The textile industry on Wednesday called for regionally competitive interest rates, urging the State Bank of Pakistan, which is announcing its key policy rate on Friday, to bring discount rate down to 8 per cent to counter weak growth and revive fresh, private investment in the economy to create jobs. The manufacturers argued that only textile sector has borrowed more than Rs41 billion from banking sector to make investment, acquiring latest machinery for the growth of industry during last six months due to hefty cut of 3 per cent in policy rate from 13.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent in

By Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - The VIX, Wall Street's favorite measure of investor anxiety, fell on Monday to levels not seen since April 2007, extending a decline that suggests markets will stay calm. The CBOE Volatility Index dropped 7.2 percent to 11.69, reaching a level not seen since April 2007 as U.S. stocks have extended gains, putting the broader S&P 500 less than 1 percent from an all-time closing record high.

* FTSE 100 up 0.98 percent * Thursday's steep fall seen offering buying opportunity * Implied volatility eases from 2-week highs By Toni Vorobyova LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Britain's blue chip shares rebounded on Friday, with investors using the previous session's sharp sell-off to dip their toes back into the market at cheaper levels and technical charts offering some support.

LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index fell on Thursday on fears the U.S. Federal Reserve could prematurely wind down its asset purchase programme, a strong contributor to the recent equity market rally. The FTSE 100 was down 35.06 points, or 0.6 percent, at 6,360.31 by 0806 GMT, having hit a new five-year closing peak of 6,395.37 on Wednesday, led lower by mining stocks and banks.