Thai share prices closed 0.33 percent lower on Thursday on profit taking following two days of sharp gains, which were partially fuelled by stronger than expected economic growth, dealers said.
Japan's Nikkei stock average posted its biggest loss in two months on Thursday, tumbling 1.95 percent as shares fell across the board on concern that recent advances had overheated prices.
China's shares slipped 0.12 percent on Thursday, as funds sold big caps such as top Chinese steel mill Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd to lock in gains from the last two days.
Interbank buy/sell rates for the taka against the dollar on Thursday. 65.95-66.00 (previous 65.95-66.00) Call Money Rates: 6.00-13.00 percent (previous 6.00-13.00 percent).
The Chinese yuan ended marginally weaker against the dollar on Thursday, taking a break after two days of strong gains, as dealers said they expected the currency to continue a trend of gradual and steady gains.
The Swiss franc was little changed against the dollar in early trade on Thursday after Swiss employment data confirmed the country's economic recovery and ahead of an expected rise in US interest rates next week.
The dollar climbed on Wednesday, particularly against the Australian and New Zealand dollars, after traders used bearish economic reports on those countries as excuses to take profits on recent strength.
The Hong Kong dollar was little changed against the US dollar on Thursday in thin trading, holding up despite weakness in the local equity market, dealers said.
The Indonesian rupiah rose sharply and the Philippine peso hit a 2-1/2-year high on Thursday as local sentiment stayed bullish, while other Asian currencies drew some support from a recovery in Japan's battered yen.
Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq urged cricket fans to fill the stadium for Saturday's first one-day international against England and give generously for earthquake aid.
Injured South African captain Graeme Smith had his first hit-out in the nets on Thursday and said he would be available to play this week, boosting the tourists after their thrashing by Western Australia.
South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs said he would go ahead with touring India next year if selected despite fears of being arrested there this season.
Uncapped paceman Mitchell Johnson was brought into Australia's one-day international squad Thursday to replace Brett Lee, who was sent home to seek treatment for a nasal condition.
Sri Lanka go into the second Test against India at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here on Saturday with morale high after gaining a psychological advantage in the previous match.
Pop siren Mariah Carey was nominated Thursday for eight Grammy awards, punctuating a remarkable comeback for a singer whose star had dimmed in recent years.
The United States and China held a new round of strategic talks on Wednesday, part of a high-level effort to manage friction in increasingly complex relations.
Eritrea will stand by its decision to expel North American and European peacekeepers from the UN mission monitoring its tense border with Ethiopia despite the world body's insistence it back down, a senior Eritrean official said Thursday.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has vowed to "spare no effort" to minimise the damage from a chemical spill on Russia as Beijing mulled plans to build a temporary dam to stop the slick.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin sought on Thursday to defuse a row over a law that encourages the positive portrayal of France's colonial past in schoolbooks, saying it was not for politicians to write history.
A new World Bank report on Russia's grim demographic situation, published Thursday, warns that population decline could speed up and pose a major risk for national security.
Taiwan needs to restock air-defense missiles and ships systems and should move ahead with a multibillion-dollar arms package offered by the United States to strengthen its defences, the Pentagon's top arms dealer said on Wednesday.
Some 34 billion dollars are needed to immunise the world's most deprived children over the next 10 years, a global vaccine expert said Thursday. The expenditure "would considerably bring down the number of deaths among children from diseases such as polio
Hamas has chosen a mother of three sons who died fighting Israel to run for Palestinian parliament in a poll where the Islamic militant group is expected to mount a serious challenge to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.
Protesters demonstrating against a planned high-speed rail link with France clashed with police on Thursday amid concern that anger over the project could mar the 2006 Winter Olympics in the northern area.
Nato foreign ministers approved mission rules on Thursday for an expanded peacekeeping force in Afghanistan next year which Washington hopes will allow it to cut US troop levels there.
Japan Thursday extended its military mission in Iraq for another year with an eye to withdrawing in 2006, despite growing calls around the world to pull foreign troops out of the country.
The top US commander in Afghanistan said Thursday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is still believed to be alive and US forces will not rest until he is captured or killed.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on European Union countries to resist whittling down asylum rights as they applied a EU directive on refugees.
Fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina, one of the three most wanted war crimes suspects from the former Yugoslavia, has been arrested in Spain, UN chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said on Thursday.
Egypt's ruling party has maintained its grip on power, official election results showed Thursday, after a final day of voting was marred by violent efforts to curb Islamist gains.
