The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange fell 345 points, or 2.2 percent, to close at the two-year low of 15,491, today, as RBI expressed concerns over growth but did not ease liquidity, although it paused lending rate hike. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange lost 95 points, or 2 percent, to 4,652. But Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore rose between 0.3 percent and 2 percent. Asian stocks rose, today, as signs of strength in the US economy temporarily broke through gloom over the European debt crisis that had driven a sell-off in riskier assets over the past three days. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.3%; Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.4%; China's Shanghai Composite index advanced 2%; South Korea's Kospi gained 1.2%; and Singapore's Straits Times index added 0.9%.European stocks also rose, with key stock indices in France, Germany and the UK gaining between 0.2% and 0.7%, in intra-day trade, on Friday.