The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index in China bucked the trend and plunged 4% to settle at 3914. The market declined sharply on reports that the government is reviewing a measure to reduce or cancel the tax on interest income so that investors would not enter the market, but would keep their money in bank accounts instead.


7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex ends higher on rally in cement stocks.

The Sensex on BSE finished 73.51 points higher, or 0.51%, at 14,504.57.

The market-breadth was strong with 1,442 stocks advancing, while 1,141 declined and only 72 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 19 advanced, while the others declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,682 crore, compared with Rs 4,844 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, the turnover surged to Rs 12,193 crore, much higher than Rs 9,375 crore on Wednesday.

Economic news

Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in an interview on a local television channel that the government has no intention of controlling the price of cement, nor was there any control recently.

U.S. wheat growers announced that they may not take part in an Indian tender of one million ton of wheat because there is still no agreement on quality standards of wheat import.

The rupee advanced after a four-day decline on buying from banks to meet cash requirements as the overnight borrowing rate surged to a six-week high. The rupee gained 0.2% to 40.905 against the dollar this morning in Mumbai.

Trading highlights

IFCI was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 137.50 crore followed by new issue Meghmani Organics and Reliance Industries.

Advancers

Cement stocks rallied on the Indian finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement. ACC soared 8.3% to Rs 899. Gujarat Ambuja Cements surged 7.4% to Rs 125, and Grasim rallied 4.8% to Rs 2,624.

HDFC rallied 5% to Rs 1,958 after it got Rs 445 crore for its stake sale in BPO firm Intelenet to Blackstone, generating a capital gain of Rs 381 crore. Ranbaxy Laboratories, the pharmaceutical giant, gained 1.5% to Rs 348. Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc, its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, has started selling Pravastatin Sodium 80 miligram tablets in the US.

State Bank of India gained 1.6% to Rs 1,470. Reportedly, SBI intends to launch a private equity fund worth $1 billion. ITC and Wipro advanced 1% each at Rs 155 and Rs 515, respectively.

Decliners

Auto makers declined on profit taking. Bajaj Auto led the decliners in the Sensex, down 1.8% to Rs 2,094 as the stock went ex-dividend today, Tata Motors dipped 1% to Rs 665 and Maruti Udyog declined 0.3% to Rs 750.

Oil exploration large-cap Oil & Natural Gas Corporation declined 1.6% to Rs 906 and Cipla lost over 1% each to Rs 203. Index heavy Reliance Industries shed 0.3% to Rs 1,692.


6:30AM European markets advance on energy and mining stocks.

European markets are higher on Thursday. The German DAX 30 index advanced 1% to trade at 7,880.13, the French CAC-40 index advanced 0.9% at 5,996.38, and the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.7% at 6,571.80. National benchmarks increased in all of the 17 western European markets that were open.