Reliance Industries was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 307 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate and Orbit Corp.

Advancers

Bajaj Auto and Grasim rallied over 2% each to Rs 2,491 and Rs 2,495, respectively. Grasim had risen 3.5% in early trade to Rs 2,529, supported by strong fourth-quarter results in fiscal 2007, which the company unveiled after trading hours on Wednesday. Grasim reported 80.5% growth in net profit and net sales surging 36.2%.

Information Technology large-caps neglected the surge of the rupee. Investors are worried that rising currency will lower profit margin. Wipro gained 1.3% to Rs 563 and TCS rose 1.5% to Rs 1,240. Refinery stocks also advanced. HPCL rose 3.6% to Rs 271.85, Indian Oil Corporation gained 4.3% to Rs 431 and BPCL advanced 2.9% to Rs 338.10. Hindustan Lever and TCS surged over 1.5% each to Rs 215 and Rs 1,240, respectively.

Decliners

Tata Steel led the decliners, dipping nearly 2% to Rs 560. Satyam declined 1.3 to Rs 460, while ONGC also lost 1.3% to Rs 960 on profit-taking. ICICI Bank shed 0.5% to Rs 957 as 3.4 lakh shares were traded on BSE.

Index heavy Reliance Industries dropped 0.2% to Rs 1,599. Reliance had gained 1.5% in early trade, to a record high of Rs 1,624.80. Reliance unveils fourth-quarter results today. Analysts expect between 2.8% to 9.9% growth in net profit in, between Rs 2,571.30 crore and Rs 2,749.50 crore, compared to Rs 2,502 crore a year earlier.


6:30AM European markets rise Thursday on strong earnings reports

European markets were higher on Thursday. The German DAX Xetra 30 index rose over the 7,400 level, up 0.8% at 7,401.89, and the French CAC-40 index was up 0.4% at 5,971.88, while the U.K. FTSE 100 index gained 0.6% at 6,498.10. National benchmarks rose in all of the 17 western European markets that were open.

Advancers

ABB led the advancers, up 5.8% in Switzerland after the Swiss-Swedish engineering firm, announced its first-quarter profit more than doubled to a stronger-than-forecast $537 million from $204 million, with revenue up 21% to $6.21 billion and orders up 26% to $8.64 billion.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer rose 3.7% after the company reported an above-forecast increase in first-quarter net profit to 2.8 billion euros, from 600 million euros a year ago.

France Telecom gained 2.9% after it reported that its first-quarter sales rose 1.8% to 12.8 billion euros. France Telecom said its gross operating margin increased to 36.3% from 36.2% on cost controls and confirmed its objectives for 2007.

German chemicals company BASF added 1.8% after its first-quarter profit climbed a better-than-forecast 9% to 1.04 billion euros, with sales up 16% to 14.63 billion euros.

German industrial company Siemens rose 1% after early losses. The company unveiled new financial targets, targeting a return on capital employed between 14% and 16% by 2010, up from the 10% achieved in fiscal 2006.

Decliners

Ericsson declined 0.4% after it announced that its first-quarter net income rose 27%, just below analyst forecasts. UBS downgraded the stock to neutral.

Electrolux sank 5.9%. The second-largest household appliances maker in the world said North American sales declined and raw-materials costs will erode full-year profit.

Oil and precious metals