8:00AM NY -7:00PM Mumbai Sensex advances Thursday on a rally in tech and banking stocks.

The Sensex on BSE rallied today, finishing 133.08 points, or 0.92%, higher at 14,544.46, which is its highest close since February 9 2007.

The market-breadth was strong as 1,333 stocks advanced, while 1,154 declined and 78 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 22 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,430 crore, lower than Rs 5,303 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 11,963 crore, higher than Rs 11,123 crore on Wednesday.

Economic news

Indian GDP growth is the fastest in 18 years and stood at 9.4% in the fiscal 2007, ended March, topping government estimates of 9.2%. In the January-March period the GDP growth was 9.1% with services, exports and manufacturing developing most rapidly.

India refused to buy 1 million tons of wheat from the world market and will wait for a better price to come from future harvests in U.S., EU and Australia. India is expected to buy around 5 million tons of wheat, which will amount to a huge difference even considering a small change of price of a few dollars.

The government today put off issuing an approval for Mukesh Ambany’s Special Economic Zone. The decision was postponed over a controversial issue connected with the enclosure of five villages.

Trading highlights

MIC Electronics was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 252.30 crore followed by India Infoline and Unitech.

Advancers

Hero Honda rallied 5% to Rs 733. Hero Honda promoted eight new models last fiscal year and will continue with this policy this fiscal year. HDFC Bank soared 3.2% to Rs 1,140. Other banks also joined the rally. ICICI Bank was up 0.99% to Rs 920 and the State Bank of India advanced 2.1% to Rs 1,352.

Maruti surged 2.6% to Rs 824. Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel surged around 2% each to Rs 758 and Rs 848, respectively. IT stocks advanced today on a new buying interest after they declined in the previous sessions. Wipro moved up 1.6% to Rs 545. Cipla added 1.4% to Rs 218.

Decliners

Engineering large-cap BHEL went ex-bonus today, opening at Rs 1,400, but then declining to a low of Rs 1,351. The stock surged to a high of Rs 1,435, before ending at Rs 1,380. the bonus ratio stood at 1:1. BHEL was the worst performing stock on BSE today.

Other decliners included Gujarat Ambuja shed 1.7% to Rs 113, and NTPC slipped 1.2% to Rs 158. Dr Reddy’s declined 0.8% to Rs 649 and ACC lost 0.7% to Rs 856.

6:30AM European markets advance in early trade Thursday on E.On, Iberdrola.

European markets advanced on Thursday. In early trading, the German DAX Xetra 30 index added 1% to 7,844.36, the U.K. FTSE 100 index gained 0.7% at 6,645.10, while the French CAC-40 index advanced 0.7% at 6,084.08. National benchmarks advanced in all 17 western European markets open except for Ireland.

Advancers

German utility giant E.On traded 5.5% higher the highest in ten years time after announcing late Wednesday that it intends to buy back at least 10% of its own shares by the end of 2008. It also intends to raise dividends by 10%-20% a year on average by 2010.

Iberdrola advanced 3.2% after Albert Frere announced he had purchased 5 % sake of second- largest power company in Spain. Frere investment companies stated late yesterday they paid 2.2 billion euros for the stake.