8:00 AM Toll Brothers posted 67% net income drop in Q1.
Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL: chart) posted Q1 net income drop of 67% to $54.3 million, or 33 cents a share, down from $163.9 million, or 98 cents last year. The quarterly earnings fell on 19% revenue decline and missed analyst estimate of 29 cents. Revenue fell to $1.09 billion from $1.34 billion. Excluding special charges, the earnings were 72 cents a share, down 27%. Net signed contracts fell 34% in the quarter to a value of $748.7 million. The first-quarter cancellation rate was 29.8%, lower than the 36.9% in the fourth quarter and the company''''s historical average of 7%. For 2007, Toll Bros predicted profit of $1.46 to $1.85 a share on revenue of $4.2 billion to $4.96 billion, in line with expectations.


7:45AM NY-6:45PM Mumbai Sensex declined on selling pressure in large-caps.
The Sensex on BSE finished 167.18 points, or 1.18%, lower at 14,021.31. The market-breadth was weak as 1,420 stocks declined on BSE, 675 advanced and 57 were unchanged. For every advancer there were at least two decliners. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 25 stocks declined, while the rest advanced. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,243.02 crore, compared to Rs 4,098 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 1,1717.01, much higher than Rs 8,441.04 crore on Wednesday.

Economic and corporate news

Morgan Stanley, investment bank, will spend $425 million to leave its Indian securities partnership and set up an Indian platform on its own in investment banking market, taking cue from rivals Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.

India, the second-biggest buyer of vegetable oil in the world after China, may reduce import taxes on the commodity for a second time in five weeks to give supplies a boost and put inflation under control. Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is likely to announce in his February 28 budget speech a reduction in import duties or a removal of the additional 4% levy. The Cabinet Committee on Prices, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reviewed prices and decided to take more steps like reductions in taxes and improving supply of essential commodities.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday announced that talks have been going on with Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. about possible retail business opportunities in India. The US company added that it wants to increase the amount of goods exported from India for its global operations. The statement came within days of an announcement by Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. of its investment of $2.5 billion over the next eight years to set up supermarkets, hypermarkets and small retail chains in India.

Hutchison Telecom, which agreed this month to sell its Indian mobile unit to Vodafone Group Plc for $11.1 billion, intends to pay a special dividend up to $4.1 billion following the deal.

Trading highlights

Firstsource was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 235.65 crore followed by Global Broadcast and HDFC Bank. Firstsource debuted on the BSE at Rs 75 as versus its issue price of Rs 64. Intense buying in the stock made it jump to a high of Rs 89 before settling with a premium of 25%, or Rs 16, at Rs 80 on its first trading day.

Advancers

Reliance Communications led the few advancers, up 0.9% to Rs 450.6. Other large-caps gainers included TCS, higher 0.71% to Rs 1,295.10, NTPC, rising 0.4% to Rs 143 and Tata Steel, adding 0.2% to Rs 456.1. Index heavy Reliance industries held firm and prevented the market from a worse decline in late trading. The stocks gained 0.5% to Rs 1,413.80.

Decliners

Cement shares were under selling pressure in late trade today. Grasim plunged 5% to Rs 2,415.8, ACC lost 4.4% to Rs 964 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements was down 3.3% to Rs 126.8. Cement stocks have plunged as the government is keeping a watch on rising cement prices.

Ranbaxy shed 3.8% to Rs 368.2. It dropped for the second straight day, as the market continued to worry about a possible equity dilution if Ranbaxy acquired Merck''s generic drugs business. Dr Reddy’s Lab dipped 3.5% to Rs 704, and Cipla shed 2.6% to Rs 247.85. Software large-cap Infosys was down 1.6% to Rs 2,275 in volatile trade. Infosys may acquire Britain SmartStream Technologies for over 100 million pounds.

Banks also declined. State Bank of India was down 3% to Rs 1,073. Among private sector banks, HDFC Bank lost 3.7% to Rs 977 and ICICI Bank shed 1.5% to Rs 956. Auto shares slipped. Hero Honda was off 3.4% to Rs 714, Bajaj Auto declined 2.4% to Rs 2,906, Maruti Udyog shed 1.9% to Rs 883 and Tata Motors shed 1.6% to Rs 845.10.


6:30AM European markets advanced on Thursday on strong insurers.
European markets were higher on Thursday. In early trade, Frankfurt Xetra Dax added 0.7% to 6,988.01, the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.7% to 5,731.51 and London FTSE 100 climbed 0.6% to 6,394.1.

Advancers

BASF led advancers in early trade after the German chemicals group posted a 17.3% rise in Q4 core earnings, meeting expectations, thanks to demand growth and the performance of recent acquisitions.