PM Manmohan Singh to visit IIT-K on July 3

STAFF WRITER 13:35 HRS IST

Kanpur, June 5 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit IIT-Kanpur on July 3 to participate in the ongoing golden jubilee celebrations of the premier institute.

"Prime Minister will visit the institute on July 3," Sanjeev Kasalkar, Registrar of IIT Kanpur said today.

The Prime Minister has been invited as the Chief Guest of the annual convocation, he said.

On March six this year, President Pratibha Patil had inaugurated the golden jubilee celebrations of the institute.

Sensex extend gains for third day led by FMCG, auto

STAFF WRITER 16:27 HRS IST

Mumbai, June 4 (PTI) The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose by over 95 points today on heavy buying of FMCG and auto stocks.

The Sensex, which gained 450 points in the last two trading sessions, advanced further by 95.36 points to 17,117.69 after touching a high of 17,150.42. The gauge has risen for the third straight day and 1.4 per cent this week.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 25 points to 5,135.50, after touching the day's high of 5,147.90.

The upsurge in the market was backed by strong demand for Hindustan Unilever, a household products maker, which climbed to a four-month high after its board said it will consider buying back shares.

The index-related Hindustan Unilever, a unit of the world?s second-largest consumer-goods maker, advanced 1.74 per cent to Rs 251.50, near its highest close since January 28.

Forex reserves fall down at USD 271.970-billion

STAFF WRITER 0:11 HRS IST

Mumbai, Jun 4 (PTI) India's foreign exchange reserves fell by a significant USD 1.394 billion for the week ending May 28 to USD 271.970 billion as compared to USD 273.364-billion in the previous week.

Reserves had inched up by a marginal USD 64 million to USD 273.364-billion for the week ending May 21, as compared to USD 273.300-billion in the period a week ago.

Foreign currency assets, during the week, declined to USD 247.263 billion as compared to USD 248.637 billion in the previous week, the RBI said in its weekly report.

Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies, such as euro, sterling and yen, held in the reserves, the RBI said.

During the week, gold reserves remained static at USD 18.537 billion while the country's special drawing rights slightly declined to USD 4.861 billion, the RBI said.