BSE Sensex jumps 467 pts to close near 3-year high as market mood rises on RBI repo rate

The BSE Sensex on Friday surged 467 points while the NSE Nifty gained 143.5 points, marking their highest close in nearly three years as banks rose on value-buying while blue chips gained as foreign investors extended their buying streak to a tenth consecutive session.

Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 2.87 per cent, while ICICI Bank jumped 4.55 per cent.
The BSE Sensex rose 2.29 per cent to close provisionally at 20,882.89 and the broader NSE Nifty ended 2.37 per cent higher.

Foreign institutional investors bought 11.09 billion rupees worth of Indian shares on Thursday, a tenth consecutive session of purchases that bought their total to 78.47 billion rupees.
Earlier, snapping its two-day losing streak, the BSE Sensex rose by more than 400 points to 20,842 on fresh buying by funds amid a firming market trend on other Asian bourses. Gains are being led by defensive and banking shares, especially ICICI Bank.

BSE Sensex being driven by positive bytes from RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and the end of the US shutdown fiasco even though warning by various rating agencies on the Indian economy are weighing heavy on bourses.
RBI is largely expected to raise the repo rate by 25 basis points, its second consecutive monthly hike. The BSE banking index is up 2.5 per cent, with stocks such as ICICI Bank up 2.6 per cent. Lupin gains 1.3 per cent, while Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries is up 0.8 per cent. In consumer goods stocks,
ITC Ltd is up 1 per cent.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gains 1 per cent ahead of its July-September earnings later in the day.
BSE Sensex rose nearly 118 points in early trade. The 30-share barometer, which had lost over 192 points in the previous two sessions, rose 117.65 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 20,533.16 points with consumer durable, banking, realty and FMCG sector stocks leading the rise.
The NSE Nifty moved up by 41.70 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 6,087.55.

RCom launches roaming pack for travellers to US

Reliance Communications (RCom) has launched an international roaming pack permitting users to save up to 98 per cent on data usage and 76 per cent on voice calls while travelling to America.

The pack — ‘Awesome America’ — has been launched for its post-paid GSM customers and is available for Rs 849 with a 30-day validity, it said in a statement.

The data charges have been slashed considerably and Reliance customers who opt for the ‘Awesome America’ pack will have to pay Rs 10 for 1 MB of data usage while roaming in the US.

“With the launch of the Awesome America Pack, RCom has added yet another dimension to its offerings for retail customers this festive season. This plan is designed to offer significant savings to all GSM post-paid customers on both data usage and voice calls during their stay in America,” Nilanjan Mukherjee, Chief Revenue Officer at RCom said.

Every year, over a million Indian tourists travel to the US, it added.

Silver futures up at Rs 49,736 per kg

Amid firm global trend and pick-up in domestic demand, silver prices traded higher by 0.69 per cent to Rs 49,736 per kg at the futures trade as speculators enlarged their positions.

On the Multi Commodity Exchange, silver for delivery in March rose Rs 341 or 0.69 per cent to Rs 49,736 per kg in a business turnover of 55 lots. Similarly, the white metal for delivery in December traded higher by Rs 302 or 0.63 per cent to Rs 48,428 per kg in 6,291 lots.

Market analysts said speculators enlarged their positions, tracking a firm global trend, which mainly pushed up silver prices at the futures trade.

Meanwhile, the white metal rose 2.19 per cent to $21.89 an ounce in New York last night.

SEBI panel for securities transaction tax cut on options

The Study proposed that the STT on protective-put and hedged-call positions should be reduced to give boost to the option market

A study by Development Research Group (DRG) under the Securities and Exchange Board of India has suggested the reduction of Securities Transaction Tax on options trading for the purpose of protecting losses.

The Study titled, “Impact of Increased Derivatives-Trading in India on the Price-Discovery Process”, is co-authored by Prof Banikanta Mishra, Dr Sarat Malik and Laltu Pore.

The study found that spot-market has been dominating the futures and option markets and that the dominance of futures market over options has diminished after the increase in STT. The Study proposed that the STT on protective-put and hedged-call positions should be reduced to give boost to the option market.

The objective of the study is to examine whether the introduction of financial derivatives led to better price-discovery (PD) in India. Using synchronous daily spot, futures, and option price on Nifty and ten randomly selected stocks, it has been found that, while the spot-market is increasing its dominance over futures and options, the futures market’s dominance over option-market has drastically fallen following the increase in STT. 

