Cement stocks advanced on hopes of continued strong demand and a rise in retail prices on the back of a boom in construction activity. ACC rose1.01% to Rs 1,017 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements moved 3.29% higher to Rs 127.25. Other cement stocks also rose. Shree Cement gained 5.25% to Rs 1279.40, JK Lakshmi Cement spurted 3.37% to Rs 151.75 and India Cements was up 0.67% to Rs 224.70.

Cipla gained 2.95% to Rs 263.50 after it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug administration for selling insomnia drug zolpidem tartrate in the tablet form.

Index heavy Reliance Industries surged 1.56% to Rs 1,307. It had hit an all-time high of Rs 1,315.90 on strong buying demand.

Software developer i-flex solutions gained 2.54% to Rs 1,573 on market talks that Oracle Corporation would improve the open offer price to purchase shares in the Indian company. In September, Oracle had offered to buy 16.629 million shares of i-flex solution, or 20%, at Rs 1,475 a share.

Indiabulls Financial Services gained 2.58% to Rs 476.60 after its unit received in-principle approval from the federal government to develop a multi-product special economic zone in Maharashtra.

Zinc producer, Hindustan Zinc jumpe 2.69% to Rs 940 after it lifted zinc prices by Rs 1,200 a tonne, or by 0.54% to Rs 2,23,000 with immediate effect.

Decliners

ONGC led the decliners, down 2.55% to Rs 855 on 4.73 lakh shares. It had plunged to a low of Rs 853.20, while its high of the day was at Rs 895. Auto stocks were under selling pressure. Bajaj Auto lost 2% to Rs 2,784 and Maruti Udyog sank 2.39% to Rs 951. SBI fell 1.71% to Rs 1,107.05 and Satyam fell 1.13% to Rs 421.15.

Other news

Lakshmi N. Mittal was today appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Arcelor Mittal, which was born out of a merger between Mittal Steel and Luxembourg-based Arcelor in June.


9:45AM Merger deals boosted market at opening.
U.S. stocks advanced at opening, boosted by a series of corporate deals in the health-care sector. Abbott Laboratories Inc. (ABT) said it will acquire Kos Pharmaceuticals (KOSP) for $3.7% billion. Abbott shares fell 1%, while Kos shares soared 54%. Drug wholesaler McKesson (MCK) said it will acquire rival healthcare concern Per-Se Technologies Inc. Shares of McKesson rose 1% to $49.02 while Per-Se Technologies soared 13%. Four Seasons Hotel (FS) surged 31% after the hotel chain said it received a $3.7 B takeover offer from investors, including Saudi prince and Bill Gates.

The brokerage sector turned in one of the market''s best performances, reversing from a considerable weakness last week. Jefferies (JEF) and Charles Schwab (SCHW) led the sector higher, with both brokers rising more than 2 %. Significant strength also emerged in the networking sector, with Alcatel (ALA) and Cisco (CSCO) posting notable gains. Airline stocks also moved higher in early trading, despite an increase by the price of oil. In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 69.96, or 0.58%, to 12,056.00. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was up 9.90, or 0.73%, at 1,374.20, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 27.84, or 1.19%, to 2,358.63. Bonds fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.73% from 4.71% late Friday.


9:30AM The FTSE 100 advances in early trading Monday on M&A, metals
The FTSE 100 in London gained 45.8 points, or 0.7%, to 6,193.9.

Advancers

With metal prices rising, Vedanta Resources rose 1.8%, BHP Billiton firmed 1.8% and Kazakhmys gained 1.8%.

Ladbrokes firmed 0.5%, 888 jumped 7.7% while fellow internet gamer PartyGaming was 4.6% higher on hopes it could still get involved.

EMI Group, the music company, advanced 2.5% amid speculation that a management buy-out was on the cards.

Whitbread firmed 0.6% on press reports that Starwood Capital had acquired a 3% stake in the leisure group. The rumours lifted hopes of a takeover by the US property company.