10:00AM New York, 8:30PM Mumbai – Tata Steel, Mahindra, and State Bank of India earnings dominate trading sentiment.

Sensex increased 26.34 or 0.17% to 15,260.91 participating in a rebound in market averages in Asia.

Of the stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange 1,360 advanced, 1,267 declined and 67 were unchanged. The daily turnover of stocks on the exchange declined to 5,031 crore rupees from 6,622 crore rupees.

Gainers

Reliance Energy jumped 2% to 778.25 rupees on the news that the company is awarded the Sasan Ultra Mega Power project. The power plant is rated at a capacity of 4,000 MW.

L&T increased 1% to 2,449 today after losing 9% in the last week trading.

Earnings

Tata Steel, largest private sector steel company in India, reported first quarter net profit increase of 28% to 1,222 crore rupees on revenue increase of 7.6% to 4,198 crore rupees. The stock declined 0.7% after the news.

Hindustan Lever reported second quarter profit of 493.08 crore rupees, an increase of 29.6% from a year ago on revenue increase in the same period 13% to 3,481.40 crore rupees. The board also authorized the 14.5 lakh or 1.45 million shares buyback at a price lower than 230 rupees. After the news the stock surged 6.1% to 208.40 rupees.

State Bank of India reported net first quarter profit of 1,4251.81 crore rupees, rise of 78.6% from a year ago on net interest income increase of 15% to 4,497 crore rupees. The stock advanced at the opening and closed 5.4% higher to 1,581 rupees.

State Bank of India increased 1.5% to 1,581 rupees. Ahead of the RBI credit committee meeting bank stocks rallied. UTI Bank jumped 3%, ICICI Bank increased 1.2%, Bank of India and Indian Bank added 2%. Andhra Bank and Vijaya Bank jumped on solid earnings reports.

Mahindra & Mahindra dropped 2.8% to 754 rupees after reporting first quarter revenue increase of 16% to 2,644 crore rupees and profit decline of 6.7% to 191 crore rupees. The company guided for the rest of the year earnings

Decliners

Metal companies declined despite sharper steel companies profit in Japan. SAIL lost 0.5%, Jindal Stainless fell 1.3%, and Nalco plummeted 7.6%.

i-flex Solutions dropped 1.3% after the company reported first quarter earnings of 58 crore rupees, an increase of 54% from a year ago


8:30AM New York, 1:30 London – European markets trade lower ahead of New York opening. Takeover and earnings news dominate early trading.

European markets are trading lower at mid-day trading after a week of sharp losses tracking markets decline in the U.S. Spain and Germany lead the region with a loss of 0.6% followed by a loss of 0.3% in the UK, France, and Italy. Every market in the region is trading lower ahead of the opening in the U.S. and after the close of the Asian markets.

ABN Amro, the subject of takeover from two rival financial groups, said that it no longer recommends the offer from Barclays. The Dutch bank board apparently changed its mind after higher offer from Royal Bank of Scotland. Separately the Dutch bank also reported 7% decline in profit to 1.13 billion euros from $1.2 billion euros a year ago. The total operating income jumped 12.8% to 5.446 billion euros. Latin America and European business units played a key role in net revenue.

ICI rejected the revised offer from Akzo Nobel hoping that the company is valued at higher than the bid of $16 billion.