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Global cues:

Asian shares slipped to a four-week low on Thursday on heightened expectations the Federal Reserve may act sooner than later to unwind its stimulus after a provisional budget deal in Washington eased some of the fiscal drag on the US economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.6 percent, adding to Wednesday’s 1.1 percent decline, its sharpest one-day fall in three weeks.

Stocks posted their largest drop in a month on Wednesday as traders locked in recent gains after a provisional budget deal out of Washington removed one of the near-term reasons for the Fed to keep up its current pace of economic stimulus. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 129.60 points or 0.81 percent, to end at 15,843.53. The S&P 500 .SPX slid 20.40 points or 1.13 percent, to close at 1,782.22. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 56.677 points or 1.4 percent, to finish at 4,003.813.

[caption id=“attachment_1268411” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]

The yen held firm in Asia on Thursday, having risen broadly on the back of a slump on Wall Street as expectations grew the Federal Reserve could scale back stimulus as early as next week.

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Business/ Stock news:

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd shares will be in focus as the car maker is offering customers the biggest cash discounts of 10-12% since it was established in 1981 to boost sagging sales.

Sahara Group shares will be under pressure after Supreme Court directed Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd and Sahara Housing Invest Corp. Ltd to explain the source of the money they claimed to have refunded to investors in their optionally fully convertible debenture.

Global oil giant BP Plc and its partner Reliance Industries will invest USD 5-10 billion to quadruple natural gas production by 2020. RIL-BP, who are currently producing about 11.8 million standard cubic metres per day of gas from the flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 block, is targeting newer fields in KG-D6 block and gas discoveries in neighbouring north-east coast and Cauvery basin to raise output.

Economy news:

With seven more days to go for the next monetary policy review, the Reserve Bank today said it will focus on controlling inflation and roll back measures taken to check rupee volatility to improve liquidity. “It (inflation) is proving very costly to our economy in terms of savings, in terms of investment. We need to bring inflation down…. No single data or point or number will determine our next move, but our effort is firmly on controlling inflation,” RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said.