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Update: Yesterday's open positions on short side were covered at Nifty 4910.

Yesterday, Nifty had tried to rally but couldn't sustain at 5050 levels and give up some gains. We recommended to short Nifty at 5050 levels and book partial profit at 4960 levels. See here.

Maintaining his high standards and living up to his own expectations still gives Sachin Tendulkar sleepless nights, and it is this restlessness that has brought the best out of him, revealed the Indian maestro in an interview published in the Timemagazine. Tendulkar is on the cover for the editions in the Indian subcontinent, Singapore and Australia and New Zealand.

Sachin Tendulkar to appear on TIME magazine cover page

Startek Inc

Tip :Stock jumped more than 40% intraday and may see more upside.

Highlights

* Garments, gems and jewellery exports shrink, hits growth

* Gold, jewellery imports plummet as demand slows

* Trade sec says "lucky" if 2012/13 exports grow 10-15 pct y/y

* Trade deficit may be slightly lower in 2012/13 - Trade sec (Adds quotes, details)

India's exports picked up in April after falling in March but only grew 3.2 percent from a year earlier and garment, gems and jewellery shipments shrank, highlighting the challenge facing Asia's third-biggest economy in the face of weak global demand.

India's foreign trade has slowed sharply from levels a year ago when exports jumped nearly 32 percent in April from a year earlier, and the country's trade secretary said on Thursday that the country would be "lucky" to achieve 10-15 percent export growth this fiscal year.

Imports were also surprisingly weak in April, rising just 3.8 percent from a year earlier, according to provisional data released on Thursday, reflecting weakening domestic demand and cooling after a 24.3 percent jump in March.

"We will be lucky if we can achieve 10-15 percent growth in exports this year," Rahul Khullar told a press conference. Exports rose 21 percent in 2011/12.

In March, exports fell for the first time in four months, dropping 5.7 percent year-on-year.

Besides a slowdown in exports, the economy is seeing a decline in capital inflows, which is putting pressure on the central bank to support the rupee - which has lost nearly 8 percent against the dollar since March.

On Thursday the Reserve Bank of India took further measures to prop up the battered currency, requiring exporters to sell half the foreign currency in their accounts.

Khullar said a falling rupee would affect imports in the next two to three months.

Analysts said amid a policy gridlock and global economic uncertainty, the central bank would find it tough to support the rupee.

GOLD IMPORTS PLUNGE


The country's trade deficit was $13.4 billion in April, Khullar said, as exports totalled $24.5 billion and imports amounted to $37.9 billion. The deficit was down slightly from $13.9 billion in March.

"It (the RBI) is battling a combination of an unsustainably large current account deficit of around 4 percent of GDP, weak/inadequate capital inflows and a government that is doing less of what it should do and more of what it should not do," said Rajeev Malik, a senior economist at CLSA in Singapore.

India's garment exports fell 20.4 percent in April from a year earlier, while gems and jewellery exports slumped 25.7 percent.

Imports of gold and silver declined by nearly a third to $3.1 billion in April, from $4.7 billion a year ago, as higher gold prices and an increase in import duties crimped local demand.

Oil imports grew 7 percent in April to $13.9 billion, while coal imports grew 5.5 percent to $1.5 billion from a year ago, Khullar said.

The trade deficit could narrow slightly in the current fiscal year which ends in March, from nearly $185 billion in 2011/12, assuming gold imports decline by at least 20 percent this year and there are no oil price shocks, Khullar said.

Infospace Inc

Stock Markets are on artificial life line of "QE3 hope" and if markets continue to move higher and makes new high, without QE3 in second half will lead to a crash like 1987 according to comments from Mark Faber. Read Below

U.S. stocks may plunge in the second half of the year “like in 1987” if the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbs without further stimulus from the Federal Reserve, said Marc Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report.

“I think the market will have difficulties to move up strongly unless we have a massive QE3,” Faber told Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” from Zurich today, referring to a third round of large-scale asset purchases by the Federal Reserve. “If it moves and makes a high above 1,422, the second half of the year could witness a crash, like in 1987.”

May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, talks about U.S. stocks and economy. Faber, speaking with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses his view on the euro and the euro zone. (Source: Bloomberg)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 23 percent on Oct. 19, 1987 in the biggest crash since 1914, triggering sharp losses in stock-market values around the world. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) plummeted 20 percent.

“If the market makes a new high, it will be a new high with very few stocks pushing up and the majority of stocks having already rolled over,” Faber said. “The earnings outlook is not particularly good because most economies in the world are slowing down.”

Faber said a third round of quantitative easing would “definitely occur” if the S&P 500 dropped another 100 to 150 points. If it bounces back to 1,400, he said, the Fed will probably wait to see how the economy develops.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 1,360.59 at 10:36 a.m. in New York as U.S. initial jobless claims fell last week to a one- month low. The gauge has dropped 4.1 percent from a four-year high on April 2 after some economic reports missed forecasts.

Equity Gains

Faber had said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on March 9, 2009, that it was “very difficult to see a scenario where you wouldn’t make any money” owning stocks over the following 10 years, while also warning the S&P 500 might lose 26 percent before the bear market ended.

The benchmark gauge for American equities began its biggest advance in five decades that day, climbing from 676.53 to 1,295.02 on Jan. 18, 2011.

In March 2007, he had said the S&P 500 was more likely to fall than rise because the threats of faster inflation and slower growth persisted. The S&P 500 then climbed 10 percent to a record 1,565.15 seven months later, and ended the year up 3.5 percent.