2:30PM NY – 7:00PM London, UK
European markets closed lowe on weak pharma and tech stocks.
European markets closed lower on weakness in Paris, Frankfurt and Oslo. Zurich led the gainers with a rise on 0.7%. Russia gained 0.85% and South Africa lost 1.1% . ECB and Bank of Emgland are expected to adjust interst rate tomorrow. ECB is expected to hike the rate by 0.25% but Bank of England is not likely to change the rates.

French tech leader CapGemini after it planned an issue of 10.4 million shares at euro 455 million to fund its purchase of Kanbay International for $1.25 billion. Retailer Carrefour lost 1.5%, vodafone Group dropped 1.3% and AstraZeneca declined more than 1%.

Royal Bank of Scotland rose 4.2% on the company report that its annual adjusted profit will beat the market forecast. HSBC dropped 0.5% on the downgrade from Credit Suisse. Anglo Irish Bank rose on earnings growth of 38% beating the forecast and divided rise of 20%.

British Tesco has agreed to buy eight retail store from Makro and becomes the leading retailer in Malaysia on the purchase. British cable operator NTL, listed on Nasdaq, dropped its bid to acquire broadcaster ITV. Pay TV operator British Sky Broadcasting has agreed to pay 17.9% controlling interest for ITV.

Cisco to triple its workforce to 6,000 in India and expects domestic sales reach 5% of its global sales in the next five years.

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.