Other stocks which advanced included Hero Honda, up 1.4%, at Rs 700. Bharti Airtel, Dr.Reddy and ACC advanced around 1% each at Rs 833, Rs 657 and Rs 875, respectively.

Decliners

IT large-caps led the decliners on a stronger rupee against the dollar as any advance in the rupee directly influences revenue and profit of IT companies. Satyam shed 2% at Rs 452. Wipro dropped 1.8% to Rs 534. Infosys slipped 1.5% to Rs 1,973, and TCS was down 1% at Rs 1,237.

ONGC declined 1.8% to Rs 890. Index heavy Reliance Industries slipped 1.4% to Rs 1,598. Reliance was off from a high of Rs 1623.25 tracking reports that it has got a tax benefit of Rs 376.17 crore in 2002-03 because of unreasonable concessions due to under-assessment by tax authorities.

The other major decliners were Reliance Communications dropping 1.4% to Rs 475 and Bajaj Auto losing 1.2% at Rs 2,635.


6:30AM European markets inch lower Tuesday in subdued trading.

National benchmarks declined in 10 of 18 markets in western Europe. The U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.1% at 6,562.50 and the German DAX Xetra 30 index inched up less than 0.1% to 7,461.36. The French CAC-40 index slipped 0.2% at 6,015.82.

Advancers

Nokia led the gainers, up 3.9% on Monday, firming up as the world top mobile handsetmaker, after the groupannounced it was winning greater market share. Nokia envisages having more than 36% of the global cellphone market in the second quarter, benefiting from strong growth in emerging markets.

DaimlerChrysler gained 1.8% after the German carmaker sold 80.1% of its loss-making Chrysler unit for $7.4 billion to Cerberus, the private equity group. DaimlerChrysler strength lifted Renault, up 2.5%.

More talk about consolidation in the Italian banking sector pushed Capitalia up 1.4% on talks of an imminent bid from rival UniCredit, 0.9% higher.

Decliners

Atos Origin dropped 13.8% as the French IT company stated that all discussions regarding a possible sale of the business had been terminated. Atos will continue with its restructuring plans, moving more staff offshore. The group is expected to look for Asian acquisitions.

Alstom announced better-than-expected full-year results with net income up by 152% to 448 million euros. But the French transport and power group dipped 1.7% amid disappointment with guidance on future profit margins.

Endemol slipped 0.6% after Telefonica sold its remaining 75% stake in the television production company which makes Big Brother for 2.63 billion euros to a consortium which include Mediaset.

Deutsche Postbank fell 1.1% amid disappointment at its first-quarter results which came in below consensus expectations.

Merck KGaA eased 0.7% after agreeing to sell its generics division to Mylan Laboratories of the US for 4.9 billion euros.

Commodities

Gold for immediate delivery shed $1.20, or 0.2%, to $668.55 an ounce, while silver for immediate delivery lost 3 cents, or 0.2%, to $13.13 an ounce. Aluminum for immediate delivery in London yesterday fell 1.9%, copper fell 3.1 %, lead, 0.6%, nickel, 2.6%, and zinc, 2.6%.