UPDATE 1-India's Pantaloon to add stores, sees group rev $2bln

(Reuters) - MUMBAI, Aug 6 - Pantaloon Retail India Ltd., the
country's top listed retailer, is launching small and large
stores and the group is exploring deals with foreign partners
to take on growing competition, its chief executive said on
Monday.




The group is looking at joint venture opportunities with
foreign firms in the business-to-business segment, similar to
the one it has with U.S. office supplies retailer Staples Inc.
, Kishore Biyani told Reuters.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

EU clears SABIC's buy of GE Plastics

(Reuters) - GE Plastics, headquartered in Pittsfield, Massachusetts,
employs 10,300 people in 60 countries and makes resins used in
products ranging from health care equipment to packaging for
consumer goods.




It has major factories in Indiana, New York, West Virginia
and Alabama. In 2006, the division's profit fell 22 percent to
$674 million on slightly higher revenue of $6.65 billion.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Indian Rupee May Fall For Second Week on Concern Funds Will Sell Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- India's rupee may fall for a second
week on concern overseas funds will sell emerging-market assets
as a global rout in corporate debt and equities drives investors
to safer securities such as U.S. Treasuries.

The country's benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive
Index, or Sensex, slumped the most in four months on July 27,
causing the rupee to fall from near a nine-year high. The
currency may extend its biggest weekly decline in almost two
months, a survey of traders showed.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

India's Reliance Q1 net up 28% on refining margins

(Reuters) - "While our existing businesses continue to deliver a robust
operating performance, our new initiatives provide us a platform
to deliver superior shareholder returns in the future," Chairman
Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.




Reliance's 660,000 barrel per day refinery in western India
and sales of gas produced from its deep-sea fields off the east
coast are expected to drive the company's future earnings
growth.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

China's Exported Inflation May Signal Interest-Rate Pressures Around Globe

(Bloomberg) -- The rising cost of goods the U.S.
imports from China may be an early warning signal that central
bankers from the U.K. to India are about to pay a price for a
cause they've championed: globalization.

China, a source of cheap manufactured products for the past
two decades, may be starting to export inflation as the world
economy grows at the fastest pace in a generation.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

Coca-Cola posts profit on emerging markets

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 17 - Coca-Cola Co. said on Tuesday second-quarter profit rose slightly, helped by strength in emerging markets such as China, Turkey, India and Brazil.



The world's largest soft-drink maker reported net income of $1.85 billion, or 80 cents per share, up less than 1 percent from $1.84 billion, or 78 cents per share, a year earlier.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

India's Bonds Gain on Speculation Surplus Cash to Boost Demand for Debt

(Bloomberg) -- India's 10-year bonds rose on
speculation an increase in spare cash in the banking system will
boost demand for debt.

Yields, which move inversely to prices, dropped to near the
lowest in more than four months after a drop in interbank
lending rates and an increase in banks' bids to lend to the
central bank suggested there's more surplus cash. Bonds may also
gain on optimism slowing inflation and loan growth will allow
the central bank to refrain from raising interest rates.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

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

Rediff.com shares are overpriced - Barron's

(Reuters) - By some estimates Rediff's market capitalization is more
than 13 times the entire Indian online advertising market, from
which the majority of its revenues are earned, Barron's said.




Barron's also said Rediff's grip on its market seems to be
slipping as Web giants Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
get a foothold in India.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Oil Is Little Changed After Report BP Is Starting Unit at Indiana Refinery

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed in New
York after a report that BP Plc will begin startup today of a
unit at its Whiting, Indiana, refinery, the biggest in the
Midwest.

The 235,000 barrel-a-day crude unit, which was shut July 9
for unplanned maintenance, is expected to be at full rates by
next week, a person familiar with the plant's status said. The
refinery can normally process more than 400,000 barrels of oil a
day. The unit had been expected to start up this weekend.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

KB Home to exit Indianapolis market

(Reuters) - "It's a very small division," she said. "We're
consolidated. We only had small communities in and around
Indianapolis versus, say, the Atlanta metro has 22."




