Aat better way to launch with 4 billion deal in the generic drugs industry. John is here with the details. We are talking about ranbaxy. Thats right. Clearly, shares were rising in that region, but sun pharma agreed to by ranbaxy at 4. 1 billion. Here,sting, the movement the Japanese Company owning a large part of ranbaxy. It is a done deal essentially . Yes. In 2008, the Company Bought ranbaxy for for for 1 billion. With u. S. Ssues authorities. It has been a problem child. Ranbaxy, for plans that didnt pass muster with the u. S. Authorities. The fda, the food and Drug Administration in the states, ranbaxy had to recall some batches of its generic cholesterollowering drugs. That is a concern clearly. It is not good for the image. , and indian company, is agreeing to by ranbaxy. Ranbaxy shares soared last week 26 . Encouraging for earnings. It will become the fifth biggest speciality generic drug company in the world. They must deal with this u. S. Issue. That is a concern. Japans thirdbiggest drug company they bought it back in november 2008. It give them a foothold in the generic space. There have to be some alarm bells with ranbaxy shares going up 8 on friday. How did that happen . You dont have to answer that, of course i will try. It is a great deal. It is a great price. They need to deal with the u. S. , and obviously, sun pharma can do with that. If they can deal with it head on, it will be good. They have a new partner or iici shares are rising, as well. You also have ranbaxy shares rising 25 last week, all very encouraging. We will see how sun pharma does when the trading day gets underway. And how they deal with the u. S. Authorities. Thanks a lot for that, john dawson. A quick look on prospects for the Indian Trading day. At the country is headed to the polls this morning. Lets have a look at how things are bearing this morning. No changes after the nearly two thirds of 1 fall we saw friday. It is the worlds biggest democracy, and it is a mammoth task in selecting a new government. We look at the faces behind it, the battle for power in a moment in on, but lets check the indian stock markets. They have been among the best performers in the world this year. Lets see what kind of reception we can expect from the Financial Markets and what Financial Markets have been telling us as far. Here is david. It is a vote of confidence clearly ahead of the crucial vote that begins today in india. How much money has been funneled into Financial Markets in india from Foreign Investors, just from the start of the year, for stocks, to add to what you showed earlier, we are looking at 4. 9 billion as far as the net stock inflows are concerned. That is more than any emergingmarket that we track at bloomberg. We have the sensex and nifty outperforming most of the other indices this year here in asia with the exception of a few in southeast asia. It has also driven up the value of the currency. If you are looking at dollarrupee, a twoyear chart. The peak when things appear to be getting out of hand. Can the Bank Central Bank bring confidence back into the markets . Yes, they have raised rates. We are at 59. 9. We are below the 60 handle. If you look at the technical the 50daywe show moving average, it is now trading below the 200day. You have this crucial technical cross. Perhaps, does it signal a change in the dollarrupee . Something to watch out for certainly. We talked about stocks, the currency. What about the bond markets . We have seen a substantial amount of money flow into fixed income in india. Last illion, the checked, net inflows into fixed income, but yields, as you can see here, on Indian Government bonds remain stubbornly high. Spread looking at the between japan, u. S. , australia, indonesia, and india. Japan, for example, the 10 year bond yields you about we will get to that in a moment for india, we are at about 9 , which shows you over the past month, we have seen 360 million being pulled out. We are still in positive terrain, but more recent moves have showed some concern whether or not perhaps the central bank has an inflation the inflation problem in check. That is reflected in the yields of these government bonds, over 9 , still quite high for these indian and 10 years these indian tenyears. Zed is here with the candidates, the protagonists, the issues. When we say a mammoth task, we say that because it doesnt get bigger than this. It doesnt. We are talking about the population of the u. S. , the population of europe combined voting in this and more. 850 Million People. I have prepared some key graphics with the breakdown of the key issues. We have inflation running out of control, or at least it did late last year. That has had an impact. Social issues we will begin live in 70 of voters rural areas in india. They are grappling with the fastest inflation rate in asia. In fact, november Consumer Prices topped 11 . This is underscored by some of the slowest growth we have seen in the country in some time. Laster, hitting a decade low of 4. 4 . The currency has recovered. It is up about 3. 2 over the past quarter. It has strengthened. Have theirness, they concerns, as well. Concerns about regulation, onerous regulations and tax laws, an unclear judicial perceivedso discrimination of foreign firms, and crumbling infrastructure. Add it all up, and we look at the candidates, the front hesr, Narendra Modi, considered to be business friendly. If you listen to what jim oneil, the former Goldman Sachs manager, the father of the term, weerm brics interviewed him over the weekend. Hear his thoughts. In indias case, what they have missed is decisive leadership. Leading amodi coalition government, i would look for quite a lot Better Things out of india at least. L and the rest of the Investment Community watching. It is a big deal. That is one of the protagonists, Narendra Modi. Also the other one in the right the out of the gun gandhi dynasty. 