India Tata Steel to buy 35 pct in Mozambique project

(Reuters) - India's top private steel maker Tata Steel Ltd. said on Friday it would spend A$100 million to buy a 35 percent stake in a Mozambique coal project run by Australia's Riversdale Mining Ltd..

Tata Steel, which bought Anglo-Dutch Corus for $12.9 billion this year to become the world's sixth-largest steel maker, said it would source coking coal from the project for Corus' plants in the U.K. and Europe, and for Tata's Indian units.


Read more at Reuters Africa

China National, Reliance Win Australian Offshore Oil Exploration Permits

(Bloomberg) -- China National Offshore Oil Corp.,
Total SA and India's Reliance Industries Ltd. were among
companies that won offshore oil and gas exploration permits in
Australia.

Hess Corp., Santos Ltd. and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. also won
licenses in the bidding round, which will result in an investment
of more than A$800 million ($688 million) on exploration,
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said today in an e-mailed
statement.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

India's Central Bank May Keep Benchmark Rate Unchanged as Inflation Slows

(Bloomberg) -- India's central bank will probably
keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a second quarter
as slower credit growth helps curb inflation.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Yaga Venugopal Reddy will
leave the overnight lending rate at 7.75 percent, according to
all 19 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. The quarterly
monetary policy statement is due at noon in Mumbai tomorrow.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

BP Expects Its Whiting Oil Refinery to Return to Full Production Next Year

(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc, Europe's second-largest oil
company, expects its 405,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Whiting,
Indiana, to resume full production in the first half of 2008.

``Repairs are ongoing and we expect to resume sour crude
processing in the fourth quarter of 2007 and to restore the
refinery to its full flexibility and crude capacity in the first
half of 2008,'' BP said today in a statement distributed by the
Regulatory News Service.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Mauritius to benefit from cheap Chinese loans - PM

(Reuters) - Mauritius is set to benefit from $113 million in cheap Chinese loans and grants to develop roads and communications, the Indian Ocean island's prime minister said on Saturday.

Speaking to Reuters less than a week after visiting China, Navin Ramgoolam said the trip had also yielded the promise of a series of private sector investments.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Nokia Transforms Margin-Sapping India, China Markets Into Profit Machines

(Bloomberg) -- Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cell-
phone maker, disappointed shareholders twice in the past three
years by failing to keep up with consumer trends. This time, the
company may have it right.

Models such as the 550 euro ($759) N95 are paying off as
customers trade up from starter phones in India and China. The
shift is restoring profit margins that Chief Executive Officer
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo sacrificed last year when he focused on
cheaper phones to win sales in those countries, where Nokia is
the dominant brand.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Crude Oil Climbs Above $73 on Speculation U.S. Gasoline Output to Decline

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $73 a barrel in
New York for the first time since August on speculation that
U.S. output of gasoline will slow because of unexpected refinery
shutdowns.

BP Plc closed the largest of three crude units at its
refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a person familiar with the plant
said yesterday. The refinery, the biggest in the Midwest,
supplies consumers in the Chicago area. Refineries in Texas and
Kansas shut units last week. The crude-oil market often follows
gasoline during the summer months, when motor-fuel demand peaks.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Tata Consultancy, Infosys May Post Slowest Profit Growth in Year on Rupee

(Bloomberg) -- Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.,
India's largest exporter of software, and Infosys Technologies
Ltd. may report the smallest profit growth in more than a year
after the rupee gained the most in three decades.

Infosys, second to Tata Consultancy in exports, probably
will say fiscal first-quarter net income rose 23 percent, the
slowest since the three months ended March 2006, to 9.80 billion
rupees ($243 million), based on the median estimate of nine
analysts Bloomberg surveyed. Tata Consultancy may report a 25
percent gain to 10.8 billion rupees, the survey showed.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Oil Falls From 10-Month High as U.S. Refineries Increase Gasoline Outputt

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell from a 10-month high
on expectations that demand will decline because of the
unexpected shutdown of units at U.S. refineries.

BP Plc is shutting the largest of three crude units at its
Whiting, Indiana, refinery, a person familiar with the plant
said. Units were shut at refineries in Texas and Kansas last
week. Oil rose last week on unrest in Nigeria, Africa's biggest
producer. U.K. authorities said a three-year-old British girl
abducted July 5 in Nigeria was freed yesterday.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Anheuser-Busch bets on fast growth in India, China

(Reuters) - "We have an intention to grow in high-potential markets outside the U.S., and India and China meet our criteria," he said, adding easing regulations and a shift to premium brands will also help boost profitability in these markets.



