Economic news
The government may consider fiscal measures to ease pressure on the prices of non-food articles, as it did for petrol and diesel. It is also looking at higher imports of food products such as pulses to tame inflation.
The government on Tuesday asked all domestic airlines not to impose Rs 150 surcharge being levied for traffic congestion in airports. Major domestic airlines such as Kingfisher, Jet and Air Sahara had last week decided to impose a congestion surcharge of Rs 150 per ticket, with effect from December 1st.
Advancers
Tata Steel led the gainers, up 5.60% to Rs 494.25 on 16.75 lakh shares. The company announced on Monday, it had signed an agreement with Nippon Yasen Kabushiki Kaisha to form a 50:50 shipping joint venture.
Index heavy Reliance Industries advanced 1.50% to Rs 1,279. The stock had opened with huge upward gap at Rs 1,350, a new intra-day high. Last Friday, the company said, that its hydrotreater plant at Jamnagar refinery, which was partially damaged in a fire on October 25th, has been refurbished and has started functioning.
Reliance Communications rose 3.67% to Rs 459.10 after reports suggested the company has invited bids for 90-100 million cellular lines valued at $7-8 billion.
Metal stocks advanced buoyed by intense buying interest. Major gainers from the sector were Ispat Industries advancing 1.82% to Rs 11.20, Hindustan Copper jumping 5% to Rs 102.25, Maharashtra Seamless surging 3.43% to Rs 482.15, Sesa Goa adding 2.22% to Rs 1,288, Hindalco edging up 1.33% to Rs 175.70, Jindal Stainless gaining 3.67% to Rs 124.40 and SAIL rising 2.45% to Rs 87.90.
IT surged as buying interest resumed in the sector. IT heavy Infosys Technologies advanced 1.39% to Rs 2,236 after its ADR rose 2.7% on Monday to $54.42. Other IT advancers were Wipro up 0.42% to Rs 592.80, i-flex surging 4% to Rs 1,768, HCL Technologies adding up 1.92% to Rs 635 and Satyam Computers notching up 0.38% to Rs 460.
Sugar stocks surged for the second straight day on speculation that export ban may be lifted shortly. Bajaj Hindustan was up 4.51% to Rs 258.45, Balrampur Chini Mills gained 3.10% to Rs 91.75, and Bannari Amman Sugars advanced 2.62% to Rs 842.
Decliners
Gujarat Ambuja led the decliners, down 1.66% to Rs 142 on 13.08 lakh shares. Its November 2006 cement despatches increased 9% to 1.31 million tonnes. HDFC was off 1.48% to Rs 1,600, Grasim declined 1.45% to Rs 2,745 and HDFC Bank was down 1.41% to Rs 1,085.
From the stocks not part of the Sensex, Eicher Motors lost 2.87% to Rs 391 despite reporting 38% rise in November 2006 sales to 2,201 units. Bharat Earth Movers lost 1.21% to Rs 1,023.55 and Era Constructions slipped 0.18% to Rs 516.30.
9:45AM Stocks opened little changed, following wage inflation report.
U.S. stocks opened little changed on Tuesday as traders digested a report from the Labor Department that showed modest Q3 productivity growth but significant downward revisions Q3 and Q2 unit labor costs. In deal news, Japan''s tire company Bridgestone Corp. said its North America subsidiary will buy Bandag Inc., a maker of tire tread rubber, for about $1.05 billion in cash. Under terms of the deal, Bridgestone Americas Holding will pay $50.75 per share for an almost 13% premium over Bandag''s Monday closing price of $45.04 on the Nymex. Bandag (
BDG: chart) rose 12% to $50.40 in morning trading. In other corporate news, Yum Brand Inc. (
YUM: chart) unit Taco Bell said it had closed four restaurants in New York after a suspected E. coli outbreak at one of its New Jersey outlets sickened a dozen people. Its shares declined 1.1%.
Among other early movers, Ford Motor Co. (
F: chart) shares fell 3.7% after it announced plans for a $3 billion convertible bond sale. Shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (
SIRI: chart) fell 7.4% to $3.86 after Bear Stearns cut its rating on the stock. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 4.89, or 0.04%, to 12,288.74. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was up 1.05, or 0.07%, at 1,410.17, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 1.65, or 0.07%, at 2,446.74. Bonds were little changed, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note flat at 4.43% from late Monday.
9:30AM The FTSE 100 advanced slightly in early trading Tuesday on miners.
In early trade, the
FTSE 100 rose 25.1 points, or 0.4% to 6,075.7. Antofagasta led the gainers, up 3.7%. Bid talk has been ongoing in the mining sector in recent weeks since the acquisition of Phelps Dodge. Lonmin and Antofagasta have been the key beneficiaries. The Chile-based group is a pure copper play and copper prices have held up while others have weakened in recent weeks.
Advancers
ICAP, the inter-dealer broker, rose 3.9% after it said it had bought 2 million ordinary shares.The group said it had more than sufficient capital to continue to develop its businesses.