Further, this study is the first one to analyze individual stock-options in India. While the derivatives and spot markets exhibit a long-term relation, the present study found the existence of long-term relationship between futures and options on individual stocks, something none had hitherto studied.

SBI to pay Rs 1 lakh for illegal demand of credit card dues

Payment was demanded even though the customer did not avail of the facility

State Bank of India has been directed by a consumer forum here to pay Rs 1 lakh to a man for raising a demand of over Rs 3 lakh from him towards credit card dues even though he had not availed the facility.

The East District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum noted that the bank acted "irresponsibly" by raising the illegal demand and putting the name of the complainant in CIBIL's defaulters list which in turn resulted in denial of housing loan to him apart from tarnishing his reputation.

"The admission of respondent (SBI) leaves no room for doubt that the demand was illegally raised. The complainant's reputation has been tarnished by the illegal act of respondent by putting his name on the list of Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL) which has resulted into denial of housing loan to him. The respondent bank and its officials have acted irresponsibly...

"No amount of money can bring back the injury caused to reputation. It take years to establish credibility and image in the society. Taking all the facts and circumstances into consideration we award a compensation of Rs 1,00,000 to the complainant," a bench presided by N A Zaidi said.

The forum has also asked the SBI Chairman to take action against the officials responsible for the miseries suffered by the complainant, Delhi resident Neeraj Oswal, and the amount paid as compensation be recovered from their salary.

Oswal in his complaint had contended that despite not having applied for a credit card from SBI, its officials sent a legal notice to him, initially demanding Rs 91,743.59 which was later increased to Rs 3,78,363.

He had replied to the bank that he did not have a SBI credit card, despite which he received threatening calls from recovery agents, he alleged.

The bank then added his name to the defaulters list of CIBIL which resulted in denial of his housing loan from another bank.

SBI, while admitting its mistake in raising the illegal demand, had sought that the complaint be dismissed as Oswal's name had been cleared from CIBIL's list and a no dues certificate had also been issued to him.

NHPC launches bond issue to raise upto Rs 1,000 crore

Issue which opened today will close on November 11 next month. A K Capital Services and Axis Capital are the lead managers

State-owned power producer NHPC today launched its tax-free bond issue to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore for funding its expansion plans.

The public issue of "tax free, secured, redeemable, non-convertible bonds in the nature of debentures of face value of Rs 1,000 each" would amount to Rs 500 crore, the company said in a statement.

There would be an "option to retain over-subscription" up to Rs 500 crore for issuance of additional bonds, taking the aggregate to a total of Rs 1,000 crore, the statement said.

The issue which opened today will close on November 11 next month.

A K Capital Services and Axis Capital are the lead managers while Karvy Computershare is the registrar to the issue.

Currently, NHPC has an installed power generation capacity of 5,702 MW. It is awaiting approvals for about ten projects having total capacity of 8,801 MW.

Shares of NHPC were trading at Rs 18.75 on the BSE, up 0.27% from its previous close.

Sensex soars 359 points; Bank, metal stocks rally

Indian stock markets were trading up by about 1.8 per cent in the afternoon session on Friday, with all major indices in the green.

Domestic market sentiment was buoyed on speculations that Federal Reserve could maintain monetary stimulus to the US economy next year on fears of the 16-day partial US government shutdown, which ended this week, curbing the country's economic growth.

It was also boosted by data showing that foreign funds made substantial purchases of Indian stocks yesterday. They bought shares worth Rs 1,109.93 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

At 1.20 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 359.27 points (1.76 per cent) at 20,774.78 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 112.35 points (1.86 per cent) at 6,158.20.

All BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, metal, banking and capital goods indices were the star-performers and were up 3.83 per cent, 2.95 per cent and 2.47 per cent, respectively.

SSLT, Tata Steel, Hindalco, ICICI Bank and L&T were the top five Sensex gainers, while Bajaj Auto was the only loser. Volatility index, India Vix, was at 20.34, down 3.41 per cent.

European stocks rose for a seventh day to a 2008 high, while Asian equities climbed to a five-month high as China’s economic growth accelerated in the third quarter as Premier Li Keqiang spurred factory output and investment to meet the government’s expansion goal for 2013.

European indices, CAC-40, FTSE-100 and DAX were in the green.

Japan's Nikkei was down 24.97 points or 0.17 per cent at 14,561.50, Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 220.91 points or 0.96 per cent to 23,315.80 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 38.36 points or 0.73 per cent at 5,321.47.

