Marginal rise in inflation

New Delhi, Dec. 16: The rate of inflation rose marginally to 4.55 per cent for the week ended December 3, from 4.54 per cent in the previous week due to costly food prices. Rise in prices of fruits, eggs, masur, fish-inland, sooji, maida, atta, bitumen, as well as lubricants, textiles and jeeps pushed up the inflation rate. But, it was much lower than 7.07 per cent a year ago. Vegetables, rice, soyabean, groundnut seed, fodder, naphtha, furnace oil, some edible oils, chemicals and cement became cheaper during the week. The wholesale price index rose by 0.2 per cent to 197.8 points from 189.2 points a year ago.

Forex kitty

Mumbai, Dec. 16: India?s forex reserves swelled by $845 million to $143.943 billion during the week ended December 9 against $143.098 billion in the preceding week.

Sensex rally

Mumbai, Dec. 16: The sensex today turned around and rose 114 points to a new closing peak of 9284.46. The rally was triggered by hectic buying and higher FII inflows.

HEC revival

New Delhi, Dec. 16: The Union Cabinet has approved a Rs 2,172-crore package to revive the Ranchi-based Heavy Engineering Corporation.

Trai proposal

New Delhi, Dec. 16: Five years after international long-distance telephony was opened up, Trai today suggested the government to allow resale of international bandwidth in February 2007.