43 years old. He represents the congress party, the Prime Ministers party. It has suffered a defection of voters, this because of corruption issues, grafts. He is pledging 8 gdp growth. That is a tall order. It is also promising expanded access for the poor to health but, affordable housing, indeed he must overcome the Congress Partys reputation for scandal. The opposition, as you pointed years olddra modi, 63 a controversial figure when it comes to a secular state given some of the things he has been accused of in gujarat. In 2002, and it alienated a large fortune of the Muslim Population in india. Bjp, the, the Opposition Party is a hindu nationalist party. He is charismatic, but he is also considered divisive. He is campaigning on a probusiness platform. Chief minister in gujarat, he attracted the likes of ford motor company, for example. He wants a minimum government, maximum governance. That is his platform. We will see whether he is able to amass a coalition. Polls so far put him ahead in the standings, but at this stage, he may fall short of a majority. Thank you very much indeed. Lets turn now to some of the other stories were following for you today. Chinas biggest Microblogging Service has valued itself at a fraction of rival twitter as it prepares for a share cell. Aboutis hoping to raise 380 million, according to a filing in new york. Oftter has a market value 24 billion. The australian gas lobby is calling on the government to ay, some cooks earning more than 300,000. Some welders, more than 400,000. 50 wages have risen nearly over the last six years. Workers groups say pay has not kept pace with Revenue Growth in the industry itself. Chinaricultural bank of the bank circulated a letter saying that price cuts of sing projects it outlined no specific measures. Bute got to take a break, asian shares are dropping back for the first time in eight sessions after that slightly poorer than anticipated u. S. Jobs data. We will be having a look at where markets are perhaps headed. Returns in three. Eight straight stations of equities. Japanese shares in particular driving the overall region index down. I guess the question weve got to be asking, is the party over for the time being . Where do you put your money if we see more weakness . Is it time to reverse the trend and get back into the developed markets as the trade has been all year . Yet, i think that the jobs report we had out from the u. S. On friday was pretty much in line with expectations, although there had been some rumors suggesting a much stronger number. Actually, therefore, unsightly surprise in the way in which markets reacted somewhat negatively, because actually the figure that came out on friday was more of an indicator that the fed will be maintaining its current policies, which are generally market friendly. You are talking about this number. All of this chapter that there was going to be a blowout number. We didnt get it. A blowout number would mean hikes coming sooner than expected, but the other side is, it would show the economy has some firm footing now there. Yeah, i think what we have seen is a continuation of what weve been seeing for the last six months or so, which is slow but steady recovery, but not Strong Enough to encourage the Federal Reserve to tighten the material he materially. So, generally, quite positive. I think it looks reasonably positive for emerging markets, which, as we know, have been quite significant underperformers for the past 14 months. Ok. That leads me to the question, what about the eurozone right now and noises coming out of the ecb . Some sort screaming of valley in the Industry Groups you look at. Atyes, we tend to look broader markets rather than necessarily specific sectors, but i think the data we are getting out from europe is still very supportive of markets generally. I wouldnt be surprised to see the ecb getting a little bit more activist in helping to promote a little bit more inflation than has been c urrently the case. If we are looking at and easing back on qe in the u. S. And u. K. , that is certainly not the case in continental europe, and i think that remains pretty positive for markets generally. Ok, lets talk about emerging markets. A look at what is going on in this part of the world. If we have a blowout and china when it comes to more defaults, what is the likely impact on the rest of the region . Think it would obviously be negative, but i hasten to stress that that is not what we are expecting. I think that there are increasing signs that the sent at the Central Government level that they feel perhaps tightening has gone as far as they want it to. The next major move is probably going to be and easing back on some of the restrictions that they have been in fomenting implementing. That would be a little bit more supportive, and indeed, we have also begun to see the market gradually beginning to pick itself up off the floor. Again, a big performance differential has opened up between china and not only the rest of asia but also relative to developed markets. It is beginning to look more attractive than it has for a while. I think it is early days, but we are certainly looking at that market quite closely. I keep going on about this, but we keep on having people valuation basis china looks cheap, but it doesnt do anything when it comes to equity markets. There has to be a catalyst for there to be a change in peoples mentality more than anything else. Yes, but youve also got to look at the fact that the index is not representative of what is going on inside the chinese economy. The index is very heavily overrepresented by banks and Property Companies. Those have struggled in the face of the tightening from the chinese government, but there isnt an awful lot going on elsewhere in the chinese economy. Youve