UPDATE 1-Egypt mulls U.S. dollar "century bonds" -minister

* Bonds would be denominated in dollars

* Would follow 30-year Eurobonds sold in April

By Patrick Werr

CAIRO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Egypt is considering offers from international investment banks to launch 100-year "century bonds" that would help demonstrate appetite for longer-term Egyptian debt, the finance minister said on Wednesday.

Egypt has relied mainly on domestic debt to finance its budget deficit, which was equivalent to 8.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the financial year to end-June, but has occasionally dipped into international markets.

"I don't need the money, but we are thinking about it," Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali told Reuters by telephone.

He added that a number of investment banks had offered to manage the bond issue, which would be denominated in U.S. dollars.

The government has gradually been lengthening the maturity profile of its international debt, and in April sold $1.5 billion in Eurobonds with maturities of 10 and 30 years.

"Before, we couldn't issue a five-year note. In 2004, we tested the market and they said 'forget it'. Then we got a 10-year note, then a 30-year note," Boutros-Ghali said.

Egypt's reform-minded government has been working to reduce the country's budget deficit since it came into office in 2004, but was set back by the 2008 global economic crisis which prompted it to adopt a series of economic stimulus packages.

"We have a very careful borrowing policy that the government has set out," Boutros-Ghali said.

Egypt's economy, which was spared the worst of the global economic crisis that began in mid-2008, was buoyed last year by a resurgent tourism industry and Suez Canal receipts, along with resilient construction and gas exports. [ID:nLDE66J1R9] (Editing by Catherine Evans)

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Rupee gains 0.10% against USD to 44.27

Rupee gains 0.10% against USD to 44.27
Source: IRIS (03-NOV-10) Indian rupee edged higher against the greenback in morning trade. Rupee was up 0.10% against USD to Rs 44.27 compared to previous close of 44.38. (09.37 a.m.)

In the spot market, the Dollar Index increased 0.100% to 76.76. It touched a high of 76.81 and a low of 76.66 after opening at 76.69. (23:07 ET)

Euro - USD was trading at 1.40 down 0.0017% while USD - Japanese Yen was trading at 80.66, up 0.0377%. (23:07 ET).

* Q - Quote , N - News , C - Chart , F - Financials

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The Euro-Hollywood axis

VIENNA -- This summer, though it's my fifth in Europe, I have never felt closer to Hollywood.

No, it's not the explosion of global day-and-date Hollywood releases.

It's not even the preponderance of Euro talent in the latest spate of summer B.O. behemoths, from the largely British lineup behind and in front of the cameras for the latest "Harry Potter," or the Teutonic helmers of "Troy" and "The Day After Tomorrow" or the many Brit/Euro voice talents in "Shrek 2."

It's one small, deceased Mittel-European thesp who would have been 100 on June 26: Peter Lorre.

This month, the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna is hosting a retrospective celebrating Lorre's birth in Ruzomberok, Slovakia, and his 30-plus years of film artistry, from his startling lead debut in Fritz Lang's German crime classic "M" (1931) to Jerry Lewis' antic Hollywood comedy "The Patsy" (1964).

Lorre's career reminds one that the importance of Europeans in the Hollywood filmmaking process is far from some new development of globalization. As historian Neil Gabler brilliantly explained in his tome "An Empire of Their Own," the town was invented by Jews from Eastern Europe, and it has always been enriched by the blending of Euro voices and visions into the Hollywood pic mix.

What would a Hollywood classic like "Casablanca" have been without the talents of its Hungarian helmer (Michael Curtiz), European cast (including Lorre, Ingrid Bergman, Conrad Veidt and Brits Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet) or composer Max Steiner and art director Carl Jules Weyl, to name a few?

Look at the Lorre filmography and you see an American/Euro mix of the greatest names in Hollywood helming: Huston, Hitchcock, Siegel, Negulesco, Walsh, Mamoulian, Borzage, Capra, Tourneur, Dieterle.

Ironically, in my search for someone to talk about the qualities that Europe's Lorre brought to his Hollywood projects, it is his American helmer/writer/co-star of "The Patsy," Jerry Lewis, who best articulates the Lorre touch.

That touch involved the ultimate European accessory: the cigarette.

"He was the immaculate professional," Lewis recalls. "He came prepared and gave you what you wanted. But he was a reclusive actor who worked behind a facade, and his cigarette was his greatest prop. Without it, he couldn't function."

Lewis says he conspired with other actors on the film to concoct a scene where one of the characters would grab the cigarette from Lorre's hand. "Lorre came to me in a panic and said, 'I will do anything you want, but please don't take my cigarette.' Everything was in that prop: how he lit it, when he lit it, how he smoked it and when. It was an adjunct of his personality."

With all of the actors at his disposal, why did Lewis hire Lorre? At that point in the thesp's career, personal problems had taken a severe toll on Lorre; he died shortly after completion of the film.

