Cosmo Oil Plans to Restart Sakai Refinery's Gasoline Unit in Mid-August

(Bloomberg) -- Cosmo Oil Co., Japan's fourth-biggest
refiner, said it plans to restart a gasoline production unit at
its 80,000 barrels-a-day Sakai refinery in central Japan in the
middle of next month after an unscheduled shutdown.

The fluid catalytic cracker was shut on July 13 because of a
pipeline fault, spokesman Tatsuya Yano said by telephone in Tokyo
today. The unit is designed to process 24,000 barrels-a-day of
gasoil components into gasoline and other refined products.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

South Korea's Kospi Advances, Led by Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's benchmark stock index,
the Kospi Index, rose 0.50 percent at 9:05 a.m.

The index of 731 companies traded on the Korea Exchange rose
9.66 to 1,947.56. Among the stocks in the index, 407 rose, 121
fell and 203 were unchanged.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

California Gasoline Prices Decline as Refiners May Raise Fuel Production

(Bloomberg) -- Gasoline in the California wholesale
market dropped on signs refineries will increase fuel
production.

California-blend reformulated gasoline, known as Carbob,
for prompt delivery in Los Angeles fell 4.25 cents, or 1.8
percent, to $2.3075 a gallon at 3:38 p.m. New York time,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

UPDATE 1-UnionBanCal faces fine, reports lower profit

(Reuters) - The bank, which also reported that second-quarter earnings
fell 10 percent, said it had been told by the Office of the
Controller of the Currency it would impose a cease-and-desist
order related to some of the bank's internal controls.




"These regulatory actions relate to compliance issues that
occurred in the past," Masaaki Tanaka, chief executive of
UnionBanCal, said in a statement.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

BHP, Kia Motor, Korea Zinc, TMB Bank, Unicom: Asia Ex-Japan Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following stocks may rise or fall
in Asian markets, excluding Japan. This preview includes news that
broke after markets closed. Prices are from the local market's last
close. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names.

Ambuja Cements Ltd. (ACEM IN): India's fourth-biggest cement
maker, which is partly owned by Holcim Ltd., may say today profit
in the quarter ended June increased 32 percent to 4.01 billion
rupees ($99.3 million), the median profit estimate of seven
analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Ambuja Cements was unchanged
at 138.8 rupees.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

LG Electronics unit says U.S. sales up

(Reuters) - Earlier in the day, parent LG Electronics said it swung to its highest quarterly net profit in three years, thanks to its LCD venture and mobile phone sales.







Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Microsoft Q4 profit rises

(Reuters) - The company said on Thursday net profit was $3.04 billion, or 31 cents per diluted share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, up from $2.83 billion, or 28 cents per diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter. Sales rose 13 percent to $13.4 billion.




The earnings met analysts' expectations for profit of 31 cents per share while sales were slightly better than the forecast of $13.27 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News