China's economic growth rebounded to 7.8 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, after slowing to 7.5 per cent in the second quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Friday.

The new data took the total increase of China’s estimated gross domestic product in the first nine months of the year to 7.7 per cent, putting the ruling Communist Party on track to surpass its annual growth target of 7.5 per cent.

ONGC finds rich reserves of oil in KG Basin block

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), facing a prolonged stagnancy in oil production, has got a shot in the arm with one of its blocks in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast, close to Reliance Industries’ much-touted KG-D6 field, having been found to hold reserves four times the previous estimate, at 100 million tonnes (mt). The PSU has stumbled upon rich in-place reserves of oil in block KG-DWN-98/2, earlier believed to hold predominantly gas.

ONGC has consistently missed its production targets over the last five years despite a healthy reserve replacement ratio (1.84 in FY13) due to project delays and most new finds being in difficult terrain.
Confirming the find of oil reserves to the tune of 100 mt (700 million barrels) in the block, ONGC’s director (exploration) Narendra Verma told FE that oil was struck in three out of six appraisal wells drilled in the block. “With two more appraisal wells remaining to be drilled, a further upside to oil reserves is possible and the estimate is subject to (upward) revision,” Verma said.

ONGC has lined up a massive capital expenditure plan of around R51,500 crore or close to $9 billion for the block by 2030. The block was awarded to Cairn in the NELP round in 2000, which offloaded a 90% stake to ONGC in 2005 before selling out completely.

The public sector company had earlier made seven discoveries (mostly gas) in the block that has been divided into northern and southern discovery areas.
The declarations of commerciality (DoC) of these were submitted in 2010 and 2009, respectively. ONGC was subsequently granted an extension to its exploration period in the block up to December 2013 for drilling eight appraisal wells.

As the recovery factor for oil ranges between 25% and 30%, if the current oil estimates hold ONGC might be able to recover around 30 mt or around 200 million barrels of oil from the block. “We are now planning to set up a floating production, storage and offloading unit to store the oil as well,” Verma said.

Rupee gains most in two weeks, up 60 paise to 61.23 vs dollar

Fresh dollar sales by exporters amid sustained capital inflows also boosted sentiment, helping the local currency to end two days of losses.

The rupee had its biggest gain in two weeks, rising 60 paise to 61.23 against the dollar on Thursday, after US lawmakers reached a deal to end the government shutdown and temporarily avoid a debt default.

Fresh dollar sales by exporters amid sustained capital inflows also boosted sentiment, helping the local currency to end two days of losses.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 61.54 a dollar from the previous close of 61.83.

It moved in a range of 61.21 to 61.73 before ending at 61.23, a rise of 60 paise or 0.97 per cent. The rupee had gained 73 paise to 61.73 on October 3.

The dollar index, consisting of six major global rivals, was down 0.80 per cent as concerns turned to the impact of the standoff in Washington after US lawmakers reached a deal.

"The rupee was seen trading on a stronger note against the US dollar as last-minute deal in the US helped uplift the sentiments in the global markets," said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors. "The dollar was seen weakening...and if it does not show a sustained recovery in the coming few days, then we might see rupee continuing with its gains." Goenka also said S&P estimated the US may lose as much as 0.6 per cent of GDP in the fourth quarter due to the standoff. This has led to speculation that the Federal Reserve may maintain its stimulus programme up to even March, he said.

The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex closed down 132 points on profit booking in IT stocks. Foreign institutional investors bought a net Rs 1,136.23 crore of shares yesterday, according to provisional data with the stock exchanges.

"Dollar came under pressure, along with European shares, as US budget deal gave way to worries over the economic impact of the 16-day government shutdown and prospects of a re-run early next year," said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO of Alpari Financial Services India. "Chinese credit agency Dagong downgraded the US sovereign rating...driving further dollar losses."

Forward dollar premiums reacted downwards on fresh receipts from exporters.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in March dropped to 225-1/2-229-1/2 paise from Tuesday's close of 231-234 paise and far-forward contracts maturing in September declined to 443-448 paise from 449-452 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 61.5810 and for the euro at 83.4935.

The rupee recovered slightly to 98.44 against the pound from 98.51 previously and closed higher against the Japanese yen to 62.54 per 100 yen from 62.76. It was at 83.55 per euro from 83.43 earlier.

