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Oil fell 3 percent on Thursday as deepening economic gloom and soaring crude inventories in the United States eclipsed geopolitical tensions that have put world supplies at risk.

The losses add to Wednesday's 12 percent drop, which marked the biggest daily percentage decline in the price of crude oil in more than seven years.

"This morning crude was trying to rally a bit, but more (economic) figures kept coming out from the U.S. and they were very bearish indeed," said Sucden trader Rob Montefusco.

U.S. crude for February delivery fell $1.30 to $41.33 a barrel by 11:47 am EST (1647 GMT) while London Brent crude fell $1.21 to $44.65.

Oil prices have dropped more than $100 a barrel since July as a global financial crisis cuts consumer and business energy demand, threatening to shrink total world oil usage for the first time in 25 years.

On Thursday, a U.S. government report showed the number of people remaining on jobless rolls last week rose to a 26-year high, even as new claims for unemployment benefits slipped. [ID:nN08526969]

Adding to the economic gloom, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which accounts for a tenth of U.S. retail spending, reported a disappointing sales performance in December and cut its earnings outlook.

Oil had taken a battering Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly report showed crude stocks up 6.7 million barrels, more than seven times the 900,000-barrel increase analysts expected.

"Brent is done going under $40, but WTI is a different animal altogether...crude stocks in the Midwest are very high because Cushing is a landlocked base with pipes that only go in one direction," Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial said.

SUPPLY RISKS

Prices had gained some support from violence in Gaza, widening natural gas supply disruptions due to a row between Russia and Ukraine, and mounting evidence of OPEC's compliance with production cuts.

Three rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Thursday, slightly wounding two people and prompting the Jewish state to respond with artillery fire, officials said.

While the conflict does not directly threaten any oil supplies, Middle East unrest can bolster prices because countries in the region pump about a third of the world's oil.

Russia and Ukraine failed to resolve a gas row at a meeting in Moscow but will continue talks to end the dispute which has choked off supplies to Europe, a senior Ukrainian gas official said on Thursday.

The dispute has cut heating to hundreds of thousands of people across the Balkans and hit supplies as far west as France and Germany as Europe faces freezing temperatures.

Signs that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are implementing the group's biggest-ever output cuts grew this week after Kuwait and Iran told customers of bigger January supply curbs.

The country's second largest software exporter, Infosys, on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of buying Satyam saying the IT major "will not touch any tainted company".

"We have no such interest in looking at buying Satyam... absolutely not... We will not touch any such tainted company that's very very clear," Infosys Founder and Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy said in an interview to a private television channel.

He said that the Satyam incident will not have an backlash on the Indian IT sector.

"Every company, certainly large companies, they have very close relationship with customers. The CEOs and senior management of the Indian industry have a close relationship with the senior management of the customer companies...

"We have a lot of transactions where we have demonstrated class, quality and integrity, so I don't think all of that will be destroyed just because of one bad apple, because there is one Satyam," the non-executive chairman of the company added.

Talking about the course of action following the Satyam fiasco, Murthy said the need of this hour for the regulators is to act decisively.

"The most important first step for regulatory authority of India is to get the bottom of this and take a swift and decisive action to bring the guilty to whatever punishment they deserve," he said.

Murthy said that the IT industry has to communicate to their investors and customers and all potential investors that Satyam is indeed an isolated case of misgovernance and must all be prepared to answer further questions so that the investors get an enhanced level of comfort.

Enthused by the assurance by the Finance Minister that the central bank would inject liquidity into the system as and when required and the concerted efforts of global central banks to tide over the current financial turmoil, the market has moved up sharply today.

Stock commentary ^Live

The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of 290 points at 10,817.68 this morning, is up with a massive gain of 707.74 points at 11,235.59 now. The Nifty is up 6.2% or 207.45 points at 3487.40.

Stock tips for investors

Bank stocks are leading the charge with the much battered ICICI Bank spearheading the rally. So sharp are the gains posted by stocks in that space that the BSE Bankex has shot up by nearly 11% today.

Stockometer

At 443, ICICI Bank is up by 22% now. State Bank of India and HDFC Bank have gained 6.15% and 9.25% respectively. IDBI Bank has vaulted 14.1% to Rs 74.10. Axis Bank is up with a handsome gain of 13.2% at Rs 625. Short-covering and better than expected quarterly numbers have contributed to the rise of Axis Bank today. Yes Bank is up with a big gain of 16.5% at Rs 83.

Top gainers

Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India are also up with strong gains.

Worst losers

Dena Bank, J&K Bank, Syndicate Bank, Indian Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and UCO Bank which are not part of the Bankex, have also recorded impressive gains today.

IT stocks have moved up sharply. Sector heavyweights Infosys Technologies (5.5%), Tata Consultancy Services (12.65%), Satyam Computer Services (8.95%) and Wipro (6.15%) have recorded big gains.

Moser Baer has zoomed 15.35% to Rs 111. Aptech is up by around 13.3%. Rolta India has gained 12.65%. Financial Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Patni Computer Services, Mphasis, Oracle Financial Services and NIIT have also moved up sharply today.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (4.1%) have moved up on strong volumes. Bharti Airtel (8.6%) and ONGC (3.15%) have also moved up and contributed significantly to the market's sharp rise today.

It was the third consecutive day live bombs and explosives were found in Surat. As panic spread in the diamond and art silk city, all schools and colleges were closed and children sent back home. Shutters of cinema halls and shopping malls were also downed. These places will remain closed on Wednesday too.

