Rosneft sets offer price of $7.55 per share
Moscow: Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft has set an offer price of $7.55 per share for its General Depository Receipt for its initial public offering, the company said in a news release. This is near the upper limit in the price range of $5.85-$7.85 per share the company announced earlier. Funds raised at the offering will total $10.4 billion, making it fifth largest IPO in the world and the largest in Russia.

Rosneftegaz, holds 100 per cent of Rosneft's shares and will float 1,126,357,616 shares and GDRs totaling $8.5 billion. Rosneft will sell a further 253,874,997 shares in the form of GDRs totaling $1.9 billion Rosneft said its capitalization after the IPO would stand at $79.8 billion.

The company's capitalization could rise to $80.2 billion if the leading international IPO coordinators and book-runners - ABN AMRO Rothschild, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, JPMorgan Securities Ltd., and Morgan Stanley & Co - choose to realize an additional share option.

The offer price would allow Rosneftegaz to pay off about $7.5 billion of a syndicated debt the company received in September 2005 to acquire a 10.74 per cent stake in energy giant Gazprom, pay income tax and banks' commission fees. Rosneft also plans to pay its $11.14 billion debt for acquiring Yuganskneftegaz, the core production unit of embattled oil company Yukos in December 2004, invest in modernization and other areas of its activity.

Rosneft shares have been listed on Russia's RTS and MICEX trading floors and GDRs on the London Stock Exchange. Trading in London is expected to start July 19.
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Japan introduces 0.25 per cent interest rate structure
The Bank of Japan has introduced a 0.25 per cent interest rate structure ending a 6-years experiment 0 per cent interest rate. Officials said they were confident Japan's ten-year struggle with deflation was over, and hinted that further rate rises were likely.

"Today's decision will contribute to ensuring price stability and achieving sustainable growth in the medium to long term," the BoJ said, after its unanimous decision. Recent figures have showed that Japan's economy had turned the corner. Output has grown in each of the past five quarters, while unemployment has fallen to an eight-year low of 4 per cent and the government recently upgraded its annual growth forecast for the current year to more than 2 per cent.

Interest rates have been rising across the industrialised world, with the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both acting in recent months to contain inflationary pressures.

Analysts welcomed the move, arguing that economic conditions were a lot more favourable than in 2000.

Japan's monetary policy of zero interest was introduced in March 2001 to try to revive an economy in recession since the early 1990s.
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Crude oil zooms, stocks fall
New York: Oil touched a record high of above $78 a barrel on Friday as fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon escalated.

U.S. stocks fell for a third consecutive session as investors shifted into safer assets.

Gold prices also rise to a seven-week high at $669 an ounce as investors sought safer investments amid the Mideast turmoil. The dollar rose against the major currencies, including the yen after The Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time in six years but signaled it was in no rush to tighten policy further.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 106.94 points, or 0.99 percent, to end at 10,739.35. The Dow ended the week down 3.2 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 6.09 points, or 0.49 percent, to finish at 1,236.20, down 2.3 percent on the week. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 16.76 points, or 0.82 percent, to close at 2,037.75, down 4.4 percent for the week.

A disappointing forecast for third-quarter earnings from General Electric Co also weighed on the stock market. GE stock fell to $32.06, the lowest level in nearly two years, and closed at $32.11, down 1.7 percent, or 56 cents. Data showing U.S. retail sales slipped 0.1 percent in June and a decline in the University of Michigan's preliminary reading on consumer sentiment for July trimmed expectations for an August interest-rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
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