"We have a very long-term involvement in China, and India is the only other Asian country besides China where we have invested in a brewery," he said.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

White Sugar Falls for 2nd Day After F.O. Licht Raises Production Forecast

(Bloomberg) -- White sugar fell for a second
straight trading session in London after German commodity
research company F.O. Licht lifted its production forecast.

Global sugar-cane output, led by an increase from India,
will be 4.6 percent higher than previously forecast, bolstering
a surplus, F.O. Licht said in an e-mailed report today. Output
will be 130 million tons in the 2006-2007 season, up 19 percent
from last year, the Ratzeburg, Germany-based group said. India
is the world's second-biggest producer, after Brazil.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

India Invites Bids to Import 1 Million Tons of Wheat to Boost Reserves

(Bloomberg) -- India, short of wheat less than a
week before a deadline to fill its reserves, invited bids to
import 1 million metric tons of the grain.

The wheat is for delivery between August and November, and
suppliers have until July 4 to submit offers, according to a
document posted on a government Web site today.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

G4 trade partners struggle to save Doha round

(Reuters) - Trade powers struggled on Thursday to salvage world trade talks, but gave few clues of how close they were to a breakthrough on agriculture and other sensitive concerns.

Without an agreement soon between the United States, the European Union, India and Brazil, the Doha round of talks could fail or go into the deep freeze for years.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Goldman Sachs, Fidelity May Be Forced to Cut Stakes in Indian Exchanges

(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and
Fidelity International Ltd. may be forced to pare their stakes
in India's biggest commodity exchanges should the government
push through a plan to cap investment.

The Reserve Bank of India may limit ownership in the
commodity bourses to 5 percent for a single investor, mirroring
rules set for stock exchanges, Yashwant Bhave, secretary at the
Department of Consumer Affairs, said in a June 14 interview.


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

Israel Corp buys Globeleq Americas for $543 mln

(Reuters) - Israel Corp said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock
Exchange it financed the payment from its own resources and will
now seek bank financing.




Israel Corp had signed an agreement with Indian partner DS
Construction Ltd under which the companies would each hold a 50
percent stake in Globeleq Americas. But DS Construction has not
yet received regulatory approval in India.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Indian Bonds Head for Weekly Decline as Government Sells Debt Securities

(Bloomberg) -- India's 10-year bonds headed for the
second week of losses as the government today prepared to sell
debt at the fourth auction in five days.

The government today will sell 60 billion rupees ($1.5
billion) of the 7.49 percent notes due April 2017 as part of its
annual borrowing program. It raised as much as 160 billion rupees
earlier this week to partly pay for the purchase of a stake in
State Bank of India, the country's biggest commercial lender.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Algoma Steel Will Sell $450 Million of Notes: U.S. Corporate Bond Alert

(Bloomberg) -- Algoma Steel Inc., a Canadian maker
of hot-rolled steel sheets, plans to sell $450 million of senior
notes to finance the company's takeover by India's Essar Steel
Ltd., Standard & Poor's Leveraged Commentary & Data said.

Algoma and SLM Corp. are among borrowers seeking to raise
at least $36.6 billion of bonds in the U.S., according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Unitech, Parsvnath Costs Rise as India Stops Developers Borrowing Overseas

(Bloomberg) -- Unitech Ltd., India's most valuable
real-estate company, and Parsvnath Developers Ltd. will have to
pay more for loans because of a ban on overseas borrowing,
forcing them to incur the highest interest costs in five years.

The finance ministry's May 18 ruling will push up Unitech's
funding charges at least 5 percentage points, Managing Director
Sanjay Chandra said. Parsvnath was quoted 14 percent interest on
a loan from an Indian state-owned bank, Chief Financial Officer
Ravi S. Pani said.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

`Magic Train' Throws a New Lifeline to India's 600 Million Village Folk

(Bloomberg) -- Inside a makeshift tent pitched on a
west Indian railway platform, Daji Mohite awaits an operation to
remove cataracts. He's about to board the Lifeline Express, the
world's oldest charity hospital on train tracks.

``I have waited for so many years for this surgery,'' says
Mohite, 66, a retired factory worker who survives on his one-time
150,000-rupee ($3,700) pension payout. ``One fine day the train
comes here and it is sheer magic. I will be able to see better.''


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

India to Export 500,000 Tons Raw Sugar Next Year for First Time Amid Glut

(Bloomberg) -- India, the world's second-biggest
sugar producer, may export as much as 500,000 tons of raw sugar
for the first time in the year starting October to reduce costs
as global prices slump amid record production.

Indian Sugar Exim Corp., an industry-funded trading firm,
won a contract to ship 200,000 tons to Dubai-based Al Khaleej
Sugar, Asia's largest refiner, Vinay Kumar, member secretary of
Sugar Exim, said today in a phone interview. The company hopes to
secure more orders when it starts supplying in December.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News