8:15AM Investor group offered $11.4 billion for Biomet.

Investors led by The Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG revealed their bid offer of $46 a share, or $11.4 billion, for medical devices maker Biomet (BMET: chart).

LVB Acquisition LLC and LVB Acquisition Merger Sub announced on Wednesday that they started a tender offer to buyout the outstanding shares of the company, whose shareholders have shown reluctance to support the deal.

On completion of the tender offer, LVB Acquisition will complete a second-step merger in which any remaining common shares of Biomet will be converted into the right to receive the same per share price paid in the offer. The offer and withdrawal rights will expire at 12:00 a.m.ET on July 11.


7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex loses 128 points Wednesday in lackluster session.

The Sensex on BSE finished Wednesday 127.92 points lower, or 0.91%, at 14,003.03.

The market-breadth was very weak. For 1,083 stocks which advanced, 1,372 declined and 85 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, only nine stocks advanced, while all the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 3,530 crore, lower than Rs 3,836 crore on Tuesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 8,096 crore, slightly lower than Rs 8,177 crore on Tuesday.

Economic news

The strike of the employees of state-owned airline Indian brought to a halt operations and wreaked havoc in airports across the country today. The workers paid no heed to the government’s threat of a lock-out, and were unfazed by warnings that the strike was illegal.

The rupee retreated against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, June 13 2007, as buying from importers broke its rising streak.. In early trade, the rupee stood at 40.855 per dollar, lower than the previous close of 40.747.

Trading highlights

New issue Time Technoplast was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 636.30 crore followed by Reliance and Nestle. Time Technoplast ended at Rs 480.35 on BSE, 53% over the IPO price of Rs 315.

Advancers

Dr.Reddy''s surged 2.7% to Rs 628 and was the best performing stock in the Sensex. The stock rallied after Credit Suisse increased its rating to outperform from neutral. Satyam surged 1.7% to Rs 486. All other major IT stocks declined, though.

Tata Motors advanced 0.7% to Rs 646, Hindalco Industries advanced 0.6% to Rs 160 and Cipla edged 0.1% higher to Rs 208.

Decliners

SBI led the decliners, down 3.2% to Rs 1,289. The bank declined on worries of a possible interest rate hike by RBI in the wake of the strong industrial production data for April. Other banks also lost. ICICI Bank dipped almost 1% to Rs 910. The bank announced today it had moved forward documents to raise up to Rs 8,750 crore, or $2.1 billion, in India in a sale of shares as part of a programme to raise up to $5 billion both in India and the U.S.

Reliance Communications lost 2.5% at Rs 486 and Hindustan Unilever and Larsen & Toubro sank nearly 2% each to Rs 186 and Rs 1,871, respectively. Tata Steel eased from high of Rs 611 and was down 1.3% to Rs 595. Index heavy Reliance Industries slipped 1.5% to Rs 1,674.

Except for Satyam, all other major IT stocks declined. TCS was down 1% to Rs 1,202, Infosys lost 0.4% to Rs 1,980 and Wipro shed 1.6% to Rs 531. Cement stocks were also hit as Gujarat Ambuja dipped 1.3% to Rs 109 and ACC, which was leading the advancers yesterday, dropped around 1% to Rs 979.