Down in the market, mid-cap Berkeley Group surged 1.1 per cen as the housebilder posted a 14% increase in annual profits. Another mid-cap, Sports Direct International, gained 1.6% after the retailer announced the $135 million purchase of Everlast, most famous for making boxing equipment.

Decliners

Real estate stocks kept their losing streak on worries about increasing interest rates and the US subprime mortgage market. Segro declined 4.2%, Hammerson shed 4% and Liberty International declined 2.8%.


9:00AM Wall Street to open higher on tame inflation data

U.S. stock futures indicated a positive market opening on Friday following a report which showed the lowest inflation reading since March 2004. The Commerce Department said that core consumer prices rose 0.1% in May, coming in line with expectations. Among pre-market highlights, Research In Motion (RIMM: chart) surged 20% after posting 73% earnings jump on strong BlackBerry sales.

Apple Inc. (APPL: chart) added 1.2% on news that it is set to begin sales of its widely anticipated iPhone device. Commerce Bancorp (CBH: chart) jumped 7% in electronic trade after the company said it had settled two federal regulatory probes. S&P 500 futures were up 2.3 points, above fair value. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 5 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 6.25 points


8:30AM Research in Motion topped earnings and revenue forecast.

Research in Motion (RIMM: chart) posted 73% net income profit jump of $223.2 million compared with $128.8 million last year. First-quarter earnings per share came in at $1.17, much higher than 67 cents the previous year. Quarterly results beat analyst expectations of $1.06 per share for the recent period.

Revenue for Q1 rose nearly 77%, coming in at $1.082 billion compared with $613.1 million last year. This also exceeded analyst estimates for revenue of $1.05 billion. The company contributed the robust quarterly earnings to strong BlackBerry sales. Company’s shares soared 19% in pre-market trading.


8:15AM Asian markets finish mixed with Japan higher and China, HK lower.

Asian markets ended mixed on Friday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average ended 1.2% higher at 18,138. Toshiba firmed up 3.9% and Takeda Pharmaceutical advanced 1.5% on strong sales guidance. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index shed 0.8% to close at 21,772. HBSC declined 0.7%, and China Mobile was down 1.1%, leading the decliners. Oil stocks finished mixed despite higher oil prices, as Cnooc finished up 0.6%, but Sinopec lost 0.8% and PetroChina was off 0.9%.

In China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dipped 2.4% to settle at 3,820. Insurance group Orient Group declined by the daily 10% limit, China Life Insurance lost 4% and Shanghai International Airport shed 4.3%. South Korean Kospi Index also declined 0.5% to 1,743. Hyundai Mipo Dockyard lost 2.7% and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shed 4.6%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 0.2% to 6,274. Resource stocks advanced with Alumina rising 2.8%, BHP Billiton ending up 0.4%, and Rio Tinto advancing 0.4%.


7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex zooms 146 points on a large-cap rally.

The Sensex on BSE finished 145.94 points higher, or 1.01%, at 14,650.51, just 73 points away from its all-time intra-day high of 14,724.

The market-breadth was very strong as there were 1,484 stocks which advanced, 1,107 which declined and 90 which were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 22 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,817 crore, slightly lower than Rs 4,848 crore on Thursday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 10,681 crore, much lower than Rs 12,193 crore on Thursday.

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