12:30PM NY In New York trading stock are on the decline on lower than expected revenue guidance from Merck, railroad and tech stocks are lower on broker comments.

Sotcks are in decline after rising steadily for the lst three days and S&P500 reaching six-year high this week. Traders remained focused on weekly jobless report to be released this week. Private payroll based report from ADP stated that the private sector in the U.S. added 158,000 jobs in November. Weekly report from Energy Department showed that crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventory declined last week but remain well above normal level.

Ford Motor (F: chart) dropped 4% or 17 cents on the report that the company boosted by 50% its planned sales of unsecured convertible bonds to $4.5 billion.

Oracle (ORCL: chart) dropped 90 cents or 4.7% on the downgrade and negative comments from Lehman Bros. The semiconductor equipment maker Novellus Systems (NVLS: chart) dropped $1.60 on sell recommendation from Goldman Sachs.

Yahoo (YHOO: chart) dropped more than 3% on the management reshuffle and continued worries on its soon to be released new search platform code named Panama.

Ciena (CIEN: chart) jumped 5% or $1.70 on the news that Verizon Business is to use company network techology for its trans-Atlantic network.

10:30AM The Sensex advances modestly on Wednesday in a volatile trade.
The Sensex on BSE finished 11.35 points, or 0.08%, higher to 13,949. The market-breadth was very weak. For every three decliners there were two advancers. As 1,642 shares declined, 929 shares advanced and 57 shares remained unchanged. From the Sensex stocks, 16 advanced while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,545.28 crore as compared to Rs 4,779 crore on Tuesday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 8,702.49 crore, lower than Rs 8,799.39 crore on Tuesday.

Economic news

India has no plans to do away import duties on cement or ban exports as prices have stabilised after a strong rally earlier this year, a junior industry minister announced on Wednesday.

Most-active

Parsvnath Developers was the most-active stock on BSE with a total turnover of Rs 194.86 crore, followed by Atlanta and Reliance Industries.

Advancers

Ranbaxy Laboratories led the advancers, up 1.61% to Rs 391.20, on a volume of 2.70 lakh shares. ICICI Bank gained 1.23% to Rs 873, after the private sector bank on Tuesday on the offices expansion in Bangkok, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, to capitalise on a rise in cross-border deals. With the new offices, ICICI Bank will have a presence in 17 countries.

Bharti Airtel added 1.13% to Rs 646. Reports say that Vodafone Group Plc is ready to upgrade its stake in the telecom firm. Tata Consultancy Services rose 0.58% to Rs 1,195 on reports that it has won a five-year outsourcing contract from United Biscuits of Britain.

Satyam Computer advanced 0.40% to Rs 463, due to a 3.4% surge in ADR on Tuesday to $24.42. Logix Microsystems rose 0.46% to Rs 306 before its board meet today to consider increasing foreign fund investment limit from 49% to 74% and permission to raise capital from international markets.

Yes Bank surged 5.4% to Rs 130 after the bank entered microfinance business in a technical tie-up with Accion International. Adani Enterprises jumped 5% to Rs 221.45. Adani Enterprises is likely to sell its retail business to Reliance Industries with a view to focus on its core business of exports. Shalimar Paints soared 8.61% to Rs 232 as according to media reports there are rumours of promoters scouting buyers for the company and a deal may be announced shortly.

Decliners

Reliance Energy led the decliners, down 2.34% to Rs 540.30. In highly volatile trading the stock ranged between Rs 478 and 557.95. ACC lost 1.51% to Rs 1,147, HDFC dipped 2.10% to Rs 1,570.50 and Cipla shed 1.43% to Rs 249.

Index heavy Reliance Industries fell 0.23% to Rs 1,277.10 on 9.65 lakh shares. Reliance Industries has secured two onshore oil blocks in Yemen. Auto stocks were under intense selling pressure. Bajaj Auto shed 0.46% to Rs 2,710, TVS Motors lost 3.58% to Rs 94.20, M&M slipped 0.80% to Rs 837 and Maruti Udyog was off 0.56% to Rs 944.

Gateway Distriparks lost 0.24% to Rs 185.25 after surging to a high of Rs 197.20. There are reports that the company has emerged as the top bidder for a 15-year operations and management contract of a Punjab Government owned container freight station, which is situated close to Jawaharal Nehru Port Thrust, Navi Mumbai.

9:30AM London advances on Wednesday on gains in banks, housebuilders.
The FTSE 100 in London advanced 17.6 points, or 0.3%, to 6,103.9. RBS shares climbed 3.7% after the second biggest bank by market capitalisation in the UK announced 2006 profits should be slightly ahead of expectations due to strong organic growth and a good performance from its corporate markets division.