11:00AM New York, 8:30PM Mumbai – Traders in Mumbai focused on local news and lifted the index.

Sensex soared 2.89% or 417.51 to 14,842.38 after sharp rise in Asian market. In Mumbai, as in the rest of Asia, indexes rebounded on the optimism sparked by the housing report in the U.S. Weak credit markets in the U.S. led to volatility in the global markets and sharp declines in market averages around the world. CNX Nifty advanced 112.45 or 2.68% to 4,302.60.

Of the stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 2,050 stocks gained, 629 declined, and 54 were unchanged. Daily turnover declined to 3,489 crore rupees from 3,632 crore rupees. The turnover on the NSE rose to 8,896 crore rupees from 8,133 crore rupees. Of the 30 stocks in the index 28 gained and two stocks declined.


Offerings

The initial public offering of Take Solutions jumped 27% to 926 rupees from its price of 730 rupees. The 57 times oversubscribed IPO opened at 876 rupees and quickly reached its high for the day to 943 rupees.

Mecator Lines increased 2.3% to 54.75 rupees on the news that it plans to sell 30% stake in its Singapore subsidiary.

Gainers

State Bank of India led the gainers in the index with a rise of 6.6% to 1,563 rupees. The bank has agreed to acquire one of its seven affiliated banks State Bank of Saurashtra. ICICI Bank jumped 6% to 883 rupees. Smaller banks participated in the market rally as well. Federal Bank jumped 5.4% to 323.80 rupees and Kotak Mahindra increased 4.8% to 680 rupees. Indian Bank jumped 15% to 151 rupees.

Tata Steel jumped 3.7% to 604 rupees on the news that it plans to increase its steel production by 35 million tons to 61 million by the year 2015. L&T increased 3.9% to 2,539 rupees after the board approved international offering to raise $700 million.

Bajaj Auto jumped 2.8% to 2,295 rupees. The company plans to shift its production to Waluj from Akurdi location to take advantage of lower operating costs and sales tax. Tata Motors increased 3.4% to 680 rupees after the company Chairman Ratan Tata confirmed its interest in purchasing Jaguar and Land Rover divisions from Ford. Maruti Udyog jumped nearly 6% in the rally to 835 rupees.

NTPC added 2.4% to 167 rupees on the news that the company plans to sell 4.75% of its stake and increase public float of the company. Reliance Industries jumped 3.4% to 1,835 rupees. GMR infrastructure jumped 4% to 749 rupees after its subsidiary received order to build power project in Himachal Pradesh.

Real estate stocks jumped after trading volatile in the last two weeks. Parsvnath Developers gained 4.8% to 293 rupees after winning land development order for BEST, the local bus transportation operator in Mumbai.

Indiabulls Real Estate soared 11.5% to 497 rupees, Peninsula Land increased 11% to 464 rupees, and Unitech added 7.6% to 491 rupees.


09:45AM Wall Street opened lower ahead of housing data.

Wall Street opened Monday session in the negative ahead of existing-home sales report, expected to show continuous slow-down in the housing market.

Dow member Home Depot (HD: chart) rose 1.8% on news that owing to a slashed price it managed to salvage the takeover of its supply unit. The home improvement retailer agreed to sell off its wholesale-supply unit for $8.5 billion, which is $1.8 billion less than previously planned, signaling a harsh financing climate.

Another blue-chip stock, Altria Group (MO: chart), climbed 2% amid speculations that it is considering spinning off the overseas division of its cigarette business. At the same time, General Motors (GM: chart) weighed, posting a decline of 1.3%.