Sydney  - Australian stocks t

Tokyo  - Japan's key Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost more than 3 per cent Monday following Wall Street's decline before the weekend and the yen's advance against the US dollar.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 242.46 points, or 3.2 per cent, to 7,325.96.

The broader Topix index of all first section issues was also down 18.6 points, or 2.56 per cent, to 738.11.

After opening the day on a flat note, Indian equities closed the week on a negative note with Realty stocks being hit the most.  

After the announcement of depressing GDP numbers, the 30-share BSE Sensex slipped further downwards.

A fag-end buying assisted Sensex to recover the majority of its heavy losses but still closed down by 63 points.

Bears spared midcap and smallcap counters. The BSE Midcap index fell 0.04%, whereas Smallcap index lost 0.22%.

Rupee breached the psychological 51 per US dollar mark and plummeted to a record low against dollar as banks continuously bought the greenback for importers and foreign institutional investors (FII

The board of directors of Reliance Industries (RIL), India's largest private company, and Reliance Petroleum (RPL) are set to meet on March 2 to consider a merger of the two companies.

RIL currently holds 70.6% in RPL.

More clarity on the swap ratio is expected to emerge on Monday. For the moment, many feel the move will benefit RIL's shareholders more than those holding RPL shares.

RIL is currently trading at Rs 1,265.05 per share, while RPL trades at Rs 76.20 per share. On that basis, the swap ratio works out to one share of RIL for 16.6 shares of RPL.

On the basis of book value, the swap ratio is expected to be around 20 shares of RPL for every one share of RIL.

The stock of Ranbaxy Laboratories fell 18% to Rs 169.95 per share on Thursday after the company received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) charging the company with falsifying data and test results in pending and approved ANDAs (abbreviated new drug applications) from its Paonta Sahib facility. The decline came on a day the Sensex rose 0.59%.

The USFDA has invoked the Application Integrity Policy (AIP), which questions the integrity of data in drug applications at the Paonta Sahib facility. Somewhat comfortingly, the USFDA does not have any evidence that imply the drugs do not meet quality requirements. Nor has the regulator found any evidence of health risks from the products.

Ranbaxy has 10 days to react to USFDA's charges.