Emerging stocks snap two-day fall

Emerging-market stocks advanced for the first time in three days after Indian government data suggested inflation may be slowing and US jobless claims indicated the world's biggest economy is improving. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.6 per cent to 1,168.11 in London. Russia's Micex Index of 30 stocks rose 1.9 per cent as oil prices increased and Bank of America Corp. said it favoured gold and coal producers. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.6 per cent. The wholesale food inflation rate in India eased to 7.61 per cent in the week ended June 25, a seven-week low. China's announcement Thursday of a rate increase, its fifth since mid- October, may be the last for 2011, said Yu Song, a Hong Kong-based economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. US initial jobless claims fell more than the median forecast of economists. From / Gulf News