Real estate investment trust Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. (CEI: chart) announced on Tuesday it agreed to be acquired by a unit of Morgan Stanley for about $6.5 billion including debt. The real estate investment firm, Morgan Stanley Real Estate will buy the company for $22.80 per share, according to Crescent, which has about 102.8 million shares outstanding. The deal includes the assumption and refinancing of about $3.1 billion of the company''s outstanding and unconsolidated debt and redemption of some $440 million in preferred shares. Crescent said the purchase price is a 12% premium over its prior 30-day average closing share price and a 6% premium to Tuesday''s closing price of $21.62. The transaction is expected to complete by the third quarter.


[R]8:30AM NY-7:30PM Sensex ends lower Wednesday on selling pressure in large-caps.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished Tuesday 90.46 points, or 0.63%, lower at 14,363.26.

The market-breadth was sharply negative with almost two decliners for every advancer. As 928 stocks advanced, 1,638 declined and only 76 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 11 advanced, 18 declined and one stock remained unchanged. The turnover on BSE was Rs 5,290 crore, compared to Rs 5,180 crore on Tuesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 10,715.85 crore, lower than Rs 11,375.26 crore on Tuesday.


Economic news

Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced today that the new Direct Tax Code Bill is to be proposed in Parliament by this December.

For the third time this month and second day in a row, the Reserve Bank of India intervened in the forex market at the end of trade to prevent the rupee from advancing above the 40.50-mark against the dollar.

Trading highlights

Reliance Capital was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 205 crore followed by Educomp Solutions and HDFC.

Advancers

Tata Steel soared 5% to Rs 659 on high volumes of 25.85 lakh shares in anticipation of firm prices. Tata Steel has received permission from government of Vietnam to work with Vietnam Steel Corp on a $3.5 billion steel complex in the country.

Reliance Energy surged 3.5% to Rs 570. Hindustan Lever rallied over 2% to Rs 198. BHEL advanced 1.5% at Rs 2,718, and Hero Honda added 1% to Rs 694. Housing finance large-cap HDFC gained 0.32% to Rs 1,800.25 on high total volumes of 10 lakh shares. Two block deals were traded on BSE. One block deal of seven lakh share was struck at Rs 1,818 per share, while the other of one lakh shares was executed at Rs 1,785 per share.

Decliners

Reliance Communications shed 2.5% to Rs 511, led the decliners. Bharti Airtel was also down 1.13% to Rs 849. on reports that it would also announce price cuts within the next couple of days.

Maruti shed 1.8% to Rs 815. Gujarat Ambuja, ONGC lost around 1.5% each to Rs 115, Rs 913, respectively. ITC, and Ranbaxy slipped 2.5% each to Rs 166 and Rs 390, respectively. Bajaj Auto slumped for the fifth straight day as selling pressure continued. It lost 0.8% to Rs 2,177, after staying firm throughout the day.

Index heavy Reliance Industries declined around 1% to Rs 1,758 on 6.18 lakh shares. It hit a record high of Rs 1,785 in opening trade. There are reports that Reliance Industries is in talks with rig manufacturers for the purchase of a deepwater rig to drill for oil at a depth of around 12,000 feet.