Business

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks gained Monday amid investor jitters the U.S.-China trade war might be worsening.

Benchmarks in Shanghai and South Korea rose while Hong Kong and Australia were unchanged. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.

Investors were encouraged by hopes global central banks will keep interest rates low to shore up economic growth. But they worry President Donald Trump’s impending Sept. 1 tariff hike on more Chinese imports will scuttle talks aimed at ending their trade war.

Kolkata, Aug 10 (PTI) West Bengal is at the top of the list of states for GDP growth rate, achieving 12.58 per cent during 2018-19, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra said on Saturday.

The feat was attained by the state at a time when the country is going through a "deep recession", he said.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump cast more doubt on chances for a trade deal with Beijing, signalling he might cancel talks set for September amid an intensifying US-China trade war.

“We’ll see whether or not we keep our meeting in September,” Trump told reporters at the White House before heading out for fundraisers in New York and then vacation at his New Jersey golf resort.

10 Aug 2019; MEMO: The economic agreements signed between Kuwait and Iraq have recently raised concerns among Iraqi experts, who warned against “political courtesy” at the expense of the country’s interests in relation to the proposed free trade zone on the border between the Iraqi city of Basra and Kuwait.

10 Aug 2019; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi yesterday stressed that any Israeli role in a maritime alliance in the Gulf is a “clear threat” to Iran’s national security, stressing that Iran has the right to counter it, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

10 Aug 2019; MEMO: France does not need the permission of other states to try to defuse tensions with Iran, its foreign minister said on Friday after US President Donald Trump accused President Emmanuel Macron of sending “mixed signals” to Tehran, reports Reuters.

Mumbai, Aug 9 (PTI) The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 697.2 million to USD 428.952 billion in the week to August 2, due to fall in foreign currency assets, the latest weekly RBI data showed.

In the previous reporting week, the reserves had declined by USD 727.1 million to USD 429.649 billion.

The reserves had touched a life-time high of USD 430.376 billion in the week to July 19, 2019.

Washington, Aug 10 (PTI) US President Donald Trump on Saturday said America will not do any business with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

The Trump administration believes that giving access to the state-controlled Huawei on 5G would risk America's national security. As such the US is not only denying Huawei access inside the country but also is asking other countries to follow suit.

"We're not going to do business with Huawei. We're not doing business with them. And I really made the decision," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Srinagar, Aug 9 (PTI) As the authorities eased restrictions in Kashmir on Friday, some cattle traders appeared on the roads here to sell their sheep and goat for Eid, but there were few takers.

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance that the government is making all sincere efforts to ensure that the people in the region have no difficulties in celebrating Eid-ul-Azha, which is on Monday, sale of sacrificial animals is unimpressive in view of heavy security deployment.

New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) With banking giant SBI and about a dozen lenders reducing their interest rates, the remaining PSU banks are likely to follow suit and slash interest rates in the next few days to pass on the benefit of rate cut by the Reserve Bank and boost the economy, sources said.

Even private sector banks are expected to follow the market trend in order to protect their business, sources said adding they too are expected to lower the rate in the next few days.