The United States may offer India advanced Raytheon Co radar as part of a bid for a multibillion-dollar fighter-jet contract, the head of the Pentagon agency handling the matter said Wednesday.
Bollywood movie legend Amitabh Bachchan is making a good recovery from bowel surgery at a Mumbai hospital and has been moved from intensive care, a hospital official said Thursday.
Pope Benedict XVI warned Thursday that man's refusal to submit to the will of God would lead to the destruction of the world, as he celebrated a mass to mark the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.
Eight Muslim militants were killed in a clash between Syrian security forces and an Islamist group in a farm in central Syria on Thursday, the state news agency SANA reported.
Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that if Germany and Austria feel responsible for massacring Jews during World War II, a state of Israel should be established on their soil.
Israel killed two militants in a Gaza air strike on Thursday in an escalating military response to a suicide bombing, and a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli to death at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
The rupee recovered from 15-month lows hit earlier on Thursday, as dollar buying by oil importing companies ebbed and traders said the local unit also got a lift from the US currency's drop overseas against major currencies.
Sterling rose more than half a percent against the dollar on Thursday, part of a wider dollar decline against the euro and other currencies, but stayed stable after the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged.
The dollar slipped to a one-week low against the yen and lost ground against the euro on Thursday as investors locked in profits on the greenback's strong 2005 performance.
The cost of default protection on KPN rose on Thursday after Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on the Dutch telecoms group following its purchase this week of 500 million euros ($588.8 million) of its own shares.
The cost of default protection on KPN rose on Thursday after Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on the Dutch telecoms group following its purchase this week of 500 million euros ($588.8 million) of its own shares.
Seoul shares ended flat on Thursday, amid caution ahead of the simultaneous expiry of options and futures, and as blue chips such as Samsung Electronics fell after the central bank unexpectedly raised interest rates.
US stocks gained on Thursday as a rebound in crude oil prices boosted shares of energy companies and an improved revenue forecast from wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc helped the Nasdaq.
Britain's top shares finished flat on Thursday with online gaming firm PartyGaming surging to a 3-month high after it said it expected to beat 2005 earnings forecasts thanks to more poker players and a popular blackjack game.
Brazil's center-south region is expected to crush 354 million tonnes of cane in 2005/06 (May/April), down from the 357 million tonnes estimated in September, private analyst Job Economia said Thursday.
Gold trading activity on electronic foreign exchange broker EBS has jumped 30 percent this year, as banks and investors increasingly use the surging commodity as an alternative to currencies, an EBS executive said on Thursday.
Smuggling of cocoa beans from Ivory Coast is expected to ease in the current 2005/06 season due to stricter quality controls in neighbouring Ghana and swings in world prices, industry operators said on Wednesday.
Cotton futures finished slightly higher Thursday on speculative buying as the trade engaged in last-minute positioning before the release of tomorrow's government crop report, brokers said.
London Metal Exchange (LME) metals prices ended little changed in floor trading on Thursday, with copper, aluminium and zinc consolidating around recent highs, dealers said.
Gold paused for breath in Europe on Thursday after earlier hitting a new 24-1/2-year high as buyers stepped back, but with investment funds keen to keep bullion in their portfolio, traders expect further gains soon.
Raw sugar prices closed Thursday at their highest level in 10-1/2 years on fund and trade buying and brokers said the market could rally further since the fundamentals stoking the rally have not changed.
Corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were holding firm early on Thursday amid scattered and low-volume short covering following the declines on Wednesday, traders said.
Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade turned weak by midmorning on Thursday, pushing to new contract lows in response to fund long liquidation in the Kansas City market, traders said.
Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were boosted early on Thursday by stronger-than-expected weekly export sales reported before the open, traders said.
US gold futures climbed and held near a fresh quarter-century high early on Thursday, as an early wave of profit-taking dried up when speculators added to their huge long positions in the metal, dealers said.
Bodies of two paramilitary soldiers were found on Thursday, two days after they and two other soldiers disappeared in the remote tribal belt near the Afghan border, local officials said.
The government has referred 969 MW Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project to the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for comments, as a French firm Vinci had raised fears that the project may collapse as a result of
It is often said "Customer is the King" and that "Customer is always right". These otherwise simplistic statement embody enormous wisdom. The world has moved from dearth to abundance of supply; coupled with increased consumerism, consciousness of human ri
India is using delaying tactics to export soyabean meal to Pakistan which is adversely affecting Rs 75 billion local poultry industry, Pakistan Poultry Association sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday.
