56th independence day.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, in a sharp rebuke to European Commission President Romano Prodi, on Sunday firmly rejected the idea of a two-speed approach to European Union integration.
Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanim said Sunday there was no justification for the United States to keep sanctions in place after Tripoli's move to abandon secret weapons programmes.
Ukraine's move to halt the privatisation of energy firms highlights fears that Russian electricity monopoly UES is aggressively taking over the energy market, deepening Moscow's influence on the Ukrainian economy.
This is with reference to the letter of Ayub Khalid Bhatti of Gujranwala addressed to you, which appeared in the Business Recorder, Lahore, on December 23, 2003.
After over a decade of big-picture talk on the need to open Latin American economies more to trade and investment, the Bush administration is shifting gears to promote the nitty-gritty of capitalism such as the creation of small businesses.
The elderly population is arbitrarily defined as individuals aged 65 years or above. The incidence of high Blood Pressure and its complications increase dramatically with age.
Libya is not even in a position to question the US demand of disarmament. Iraq has been practically taken over. Is Iran the next target? After Iran, hardly anyone would remain in the Arab World who could pose a threat to Israel's sovereignty.
"Imagine a happy little family. If this family is truly knit together in bonds of love and understanding, a stranger cannot enter it, he cannot disrupt it. But if the members of this family somehow come to nourish secret hates and fears against one anothe
After passing through the slow evolution process for quite some time, the cellular mobile phone industry is expanding world-wide by leaps and bounds for the past few years.
The anticipation that the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Summit would yield a rich crop of measures to bring the seven countries of the region together in ties that encompass economics and other strategic areas, seems to be dest
As per agreement with the IMF, the government has been revising the rate of return on National Saving Schemes (NSS) in line with the yield on Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) on six monthly basis since July 1999.
More than 90 members of the central Shoora of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan, will take part in a three-day meeting commencing here at Mansoora from January 5.
People's Youth Organisation (PYO) on Sunday established a hunger strike camp at Khuni Burj to press the rulers for the release of Asif Ali Zardari spouse of chairperson of PPPP Benazir Bhutto, Malik Salahuddin Dogar, ex-MPA and former mayor of Multan, wit
Workers of various Kashmiri organisations held a demonstration here on Sunday near Dyal Singh Mansion to express solidarity with the people of occupied valley for the right of self-determination. The demonstration was held under the auspices of Jammu Kash
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said on Sunday Kashmir could not to be part of the agenda of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) because it was a "bilateral issue" between India and Pakistan.
AJK president Major General Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan has expressed optimism that successful Saarc summit in Islamabad will pave the ways for resolution of disputes between India and Pakistan including the core issue of Kashmir.
Pakistan Saraiki Party (PSP) and Saraiki Students Federation on Sunday organised a peace rally from Chowk Nawan Shehr to Multan Press Club to press the member of Saarc countries to sign a no-war pact, reduce their armed forces, cut defence budget and spen
Refugees from occupied Jammu and Kashmir settled in Sialkot and Narowal districts have urged upon the visiting prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to take immediate steps for stopping the excessive barbarism and killing of innocent Kashmiris in held valle
Pakistan Air Force Information and Selection Centre, Hyderabad, has announced the final result of Airmen Entry No.2004-01 (Aero Technician and Aero Support).
Former All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman and chairman Awami Action Committee (AAC), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said the APHC wants to put several fruitful and positive new suggestions before New Delhi and Islamabad and said they would help the
Dry fruits have registered about 50 to 70 percent increase in prices as compared to last year while dealers have urged upon the government to form a uniform policy for their export keeping in view the local requirements.
A total number of 126,000 of 20-kg atta bags priced at Rs 170 will be given to 63,000 needy families in Lahore. Each family will get two such bags under the scheme, initiated by provincial government, recently.
Punjab Housing and Communication Minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan has said the past regime obtained a lot of loans for construction of roads in the provincial capital, which are now being paid by the present government.
Five armed dacoits looted an amount of Rs 0.8 million from staff members of Smera Fabrics near Rasulpura in broad day light, which was carrying in a truck for payment of salaries.
Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (PWHECLU) leadership has asked the Wapda authority to accept the just demands of more than 120,000 workers of the organisation, including restoring employment quota for the Wapda employees children and cr
Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal has said no government department can run its day-to-day affairs smoothly without the support and co-operation of its officers and officials.
People in Karachi watched with keen interest the live coverage of the 12th Saarc summit inaugural session and were delighted watching Jamali-Vajpayee meet.
The local conditions were adequately supported by world surging rates which constrained spinners either to sideline or book import orders, relevant sources said.
Indian cricket team will undertake a tour of Pakistan after a gap of 15 years and play three Tests and five One-Day matches beginning in March, the board announced here on Sunday.
The Rationing Controller, Hyderabad district, Abdul Malik Abbasi, has been suspended with immediate effect following raids by vigilance staff on the directive of provincial Food Secretary on three roller flour mills and a small grinding units, Jubilee, fo
Punjab Social Welfare Minister Nasim Lodhi has received a letter of felicitation from Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on her appointment as the minister in Punjab Cabinet, recently.
Sugarcane growers have expressed apprehensions that if the crushing by sugar mills continues at the present pace it might leave huge quantity of sugarcane uncrushed resulting in enormous losses to them.
Gains recorded in companies listed at cement, auto, banks, fuel and gas sectors outperformed the appreciation registered at the KSE-100 index during 2003 by 280 percent to 67 percent.
Juwar, yellow peas, and sugar were subjected to repeated revision while other commodities also fluctuated both ways. Sharp changes were not reflected as movement remained rather slow.
Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal has said the Saarc summit would provide an opportunity to the South Asian leaders to discuss the ways for the resolution of region's outstanding issues including Kashmir.
The Kashmiri people living on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world would observe January 5 as the Right to Self-determination Day in commemoration of UN-adopted resolution on the same day in 1949.
National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) will host an International Workshop on "Advanced Techniques in Biotechnology" here from January 5 to 17, 2004, which will be inaugurated by the eminent Biotechnologist Dr Anwar Nasim, Si
The District Development Committee (DDC) has approved 162 new development schemes with an out lay of Rs 109.785 million for the provision of basic amenities in the different rural and urban areas of Faisalabad district.
Hizbul Mujahideen has warned that if Saarc summit fails to resolve the Kashmir issue, the group would adopt a new strategy to get the occupied Jammu and Kashmir rid of the Indian occupation.
Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Dr Maleeha Lodhi said on Saturday that South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) summit gave Pakistan and India a historic opportunity to kick start resumption of a formal dialogue process.
The 12th South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) summit being held in Islamabad was a milestone in improving relations between the two nuclear-capable powers in South Asian, said a leading British daily on Sunday.
President of Maldives Mammon Abdul Gayyum, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Begum Khalida Zia, Prime Minister of Nepal Suriya Bahadur Thapa and Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigmi Thinley separately held meetings with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali here
Speaker AJK Legislative Assembly, Sardar Sayyab Khalid Khan has said that rapid development and peace in South Asia depends only on resolution of occupied Kashmir issue.
As the Saarc leaders gathered in Islamabad for their summit, Hurriyat Conference led by Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari appealed to them to give priority to Kashmir issue, though against their charter, because it related to the region's security and develop
Hard line and moderate freedom fighters in occupied Kashmir vowed to work for peace in the revolt-torn region in 2004 and called Saarc summit which opening in Pakistan on Sunday a good start to the new year.
Four people died on Sunday in occupied Kashmir, as security was tightened to brace for potential attacks during a landmark South Asian summit in Pakistan, police said.