There has been an increase of 1.6 percent in Indian Shares in the world market. Though amidst Europe’s ongoing financial crises, there is grave speculation of whether the trends of increasing share markets will be sustained. There have been upbeat comments about the US economy and the Chinese exports continue to grow, both of which have allowed the Asian markets to show their strength in the world economy.

Certain key decisions on the part of the Central Bank have also helped in improving the investor sentiment and the Key European stocks have also marched. Though as a weekly comparison, the BSE index is still down by a 1.1%, there has been growth within the week, where 29 components of the index closed in the green. At the place where the economy is currently, financial experts feel that a lack of bad news on the stocks front itself is a reason to cheer for. The news of negative developments in Europe are continually decreasing and therefore there is an increasing hope that things will be back to normal soon.

As the global monetary pressures pile up, the sensex is showing signs of another low. Today itself the sensex tanked about 336 points. There are rising concerns about the slowing down of hiring in the US and the European crises still continues with rising concerns about the Hungarian economy. At Dalal Street Today, the benchmark indices slemped close to a 2% dur to the negative vibes emanating from the global economy. along with sensex, NIFTY also lost 101 points, however managed to stay about the 5000 mark, which is an encouraging sign.

Realty and metal industries topped the losses, after which power sector immediately followed. Unfortunately, today none of the sectors closed in the green. The entire breadth of the market was negative today with only about 40% of the stock advancing in BSE. Reliance communication was one of the few industries that continued to rise, due to the recent decision to sell 26% of its stake. ACC and Hero Honda also managed to stay in the green, increasing only marginally.

DLF and Hindalco remained the top losers, with DLF slipping 6.25% and Hindalco slipping 4.77%.

India and Australia have both expressed their willingness to work on minerals and energy sector collaboratively. This new arrangement will most likely be followed up with tie ups for gas supply, with joint plants set up in both the countries. The government feels that this is an excellent strategic move considering the rapid pace at which new technologies can be shared under such an agreement.

The two countries have decided to work together in the areas of use of brown coal and coal based power plants. The two countries will also be sharing resources in the power generation and research technology. The first step in this direction would be to develop smart grids together for the efficient distribution of power.

India would be procuring liquefied natural gas and coal from Australia. There has already been considerable investments made in each others’ countries. The new agreement would only help the investments grow and evolve into more mutually beneficial arrangements. There are also talks about sharing gas and uranium exploration technology, which can help India specifically in the CNG sector where the demand overshoots supply by a large quantity. The government is also hopeful that the private sector would give full support to the government’s step, which is an essential factor in seeing this arrangement through.

For a long time, the agriculture sector has been the primary contributor to the GDP. However, recently, the numbers from the last financial year have been released and the percentage contributions of various sectors have come as a surprise. This last year, agriculture was not the largest contributor to the GDP. It has been now replaced by the industrial sector.

While there are some who may rejoice over this news, feeling that the Indian industrial sector has finally come of age, this is a worrying trend. A decrease in agricultural contribution to GDP is an indication of less production in the sector. For the past few years, due to the slow change in climate, farmers have been having a tough time with their crops. On top of it, there has been unprecedented growth in the real estate sector and may farm lands have been wiped out.

As the population of India grows and there are even more mouths to feed, a dip in the agricultural produce may not be the most encouraging sign. In the past couple of years, India already has had to deal with a dire shortage of food and therefore increased prices of various commodities. If the trend continues in the coming months too, there may be more effect on the prices and there may be more imports of food.