SBI and ITC surged 2% each to Rs 1,407 and Rs 165, respectively. SBI rallied on a likely government decision to buy from RBI 59.7% stake of the Reserve Bank in SBI in a deal worth Rs 40,000 crore.

Other banks also advanced in sympathy. ICICI Bank finished 0.6% higher at Rs 933 and HDFC bank ended over 1% higher at Rs 1,165. NTPC and Dr.Reddy''s gained 1% each at Rs 160 and Rs 655, respectively.

Decliners

Tata Motors lost nearly 5% to Rs 711.The company announced that sales were down 4% to 42,558 units May 2007 and commercial vehicle sales dipped to 20,675 units in May 2007 from 21,903 units in May 2006. Passenger vehicle sales declined 3% at 17,580 units in May 2007. Grasim lost 3.2% to Rs 2,440 and BHEL shed 3% to Rs 1,372.

IT stocks dipped on the sustained rupee appreciation. Satyam lost 2.3% to Rs 467, TCS was down 1.2% to Rs 1,204 and Infosys was off 1% to Rs 1,916. Index heavy Reliance Industries lost 0.6% to Rs 1,750.


6:30AM European markets are higher Monday on Segro and Vodafone.

European markets are higher on Monday. By mid-day, the German DAX Xetra traded up 0.2% at 8,005.18, a high not reached since March 2000, the French CAC-40 index lost 0.2% at 6,158.41 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index added 0.1% at 6,684.20.

Advancers

U.K. real estate investment company Segro, known before as Slough Estates, supported the U.K. index with a 1.1% share increase, after it said that it is selling Slough Estates USA, a life sciences real estate business, to Health Care Property Investors.

Vodafone Group, the world largest mobile-phone company, climbed 0.5% also helping the market. The German group ThyssenKrupp rose 2% and helped German XetraDax to rise.

Decliners

Insurance company AXA lost 0.1% after it said that it intends to withdraw form the Netherlands market by selling its operations there to SNS Reaal for 1.75 billion euros, or $2.35 billion.

J.P. Morgan downgraded the European investment banking sector to underweight from neutral and also reduced Deutsche Bank to underweight from neutral and BNP Paribas to neutral from overweight. Deutsche Bank shares shed 0.6%, while BNP Paribas lost 0.7%.

Commodites

Crude oil fell in New York, breaking three days of gains, on speculation the U.S. will have enough gasoline to meet summer demand. Crude oil for July delivery fell 55 cents, or 0.9%, to $64.53 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for July settlement fell 18 cents to $68.89 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

Gold for immediate delivery dropped $1, or 0.2%, to $670.75 an ounce. Silver fell 2.5 cents, or 0.2%, to $13.675 an ounce after advancing 52.5 cents the two previous trading sessions.

Currencies

The dollar fell slightly against the euro Monday, with traders looking to interest rate decisions in Frankfurt and London. The euro bought $1.3447 in morning trading compared with $1.3443 in New York late Friday. The British pound rose to $1.9835 from $1.9821 with sentiment gaining that the Bank of England would keep its rate unchanged from 5.25% when it meets Thursday. In Japan, the dollar fell to 122 Japanese yen from 122.06 late Friday.