| * China pledges boost to India trade
* Qatar snaps up stakes in key lenders
* IMF calls for more Middle East reforms
* Blackstone leads buyout bid for US-listed Chinese group
* Goldman Sachs sells final $1.1bn piece of Chinese bank
* China steps up Caribbean strategy
* Middle East sovereign wealth funds bypass private equity funds
* Sluggish Thai growth deepens fears of wider Asian slowdown
* Ugandan newspaper raided over Museveni plot claim
* América Móvil eyes bigger role in US prepaid cellphone market
* Syrian regime battles for key rebel stronghold
* Essar Oil to sign fuel-for-cash deal with China Development Bank Markets: Mixed China pledges boost to India trade Li Keqiang, Chinese premier, pledged on Tuesday to open China's markets to Indian goods to help narrow India's gaping bilateral trade deficit and boost mutual commerce between the two largest developing nations to $100bn a year. http://on.ft.com/13E8F9Y Qatar snaps up stakes in key lenders Qatar is launching another multi-billion dollar push into the banking sector, buying fresh stakes in Russia's VTB and Germany's Deutsche Bank. http://on.ft.com/18cPzMw IMF calls for more Middle East reforms The IMF has reiterated calls for economic reform across the Middle East and North Africa as states in political transition after the Arab spring struggle to maintain economic stability and the oil-exporting Gulf faces a dip in hydrocarbons revenues. In its annual regional economic update, the IMF on Tuesday said a moderate increase in oil-importing countries' economic growth would "not be sufficient to begin making sizeable inroads into the region's large unemployment problem". http://on.ft.com/10imcXr Blackstone leads buyout bid for US-listed Chinese group Blackstone is leading a $664m buyout bid for a Nasdaq-listed Chinese computer services and software company, the latest in a string of deals to delist mainland groups after they were roundly abandoned by US investors. http://on.ft.com/118kpzG Goldman Sachs sells final $1.1bn piece of Chinese bank Goldman Sachs is selling its remaining stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, exiting an investment that has made more than $7.3bn for the US investment bank, its private equity funds and some senior partners. http://on.ft.com/Z7yzH7 China steps up Caribbean strategy China is raising its strategic influence in the Caribbean as it takes advantage of the continuing US withdrawal from what George W. Bush called his country's "third border". http://on.ft.com/117OUFY Middle East sovereign wealth funds bypass private equity funds Middle East sovereign wealth funds are boosting their investment in unlisted companies and increasingly bypassing private equity funds as they seek higher returns.http://on.ft.com/11T0kVK Sluggish Thai growth deepens fears of wider Asian slowdown Thailand's economy grew more slowly than expected in the first three months of this year, adding to a slew of recent disappointing data from other Asian economies that have cast a shadow over one of the world's fastest-growing regions.http://on.ft.com/10hNtcu Ugandan newspaper raided over Museveni plot claim Police in Uganda have closed down a Kampala-based newspaper majority owned by Kenyan blue-chip Nation Media Group over its reports that high-level critics claim the president intends to hand over power to his son. http://on.ft.com/YVJsJN América Móvil eyes bigger role in US prepaid cellphone market Almost a year after America Movil, the largest telecoms company in Latin America, made its first acquisition in the US prepaid cellphone market, when it bought Simple Mobile, the company has done it again. http://on.ft.com/18ZJqES Syrian regime battles for key rebel stronghold Syrian forces backed by Lebanon militant group Hizbollah pushed on Monday into the strategic city of Qusair, a key supply route for the opposition and a vital link for the regime between its coastal heartlands and Damascus. http://on.ft.com/18cSViD Essar Oil to sign fuel-for-cash deal with China Development Bank India's Essar Oil, a division of London-listed Essar Energy, is set to announce an unusual debt financing deal with state-run China Development Bank, in a further sign of deepening financial ties between Asia's two largest emerging economies.http://on.ft.com/YVJzoR Emerging Markets
MSCI Emerging Market Index down -0.18% at 1,046 Europe
FTSE up +0.09% at 6,762
RTS down -0.27% at 1,413
Warsaw Wig down -0.21% at 45,943
FTSE 300 Eurotop down -0.48% at 1,246 Americas
DJIA down -0.12% at 15,335
S&P 500 down -0.07% at 1,666
Bovespa up +0.97% at 55,701 Asia
Nikkei 225 up +0.13% at 15,381
Topix up +0.07% at 1,270
Hang Seng down -0.54% at 23,366
Shanghai Composite up +0.22% at 2,305
MSCI Asia ex-Japan down -0.26% at 483.78
CNX Nifty down -0.70% at 6,114 Currencies
€/$ 1.29 (1.29)
$/¥ 102.66 (102.26) Commodities
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.56 at 104.24
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.38 at 96.33
100 Oz Gold (Comex) down -7.30 at 1,377 | 
