Tokyo  - Japan's benchmark Nikkei index snapped a seven-day winning streak on renewed worries over the US economy Thursday.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 212.5 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 9,026.74, as investor concerns grew over US jobmarket data.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues was also down 15.45 points, or 1.74 per cent, to 872.8.

The yen's advance against the US dollar also led investors to sell mainly export-oriented issues as a stronger yen affects Japanese companies' earnings.

New York  - US stocks fell Wednesday amid concerns over massive job losses and profit warnings from Intel and Time Warner.

Computer chip giant Intel warned of a fourth-quarter sales plunge of more than 23 per cent and said it expected to record an investment loss of about 1 billion dollars.

The world's largest chipmaker originally forecast between 10.1 billion dollars and 10.9 billion dollars in revenue, but now expects revenues in the crucial holiday period to be just 8.2 billion dollars, down from 10.7 billion dollars a year earlier.

Indian equities continued to trade negatively on the back of heavy selling pressure seen across board.
 
The 30-share index BSE Sensex has suffered big loss due to Satyam’s announcement.

All sectors were trading in deep red. Realty and IT were among the major losers, which lost 16.72% and 9.74% respectively.

Second rung stocks also saw huge selling pressure. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index fell 7.68% and 6.66% respectively.

Today, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex opened with a gain of 89.03 points, at 10,424.96.

Bangalore, Jan 7 : The Chairman of Satyam Computers, B Ramalinga Raju, today resigned after admitting to major financial wrong-doings.

The resignation of Ramalinga Raju has come as a shock to the board. In his letter to the board, he wrote that company has accounted exaggerated revenues over the years.

Raju, in his resignation letter, admitted to have inflated cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore as against Rs 5,361 crore reflected in the books of accounts.

Tokyo  - Optimism based on the US economic stimulus package boosted the Japan market Wednesday, sending the benchmark Nikkei index up 2 per cent.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 182.31 points to 9,263.15.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues was also up 14.49 points, or 1.65 per cent, to 890.69.

On the currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 93.35-40 yen, down from Tuesday's 5 pm quote of 93.53-54 yen.

Singapore - The Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) Tuesday said its derivatives and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) markets set new trading records last year with volume surging to 62 million contracts, up by 38 per cent from 2007.

By September 2008, turnover in the total futures and options market had already surpassed that for the whole of 2007. This was followed by a record month in October, when 6,863,420 contracts were traded, said SGX.

Total trading value of SGX-listed ETFs in 2008 was 2.94 billion Singapore dollars (1.995 billion US dollars), a 155 per cent increase over 1.15 billion Singapore dollars registered in 2007.