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.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies in European trading Wednesday morning. The euro traded at $1.3594, up from $1.3592 late Monday in New York. The British pound traded at $1.9834, down from $1.9853. The dollar fetched 120.48 Japanese yen, up from 120.26.