ICRA was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 391.80 crore followed by Tata Steel and debutant Dish TV.

IPO

Dish TV was trading at Rs 102.55 on BSE today. The stock debuted at Rs 120, which is its high so far. Dish TV reached as low as Rs 100. A huge 1.88 crore shares were traded on BSE. Stock exchanges have set Rs 115 as a base price for Dish TV to calculate 20% daily circuit filter on the first day of trading in the stock.

Advancers

NTPC led the gainers, soaring over 3% to Rs 162. The stock reached a high of Rs 163.55, which is an all-time high.. State banks extended gains, buoyed by data showing cooling of inflation for the week ended March 31 2007. SBI surged 2.6% to Rs 1,035, Andhra Bank rose 5% to Rs 82.75, Corporation Bank gained 3% to Rs 312, and Bank of India advanced 2.8% to Rs 188.25.

Wipro advanced over 2% to Rs 586. Telecom stocks gained on strong growth in new subscription additions in March 2007. Bharti Airtel rose 1.5% to Rs 813 and Reliance Communications gained 0.5% to Rs 435. ONGC, HDFC Bank and Cipla gained around 1.5% each to Rs 905, Rs 988 and Rs 233, respectively. Recently, ONGC had unveiled its expansion plans.

Index heavy Reliance Industries rose 0.6% to Rs 1,485, reaching a high of Rs 1,495, which is an all-time high. The stock has rallied this month after Chairman Mukesh Ambani had stated on Monday that the petrochemicals cycle was yet to reach its peak.

Cement large-cap ACC surged around 1.3% to Rs 817, bucking the overall downtrend in cement stocks.

Decliners

Tata Steel led decliners, plunging to a low of Rs 496, or 6% in the opening trades on concerns of equity dilution post the rights issue. The stock, managed to come back with a loss of only 3% at Rs 511. Tata Steel announced on Tuesday it will raise Rs 3655 crore, or $872 million, from a rights issue, to fund a $12-billion acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group. Tata Steel will offer a rights share at Rs 300 each in 1:5 ratio. The company also plans to raise Rs 4350 crore from the rights issue of preference shares.

Cement large-caps dipped on profit-taking. Grasim shed over 1% to Rs 2343 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements lost 0.7% to Rs 112.90. Cement stocks had rebounded from lower levels over the past few days on expectations of strong earnings season.

Auto stocks declined. Bajaj Auto lost 2% to Rs 2,497, having surged 4.2% in the past two trading sessions on reports that India will enjoy a healthy monsoon. Tata Motors shed 1.1% to Rs 722.


6:30AM European markets were lower on Wednesday on weak auto and construction stocks.

European markets were lower on Wednesday. The German DAX Xetra 30 index lost 0.6% at 7,305.77, the French CAC-40 index declined 0.4% at 5,836.89 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index slipped 0.3% at 6,476.00. National benchmarks declined in all of the 17 western European markets that were open except Denmark, Switzerland and Portugal.

Advancers

ASML Holding, the largest micro-chip equipment maker in Europe, gained 2.9% as its first-quarter net profit nearly doubled to 153 million euros, or $208 million, from 80 million euros a year earlier.

Swiss drug maker Roche Holdings announced that its first-quarter sales rose 16% in Swiss francs to 11.4 billion francs and also upgraded its 2007 earnings-per-share outlook. Pharmaceutical division sales grew 18% in Swiss francs to 9.14 billion francs, with key oncology, virology, transplantation, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis medicines contributing to strong growth. Roche upgraded its core earnings per share outlook to reflect expected growth above group sales growth. Shares advanced 2.2%.

Music company EMI Group gained 2.7% as it expects to report underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the year ended March 31 of around 174 million pounds, which it said is ahead of the market forecast.

Decliners