only got to look at the continuing strength of a lot of consumerfocused names, which have continued to do quite well. We are anticipating that that is going to continue, but interestingly, it may well be eventually the return of interest in banks and Property Companies that prompts a recovery in the overall index. People get spooked with geopolitical events normally when it comes to emerging markets, and certainly we have had one in ukraine. Are we in the endgame there now . Is it going to be the status quote, crimea remains with russia, and we have the status quo in Eastern Ukraine . Have the tail risks of the ukraine crisis largely gone . I think it is very difficult to say. You would have to look deeply into Vladimir Putins eyes to answer that particular question. Who knows . We seem to have gotten a little bit more tension that has sprung up in Eastern Ukraine over the weekend. I doubt that it is going to spiral further out of control, but we have been surprised on a couple of occasions by this crisis over the last month or two. Whos to say that we wont get more out of that . Nonetheless, i think there seems to be a willingness to try and put a fence around that particular issue and to focus on broader economic issues, particularly within europe itself. Said thatnny you about looking into his eyes. I think george w. Bush looked deep into Vladimir Putins eyes and liked what he saw many years ago. What about his aspirations looking eastward rather than westward . I guess it is too early to tell what will happen on that front. Yes, i think it is. Manynk there are some Different Things that are going on with regards to Eastern Europe at present, not least of which is the fact youve got a newly reinvigorated russian military, which is flexing its benefiting from a significant increase in expenditure on the military over the past decade or so. When we look at that in the overall context, i think it is something to be aware of and something to be guarded about but not to get overly panicked about at this particular stage. Week. Ve, have a great joining us from singapore. Still to come, what can we expect from tomorrows decision out of japan . The Foreign Exchange headlines are coming up after this very short break. Im david inglis in hong kong. It is monday, april 7. These are your fx headlines. Begin in circular twoday policy meeting this monday. Most economists see the doj governor kuroda holding off from announcing any new policy stimulus tomorrow, but a growing number see the boj actually doubling their etf purchases with july as the most favored as far as timing is concerned that policy move. Elections in the Worlds Largest democracy begin today, and the indian election takes place over the next five weeks. Vote,of this crucial Foreign Investors have already voiced their vote of confidence, funneling over 10 billion into indias Financial Markets since the start of this year. , theoaden this theme out route and emergingmarket currencies is becoming more than a family a fitting memory. A fading memory. While you do have emergingmarket etfs billion in the first three days of april. If you take a look at the worstperforming currencies for the month of january, we do see that they have recovered a lot of their lost ground. Here is the lira. That is a recovery so far. We are looking at a six month chart. If you take a look at the rialto the central bank has hiked rates repeatedly there. We also see that struck that has strengthened quite sharply from the weak point earlier this year. If we look back at asias best performing and currencies, the rupiah, there is the recovery. I mentioned india. Here we go. We are just about 60 to the dollar at this point. We fell below the 60 handle a little bit earlier, but that is what we have so far. Those are the stories for your forex market this morning. Trading. Move to other andkly looking at japan south korea, as well. 1. 2 down,o 25, driving down the regional benchmark index. I, fallenbe kosp back as well. The top 50 in new zealand under some pressure, too. Up next, democracy on a record scale. The worlds biggest election is getting underway in india. We will be heading to mumbai after the break. Mmf exercise in democracy. The indian election gets underway. The best flu yet. Ships and planes hunt three electronic pings in the indian ocean. Cracking down on access weight. Excess weight. Another health issue facing china. Lets find out what is happening index as the asiapacific goes overall. We have some weakness, of course, taking place as far as japan goes. What is happening on the mckay is what i mean on the nikkei is waiting on the broader markets today. Decline oneeing a the msci asiapacific, snapping that eightday winning streak and we are off a twomonth high. Check out the msci, down by about 4 10 of 1 . Japan contribute into the big declines, 1. 3 . Check out the hang seng, the composite. We will be watching these closely today. Also, of course, india as the election gets underway, we will be taking you there in a few minutes. The chaos of time malaysia, starting with a modest advance. We are seeing the philippines composite modestly lower. In australia, checking the asx 200. We have libyan rebels opening two parts. That has brought down the price of brent crude, having an impact on the commodities markets. Lets take a look at that. It is impacting these commodity producers across the asiapacific today. This is what we have in terms of brent crude. 105 dollars a barrel. Down about three quarters of 1 today. Also falling. Nymex crude, falling into place, down around 100 per barrel. Gold is modestly higher. We will keep a watch on this. We have had a lot of volatility in currencies today. At the yen right now, pretty much unchanged, but we have seen some significant moves ahead of that bank of japan meeting. We do expect reports on Monetary