5:00PM NY – 11:00PM Frankfurt – 3:30AM Mumbai
Latin American and Asian Markets led the rise in global stock markets. Sustained prices of oil, metals, iron ore and agricultural exports supported markets in Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. India rose on higher GDP growth and China sustained export growth.

Yield on 10-year bond closed at 4.704% and the 30-year bond closed at 4.813%.

Gold gained $1.40 to close at $638.30 a troy ounce, silver increased 4.5 cents to end at $12.985 a troy ounce and copper lost 4.25 cents to close at 285.25 cents per pound.

Oil advanced 47 cents to close at $61 a barrel and heating oil declined 2.520 cents to finish at 159.790 cents a gallon. Gasoline was down 4.02 cents to end at 154.190 cents a gallon. Natural gas advanced 5.2 cents to close at $6.300 per mBtu.

Asian markets closed mostly higher led by Philippines with a gain of 1.33%, Taiwan with an increase of 1.17% and Singapore with an advance of 0.75%. The decliners were India with a decrease of 0.43%, Hong Kong with a loss of 0.19% and Thailand with a decline of 0.08%.Australia hit a record high as investors snapped up blue chips.

European markets closed lower with the banking sector in focus on the last trading of the year after ABN Amro announced U.S. job cuts and Credit Agricole said it will issue discounted shares to help fund the acquisition of bank branches in Italy. The decliners were led by Netherlands with a loss of 0.37%, U.K. with a decrease of 0.32% and Germany with a decline of 0.23%. The advancers were Belgium with a gain of 0.49% and France with an increase of 0.15%.

Latin America markets closed mostly higher led by Mexico with again of 0.46% and Canada with an increase of 0.22%. The only decliner was Brazil with a decrease of 0.12%, while Argentina finished flat.

12:30PM NY – 6:30PM Frankfurt
Global markets gained in the year. Asian and Latin American markets led world markets in the year.

Markets around the world closed higher, led by a steep rise in Peru, Vietnam, Venezuela, China, Russia and India. Middle Eastern markets fell despite higher crude oil prices. Peru registered a gain of more than 180%, Vietnam rose 130%, Venezuela advanced more than 140%, China surged 101%, Russia jumped 65% and India added 47% for the year. Rising prices of copper, iron ore and oil helped stocks markets in the countries exporting commodities. Markets in the Saudi Arabia suffered a sharp fall of 53% and in UAE fell 40%.

The three popular indexes in the U.S. have scored double digit gains for the year. S&P500 is up 14%, Nasdaq is up 10% and Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 175.

Market averages are trading near the unchanged level in New York. In the day’s trading Apple Computer (AAPL: chart) is up 5% or $4.10 to $84.95. The company said that the CEO Steve Jobs was awarded stock options worth $84 million at a board meeting that did not occur. Mr. Jobs never cashed the options. The company investigation found no wrong doing by Mr. Jobs. The stock rose on the news.

10:30 AM The Sensex declined on Friday on last-minute selling pressure.

The Sensex on BSE finished 59.43 points, or 0.43%, lower to 13,786.91. Despite the loss, the market-breadth was strong as 1,386 shares advanced, 1,233 shares declined and 71 shares were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex , 22 declined while the rest advanced. The turnover on BSE was Rs 3,419 crore, lower than Rs 4,193 crore on Thursday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 7,556.12 crore, much lower than Rs 9,966.62 crore on Thursday.

Economic news

The annual Wholesale Price Index in India advanced to 5.43% in the week ending December 16, higher than the previous week increase of 5.32%.

The best performing large-cap stocks in the year 2006 were cement maker ACC Ltd. and Grasim Industries which gained more than 100%, while Reliance Industries Ltd. advanced almost 89% over the year.

In trade today

Nissan Copper IPO was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 556 crore followed by Indiabulls, Tech Mahindra and Reliance Industries.

Advancers

Tata Steel led the advancers, gaining 1.76% to Rs 484.90 on hopes that there will be further consolidation in the steel industry. Ratan Tata, Tata group chairman, said in an interview that the Tata group sees a limit to how far it can stretch to buy Anglo-Dutch steel-maker Corus Group Plc without any damage done to shareholders.