Dr Reddy’s Lab advanced, ending 1.43% higher to Rs 811 on the final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make generic drug for cholesterol tablets. ACC, cement maker, added 1% to Rs 1,085 and traded between Rs 1,072 and Rs 1,095.

Nissan Copper IPO finished at Rs 128.80, up 230% from the IPO price of Rs 39 on a volume of 7 crore shares.


The capital goods sector surged today, as companies like BEML gained 7.63% to Rs 1,015.60, Areva T&D rose 5.12% to Rs 1,043 and Jyoti Structures surged 5.10% to Rs 132.45.

Decliners

Hindustan Lever led the decliners, slipping 1.82% to Rs 216.30 while Reliance Communications was down 1.34% to Rs 471. Reliance Communications announced on Thursday, that it was still mulling over the opportunity to buy a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar. The acquisition cost may be as high as $21 billion.

Other major decliners included, Tata Motors 1.36% lower to Rs 893 and Gujarat Ambuja down 1.15% to Rs 141.90, while ONGC shed 1.20% to Rs 867. Reliance Industries dipped 0.52% to Rs 1,270 on 7.45 lakh shares. It hit an intraday high of Rs 1,288.40.

Stocks of private sector banks saw fresh buying interest but state run banks closed lower. Punjab National Bank shed 1.30% to Rs 506, Indian Overseas Bank came off 0.30% to Rs 111.70, Bank of Baroda slipped 1.82% to Rs 240.15 and HDFC Bank was down 0.86% to Rs 1,069.70. State Bank of India advanced, though, up 0.75% to Rs 1,245.35, Kotak Mahindra Bank was 5.35% higher to Rs 399.90 and Bank of India edged 0.80% higher to Rs 207.


9:30 AM London declined on Friday in thin trade on weak gas and oil stocks.
The FTSE 100 Index in London shed 20.1, or 0.3%, to 6220.80.

Advancers

Property groups shone again on their movement to real estate investment trust status on January 1, which should yield tax benefits. Persimmon, Land Securities and Hammerson were higher, 1.06%, 0.26% and 0.13% respectively. Amvescap Plc, owner of Aim and Invesco funds, gained 1.5%.

Decliners

BP, the second-largest oil company in Europe, shed 0.7%. Shell slipped 0.4%. The decline can be attributed to crude oil drop due to milder-than-average U.S. temperatures which outweigh concern about diminishing inventories in the US.

Vedanta Resources, the largest copper and zinc producer of India, gave up 0.3%. Copper futures in Shanghai were virtually unchanged on worries that high stocks and slowing economic growth in the U.S. and China will extend a three-month losing streak.

Scottish & Southern Energy declined 1.58% and financial stocks Northern Rock and Royal & Sun Alliance also declined, 0.76% and 1.13% respectively.

PartyGaming Plc dropped 0.8%. The biggest Internet poker company in the world has struck a deal to buy gambling Web sites from Empire Online Ltd. and Intercontinental Online Gaming Ltd.


9:00AM Stock futures pointed to a flat start, with Apple providing help.
U.S. stock market futures traded near the unchanged mark, as an advance by Apple Computer offset worries about an end-of-year sell-off. Trading volume was expected to be light on Friday, as most of the institutions are not going to trade. Investors expect the three major U.S. averages to post double-digit percentage gains for 2006, as it has been a very good year with generally strong economy.

Apple (AAPL: chart) jumped 4% to $84.15 before market opening as the company said in a regulatory filing with the SEC that CEO Steve Jobs was aware of certain favorable stock options grant dates, but did not personally benefit from improper option grants.

In other corporate news, AT&T (T: chart) offered additional concessions on Thursday to the Federal Communications Commission to win approval for its $85 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. (BLS: chart). Shares of Alltel Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. wireless operator, rose 3.2% on reports that private-equity firms are exploring the idea of a leveraged buyout for the company. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM: chart) filed a legal appeal challenging Alaska''s decision to start revoking leases for a natural gas field in the North Slope of the state. Standard & Poor''s 500 futures were up 0.2 points, about even with fair value. Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 8 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 3.5 points.