Astro, the largest pay-tv operator in Malaysia, has made its trading debut at the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange today after a successful Initial public offering.

The company raised about $1.5 billion through the IPO, making the sixth biggest share listing this year. The company attracted a lot of interest from foreign investors for the shares during the IPO and its price was fixed at the upper end of the indicative range. Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd started trading with a small gain in the morning trade.

Financial authorities in New Zealand are investigating an incident of mystery trading this morning that causes an unexpected increase in the share prices of several major ASX200 shares.

The biggest gain was notices in the shares of ANZ, which rose from $25.96 to $27.63 at the opening of trade. The shares of the bank were trading at $26.08, up 0.5 per cent at the time of reporting this morning. Within a few minutes of trading huge volumes of shares exchanged hands.

Mumbai, Oct 15 : A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading 55.02 points lower in the 12.30 p. m. trade after heavy selling in consumer durables, banks and capital goods stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,690.99 points, was ruling at 18,620.16 points, down 55.02 points or 0.29 percent from its previous day's close at 18,675.18 points.

Several major brokerage houses have given a buy call for private banking major IndusInd Bank. Nirmal Bang has given buy call with target price of Rs 413 in October research report. The bank has announced results as per analyst expectations and stock closed at Rs 363 today.

Prabhudas Lilladher gave buy rating to the stock with target price of Rs 400. The report expressed satisfaction over asset quality of the bank and lower credit cost during the first half of financial year.

The retail sector shares have outperformed all other sectors on the stock exchanges in New Zealand over the three months period.

Retail sector stocks have risen between 15 per cent and 32 per cent, which is faster than all other sectors on the domestic stock exchange market. The benchmark NZX50 Index recorded an increase of 12 per cent during the period.

The National Stock exchange (NSE) index crashed on early Friday after Emkay Global Financial Services placed erroneous orders worth around Rs. 650 crore.

The erroneous orders led to a big 900-point flash crash in 50-share Nifty, which erased around Rs 10 lakh crore in market wealth. The figure represented a fall of 15.5 per cent over Thursday's close. The incident forced the stock market to halt trading for some time, and prompted regulator SEBI to launch an investigation into the incident.

Stock in Hyderabad-based SKS Microfinance jumped 2.12 per cent to close at Rs 125 a share on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Wednesday, after foreign fund house Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte bought 45 lakh shares in the Indian company for Rs 54.45 crore.

Following the announcement of share sale, the stock touched an intraday high and low of Rs 128.00 and Rs 120.05 a share respectively.

The shares of United Spirits Ltd, led by billionaire Vijay Mallya, rose more than 10 per cent on the domestic stock exchange following reports that Diageo Ltd is looking to acquire a stake in the company.

The rally ahead of the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday indicates that the investors are expecting fresh investments in the company by Diageo. The deal is expected to be announced in the coming month, according to several media reports.

Kotak Institutional Equities has said that the recent rally in the shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is not justified by fundamentals and also expressed concerns over refining margins.

Kotak has downgraded the company's shares to "sell" from "reduce" due to the rally in the value of shares. The shares of the company have risen 11.6 percent this month till Tuesday. "We do not see any fundamental reasons behind RIL's recent run-up. We would use the unwarranted euphoria to sell the stock," the report said.

Mumbai, Sep 18 - A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was ruling 19.32 points down Tuesday in afternoon trade after early gains, as oil and gas stock lost.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,514.72 points, was trading at 18,522.99 points, 19.32 points or 0.10 percent down from its previous day's close at 18,542.31 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,580.48 and a low of 18,480.96 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 58.63 points, while the smallcap index was 49.07 points high.

Shome panel's GAAR (General Anti-Avoidance Rules) recommendation failed to cheer stock markets as investors are currently more concerned about disappointing GDP growth, policy inaction and political turbulence.

Indian Stock market has continued with its downward move on Thursday. The market has remained in negative zone for most part of the current week. The BSE Sensex was down by 23 points at 17467 and NSE Nifty was flat at 5286.

European markets have opened marginally lower. FTSE and CAC were trading flat during early hours while DAX was down by 0.6%.

Indian market was trading lower at 12.21 PM IST with BSE Sensex down by 70 points at 17560 and NSE Nifty down by 0.43% at 5311. Dow Jones and Nasdaq closed flat on Tuesday and Asian markets were trading marginally higher in today’s session.

Nikkei 225 was up by 36 points at 9069. Straits Times was up by 8 points at 3047. Hang Send was flat while KOSPI was up by 0.63 per cent.

Mumbai, Aug 28 - A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading 75 points lower in late afternoon trade Tuesday, tracking weak European markets. Metal, consumer durables and capital goods stocks were the worst performers.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,676.13 points, was ruling at 17,603.10 points, 0.43 percent or 75.71 points down from its previous day's close at 17,678.81 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 17,712.35 points and a low of 17,570.71 points in intra-day trade.

Asian shares slipped slightly on Monday, while gold and oil jumped amid reports of a prospective framework for new bond purchasing scheme by the European Central Bank (ECB).

On Monday, spot gold reached a fresh 4-month high of $1,676.45 per ounce, spot silver jumped to a near four-month high of $31.17 per ounce.

Supply concerns pushed oil futures up by more than $1 on Monday, while both U. S. crude and Brent jumped by 1.6 per cent to $97.69 and $115.38 per barrel.

Indian stock markets will probably remain unstable this week as the markets may witness bouts of profit-booking ahead of the GDP data, which is due on Friday; and due to the Coalgate scandal that has paralysed Parliament's monsoon session.

Market observers are of the view that selling pressure will prevail in markets amid worries that pace of economic reforms will slow down further as the Opposition led by BJP is still aggressively pursuing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation over the coal block allocation scandal.

The central excise department has sent notice to Larsen & Toubro for non-payment of Rs 160 crore excise duty. The company has said that it will challenge the excise duty demand notice.

As per PTI reports, the notice has been sent to the company in lieu of heavy earth moving vehicles imported by the company. The company used Komatsu India Private Limited to import the vehicles.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals has announced 12% increase in net profit for first quarter results. The company reported net profit of Rs 30.83 crore for the quarter ending June 2012 compared to June 2011 net profit of Rs 27.56 crore.

The Vadodara based pharmaceutical company has announced entry in dermatology segment with launch of team of 100 people to register better sales volume. Dermatology market has better margins.

CRISIL Research has cut India GDP growth forecast to 5.5 per cent for 2012-13 based on lower foreign investment inflows to the country. The report has reduced the estimates from earlier 6.5% GDP growth.

CRISIL report also expects the WPI inflation to remain higher at 8 per cent. Indian economy is already struggling lower growth. The policy in-action of UPA government will result in lower foreign investment and can reduce growth in various sectors.

Mumbai, Aug 6 - A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading 225.14 points up around 11.30 a. m. Monday, as there was good buying spree in oil and gas, bank, capital goods and auto stocks as well as strong global cues after reports of a surge in US hiring.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,313.05 points, was ruling at 17,423.07 points, 1.31 percent or 225.14 points up from its previous day's close at 17,197.93 points.