Thinksoft Global Q2 revenue up 14%

Operating revenue was Rs. 50.4 crore during the quarter

Financial Software testing pioneers, Thinksoft Global Services Ltd. (BSE:533121) (NSE: THINKSOFT), announced its second quarter results ended on 30th September' 2013. Thinksoft Global Services is a specialist in financial and banking software testing services, and is the only listed independent testing service provider in India.

PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
Consolidated Q-o-Q Review
Operating revenue was Rs. 50.4 crore during the quarter under review as compared to Rs. 43.0 crore during the sequential previous quarter reflecting an increase of 17% in rupee terms and in USD by 6% to $ 7.9 Mn

Total income was Rs. 55.4 crore during the quarter under review as compared to Rs. 48.6 crore during the sequential previous quarter, an increase of 14 % and in USD by 3 % to $ 8.7 Mn
The Company reported EBIDTA of Rs. 11.7 crore as compared to Rs. 10.7 crore during the sequential previous quarter

EBITDA Margin stood at 23.1% for Q2FY14 as against 25.0% in Q1FY14
Net profit stood at Rs. 10.6 crore during the quarter under review as compared to Rs. 10.3 crore during the sequential previous quarter, an increase of 3%
Basic EPS stood at Rs. 10.4, increase of 3% on sequential basis

Consolidated 6m Review
The operating revenue was Rs. 93.5 crore during the quarter under review as compared to Rs. 82.4 crore during the corresponding period of previous year reflecting an increase of 13% in rupee terms
Total income was Rs. 104.0 crore for the 6m period ended September 2013 as compared to Rs. 83.1 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year
EBIDTA stood at Rs. 22.4 crore during the quarter under review as compared to Rs. 16.8 crore during the corresponding period of previous year
EBITDA Margin at 24.0% during the period under review as against 20.4% in 6m ended September 30, 2012, up 358 bps
Net profit stood at Rs. 20.8 crore 6m ended September 30, 2013 as compared to Net profit of Rs. 11.3 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year an increase of 85% over the corresponding period previous year
Basic EPS stood at Rs. 20.5, increase of 83% over the same period last year
Commenting on the results, A.V. Asvini Kumar, Chairman & Managing Director, Thinksoft Global, said "The Company saw a strong/ improved performance during the 6 months period, with operating revenues increasing by 13% and net profits increasing by 85% compared to the previous 6 months period. The Cards & Payments segment and the Europe geography has been the key driver for growth during the quarter. We are confident that the growth momentum will continue as we ramp different segments of our business."

ICICI Bank inaugurates new branch at Bagru in Jaipur

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank, has inaugurated a new branch located at Bagru in Jaipur district of Rajasthan. The branch will offer the entire gamut of ICICI Bank’s products comprising rural and agri- related products such as Kisan Credit Card, Agri-Term loan, loans for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), tractor loans, commodity-based finance, overdraft (OD) against fixed deposits and various basic savings accounts depending on different customer profiles. The branch will also fund Self- Help Groups.

ICICI Bank has over 3,500 branches and extension counters and over 11,000 ATMs spread across the country. Rajasthan region has over 400 branches across the state, of which more than 140 are rural branches and 48 are branches in hitherto unbanked areas.

Sensex opens above 20,500; Asian markets gain

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bnak, HDFC and SBI have gained between 1-1.4%

Markets have started the trading session on a positive note tracking firm global cues. By 9:30, the Sensex was higher by 143 points at 20,558 mark and the Nifty gained by 41 points at 6,090 levels.

Asian shares rose to a five-month high on Friday as investors took heart from quickening growth in China a day after the United States sealed an 11th hour deal to break a confidence-sapping government shutdown.

The U.S. debt drama has also heightened speculation of the Federal Reserve delaying the start of its stimulus reduction plan, underpinning riskier assets but keeping the dollar pinned down to an eight-month low.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.5 percent to a five-month high, adding to a 0.6 percent rise in the previous session.

Back home, engineering and construction giant L&T will unveil its Q2 results today.

On the sectoral front, BSE Bankex has gained over 1% followed by counters like Realty, Consumer Durables, Healthcare, FMCG, PSU and Metal, all gaining by nearly 1% each. Apart from Capital Goods, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in green zone.

From the banking and financial space, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bnak, HDFC and SBI have gained between 1-1.4%.

Other notable gainers are Wipro, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s, Tata Power, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Wipro.

