Unitech was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 225 crore followed by HDFC Bank and SBI.

Advancers

SBI soared nearly 5% to Rs 1,284. The bank gained for the second day in a row today, as the Lok Sabha, on Tuesday, May 15 2007, passed the State Bank of India, or Subsidiary Bank Laws Amendment Bill, 2006. The amendment bill will help SBI to reduce its stake in subsidiary banks to 51%, from the existing 55%. Other banks also rallied. ICICI Bank rallied over 3% to Rs 919, and HDFC Bank added 2% to Rs 1,031.

Index heavy Reliance Industries surged 2.2% to Rs 1,634. Reliance announced yesterday it had made two gas discoveries in separate blocks off the east and west coasts of the country.

Tata Motors gained 2.8% to Rs 735 ahead of its earnings. It releases fourth quarter fiscal 2007 results on May 18th. Bajaj Auto advanced nearly 2% to Rs 2,686 ahead its board meet on Thursday, May 17 2007, to consider proposal to split the company into two and Q4 March 2007 results. Hindalco ended up 2.5% to Rs 149 and Bharti Airtel was up nearly 2% at Rs 848

Decliners

Hero Honda tumbled nearly 3% to Rs 678. Infosys and TCS slipped 1% each to Rs 1,952 and Rs 1,224, respectively. Other decliners included Cipla, down 0.8% to Rs 210, Tata Steel, off 0.5% to Rs 588 and Reliance Energy, also 0.5% lower at Rs 506.


6:30AM European markets decline Wednesday on weak banking stocks.

European markets declined on Wednesday. In mid morning trade, Frankfurt Xetra Dax lost 0.2% to 7,494.37, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.2% to 6,037.78 and London FTSE 100 was flat at 6,567.6. National benchmarks fell in nine of 17 markets in western Europe.

Advancers

Oil stocks were higher, with Spanish Repsol up 0.9% and Royal Dutch Shell 0.6% higher. Shares in Volkswagen, which experienced an over sales decline of 0.2%, were up 2.2% thanks to strength at Audi, its luxury brand, whose sales rose 7.8%.

Julius Baer, Swiss private bank, rose 3.9% on speculation that Deutsche Bank was interested in mounting a takeover.

Zurich Financial, the Swiss insurer, climbed 2.2% after reporting a 71% rise in first-quarter net profit, beating expectations, thanks to strong gains in emerging markets such as China.

Decliners

Credit Agricole slumped 4.3%. The bank said first-quarter net income rose 92% to 2.66 billion euros after a gain from reducing its stake in the Intesa Sanpaolo of Italy. That missed the 2.74 billion-euro median estimate.

Shares of Air France-KLM, the biggest airline in Europe, slipped 2.4% after UBS AG cut its recommendation to neutral from buy.

EasyJet fell 2.4% after Goldman, Sachs & Co. put the carrier shares on its Pan-Europe Sell List, cutting its recommendation to sell from neutral.

Commodities

Crude oil traded near $63 a barrel in New York after unrest disrupted production in Nigeria. Crude oil for June delivery fell 9 cents to $63.08 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as $1.50, or 0.2%, to $673.55 an ounce and traded at $673.35. Silver for immediate delivery was unchanged at $13.20 an ounce at the same time.