The wholesale price index in India advanced 6.39% in the 12 months to 24 March, down from the increase in the previous week of 6.46 but slightly above a forecast of 6.29%.

The group of ministers on special economic zones, which met today, decided to end compulsory land acquisition by state governments for special economic zones and limited their size to 5,000 hectares. The ministers also cleared 83 special economic zones with no disputes and increased their processing area to 50% of the land size.

The largest commercial bank in India, State Bank of India, intends to raise its interest rates next week tracking the RBI move to lift the cash reserve ratio and a key rate last Friday.

Telecom regulator TRAI ruled out mandatory sharing of infrastructure among mobile operators, proposing instead allowing active networks like antennae, feeder, cables and transmission equipments to be shared among them.

Trading highlights

Indiabulls Real Estate was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 176 crore followed by MindTree and IFCI.

Advancers

Tata Steel led the advancers, soaring over 6% to Rs 465 as steel companies have hiked product prices. Tata Steel crude steel production for the year 2006-07, crossed 5 million tons. The production of hot metal touched 5.55 million tons, crude steel at 5.05 million tons and saleable steel at 4.93 million tons. Reliance Energy surged 2.7% to Rs 501.

The cement sector advanced after dropping on Wednesday, as buying was intense at lower levels. The fall came after the government announced a reduction in import duties. Today Grasim rallied 2.4% to Rs 2,113. Gujarat Ambuja Cements was up 1.10% to Rs 106.10, ACC added 1.06% to Rs 722, and UltraTech Cement Company ended up 2.26% to Rs 693.

ICICI Bank and HDFC advanced over 2% each to Rs 839 and Rs 1,530, respectively, while HDFC Bank gained almost 2% at Rs 943. Cipla advanced nearly 1.5% at Rs 233. Maruti, Hindalco and SBI added 1.3% each to Rs 756, Rs 132 and Rs 948, respectively.

Decliners

Dr.Reddy''s led the decliners, down 2% to Rs 729. Hero Honda shed 1.8% to Rs 632, and NTPC dropped 1.4% to Rs 159. NTPC posted a net profit of Rs 6,726.4 crore in 2006-07 as against Rs 5,820.2 crore in the previous fiscal, an increase of 15.57%. Index heavy Reliance Industries was down 0.4% to Rs 1,257.55 on 3.50 lakh shares. It moved in a range of Rs 1,368.90 –1,353.10.


6:30AM European stocks were lower despite merger and acquisition speculation.
European markets were lower on Thursday. By mid-morning, Frankfurt Xetra Dax was flat at 7,076.62, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2% to 5,730.12 and London FTSE 100 was flat at 6,363.4. National benchmarks fell in 13 of the 15 markets in western Europe that were open.

Advancers

Safran SA curbed declines today after it was reported the company and Thales SA, Europe largest defense-electronics company, may revive plans to merge. Safran gained 4%, while Thales was 0.3% higher.

Takeover talk lifted French construction group Eiffage 0.8% after Spanish rival Sacyr Vallehermoso, recently linked to an Eiffage bid, announced it was increasing its stake closer to the one-third level that would trigger a mandatory takeover bid.

Air France-KLM Group advanced 3.7%. Europe biggest airline may join Aeroflot and UniCredit in bidding for a stake in Alitalia, even though the deadline for new bidders has passed, as stated by Italian Industry Minister Periluigi Bersani.

Decliners

Volvo fell 3.2 % after chief executive Leif Johansson stated acquisitions would continue to make up half of the targeted 10 % annual growth of the company.