Learning to cope!

We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong. - Bill Vaughan.

Investors are a harried lot. Should they worry about the crisis in Euro or pay attention to the coal crisis in our country? India is facing acute shortage of coal to fire its power plants. The Telangana stir has only added to the power woes. The bad news on coal supply comes just ahead of the festival of light, and could add to the concerns about economic slowdown.

Talking of economics, markets will have to contend with September inflation numbers. The RBI governor and his deputy have indicated that they may persist with the hawkish stance till inflation cools down.



The RBI is among the very few central banks sticking to an anti-inflation mode. Others have either lowered borrowing costs or pausing rate hikes. So, the Oct. 25 policy meet will be an important one.

We are looking at a cautious to mildly positive start and lackluster moves before the inflation data. US and European markets closed in the red. Asian indices too are down.

China’s September CPI is up 6.1%, say reports. The latest CPI reading for China marked a slowdown from August, when prices rose 6.2% annually. Singapore's central bank today eased monetary policy for the first time in two years.

Standard & Poor's has lowered Spain’s long-term credit rating to AA- from AA. Fitch has cut long-term ratings of Lloyds and RBS besides also downgrading UBS' long-term rating.

Reliance Industries Ltd. will be in focus as it reports Q2 results on Saturday.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 6.7bn (provisional) in the cash segment on Thursday, according to NSE data. The domestic institutional institutions (DIIs) were net sellers at Rs 2.57bn on the same day.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 3.27bn (provisional) in the F&O segment, according to NSE web site.

The foreign funds were net buyers of Rs 6.49bn in the cash segment on Wednesday.

Results Today: Balaji Telefilms, Centrum Capital, Gateway Distriparks, Geojit BNP, Heidelbergcement, Infomedia 18 and Reliance Industrial Infra.

Google shares bounced in after-hours trade after the online search giant's quarterly results surpassed Wall Street expectations. JP Morgan Chase shares fell after the bank reported net income fell in the third quarter, depressed by lower investment-bank fees.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Belusconi has called for a confidence vote in his government.

Bank stocks fell across Europe after the European Central Bank (ECB) reiterated a warning that forcing private-sector bondholders to take losses on sovereign debt could hurt the euro and the euro-zone banking sector. The ECB is also suggesting that some of the stronger eurozone countries may need to help out weaker euro members.

Slovakia’s parliament voted to approve an expanded Europe bailout fund. Slovakia is the last of 17 nations needed to give the green light to a more-powerful European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).