10:30AM The Sensex gained Friday on heavy buying and lower inflation.
The Sensex on BSE finished 127.36 points, or 0.9%, higher at 13,614.52. The market-breadth was strong. As 1,549 shares advanced on BSE, 1,007 declined and 71 shares were unchanged. For every three advancers there were two decliners. From the Sensex 30 stocks, 23 advanced and the 7 declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,150 crore, lower than Rs 4,415 crore on Thursday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 8,727.03 crore, higher than Rs 8,086.76 crore on Thursday.

Economic news

Weekly inflation decreased to 5.16% for the last week in November comppared to 5.3% a week ago.

Tata Motors and Fiat will invest over Rs 4,000 crore in a joint venture to produce cars and engines and possibly trucks. The yearly capacity is viewed to be more than 100,000 cars and 200,000 engines and transmissions and production will commence from the beginning of 2008.

Most-active stocks

Suzlon was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 259 crore followed by Zee Tele and Reliance Communciations.

Advancers

Metal shares rallied supported by a surge in metal prices on London Metal Exchange. Tata Steel soared 5.5% to Rs 459 on 27.3 lakh shares traded on BSE. Hindalco also rallied almost 4% to Rs 177.95, buoyed by firm global copper prices.

Reliance Communications added 4% to Rs 466, on reports that the company is after Hutchison’s India operations. Some IT stocks also gained significantly, on the back of overnight gains in their ADRs. Satyam Computer advanced 3% to Rs 481.70, after its ADR gained 3.6% to $23.79. Infosys added 1.8% to Rs 2,239, as its ADR rose 2.1% to $55.20.

Banks were upbeat on retreating inflation data. Canara Bank soared 9.9% to Rs 291.90, Bank of Baroda gained 4.7% to Rs 246 and Bank of India advanced 4.4% to Rs 193.25. State Bank of India also added 3% to Rs 1,261. The Standing Committee on Finance has endorsed the proposed legislative amendment to reduce State Bank of India shareholding in subsidiaries from 55% to 51%.

Cement stocks were also in focus. ACC rose 2.2% to Rs 1,055. ACC has approved an expenditure of about Rs 1,480 crore to upgrade the capacity of the New Wadi plant, by about 3 million tonnes per annum. Grasim gained 2.9% to Rs 2,741, continuing its recent advance. Gujarat Ambuja Cements was up 0.6% to Rs 139.50 in volatile trade. Gujarat Ambuja Cements announced on Friday that it has approved Rs 1,520 crore to add cement capacity by 3 million tonnes per annum.

Tata Motors advanced 0.5% to Rs 857.60, following its deal with Fiat but auto stocks finished mixed. Cigarette major ITC shed 1.7% to Rs 173.85.

Decliners

The major decliners included NTPC shedding 1.7% to Rs 143, ITC slipping 1.4% to Rs 175 and Wipro declining 1% at Rs 564. Wipro sank, even as its ADR gained 3.2% to $15.60 overnight.

Index heavy Reliance Industries fell 0.7% to Rs 1,252.55, as trading in the stock was quite in volatile. There are reports that Reliance Industries has paid Rs 444 crore towards the third installment of advance tax due 15 December 2006.

Suzlon Energy declined 0.70% to Rs 1,302, even after three block deals were cut in the stock on BSE.


9:45AM Stocks rallied on economic data.
U.S. stocks opened higher, extending rally on tame inflation in November and industrial production increase. The Labor Department showed that consumer prices unexpectedly came in unchanged in November. Another government report showed that industrial production rose 0.2% in November, the first increase in two months, amid increased output by automobile makers. The economic data prompted that the economy is slowing at a reasonable pace and that inflation was in check.

In early trading, significant strength emerged in the housing sector, lifted by optimism that the inflation data could lead the Fed Reserve to cut interest rates early next year. Lowe’s Companies ((LOW), home improvement retailer, gained 1% as it was upgraded to outperform from peer perform at Bear Stearns. Among tech stocks, Adobe Systems (ADBE: chart) rose 5% after it posted Q4 earnings in line with estimates, while revenue was above expectations. Ciena Corp. (CIEN: chart) rose 4% after Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock of the telecommunications-equipment provider to buy from hold. The upgrade came a day after the company posted its first quarterly profit in five years.

Among other movers, E-Trade Financial Corp. (ET: chart) gained 2% after it projected earnings for 2007 in line with estimates. The company also said it will move its stock market listing to Nasdaq from the NYSE. On the losers'' side, Black & Decker (BDK: chart) dropped 6% after forecasting Q4 earnings below estimates. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 38.85, or 0.31%, at 12,455.61. The increase comes a day after the Dow rose nearly 100 points, closing above 12,400 for the first time. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was up 4.26, or 0.30%, at 1,429.75, and the Nasdaq composite index was up 13.20, or 0.54%, at 2,467.05.