Of the FTSE shares, British Energy led the gainers with a sharp rise of 6.6%, Northern Rock jumped 4.48%, Vedanta was up 3.39%, Resolution climbed 2.7% while Rexam put up 2.6%. In the index trading, Kingfisher led the decliners with a fall of 3.5%, with losses of 3.1% in Kelda Group, 3% in Yellow Group, 2.5% in Alliance Leicester, and 2.4% in National Grid.

Kingfisher, home improvement retailer, fell 3.5% after several brokers lowered their price targets and reduced earnings forecast. Lehman lowered its target price to 248 pence from 275 pence and UBS lowered its price to 200p from 235p.
BG Group rose on news that the company may sell its stake in Mahanagar Gas Ltd., the local monopoly for natural gas distribution in Mumbai, India. Mahanagar is owned 49.75% each by BG and Gas Authority of India. BG stake may be valued at $530 million.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai – Reliance group of companies dominated trading. Foreign investment in India surges to a record level.[/R]

Sensex in Mumbai recovered in the afternoon session to reverse the morning losses. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 1.5% or 252.2 to 16,564.23 at the end of the morning session. Heavy buying in index stocks lifted the Sensex. Reliance group of companies dominated the market advance. The CNX Nifty 50 surged 2.1% or 100 to 4,847.55. Of the BSE shares, 615 shares rose, 1,149 lost, while 51 remained unchanged.

Of the Sensex 30-share index, 19 gained while the rests slid. The BSE net turnover surged to 8,192 crore rupees ($2.2 billion) from 7,212 crore rupees a day ago. Trading on the National Stock Exchange soared to 16,687.13 crore rupees ($4.2 billion) from 14,770.97 core rupees on Thursday.

Foreign fund flows reached $10.5 billion at the end of July with flows of record $5.75 billion in the month alone. Total foreign investment in the year 2006 was $8.8 billion. Number of foreign institutions registered in India jumped to 1,063 from 934 according to market regulators.

The World Bank former president has said developed countries were ill-prepared to deal with the ''tectonic shift'' in economic power towards developing nations, in particular to India and China. James Wolfensohn told a financial forum in Hong Kong that wealthy nations were still giving development countries a colonial treatment.

Wolfensohn said that while developing countries made up just 10 percent of global GDP in 1950, they would make up 65 percent of the total by 2050.

He said the economic growth particularly in China would result in the Asian economic powerhouse overtaking the United States as the world''s richest country by 2040, with India in third place by 2050. Wolfensohn noted that power was already shifting away from developing countries. He cited African countries are directly engaging with China and India bypassing Western nations.

Exports by Indian small to medium business reached 50 billion dollars in fiscal 2007, accounting for 40 per cent of the country''s total exports. The products exported include garments, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, processed foods, leather products and marine products. India has 12.5 million small to medium businesses employing 30 million people.

Of the Sensex 30 stocks, Reliance Energy led the gainers adding 2.5% to 1,012 rupees on 12.32 lakh shares. NTPC led the decliners with a fall of 2.5% to 184 rupees on 62.13 lakh shares.

Reliance group of companies dominated the trading. Reliance Petroleum led the group with a surge of 11% followed by 10% rise in Reliance Infrastructure, 9.2% in Adlabs, 5% in IPCL, and 2% in Reliance Communication and Reliance Capital. The total domination of the group was also seen in the daily turnover accounting for more than 20% of trading volume and 35% of trading value on the BSE.

Ambuja Cements advanced 2% to 149 rupees on sharp rise in trading volume of 7 crore shares with four blocks trades each of 1.6 crore shares at 149.50 rupees per share.

Reliance Industries gained 4.6% to 2,292 rupees on 8.70 lakh shares on news that the company has discovered oil deposits in its D4 block in the Krishna Godavari Basin. RIL completed the technical testing in the block KG (D4). ONGC, government controlled energy giant is seeking price increase for its natural gas to 4,500 rupees per thousand cubic meter from 3,200 rupees. The price increase if approved will help company to add revenue by 2,000 crore rupees.

State Bank of India gained 4% to 1,830 rupees, Bharti Airtel surged 3.5% to 922.25 rupees, and Hindustan Unilever added 3.13% to 220.85 rupees.

Financial Technologies added 0.5% to 2,705 rupees after it received approval to launch electronic exchange for electricity and energy trading. The exchange named Indian Energy Exchange will facilitate trading of surplus electricity among power producers.

Satyam Computers was down 0.3% to 420 rupees, Infosys Technologies ADR slipped 4.59% to $47.02. Other IT ADRs in New York trading also edged lower. Wipro slid 2.7% to $ 13.83, Patni Computer systems shed 2.3% to $ 23.28, and Satyam Computers retreated 3.70% to $24.76.

Other looser in the Sensex index were ITC which plunged 2.20% to 190 rupees, Hindalco eased 1.3% to 160 rupees, and Cipla lost 0.9% to 168 rupees.

[R]9:00 AM New York – Stocks are expected to open higher. Oil is trading lower. Gold is at elevated level. One euro buys $1.41.[/R]

Market futures in pre-market trading are indicating 0.3% higher opening for Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq.