Sensex rebounds, up 194 points in early trade

FACTORS TO WATCH

* Bharti Infratel IPO opens for retail subscription.

* Banking reform bill likely to be voted in India's parliament.

INDIAN STOCKS TO WATCH

MACRO/POLICY

* The Indian government on Tuesday is expected to seek a vote in the lower house of parliament on easing voting rules of shareholders to attract foreign investment and separately allow the central bank more powers. (Reuters)

* The finance ministry is looking to shave off nearly 5 percent or around 700 billion rupees from its budgeted expenditure for the year by insisting that government departments release funds only after accounting for money

released earlier and ensuring that they do not bunch spending in the last quarter, according to government officials.

* The finance ministry has asked the Reserve Bank to consider giving infrastructure status to the housing sector, and relax provisioning norms for it so banks can extend attractive loans to buyers.

* Insurance regulator, IRDA has said that the government's move to increase the investment limit of country's largest insurer, LIC to 30 percent is "imprudent". * Foreign institutional investors have pitched for a reduction in the withholding tax rates on their investments in Indian debt and simplification of know your customer norms to attract foreign capital into the country.

AVIATION

* Etihad, which was also in talks with Jet, has agreed to pick up a 48 per cent stake in Kingfisher for a little over 30 billion rupees. The deal's official announcement is likely to come around December 18.

TELECOM

* Bharti Infratel Ltd, the telecommunications tower

... contd.