9:30AM New York – Banks report earnings gains on higher fees and charges.

Market averages are expected to open higher this morning in New York trading on brighter outlook from IBM and better than expected earnings from banks. Three popular averages, Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq opened with over 0.5% gain in the morning trading.

Initial jobless claims at the end of last week dropped 8,000 to 301,000.

IBM (IBM: chart) reported earnings of $1.50 per share compared to $1.30 per share a year ago and is looking for annual earnings growth of between 14% and 15% from the previous growth rate of 13% to 14%. Network equipment maker, Juniper Networks reported 15 cents per share and revenue growth of 17%. Citrix Systems (CTXS: chart) reported earnings and sales but not the earnings per share. The company forecasted sales for the year between $1.34 billion and $1.36 billion. Avici Systems (AVCI: chart) reported 82 cents per share beating the estimates of low 21 cents per share. Motorola (MOT: chart) reported earnings per share of 2 cents.

Bank of America (BAC: chart) reported earnings, before the open, of $1.28 per share compared to $1.19 from a year ago and beating the estimates of $1.19 per share. The ever increasing fees to individual bank accounts and higher charges at the credit card division helped the bank to power the earnings. Washington Mutual (WAMU: chart) earnings per share jumped to 92 cents from 79 cents a year ago. First Horizon National Bank reported earnings of 17 cents per share.

Continental Airlines (CAI: chart) reported earnings of $2.03 per share beating the estimates of $1.71 per share. Dow Jones (DJ: chart) missed the earnings target of 44 cents and reported 25 cents per share. Genuine Parts (GPC: chart) earnings per share of 76 cents met the expectations. Pharmaceutical maker, Wyeth (WYE: chart) reported earnings per share of 87 cents beating the estimates of 86 cents.


7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex soars 249 points in a large-cap rally.

The Sensex on BSE advanced Thursday 248.96 points, or 1.63% and settled at 15,550.13.

The market opened 56 points higher at 15,357 at the intra-day low. Steady buying in large-cap stocks especially in the latter part of trading saw the market surge to an intra-day high of 15,593.

The market-breadth was positive with three advancers for every two decliners. As 1,503 stocks advanced, 1,104 declined and 70 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, only four declined while 25 advanced and one was unchanged.

The turnover on BSE was Rs 5,699 crore, compared with Rs 5,750 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, turnover was Rs 11,591 crore, slightly higher than Rs 11,318 crore on Wednesday.

Economic news

The Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in an interview yesterday that India must keep its strict monetary policy in order to curb inflation. Indian bonds declined the most in more than a month after the comments. Bond dealers were looking for an interest rate cut after inflation dipped to near a 13-month low last week.

Trading highlights

Spice was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 695 crore followed by DLF and Zee Entertainment.

Advancers of the Day

Tata Motors advanced 4.7% to Rs 778 and led the gainers on the belief that interest rates will not increases. Companies rely for 75% of auto sales on cheap financing. Bajaj Auto also gained over 4% to Rs 2,382.

Tata Motors is reported to consider a purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover divisions from Ford Motor Company.

Index heavy, Reliance Industries surged 4.2% to Rs 1,896 on a court decision from the Bombay High Court, which on Wednesday, July 18 J 2007, repealed a decision to forbid Reliance Industries to sell gas from its KG basin field to any other firm except Anil Ambani''s Reliance Natural Resources and state-run NTPC.