Indian equities closed the week positively on the back of heavy buying action witnessed in blue-chip stocks including Reliance Infra, Hindalco and Reliance Communication.

Power, oil & gas, metal and PSU stocks witnessed stock specific action. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 1.11% and 0.51% respectively.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex, on Friday (Nov 8), opened negatively for the third straight session at 9,631.59 after losing 102.59 points on rising global recessionary pressures.

New York - US stocks rose Friday, after two days of major declines, despite a sharp hike in unemployment and massive losses reported from major automakers.

The Wall Street rally was attributed to speculation that the Federal Reserve would lower interest rates next month to combat a surging unemployment rate. The US Labour Department reported Friday that unemployment climbed to 6.5 per cent in October, after another 240,000 jobs were lost in a worsening sign for the economy.

Amman - Arab stock markets reacted positively but cautiously to the election of Barack Obama as next US president with investors trying to evaluate the choices open to the new administration to deal with the gruelling economic downturn, financial analysts said Friday.

"Markets sighed relief over the election of Obama, because markets have been under the impression that McCain's win could aggravate the global financial crisis," Nizar Taher, chief of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Indian equities are trading higher on the back of continued buying interest witnessed in a host of blue chip stocks.

The Sensex bounced back to 10,025.80 now, after registering a handsome gain of 291.58 points, while the broad-based Nifty has posted a gain of 100.85 points at 2993.50.

A sharp rise in infrastructure sector output has actuated some buying in today’s session. The improvement on the Asian stock markets and a positive mood in US index futures have also added to the rise in stock prices this afternoon.

Tokyo - Asia-Pacific stocks ended the week mixed as Wall Street's overnight plunge prompted investors to sell but interest-rate cuts in some markets led to afternoon recoveries.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 3.55 per cent on Toyota Motor Corp's sharp cut in its earnings forecast for this fiscal year, but South Korean and Hong stocks took big jumps on the rate cuts.

The Nikkei was the region's big loser as it shed 316.14 points to close at 8,583 but still managed to end the week up 0.07 per cent.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares regained some lost ground Friday as an unexpected cut in local interest rates saw them end the week with a climb of more than 3 per cent.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index gained 453.39 points or 3.29 per cent to end the week on 14,243.43 points, despite falling more than 5 per cent in morning trading. Turnover was 48.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.29 billion US dollars).