beyondbrics

* Komorowski elected Polish president
* China car sales growth slows; services index slides to 15-month low
* Banpu buys Centennial for $1.7bn in Thailand’s biggest overseas deal
* Hong Kong home sales drop to 14-month low
* Turkish inflation slowed to 8.4%, strengthening Case for low rates
* Lenovo: Apple is losing out in China
* Chinese pay disputes mirrored across region
* Wilmar to pay A$1.75bn for CSR’s sugar business
* Market cautious over Indian rate hike
* China economic policy faces rising challenges
* Anil Ambani to merge his Reliance Power and RNRL
* Russia’s MTS in talks to boost web content
* Bharti upbeat on profiting out of Africa
* Markets mixed

Komorowski elected Polish president
Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate for Poland’s ruling Civic Platform party, was narrowly elected president of the country in a second-round vote on Sunday. Mr Komorowski won 52.6 per cent of the vote, based on a count of 95 per cent of the ballots, the election commission said early on Monday, reports the FT.

China car sales growth slows; services index slides to 15-month low
China’s auto sales grew at a slower pace in June and a services-industry index slid to a 15-month low, adding to signs that the economy leading the world recovery is cooling, reports Bloomberg.

Banpu buys Centennial for $1.7bn in Thailand’s biggest overseas deal
Banpu, Thailand’s biggest coal producer, agreed to buy the rest of Centennial Coal for A$2 billion ($1.7 billion) in the nation’s biggest overseas takeover to secure supplies as prices climb, reports Bloomberg.

Hong Kong home sales drop to 14-month low
Hong Kong’s home sales fell to the lowest level in 14 months in June, as the city’s government tried to rein in rising prices with rules on new home sales. Total sales of residential units fell to HK$33 billion last month from HK$42.8 billion in May, the Land Registry said on its website today, reports Bloomberg.

Turkish inflation slowed to 8.4%, strengthening Case for low rates
Turkey’s inflation rate fell last month to the lowest since January, supporting the central bank’s efforts to keep interest rates at a historic low. The annual consumer inflation rate fell to 8.4 percent from 9.1 percent the month before, the statistics office in Ankara said on its website today, reports Bloomberg.

Lenovo: Apple is losing out in China
Apple is missing a huge opportunity in the Chinese market, FT reports, according to Liu Chuanzhi, the head of Lenovo, the country’s leading PC maker.

Chinese pay disputes mirrored across region
Chinese labour unrest is being replicated in south-east Asia where factories that compete with China to supply low-cost goods face walkouts as employees demand better pay and benefits, FT reports.

Wilmar to pay A$1.75bn for CSR’s sugar business
Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil trader, agreed to buy CSR’s sugar unit for A$1.75bn ($1.5bn), beating China’s Bright Food Group Co’s offer for Australia’s biggest refiner, Bloomberg reports.

Market cautious over Indian rate hike
Banks, real estate and automobile shares could lead the stock market lower on Monday, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised interest rates sooner than expected to combat inflation, Economic Times reports. With the Reserve Bank of India expected to go in for another increase in policy rates during its upcoming review on July 27, the market undertone is cautious, as investors fear these rate hikes may hamper economic growth.

China economic policy faces rising challenges
Premier Wen Jiabao has warned that China’s macro-economic control policy is facing mounting difficulties, with the severity of the international financial crisis and the unpredictable nature of the global economic recovery, China Daily reports.

Anil Ambani to merge his Reliance Power and RNRL
Reliance Power will absorb sister firm Reliance Natural Resources in a share swap deal valued at $1.5bn, the latest in a series of deals by one or other of the billionaire Ambani brothers, Reuters reports.

Russia’s MTS in talks to boost web content
Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s largest mobile operator known as MTS, is in talks with media companies including News Corp’s Fox and Sony to acquire more films and television programmes for its online entertainment service, FT reports.

Bharti upbeat on profiting out of Africa
For Sunil Bharti Mittal, the $10.7bn acquisition in June of most of the African assets of Zain of Kuwait was the culmination of more than a decade of trying to enter a market once dubbed “the hopeless continent”, FT reports.  These efforts, which started 12 years ago with a bid by his group, Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest mobile operator, for a telecoms licence in Botswana, have turned him into a staunch believer in Africa’s growth prospects.

Markets

Emerging Markets
MSCI Emerging Market Index up +0.13% at 914.74

Europe
FTSE down -0.10% at 4,833
RTS up +0.58% at 1,324
Wig Index down -0.20% at 39,728
FTSE 300 Eurofirst up 0.03% at 969.69

Americas
DJIA down -0.47% at 9,686
S&P 500 down -0.47% at 1,023
Bovespa up +0.32% at 61,430

Asia
Nikkei 225 up +0.69% at 9,267
Topix up +0.71% at 836.89
Hang Seng down -0.32% at 19,842
Shanghai Composite down -0.80% at 2,364
MSCI Asia ex-Japan up +0.25% at 456.33
S&P CNX Nifty Index down -0.02% at 5,236

Currencies
€/$ 1.25 (1.26)
$/¥ 87.82 (87.70)

Commodities
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.43 at 72.08
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.29 at 72.43
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +3.30 at 1,207