Business

Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) The Indian rupee tumbled 20 paise to 72.02 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday as Mideast tensions flared up after Iran fired rockets at US military bases in Iraq.

Asian markets dived while oil prices firmed up after Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases with US personnel in retaliation to the killing of its top general Qassem Soleimani.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 8 (PTI) The day-long strike called by central trade unions was near total in Left-ruled Kerala on Wednesday, with vehicles, including state-owned KSRTC and private buses keeping off the roads.

In the state capital, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) did not operate city and long distance services.

Very few private vehicles and autorickshaws were seen plying on roads.

As Sabarimala pilgrims have been exempted from the strike, KSRTC buses are taking Ayyappa devotees to Pamba.

Ahmedabad, Jan 8 (PTI) Banking services were partially hit in Gujarat on Wednesday due to the nationwide strike called by 10 central trade unions to protest against the Central government's "anti-labour" policies.

Transport services are absolutely normal across the state while offices of various business establishments also remained open.

Although trade unions claimed that factory production was hit in many parts of Gujarat, industrialists said it was business as usual.

Kolkata, Jan 8 (PTI) Train services were disrupted in the suburbs and neighbouring districts of the city by supporters of a nationwide general strike called by 10 trade unions on Wednesday, Railway officials said here.

At least 175 local trains were cancelled in the Sealdah and Howrah divisions of Eastern Railway (ER) owing to the blockades put up by supporters of the strike, its spokesman said.

Bhopal, Jan 8 (PTI) After enduring the rise in onion prices for months, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday accused the Centre of harming farmers' interest by importing the staple from Turkey at a time when local bulbs are arriving in the market.

While, onion prices hovered at Rs 100 per kg for the last two months, the staple is now being sold at Rs 50 to Rs 70 per kg at retail markets in Bhopal and other cities of the state as on Wednesday.

PARIS, Jan 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France and the United States have given themselves two weeks to try and resolve a row over a French digital tax, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.

“I had a long talk with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. We have decided to step up efforts to try and find a compromise, within the OECD, on digital tax”, Le Maire told reporters after a meeting in Paris with EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan.

BRASILIA, Jan 8 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro assured that his country will maintain commercial relations with Iran despite the increase in tensions between that nation and the United States.

‘We trade with Iran, and we will continue that trade,’ the president told the press at his official residence in this capital, where he also made it clear that ‘Brazil repudiates terrorism anywhere in the world.’

07 Jan 2019; MEMO: Senior officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration have reportedly commenced drawing up potential economic sanctions against Iraq after the premier threatened to do so in response to Iraq’s parliament voting to expel US forces from the country.

New Delhi, Jan 6 (PTI) The Congress on Monday said the country's economy continued to sink and the Modi government was clueless as regards how to deal with the situation.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said with oil prices continuing to rise amid an escalating Iran-US row, the government did not have the wisdom to deal with the situation if it turned similar to the 1991 economic crisis.

ALGIERS, Jan 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday evening arrived in Algeria for a two-day visit to mainly discuss the developments in Libya, official Algeria Press Service (APS) reported.

The Turkish foreign minister was welcomed by his Algerian counterpart Sabri Boukadoum at the airport, APS said.