The speakers cautioned at a conference on 'Sustainable Development' that the WTO regime cannot deliver goods to the world until and unless it is based on a just and equitable system.
Much has been written about the earthquake's causes, of the wrath of God and its admonitionary aspect, yet people still wonder why God is punishing Muslims with calamities.
It was interesting to read the article on Shamshad Akhtar, the new SBP Governor. All the more interesting to observe your correspondent's reference that...the distance between Manila and Karachi is the same as between Islamabad and the Metropolitan port c
The "best performing stock market in the world" had two crashes within the last 18 months. After each crash an inquiry was ordered but the SECP has still to inform the public about the results. Unless the stock market stables are cleaned up very little fo
Assistant Attorney-General for the Department of Justice's Civil Division Peter Keisler; United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Arnold J. Haiman, Acting General Counsel of the United States Agency for International Development and Bruce Crandlemire A
In the shadow of mountains bordering Iraq and Iran, Turkey's Hakkari province may one day be an outpost of the European Union. But for now, it feels cut off from the world.
The Chief Cost Accounts Officer has been an important component of the Ministry of Finance in the past. He was a senior member of the team and headed the costing function in the government as a whole. He held the rank of an Additional Secretary and had a
It is, indeed, heartening to note from a news report, (December 4), that Federal Tax Ombudsman Munir A. Sheikh has ruled that services rendered, whether through contract or otherwise, are not covered under 'presumptive tax regime' of the repealed Income T
Gripped as most parts of the Muslim world are by religious extremists' violence, ending terrorism and extremism and promoting tolerance was the common theme in the speeches that the leaders of the Muslim world delivered at the Third Extraordinary Summit o
Minister for Industries and Production, Jahangir Khan Tareen, will witness test demonstration of newly developed ginning machinery in Bahawalpur on December 13, said an official statement issued by Engineering Development Board here on Thursday.
An infuriated lawmaker of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) punched and slapped the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) member of the National Assembly, moments after the sitting was adjourned on Thursday.
The combined opposition on Thursday stormed out of the National Assembly twice over speaker's harsh attitude and not allowing a debate on surge in the petroleum prices.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved use of 105 million dollar savings from eight Asian Development Fund (ADF) loans to address the earthquake damages in NWFP and AJK.
Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party alleged on Thursday that the government was trying to divert attention from its failure in providing adequate earthquake relief and rehabilitation by raising the Kalabagh Dam (KBD) issue.
The government has charged Rs 3.023 billion as penalty for electricity pilferage during the financial year 2004-05, Minister of State for Water and Power Amir Mukam informed the National Assembly on Thursday.
Be it the political power or the electric power, its pilferage has acquired the proportions of a national habit. It is a different matter, however, that while those who steal political power get scot-free---thanks to the doctrine of necessity --- the thie
Former Punjab Governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar called on Benazir Bhutto, Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples' Party in Dubai on Wednesday and pledged the party in its struggle for revival of democracy, said a press release issued on Thursday.
The prospects of real democracy will remain bleak in Pakistan without radical constitutional, political, agricultural and religious reforms to address the major issues of devolving powers to the grassroots, achieving political and religious harmony and gr
Opposition parties unleashed a strong verbal attack on the government on Thursday for the third consecutive day for denying relief to the consumers after the petroleum products' prices in the world market had registered downward trend.
The enrolment of girls students in the World Food Programme (WFP) assisted schools has been doubled during the last three years and registered a sharp rising trend, said a study conducted by a donor agency.
The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has given exemption of 3.5 percent withholding tax on payments received against supply of relief goods for quake-hit areas. The CBR has amended the Second Schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 through a SRO.1205(I)/2
The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has given exemption of 3.5 percent withholding tax on payments received against supply of relief goods for quake-hit areas. The CBR has amended the Second Schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 through a SRO.1205(I)/2
Vice Chancellor Federal Urdu University, Professor Dr Syed Iqbal Mohsin on Thursday denied reports about unrest in the varsity and said tussle among faculty members on administrative affairs had been resolved.
Poverty and lack of educational facilities are the root causes of the child labour, was the consensus of speakers at a conference on "Sustainable Development" here on Thursday.
The Federal Tax Ombudsman, former Justice Munir A Sheikh has ruled that Customs Department cannot auction confiscated goods during the pendency of appeal.