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The announcement by US President Barack Obama that his Administration endorses India's bid for a permanent seat at UN Security Council is more of "symbolic" in nature and lacks "substance", American experts have said.

But senior Administration officials quickly dismissed such line of thought stressing that any announcement by the US in this regard carried a lot of weight at the international level and it would be incorrect to say that Obama's statement is symbolic in nature.

At the same time it is conceded that there is long way to go before India gets its rightful place at the UN Security Council, given the current political set up, the divergence of views among the community of nations and lack of a strong consensus in this issue at the world body.

"I can say today, in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed United Nations Security Council that includes India as a permanent member," Obama said in his address to the joint session of the Parliament amidst thunderous applause.

With this the US has become the fourth country, after Britain, France and Russia to endorse India for the UN Security Council.

"This is not the most important issue in the world right now, more symbolic than anything, but symbols seem to be very important for MEA and the Indian media class," said Stephen P Cohen, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institute, and a noted scholar on South Asia.

Obama's announcement did not surprise Cohen.

"The problem was not US support, but opposition to India in particular by others, and the whole problem of UN reform," Cohen said.

Echoed Robert Hathaway of the Woodrow Wilson Center, a major Washington-based think tank.

"Many Indians will regard the President's pledge to support India's bid for a permanent UNSC seat as the highpoint of the visit. But since no one believes Indian membership in the Security Council is imminent, in some ways this was merely a symbolic step, albeit a truly important one," said Hathaway, Director, Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Beyond deepening the US-India strategic partnership launched by the Bush administration, the Obama announcement may help break the logjam that has kept the UNSC's permanent membership mired in the world of 1945, said Stewart Patrick of the Council on Foreign Affairs.

He urged the Obama Administration to follow its endorsement with an initiative to gradually expand the UNSC based on clear criteria for permanent membership.

SEOUL  - A draft of a Group of 20 communiqué statement says its members will move towards more market-determined exchange rates, closely echoing the wording of a statement issued by G20 ministers late last month, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Wednesday.Full Story

India's outperformance is on account of its economy, said Vikas Pershad of Veda Investments in an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18. He sees the Sensex at 20,000-21,000 levels by March 2011.

Yesterday was a strong day for markets on account of the helpful global cues. The Nifty closed below the 5,300 mark. Metals, banks, and oil and gas sector led the upmove.

Bharti most active

HCL Infosystems jumped 5.36% to Rs 118.90 at 09:06 IST on BSE after the company acquired a 60% stake in NTS Group, a leading IT services and solutions provider based in Dubai, involving an investment of about $6.5 million.

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LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday he wanted Britain's financial watchdog to investigate U.S. bank Goldman Sachs after it was charged with fraud by U.S. regulators.

Brown, who is fighting an election campaign, piled pressure on Wall Street's most powerful bank, accusing it of "moral bankruptcy" over reported plans to pay big bonuses.

Goldman Sachs was charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday over its marketing of a subprime mortgage product. Goldman has called the U.S. lawsuit "completely unfounded" and has vowed to defend itself.

"I want a special investigation done into the entanglement of Goldman Sachs and the companies there with other banks and what happened," Brown told BBC television.

"There are hundreds of millions of pounds have been traded here and it looks as if people were misled about what happened. I want the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to investigate it immediately," he said.

"I know that the banks themselves will be considering legal action," Brown said, apparently referring to European banks that lost money on the product marketed by Goldman Sachs.

"We will work with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States," he said.

A spokeswoman for the FSA declined comment. "We would never confirm or deny we are investigating anybody," she said.

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The Sensex crossed the psychological 18,000 mark in early trade yesterday giving a fillip to market sentiment, however, market veteran and Member of the Bombay Stock Exchange Ramesh Damani feared this bullishness might not be good for the market. He, in fact, would be surprised if the markets made a new high at all in 2010. “The Sensex will trade between the 15,000-21,000 range,” he said, adding that the low volatility period is seen continuing for the next six months.

Speaking specifically on stocks and sectors, Damani said there was disparity between real estate prices and stock prices. However, he saw value in those stocks. He is also bullish on generic pharma companies and would buy Indian or global airline stocks at dips.