[R]4:30PM NY – 10:30PM Frankfurt – 3:00AM Mumbai[/R]
Stocks in the U.S., Europe and Latin America fell ahead of holiday weekend. However, Asian markets held firm at elevated levels.

-U.S. 10-year bond closed at 4.63% and 30-year bond closed at 4.726%.

-Crude Oil closed 25 cents lower to close at $62.41 per barrel in New York trading. Natural gas closed down 21 cents to close at $6.588 per mBtu and gasoline closed down 1.9 cents to close at 162.300 cents per gallon.

-Gold in New York trading closed up $2.20 to $623.80 per ounce, silver closed up 20 cents to close at $12.69 and copper dropped 2.5 cents to close at $2.8555 per pound.

-Asian markets closed higher for the day and for the week after a flip flop in Thailand. Friday’s gainers were led by a rise of 0.74% in Singapore followed by 0.65% rise in India and Thailand. Hong Kong rose 0.5% and Japan reversed its earlier losses and gained 0.34%. Indonesia, Philippines and Sri Lanka dropped closed to 0.2%.

-European Markets closed lower across the region. Norway and U.K. bucked the trend and managed to gain 0.4% and 0.1% respectively. Germany led the decliners with a loss of 1.1%, France dropped 1%, the Netherlands traded lower by 0.8% and Spain and Switzerland lost 0.6%. Russia dropped 0.1% and Central Bank reported that at the end of last week the foreign currency reserve rose $2 billion to $295.8 billion.

Latin American Markets dropped at close ahead of three-day weekend. Mexico led the region with a loss of 0.5%, Brazil and Chile lost 0.1%. Canada dropped 0.1% on lower metal and resource stocks. Research In Motion reported a 47% rise in earnings and acceleration in subscriber growth in the third quarter. The company raised earnings guidance for the current quarter.

[R]12:30PM NY – Research In Motion shoots to $140 on earnings news, but falls in mid-day trading.[/R]

Orders for durable goods fell 1.1% in November after falling 1.6% in October. The durable goods orders rose 1.3% in November when defense orders are include. Trading on various exchanges was lower than normal, ahead of holiday weekend.

Research In Motion, maker of popular communication device Blackberry, reported earnings growth of 47% to 93 cents vs. 61 cents a year ago on revenue growth of 49% to $835.1 million. The company forecasted earnings between 92 cents and 99 cents on revenue between $900 million and $940 million in the fourth quarter. The company reported third quarter profit of $176 million vs. $120.1 million a year ago.

The company reported that total subscriber base has reached 7 million mark. In the quarter the company added 875,000 new subscribers, a rate higher than the previous quarter. The company added 705,000 new subscribers in the previous quarter prompting analysts at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Oppenheimer to raise target price of the stock between $160 and $175.

The gross margin in the third quarter declined to 54.2% from 56.2% in the second quarter. The revenue breakdown in the third quarter was 75% from the sale of hand held devices, 17% for the services and 5% from software and 3% from other activities.

[R]10:30AM The Sensex finished Friday up on strong buying in large-caps.[/R]
The Sensex on BSE closed 86.88 points, or 0.65%, higher at 13,471.74. The market-breadth was strong with 1,501 shares that advanced, 1,069 that declined and 92 that stayed unchanged. For every two decliners there were three advancers. From the Sensex stocks, there were 22 advancers while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,188.60 crore, lower than Rs 4,369 crore on Thursday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 7,570.55 crore, compared to Rs 7,936.67 crore on Thursday.

Economic news

The wholesale price index advanced 5.32% in the last twelve months ending on December 9th, higher than the previous week rise of 5.16% on higher food prices. The annual inflation rate was 4.39% a year ago.

The Reserve Bank of India today allowed 49% foreign investments in stock exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations in accordance with SEBI regulations. Foreign direct investment has been limited to 26%, and foreign funds can obtain up to 23% stake through buying in the secondary market. This is in preparation of allowing local stock and commodity exchanges to seek capital from international investors.

Vodafon is close to making a bid for a controlling stake in Hutchinson Essar, the fourth largest mobile telecom in the country. The bid is likely to value the company at more than $15 billion. Reliance Mobile is in the process of raising funds along with its U.S. based private equity group Blackstone. Malaysia based Maxis Group is also looking to bid for the company.

Most-active stocks

Tech Mahindra was the most active stock on BSE with turnover of Rs 485.50 crore followed by Sobha Developers and Great Offshore.

Advancers