11:30AM Stocks trade higher, despite weak home sales data. Oil majors gained.
Stocks continued to post gains Wednesday on the back of strong GDP growth in Q3, shrugging off weak home sales data. A report released by the Commerce Department showed 3.2% decline in new home sales, largely due to a steep drop in sales in the Northeast.

Oil companies moved higher, as crude oil prices gained nearly $1 after weekly petroleum data showed U.S. inventories fell more than expected. Exxon Mobil (XOM: chart) rose 1% and ConocoPhillips (COP: chart) rose 1.6%, leading the S&P 500 index higher. Significant strength also emerged in the pharmaceutical sector, with AstraZeneca (AZN: chart) helping to lead the sector higher, as the drug maker rose 3.7%. Shares of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK: chart) and Schering Plough (SGP: chart) were other notable advancers, each rising 3%.

The markets also benefited from strength among airline, internet, and retail stocks. Tiffany (TIF: chart) helped to lead the retail sector higher after the jewelry retailer said Q3 profit grew a stronger-than-expected 23% and raised its full-year guidance. The stock climbed 7%. Telecommunications stocks also posted strong gains, with Qwest (Q: chart), up 3.6%, America Movil (AMX: chart), up 3.2%, and BellSouth (BLS: chart), up 3.6% turning in some of the sector's best performances.

Among companies, driven by analyst comments, Shanda Interactive (SNDA: chart), developer of online games, jumped 8.4% after J.P. Morgan upgraded its rating on the stock to overweight from underweight. Shire (SHPGY: chart), specialty pharmaceutical company, rose 4% after HSBC Securities upgraded its rating on the company's stock to overweight from neutral. On the other hand, shares of Patterson (PDCO: chart), dental products distributor, dropped 2.6% after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform. In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.12, or 0.74%, to 12,226.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 12.08, or 0.87%, at 1,398.80, and the Nasdaq composite index added 22.74, or 0.94%, to 2,435.35. Bonds were mostly flat, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note edging lower to 4.51% from 4.50% late Tuesday.


Crude oil inventories and gasoline stockpiles declined.
Crude oil inventories ticked down in the most recent week, according to government statistics released Wednesday. This broke a recent streak of gains. Meanwhile, gasoline stockpiles also experienced a draw down, resuming a decline after an advance posted in the previous week. The Department of Energy''s Energy Information Administration said that crude oil inventories slipped 300,000 barrels in the week ended November 24. Specifically, the measure dipped to 340.8 million barrels from the previous week''s level of 341.1 million barrels. This broke a recent streak of gains, including an advance of 5.1 million barrels in the previous week and a gain of 1.3 million barrels in the week before that. Oil inventories for the November 24 week were 5.7% higher than last year. Meanwhile, gasoline inventories showed a week-over-week decline of 600,000 barrels. This followed an advance of 1.4 million barrels in the previous week, which broke a streak of declines. The level of gasoline inventories was 1.6% below last year. Distillate fuel oil had an inventory decline during the week ended November 24. Stockpiles of these products, which include heating oil, fell by 1 million barrels. This added to a decline of 1.2 million barrels in the previous week.

New home sales slumped 3.2% in October.
Wednesday morning, the Department of Commerce released its report on new home sales in the month of October, showing that sales fell after showing a notable increase in the previous month. The decrease was largely due to a steep drop in sales in the Northeast. The report showed that new home sales fell 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.004 million units in October from a downwardly revised September rate of 1.037 million units. Economists expected sales to fall to a 1.040 million unit rate from the 1.075 million unit rate originally reported for the previous month. With the downward revision to data from the previous months, new home sales rose 3.7 percent in September compared to the 5.3 percent increase that was reported last month.

As mentioned above, the decline in new home sales in October was due in large part to a steep drop in sales in the Northeast, which fell 39.0 percent compared to the previous month. New home sales in the Midwest fell 5.6 percent and sales in the South fell 1.7 percent, while sales in the West rose 3.2 percent. The report also showed that the median sales price of new houses sold in October of 2006 was $248,500, a 1.9 percent increase compared to October of 2005. The Commerce Department added that the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of October was 558,000, representing a supply of 7.0 months at the current sales rate.


10:30AM The Sensex finishes higher boosted by small-caps and mid-caps.
The Sensex on BSE finished 14.78 points or 0.1% higher at 13,616.73. The market breadth was extremely positive as out of 2,623 stocks traded, 1,658 advanced, 890 declined and 73 were unchanged today. For every three advancers, there were two decliners. From the Sensex stocks 16 declined while the rest advanced. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4388 crore compared to Rs 4161 crore on Tuesday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 8,083.89 crore lower than Rs 8,257.71 crore on Tuesday.

Economic news

The government yesterday issued second tranche of special bonds worth Rs 5,000 crore to oil marketing companies to help them offset losses due to high international crude prices.

Most active

Lanco Infrastructure was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 294.50 crore followed by Info Edge, Unitech, Action Constructions and Reliance Communications.

Advancers

Cement shares continued their recent move upwards on firm cement prices. ACC gained 3.6% to Rs 1,140, Gujarat Ambuja Cements advanced 2.3% to Rs 146.55 and Grasim gained 2% to Rs 2,770. Cigarette large-cap ITC advanced 2.5% to Rs 184.40.

Recently listed Lanco Infratech jumped 14% to Rs 267. The stock rose on huge volume of 1.1 crore shares on BSE.

Auto shares gained after the government today announced a cut of Rs 2 per litre in price of petrol and rupee one per litre in diesel. Bajaj Auto rose 1.1% to Rs 2,670, Tata Motors added 0.8% to Rs 817 and Maruti Udyog moved 0.6% higher to Rs 920.

Tyre shares rallied as natural rubber prices remained low. JK Industries gained nearly 5% to Rs 141.90, CEAT rose 4.4% to Rs 131.75, Apollo Tyres rose 4% to Rs 357 and MRF rose 2.7% to Rs 4612.

Torrent Power surged 20% to Rs 84.80. Distillation equipment maker Praj Industries gained 4% to Rs 195.20. BPO firm Tricom India soared 10% to Rs 123.60. On Monday, the company announced that it plans to build a new centre at Nashik with a recruitment of 400 freshers to its fold.