A top NSE official reported recently, “More than 300 members will be eligible to participate in currency futures trading on the National Stock Exchange of India on Friday, when the facility gets flagged off by the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram.”

The NSE, which is aiming at encouraging more participation in Currency Derivatives segment, has decided that no transaction charges will be charged on the trades done in this segment on the exchange from 29th August till 30th September.

The NSE circular however informed, “Every trading member participating in currency derivatives during the above period shall be required to make a lump-sum contribution of Rs 500 towards an Investor Protection Fund.”

Washington - US stocks retreated Friday, led by slower consumer spending and lower-than-expected earnings from computer maker Dell.

As incomes dropped an unexpected 0.7 per cent in July, the US Commerce Department said growth in personal spending slowed to 0.2 per cent.

Dell, the second-biggest personal-computer maker, posted its biggest drop in earnings since 2000, and attributed it to "continued conservatism" among US consumers, which was also spreading to parts of Western Europe and Asia.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex was trading in a powerful manner since morning as heavy buying action was witnessed across banking, real estate, capital goods, power, metal and IT stocks.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 1.96% & 1.44% respectively.

The BSE Sensex today (August 29) opened with a gain of 230.68 points at 14,279.02.

At present (12:54 pm), the 30-share index Sensex stood at 14,513.92, up 465.58 points, after hitting a high of 14,549.57 and a low of 14,279.02.

Indian equities closed on a negative note on Thursday, Aug 28 because of intense selling pressure witnessed across capital goods and oil & gas stocks on August series F&O expiry day.

In the meantime, some profit booking was also seen in heavyweights including RIL, RComm, Hindalco and increasing crude oil rates in global market also weighed down the reaction of the stock market.

After starting the day on a pessimistic note at 14,289.97, down 6.82 points, the stock index remained weak during the whole day.

Tokyo - Stocks rose more than 2 per cent Friday as the Tokyo market sentiment improved thanks to overnight gains on Wall Street and Japan's July industrial output data.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 279.37 points, or 2.19 per cent, to 13,047.62.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 27.96 points, or 2.29 per cent, to 1,247.49.

Japanese industrial production in July grew 0.9 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms, compared to the previous month, the government said Friday.