"The guy I wrote was Peter Lorre," Lewis says. "I needed this little obnoxious schmuck who showed as little emotion as possible while delivering a performance filled with emotion. If you didn't watch carefully, you didn't see it. I needed that guy from 'Casablanca.'?"

He meant that guy from Ruzomberok.

The Austrian Film Museum's Peter Lorre retrospective runs through June 20.

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Asian stocks up, dollar on backfoot before Fed

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks hit a fresh two-year high on Wednesday while emerging equities rose to their highest level since mid-2008 as investors anticipated further Federal Reserve monetary easing would support the global economy.

The Fed announces its monetary policy decision later on Wednesday. Markets are generally priced for the Fed to initially commit to buying at least $500 billion in Treasuries over five months.

MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS rose as high as 320.05, bringing gains this year to nearly seven percent.

The MSCI emerging equities index .MSCIEF hit its highest since June 2008, as the prospect of further quantitative easing drives investors toward higher-yielding assets.

(Reporting by Natsuko Waki and Carolyn Cohn)

© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved.

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Rupee gains 12 paise against dollar in early trade

The Hindu : Business / Markets : Rupee gains 12 paise against dollar in early tradeArchivesSubscriptionsRSS FeedsSite MapePaperMobileSocialSEARCHHomeNewsOpinionSportBusinessArtsLife & StyleS & TEducationHealthClassifiedsToday's PaperTopicsCompaniesEconomyIndustryMarketsStock Quotes Business» MarketsMumbai,November 3, 2010Rupee gains 12 paise against dollar in early tradePTIShare  ·  print  ·   The rupee strengthened by 12 paise to Rs 44.25 against the US currency at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market in the morning trade today, tracking dollar’s losses against other major currencies.

Traders said besides dollar’s losses against the euro and other Asian currencies, fresh capital inflows into equities by foreign funds kept the rupee sentiment firm.

The rupee had gained 10 paise to Rs 44.37/38 against the US currency in the previous session on dollar selling by banks and exporters as well as weak dollar overseas.

Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange index Sensex rose by 175.23 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 20,520.92 in the opening trade today.

Keywords: Forex markets, Rupee, Dollar

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Kenyan shilling steady versus dollar, stocks down

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling held steady against the dollar on Wednesday, and traders said they expected it to firm in coming days, while most stocks on the Nairobi Stock Exchange's main share index were down. At 0855 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 80.45/55 to the dollar, unchanged from Tuesday's close. "There's not been much movement. Demand has remained light," said a senior trader at one commercial bank. The shilling is expected to trade in the 80.30-81.00 range in the next few days, traders said. The local currency is expected to get a further boost as the year draws to a close and importers demand fewer dollars. "We could see the local unit try to test new highs as importer appetite for the dollar diminishes," said Bank of Africa in a market report. "The local unit will continue being supported by strong inflows from tourism, tea and horticulture sectors, plus remittances from the diaspora and NGO (non governmental organisation) proceeds, all of which could give the local unit impetus to chart new levels." Latest central bank statistics show that in the first eight months of the year, total remittances stood at $402.9 million, up from $398.2 million in the same period in 2009. The government said last month that first half earnings from tourism rose 85 percent on last year, to 48.53 billion shillings, and that it was targeting earnings of 100 billion shillings for 2010, up from 62.46 billion shillings last year. On the Nairobi Stock Exchange, traders said share prices of most companies on the benchmark NSE-20 were down. "Most of the arrows are pointing downwards. There's a lot of profit taking," said Wycliffe Masinde, analyst at Kestrel Capital. The index closed 11.81 points, or 0.25 percent, higher at 4,686.98 on Tuesday. 2010-11-03 11:24:27

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Philippines not going to fight peso's rise-official

MANILA, Nov 3 - The Philippines will not block the peso's strength even on concerns its surge to 2-? year highs against the dollar may undermine export competitiveness and remittances from Filipinos abroad, a government official said on Wednesday.

"The BSP is not going to fight the market," Ricky Carandang, one of President Benigno Aquino's spokesmen, told reporters.

"We know that the exporters are worried that it may have an impact. We know that overseas Filipinos are worried about that and we're starting to think of what can be done about it."

Last week, the central bank approved measures to encourage capital outflows and help temper peso's gains of more than 8 percent this year.

For a list of the changes in the foreign exchange rules approved on Thursday, click on [ID:nSGE69R0I4]

The central bank has said it was not considering capital controls, and said while the inflows could complicate policy settings it did not want to discourage investors as the country needs funds to upgrade infrastructure. [ID:nSGE69I0E6] There have been concerns the inflows, part of a global shift to emerging markets by investors, pose a risk by strengthening currencies and undermining export competitiveness and remittance inflows, a key driver of domestic consumption.

"The best that monetary officials can do is really to make sure that the fluctuations are not so violent or not so volatile," Carandang said.

"You cannot force your currency to where you want it to go. It's a function of market forces that are in many cases beyond our control. So maybe more coordination, more talks between central banks in the region and governments in the region."

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