New issue Time Technoplast was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 636.30 crore followed by Reliance and Nestle. Time Technoplast ended at Rs 480.35 on BSE, 53% over the IPO price of Rs 315.

Advancers

Dr.Reddy''s surged 2.7% to Rs 628 and was the best performing stock in the Sensex. The stock rallied after Credit Suisse increased its rating to outperform from neutral. Satyam surged 1.7% to Rs 486. All other major IT stocks declined, though.

Tata Motors advanced 0.7% to Rs 646, Hindalco Industries advanced 0.6% to Rs 160 and Cipla edged 0.1% higher to Rs 208.

Decliners

SBI led the decliners, down 3.2% to Rs 1,289. The bank declined on worries of a possible interest rate hike by RBI in the wake of the strong industrial production data for April. Other banks also lost. ICICI Bank dipped almost 1% to Rs 910. The bank announced today it had moved forward documents to raise up to Rs 8,750 crore, or $2.1 billion, in India in a sale of shares as part of a programme to raise up to $5 billion both in India and the U.S.

Reliance Communications lost 2.5% at Rs 486 and Hindustan Unilever and Larsen & Toubro sank nearly 2% each to Rs 186 and Rs 1,871, respectively. Tata Steel eased from high of Rs 611 and was down 1.3% to Rs 595. Index heavy Reliance Industries slipped 1.5% to Rs 1,674.

Except for Satyam, all other major IT stocks declined. TCS was down 1% to Rs 1,202, Infosys lost 0.4% to Rs 1,980 and Wipro shed 1.6% to Rs 531. Cement stocks were also hit as Gujarat Ambuja dipped 1.3% to Rs 109 and ACC, which was leading the advancers yesterday, dropped around 1% to Rs 979.


6:30AM European stocks decline on Wednesday on interest rate fears.

European markets declined on Wednesday. The U.K. FTSE 100 index slipped 0.1% at 6,513.10, the German DAX Xetra 30 index declined 0.5% at 7,643.90 and the French CAC-40 index lost 0.3% at 5,879.90. National benchmarks fell in all 17 western European Markets that were open.

Advancers

Alliance & Leicester gained 0.9% after it upgraded core operating profit for 2007 at the top end of the forecast range as it also named finance director David Bennett as its next CEO.

Spanish clothing chain Inditex gained 1.7% after its first-quarter net profit rose 33% to 200 million euros, with sales up 19% to 2.0 billion euros. Profit of 185 million euros had been expected from the owner of the Zara and Massimo Dutti clothing chains.

Decliners

Allianz, the largest insurer in the region, slid 0.8 percent and Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, fell 0.8 percent.

Utilities fell, being most sensitive to interest rate hikes. British Energy, whose nuclear reactors can produce about a fifth of the electricity in the U.K., slipped 1.3 percent. RWE AG, Germany second-largest utility, shed 1.1 percent.

Construction companies also suffered. Bouygues, the second-biggest construction company in the world, fell 2 percent. Skanska AB, No. 3 construction company in Europe, dropped 1.6 percent. Acciona SA, Spain fourth-biggest construction company, slid 3 percent.

Oil and gold

Crude oil traded little changed in New York on talks U.S. gasoline stockpiles advanced for a sixth straight week as refiners increased output. Oil for July delivery was down 19 cents at $65.16 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.