Doors are likely to be opened for the futures trading of four agriculture commodities on Sunday as the ban is lapsed on November 30 after period of at least six months. However, government has not issued any notification for futures trading in rubber, potato, chickpea and soya oil.

Futures trading is expected to start in a short time after the necessary notification by commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

Indian equi

Sydney - The steep fall on Wall Street exerted a strong gravitational pull on Australian stocks Tuesday, dragging the market down more than 4 per cent.

Sellers swamped buyers in a market that had already factored in an easing of monetary policy that was made concrete in the afternoon session, when the Reserve Bank of Australia announced a cut of 1 per cent in the prime interest rate.

"Traders had already priced in a cut of 100 basis points and there had even be talk that the RBA would go for 125 basis points," said James Waggett of Bell Potter Securities.

Manila - Philippine shares plunged 4.65 per cent on Tuesday tracking the decline in Wall Street and other international markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange's 30-share composite index lost 91.70 points to close at 1,879.87, from Monday's finish of 1,971.57.

A total of 488.76 million shares valued at 1.03 billion pesos (21.02 million dollars) were traded.

Losers swamped gainers 86 to 17, while 21 issues were unchanged.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong shares plunged by more than 4 per cent Tuesday in early trading following heavy overnight losses on Wall Street, as the US economy officially sank into recession.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 610.16 points, or 4.32 per cent, in the first 15 minutes of trading, tumbling below the 14,000 mark to 13,498.68.

The fall follows follow five consecutive days of gains on the Hong Kong index, the longest positive run since December 2007. Hong Kong shares have now fallen almost