| * Xi Jinping becomes Chinese president * China Mobile to invest $30.6bn in 4G * Picture changes for wary Assad supporters * Swiss commodities traders feel Singapore heat * Tunisian parliament approves cabinet * Reliance to beef up retail and 4G arms * S Korea: no rate cut, for now * India and diesel: a partial relationship * Peng Liyuan, aka Mrs Xi: the new force behind China's soft power Markets: up Xi Jinping becomes Chinese president
Xi Jinping on Thursday replaced Hu Jintao as China's president, in the culmination of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that began last year.
http://on.ft.com/XwHS2Q China Mobile to invest $30.6bn in 4G
China Mobile expects to boost its capital expenditure by half this year to Rmb190.2bn ($30.6bn) as the world's largest telecom carrier by subscribers invests heavily to prepare for the launch of fourth-generation mobile services.
http://on.ft.com/Z5A5G1 Picture changes for wary Assad supporters
A quiet change has stolen across Damascus in the past two years.
http://on.ft.com/Z5Ao3w Swiss commodities traders feel Singapore heat
n a week that Singapore was hosting two big commodities conferences – one for mining and one for grain trading – over in Geneva, industry executives, government officials and academics gathered for what almost felt like a morale boosting session.
http://on.ft.com/YrggZL Tunisian parliament approves cabinet
Tunisia's national assembly on Wednesday approved a new Cabinet proposed by the Islamist prime minister that includes political independents in key posts but not the secular and leftist opposition.
http://on.ft.com/13TVyGH S Korea: no rate cut, for now
Not this time – maybe next. The Bank of Korea on Thursday left interest rates unchanged at 2.75 per cent for a fifth consecutive month, despite slowing economic growth and low inflation.
http://on.ft.com/16tLLGT India and diesel: a partial relationship
Struggling to bring down its fiscal deficit, India wants to stop allowing commercial ventures like movie theatres, swish office complexes, and hotels from using highly-subsidised diesel fuel to run-back up generators when the power goes out. It is also trying to wean factories, mobile phone towers, and state-run bus companies from highly subsidised fuel.
http://on.ft.com/16rWhyq India inflation ticks back up
Indian inflation increased unexpectedly in February – bad news for the Indian government after a general strike was called last month partly in protest against price increases.
http://on.ft.com/Z4xFaF Emerging Markets
MSCI Emerging Market Index down -0.28% at 1,046 Europe
FTSE up +0.38% at 6,506
RTS down -0.09% at 1,530
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FTSE 300 Eurotop up +0.58% at 1,201 Americas
DJIA up +0.04% at 14,455
S&P 500 up +0.13% at 1,555
Bovespa down -1.41% at 57,386 Asia
Nikkei 225 up +1.16% at 12,381
Topix up +0.65% at 1,038
Hang Seng up +0.28% at 22,619
Shanghai Composite up +0.28% at 2,270
MSCI Asia ex-Japan down -0.26% at 477.58
S&P CNX Nifty Index up +0.99% at 5,909 Currencies
€/$ 1.29 (1.30)
$/¥ 96.42 (96.09) Commodities
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.58 at 109.10
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.37 at 92.15
100 Oz Gold (Comex) down -1.10 at 1,587 | 
