Stock, forex markets stabilise

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 9. After the second day of air strikes on Afghanistan by U. S. forces, the capital and the forex markets in India have stabilised somewhat while the flare up in the prices of precious metals also dissipated.

Analysts see the stabilisation coming out of the reading that the action in Afghanistan is different from a conventional warfare and could be a localised one. The markets are now waiting to see whether the action will spread, that is, whether there is some retaliatory action from Taliban in the form of terrorist attacks in other parts of the world. The situation might change then.

In the capital markets today, the downslide was absent and the Mumbai Stock Exchange Sensex closed the day with a 29 point increase from Monday's closing. The market sentiment was lifted because of fresh purchases by domestic financial institutions.

The rupee too recovered against the dollar, after some initial fall from Monday's level. Having gone down to as much as 48.16 to a dollar, the rupee recovered to close at around 48.12, almost the same rate on Monday.

In the precious metals market, gold prices fell after Monday's steep rise and marketmen attributed this to the disappearance of demand. Silver prices followed suit.

Meanwhile, international oil prices remained soft, although later in the day some reports came in of a slight rise in prices. These reports suggested the market had discounted the action in Afghanistan and was instead focusing on the slowdown in economies round the world which would dampen demand during the winter months which traditionally see increased purchases because of heating requirements. Indian officials also discounted any major problem on the oil front as the country has adequate stocks and its supplies come from West Asia which so far is not affected by the action in Afghanistan.

ESOP guidelines finalised

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 9. The Union Finance Ministry has finalised the guidelines for the issue of Employees Stock Option Plan (ESOP). The final guidelines were framed on the basis of inputs and suggestions from various quarters to the draft guidelines notified earlier.

The guidelines have been made public on the Finance Ministry website (http://finmin.nic.in) and are available under the ``announcements'' folder.

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Section  : Business
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