The Dow crossed 13,000 on Tuesday for the first time since May 2008, but ended at 12,965.69, up by 15.82

Legal authorities said that a High Court judge in England has approved the use of Facebook to serve legal claims.

The meeting this Thursday comes days after Apple touched a new lifetime high of $526.29.

The company is eyeing annual revenue of Rs 2,500 crore in the first phase of full production.

"Fitch Ratings has downgraded Dhanlaxmi Bank and its Rs 17-crore subordinated debt to long-term BBB-(ind) from BBB(ind) and simultaneously put them on Rating Watch Negative (RWN)," the agency said.

Telenor also sought damages from Unitech accusing it of "fraud and misrepresentation" of facts based on which it had invested over Rs 6,000 crore in the joint venture with the real estate firm.

Oil prices climbed after debt-laden Greece secured a huge bailout and as traders kept a close watch over Iran

Asian markets traded flat to negative on Wednesday tracking a similar trend in US markets overnight.

Corporate Affairs minister Veerappa Moily came out in support of Vijay Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines on Tuesday. He said that Mallya should work out a strategy acceptable to the finance ministry. "Of course, he (Vijay Mallya) has met me because he hails from Karnataka... That (Kingfisher) has to be saved," he told reporters on Tuesday.

The EGoM is likely to decide on the timing of the issue as well as the base or reserve price for the auction.

The board has approved the raising of capital by issue of up to 7 crore fresh equity shares to Government of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) or to any other investors, as permitted on preferential basis.

The PSL re-examining committee also came up with a slew of other recommendations such as doing away with the distinction between direct and indirect lending to the farm sector, whose total target has been retained at 18 per cent for commercial banks.

"Silver is currently ruling at Rs 57,000 per kg, is likely to go up further and might go up to Rs 1 lakh per kg this year due to the global economic crisis," Bombay Bullion Association (BBA) President Prithviraj Kothari said.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said it is offering to buy the Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba.com that it doesn't already own for 13.50 Hong Kong dollars a share, at a cost of up to HK$19.6 billion ($2.5 billion).

The 13,000 level is a psychological milepost, but in a market built on perception, it could influence more cautious investors to pump more money back into the stock market, analysts said.

"Banks will have to ensure that they maintain the required Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) at all times starting from January 2015 and January 2018, respectively," the Reserve Bank said in the draft guidelines.

"This continuing global uncertainty is also affecting India...(besides) A tight monetary policy has impacted investment and consumption growth through higher cost of credit. Growth has consequently slowed," he said.