In mid-cap stocks, Domestic & General, a company that sells extended warranties on household appliances, rallied 8.3% after admitting it had received further bid interest.

Newspaper group Trinity Mirror gained 1.4% after it announced that stability rose within its advertising markets.

Decliners

News that adverse currency movements would reduce operating profit at Guinness brewer Diageo by up to 90 million pounds pulled the shares 1.8% lower.

Lender Northern Rock, is still losing ground having warned on profit in the previous session. Northern Rock fell 12% on Wednesday, and now, the mortgage bank, is a further 0.6% lower.


9:00AM Market futures declined ahead of rate decision.

U.S. stock market futures pointed slightly lower, reflecting cautiousness ahead of the Fed Reserve’s interest-rate decision and economic outlook. Rates are expected to remain unchanged at 5.25%. Rising oil futures and a profit warning at Novellus Systems further weighed on the sentiment, helping to offset a broker upgrade of Intel.

Novellus Systems (NVLS: chart) fell 6.7% in pre-open trade after it said it expects Q2 revenue and earnings at the low end of its previous guidance. Intel (INTC: chart) rose 1.4% in pre-open trading after it was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Lehman Brothers on robust sales forecast. Again in the tech sector, LSI (LSI: chart) dropped 7% after the company said it expects lower than expected Q2 revenue, leading to 900 job cuts.

Among other pre-market highlights, General Mills (GIS: chart) reported earnings slightly below forecast. Constellation Brands (STZ: chart) earnings on an adjusted basis came in analyst estimates. S&P 500 futures fell 1.3 points at 1,517.60 while Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.5 points at 1,957.00. Dow industrial futures fell 15 points.


8:30AM Asian stocks finish mostly higher with HK and Japan leading regional gainers.

Asian markets ended higher Thursday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average settled 0.5% higher at 17,932. Sentiment was upbeat in Japan that US market will bounce back and that domestic market environment will also improve. Many large-caps advanced, with Toshiba up 0.8%, Toyota 0.9% higher and Nissan rising 1.4%.

After three days of declines, HK rebounded. The Hang Seng Index surged 1.1% to end at 21,938. China Mobile was the main gainer with a 1.7% increase on the prospect of a yuan-denominated initial public offering in Shanghai soon. Cnooc gained 4.1% on higher oil prices. China Construction Bank advanced 2.1%, and China Life gained 1.2%.

South Korean Kospi Index advanced 1.1% to 1,751. Construction stocks and nonlife insurers ended the four-day losing streak on the market. Hyundai gained 3.9% and Daewoo Engineering & Construction settled up 3.1%. Dongbu Insurance surged 4.1%. Australian S&P/ASX 200 also rose 1.3% to 6,265. BHP Billiton, up 2%, led the market higher. Rio Tinto advanced 2.7% and Woodside Petroleum rallied 3% after crude oil and metal prices rose.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index in China bucked the trend and plunged 4% to settle at 3914. The market declined sharply on reports that the government is reviewing a measure to reduce or cancel the tax on interest income so that investors would not enter the market, but would keep their money in bank accounts instead.


7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex ends higher on rally in cement stocks.

The Sensex on BSE finished 73.51 points higher, or 0.51%, at 14,504.57.

The market-breadth was strong with 1,442 stocks advancing, while 1,141 declined and only 72 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 19 advanced, while the others declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,682 crore, compared with Rs 4,844 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, the turnover surged to Rs 12,193 crore, much higher than Rs 9,375 crore on Wednesday.