8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex finishes with a loss tracking weak global markets.
The Sensex on BSE ended 69.43, or 0.53%, lower at 13,113.81. The market-breadth was weak as there were almost three decliners for every two advancers. As 1,090 stocks advanced, 1,466 declined and 74 stocks were unchanged. The turnover on BSE was Rs 3,127 crore compared to Rs 3,952 crore on Wednesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 7,078.44 crore, lower than Rs 8,441.09 crore on Wednesday.

Economic news

Jet Airways today cut a deal to buy out Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore after clearance by a three-member arbitration panel.

Industrial production advanced 11% in February 2007 from a year earlier, slightly lower than upwardly revised annual growth of 11.4% in January 2007. Manufacturing production, representing more than 75% of industrial output, advanced 12.3% in February from a year earlier, compared with a revised 12.1% annual growth in January.

The GSM subscriber base increased with more than 6.13 million new additional subscribers in March reaching the total base to 121 million. This is the highest ever subscriber addition for the GSM industry since its inception.

Trading highlights

Debutant Orbit Corp was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 185 crore followed by Indiabulls Real and Tata Steel.

Advancers

Jet Airways soared over 3% to Rs 629 after the company signed a deal to acquire Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore.

Bajaj Auto rallied 3% to Rs 2,349. Infosys surged 2.5% to Rs 2,044. Infosys led gain in IT shares ahead of the announcement of Q4 March 2007 results by the IT large-cap on Friday. Concerns have been raised that the fiscal year 2008 guidance by Infosys may turn out conservative. Satyam Computer also gained 1% to Rs 446.

TCS rose 1.1% to Rs 1,204. Reportedly, Tata Sons is considering a $1 billion-plus overseas equity offering in Tata Consultancy Services to fund acquisitions. The offer may take place in six months and include the sale of new shares.

Grasim gained 1.7% at Rs 2,259. NTPC, Satyam and HLL were up around 1% each at Rs 160, Rs 446 and Rs 207, respectively.

Decliners

Oil exploration large-cap ONGC slumped 3.4% to Rs 853. leading the decliners among 30 Sensex constituents. It will invest over Rs 6700 crore to increase oil and gas output, and establish the first large power plant.

Tata Steel lost 3.2% to Rs 496 on 22.1 lakh shares traded on BSE. Tata Steel announced on Tuesday its board will meet on 17 April 2007, to consider proposals for raising equity funds to finance investment in a special purpose vehicle for the acquisition of steel maker, Corus Group.

ITC dropped 2.7% to Rs 156. HDFC Bank and Hero Honda slipped around 2% each to Rs 958 and Rs 628, respectively. Ranbaxy shed 3% to Rs 335. Ranbaxy Laboratories announced it had received approval from Canadian authorities to sell antibiotic cefprozil tablets and powder in Canada.

Auto shares declined. Car large-cap Maruti Udyog lost 2.9% to Rs 760, Tata Motors lost 1.5% to Rs 710 and Hero Honda shed 1.4% to Rs 631.10.

Banks lost under selling pressure. State Bank of India shed 1.3% to Rs 968.45 and ICICI Bank lost 1.1% to Rs 849. Banking credit growth dropped to 27% in 2006-07 from 29.6% growth a year earlier, as a result of tighter monetary policy since December 2006.

7:00AM European markets were lower on Thursday on a weak US market close overnight.
European markets were lower on Thursday. By mid morning, Frankfurt Xetra Dax slipped 0.4% to 7,122.27, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.5% to 5,720.98 and London FTSE 100 lost 0.4% to 6,390.2. National benchmarks fell in all 18 western European markets.