On the losing side, Bajaj Auto, TCS and Hero Moto have declined between 0.1-1%.

SpiceJet has surged over 5% to Rs 21.75 in early morning deals on back of heavy volumes on reports that Qatar Airways is in talks with the company to buy minority stake in Indian low cost airline.

The broader markets are performing positive in line with the benchmark- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have gained by nearly 1% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 620 shares advancing and 193 shares declining.

Institutions flee Financial Tech stock

Reliance MF, fidelity among sellers; 26 MFs, 46 Fiis exit as NSEL crisis takes a toll

Top institutional investors, which had put their faith and money on the Financial Technologies stock, have voted with their feet following the Rs 5600 crore scandal at subsidiary National Spot Exchange (NSEL). The details have come to light in the latest shareholding pattern filed by the company to the exchanges.

Total number of institutional shareholders in the transaction software provider and parent of exchanges around the world, almost halved to 81 from 156 at the end of June quarter.

At the end of June 2013, 28 mutual funds held 7.52% in the company. In the June price levels of Rs 800, the total MF exposure in 3.46 million shares would have been worth some Rs 277 crore.

Now, just two local institutions holding less than 1600 shares. At today's price these shares will be worth around  Rs 2.6 lakh.

Reliance growth fund which held 4.06% and Birla Sunlife frontline equity which held 1.05% have been major sellers this quarter. Both names do not figure in the names of investors holding 1% or more.

Among the foreign institutions Acacia Partners, Acacia institutional partners and Fidelity 's Mauritius based fund are sellers. the number of foreign institutions with exposure to the stock fell from 113 to 67. Their holding fell to 17.35% from 24.22%

Blackstone, which held 7.02% and Citiventures' funds are among the few institutions which have stayed put, despite the 90% crash in prices since last Diwali.

One institution that has taken a contra bet by buying into FT is Government Pension Fund Global which has popped into the large investors list with a stake of 2.79%.

The other group of investors who have bought into this selling spree is the small investor holding less than Rs 1 lakh worth of stock. The number of such investors went up by 60% to 72564. Some 27224 retail investors entered the stock during the quarter more than doubling their combined holding to 17.8%.

There was no change in the promoter group shareholding with 45.6%.

With the stock slated to go out of the Futures and options from November 1, its prospects look bleak, say analysts.   

Magnum gets board nod to set up Solar Plant at Chennai

Magnum has received an approval for setting up of Solar Plant at Chennai. The board of director of the company at its meeting held on October 17, 2013 has approved for the same. The board also approved for increase in borrowing powers of the company under Companies Act 2013.

Magnum is engaged in providing software and share transfer services. The company has business interests in software development, marketing and support services for government entities.

Tata Motors expands its product portfolio in South Africa

Tata Motors, the country’s leading auto major has expanded its products portfolio in South Africa. The company has launched the versatile, Tata ARIA, a Crossover for South Africa and unveiled the Tata Prima KL3TXF 6X4 Truck Tractor and the Tata Ultra 812 Truck, at the Johannesburg International Motor Show 2013.

The recently launched new generation bakkie, Tata Xenon XT was also on display along with the Tata Prima Tractor, Tata Prima Box-Tipper, Tata Super ACE in Hall 5 and the Tata Vista D90, the Tata Manza Club Class and the Tata Storme in Hall 7, respectively.

The company also displayed, for the first time at the Johannesburg International Motor Show a wide range of other passenger vehicles, laden with latest technologies delivering better comfort, convenience, performance. These include the latest SUV offering, the Tata Storme, as well as the latest in its current range of hatchbacks and sedans, the Tata Vista D90 and the Tata Manza Club Class. Tata Motors will launch these models in South Africa during the course of 2014.

e-KYC set to benefit banking, financial services sectors

With e-KYC you can actually do an online account opening in a bank which will be much more simpler, says Sumant Kathpalia, head, consumer banking, IndusInd Bank

The soon-to-be-launched electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) process, based on Aadhaar or unique identification number, would be a boon for the banking and financial services sector.

Pilot studies on e-KYC are underway. Based on the results of these studies, a launch is expected by December, say facilitators such as National Payments Corporation of India, Visa and MasterCard.

These organisations would act as a bridge between banks and financial service companies and the Unique Identification Authority of India.