The company currently has 139 homes under construction in
the Indianapolis area, Shaw said.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Asian Stocks Fall in U.S. Trading as Infosys Shares Drop; LG.Philips Rises

(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks trading in the U.S.
slipped, led by Infosys Technologies Ltd., on expectation the
Indian software company will report the slowest profit growth in
more than a year.

The Bank of New York Co.'s Asia ADR Index, tracking the
region's American depositary receipts, fell 1.1 percent to 171.16,
the biggest drop since June 22.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Crude Oil Climbs on Signs Gasoline Output to Drop Amid Refinery Mishaps

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose, pulled higher by
gasoline on speculation that U.S. output of the fuel 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

Indian Sugar Exports May Double in 2008 Amid Global Surplus, Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- Sugar exports from India, the world's
second-largest producer, may double in 2008 because of a
domestic surplus, adding further pressure to prices that have
plunged 44 percent in the past year.

The country may export as much as 3 million tons next year,
Akhilesh Prasad Singh, India's minister of state for agriculture,
consumer affairs, food and public distribution said today.
Exports may be 1.5 million tons this year, he told reporters at
the 9th World Beet and Cane Growers Conference in Brisbane.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Companies earnings back in Asia focus

(Reuters) - Corporate earnings and outlooks from top Asian and U.S. firms in coming weeks are set to shape the trading landscape for Asian stocks, which along with global shares hit record highs in the first week of July.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's No. 2 software exporter, and Singapore Press Holdings, Southeast Asia's biggest newspaper publisher, are among major firms due to announce results this week.


Read more at Reuters Africa

"Losers club" sought to derail India deal-Vodafone

(Reuters) - Arun Sarin, the chief executive of global wireless operator
Vodafone Group Plc , called for greater transparency in
India's merger approval process to defeat backroom efforts by
vested interests to manipulate India's political bureaucracy.




"I really did not expect people -- the 'good and great' of
India -- to be calling cabinet secretaries, ministers, to say,
'You have to unwind this deal, because we want a piece of it,'"
Sarin told a conference of Indian business and academic leaders
taking place in Silicon Valley this weekend.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Sugar Falls in New York on Speculation India May Export More Raw Supplies

(Bloomberg) -- Sugar in New York fell on speculation
India, the world's second-biggest producer, may boost exports of
the sweetener.

India's sugar output will rise to 30.4 million metric tons
this year from 20.9 million last year, Ratzeburg, Germany-based
F.O. Licht said in a report this week. India plans to export at
least 500,000 tons of raw sugar between December and March,
Jayanthilal B. Patel, chairman of industry-funded trading firm
Indian Sugar Exim Corp., said last month.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Offers 35,000 Tons of Naphtha for August Loading

(Bloomberg) -- Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India's
largest oil and gas producer, offered 35,000 metric tons of
naphtha for loading in August, the company said in an offer
document e-mailed to Bloomberg News.

Details of the refiner's offer are as follows:


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

U.S. Refiners Increase Output of Gasoline, Work Around Equipment Failures

(Bloomberg) -- Refineries are working around plant
bottlenecks to boost gasoline output as government statistics
show they are running at their lowest rate in 19 years.

They are making more gasoline away from the crude processing
units that usually are key to their production, blending in
ethanol and processing cheaper refined products such as vacuum
gasoil. Crude units at plants including BP Plc's Whiting,
Indiana, facility have been down for months for repair.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Egypt shares rise, OT gains over cash influx news

(Reuters) - Egyptian shares rose on Tuesday as the well-watched CASE30 index hit a closing year high led by gains in Orascom Telecom (OT) after it said it would receive a $793 million cash influx, traders said.

OT shares rose 3.8 percent to 77.75 Egyptian pounds after the firm said on Monday it had received the cash from Hutchison Telecom following Hutchison's sale of its Indian subsidiary Hutchison Eassar in May.


Read more at Reuters Africa