Whether the terrorists were playing a hide-and-seek game with the police or all the bombs were planted simultaneously was not clear. But the bombs were found almost one after another from day-break till evening.

Of the18 bombs, as many as 10 were found in the labour dominated Varacha Road and Katargam areas alone. In Saturday’s blasts also, the labour dominated old city areas were targeted. The bombs and the explosive-laden cars were recovered from Varacha Road or nearby areas in the city in the last two days. As if throwing a direct challenge to the police, two of the bombs were found right in front of the Labheswar police chowky and Sardarpura police stations. Two bombs were planted in the diamond market adjacent to the Varacha Road, one in the Radhakrishna textile market and two on a fly-over.

Surprisingly, unlike in Ahmedabad and most other places, the bombs were not totally concealed. Most of the bombs were “boat-shaped” and wrapped in coloured papers. They were kept at strategic points, including behind street hoardings or near garbage dumps.

The entire day the police and civic authorities repeatedly urged people to maintain peace and patience and cooperate with them.

Minister of State for Home Amit Shah also appealed to people not to panic or spread rumours.

He said the police were on maximum alert to protect the lives and property of people.

In Ahmedabad, life, by and large, was normal.

However, in one incident, panic-stricken parents rushed to a school in Chandlodiya locality to get their wards following rumour of a bomb in a near-by area.

Bomb disposal squad defuses a live bomb in Surat.

Members of the bomb squad attempt to defuse one of the unexploded bombs found in Surat.

A bomb disposal squad member defuses a live bomb in Surat.

Bomb disposal squad members attempt to defuse one of the unexploded bombs in Surat.

People look at Varacha's busy market area in Surat where several live bombs were found.

One of the live bombs found in Surat on Tuesday.

Please have a look at the images of the Victims of Ahmedabad Bomb Blast.































Read more clear news about the Ahmedabad Bomb Blast.

Read about the group that claims responsibility for the Blast.

The manifesto e-mailed to the media minutes before Saturday’s serial bombings, an organisation calling itself the “Indian Mujahideen” has claimed responsibility for the Ahmedabad attacks.

Titled “The Rise of Jihad”, the manifesto says the bombings were carried out to avenge the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat. “In the light of the injustice and wrongs on the Muslims of Gujarat,” it says, “we advance our jihad and call all our brethren under it to unite and answer these irresolute kafireen [infidels] of India.”

It warns of future attacks, complaining that the police “disturbed us by arresting, imprisoning, and torturing our brothers in the name of SIMI [Students Islamic Movement of India].”

In a similar document sent minutes before May’s serial bomb strikes in Jaipur, the IM had said such bombings were intended “to clearly give our message to Kuffar-e-Hind [the infidels of India] that if Islam and Muslims in this country are not safe then the light of your safety will also go off very soon.”

Near-identical language had been earlier used by the IM in a document e-mailed to television stations minutes before the bombing of three trial-court buildings in Uttar Pradesh last year. In its e-mail, the IM said it was retaliating against “wounds given by the idol worshipers of India.”

Investigators belive the IM is a loose coalition of elements from the Students Islamic Movement of India, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami.

Police were able to determine that the explosive used in the Uttar Pradesh bombings was supplied by a Jammu and Kashmir-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami unit. Jaunpur-based SIMI activist Mohammad Khalid Mujahid and Azamgarh Unani doctor Mohammad Tariq were held for their alleged role in planning two of the three court bombings, However, the members of the third cell, who are also thought to have sent out the e-mail, remain untraced.

While military-grade plastic explosive was used in Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh, the bombs used in Ahmedabad appear to have been constructed with ammonium nitrate, a widely-available chemical with a range of industrial applications. Police sources said the bombs resembled the devices used in Bangalore on Friday.

Read more clear news about the Ahmedabad Bomb Blast.

Please have a look at the Images of the Victims of Ahmedabad Bomb Blast

A day after eight blasts hit Bangalore in an attack police downplayed given that only one person was killed, terror struck Ahmedabad this evening with an unprecedented frequency.



At least 16 explosions went off shortly after 6:30 p.m. in several crowded neighborhoods in the western city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat State, the chief minister, Narendra Modi, told reporters late Saturday. Mr. Modi said 88 people were wounded.

Forty people were killed and over 100 injured(some sources said) when serial blasts struck different parts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s major commercial nerve centre, on Saturday evening. The State capital was plunged into chaos for hours after the terror attacks.

As the number of the dead and injured kept rising, police could not confirm the final tally till late in the evening. Chief Minister Narendra Modi, after an emergency Cabinet meeting, said 29 people died and over 100 were injured. Both he and Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel, who visited some of the affected areas, did not rule out the possibility of the casualties going up. For, the condition of many of the injured was critical.

Unconfirmed reports said the worst attack occurred near the trauma centre of the government civil hospital, where at least 25 people, including two doctors, were killed. Some eyewitness accounts claimed that it was a “human bomb” attack. The body was said to have been shattered but the incident was not confirmed by the police, who put the casualties in the hospital attack at not fewer than six.

The reports pieced together by the police indicated 17 blasts in 10 different areas and all, except the minority-dominated Sarkhej and Juhapura, were in the labour-dominated eastern parts of the old city. Most of the blasts occurred in crowded and congested areas during peak evening hour traffic.

About 40 minutes after the first round of blasts, bombs went off near the trauma centre of the civil hospital and the main portico of the L.G. General Hospital in Maninagar, even as the injured were being rushed to the hospitals.

Please have a look at the Images of the Victims of Ahmedabad Bomb Blast