“With e-KYC, you can actually do an online account opening in a bank, which will be much simpler. A lot of people in rural areas do not have the documents which we require for KYC. This will be a good instrument to get new accounts opened, especially in rural and un-banked areas,” said Sumant Kathpalia, head (consumer banking), IndusInd Bank. “This initiative will help banks like us to expand in rural and un-banked areas, along with our expansion in metros,” he added.

ADVANTAGE E-KYC

Under the electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) process, customers can open a bank account online based on just their Aadhar card While the physical KYC process takes five-seven working days, the time would be reduced to three days in the case of e-KYC Using this process will also mean less documentation for insurance companies and customers

In its physical form, the KYC process is completed by banks in five-seven working days. “Through e-KYC, the time taken would be reduced to three days and this way, a bank can save the time, money and manpower required for the verification process. Adoption of e-KYC is very important by banks, as well as insurance companies and fund houses. e-KYC will be a very cost-effective move for us,” said a senior Central Bank of India official.

The insurance industry would also stand to gain. K G Krishnamoorthy Rao, managing director and chief executive of Future Generali India Insurance, said, “This will lead to less documentation for insurance companies and customers. Further, all verifications can be done online, which will ease the overall processing.”

Asian shares tick up to near five-month peak

The US Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record high overnight

The dollar languished near an eight-month low versus the euro on Friday as investors counted the costs of a two-week US government shutdown, with markets now seeking clues to when the Federal Reserve would begin reducing its stimulus programme.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2% to a near five-month high, adding to a 0.6% rise in the previous session.

The US Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record high overnight. US S&P E-mini futures added 0.2% in Asian trade on Friday, indicating further rise when the Wall Street opens later in the day.

US Democrats and Republicans reached an 11th-hour agreement on Wednesday to break an impasse, pulling the world's largest economy from the brink of an historic debt default as the deal funds the government until January 15 and raises the borrowing limit through to February 7.

Analysts said economic weakness resulting from the 16-day shutdown and uncertainty over the next round of budget and debt negotiations may keep the Fed from withdrawing monetary stimulus at least until a few months into next year.

A simple estimate suggested the direct and indirect impact of the shutdown would weigh on the annualised fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth by a 0.4% point, Morgan Stanley said.

In September, the Fed stunned markets by opting to delay trimming its $85 billion-a-month bond purchases. Stimulus tapering expectations have now been pushed down to December.

"The US dollar is the worst performing currency as attention shifts from the US debt debacle to incoming Fed rhetoric, and bond markets may be leading the way," said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX.

"The US Treasury yield curve continues to flatten, which typically occurs when either slower economic growth is expected and/or additional monetary easing is forecasted," he added.

Yields on benchmark 10-year US Treasuries hit a two-week low on Thursday at 2.581%. They were quoted at 2.601% in the Asian session.

Wounded Dollar

The dollar held steady at 97.98 yen after shedding 0.8% against the Japanese currency overnight to log its biggest one-day percentage drop in a month.

As the yen firmed, Tokyo's Nikkei share average slipped 0.3%, underperforming regional markets.

"The bias now is for the whole Fed cycle to be re-repriced towards a later exit and slower tightening," analysts at Societe Generale wrote in a note. "The bias is thus for short-term US dollar forward rates...to go even lower. This will do the US dollar no favours in the near term."

The greenback also lost more than 1% against the euro on Thursday. The dollar was steady near an eight-month low at $1.36675 to the euro in early Asian trade on Friday.

Against a basket of major currencies, the dollar ticked up 0.1%, stabilising after hitting an eight-month trough on Thursday.

"The Fed's taper decision will ultimately be tied to the economic data - which have been hard to come by since the government shutdown," analysts at Barclays Capital wrote in a note.

In the coming week, investors will get a slew of US economic data that had been delayed by the shutdown.

All eyes will be on the crucial nonfarm payrolls report next Tuesday. The report was originally scheduled for release on October 4.

Ahead of that, global financial markets will focus on China's GDP figures for July-September, due out at later on Friday. The world's second-largest economy probably grew at its fastest pace in that three-month period as firmer foreign and domestic demand lifted factory production and retail sales.

Among commodities, gold took a breather after rallying almost 3% overnight - its biggest one-day rise in a month - as the dollar weakened. It was down 0.2% at about $1,316.5 an ounce, though not far from a one-week high reached on Thursday.

US crude prices held above $100 a barrel, having fallen to their lowest level in more than three months in the previous session as stockpiles in oil hub Cushing began to reverse a months-long decline, and as signs of progress in talks over Iran's nuclear programme also pressured prices.