India Gains 1%

Elena
24 Mar, 2006
New York City

For the week market consolidated and gained 0.8%. Construction, metals and mining and banking stocks enjoyed sharp gains. Steady demand of stocks from local and foreign investor kept index at record levels. Index crossed for the first-time 11,000 this week and gained last 1,000 points in less than 30 trading days. Previous rise of 1,000 points took 48 trading days.

[R]8:45PM Mumbai closes 1% up and 0.8% for the week.[/R]
Mumbai’s Sensex rose 1%, after a mild sell-off for three days, led by steady rise in metals and mining, construction and select banking stocks. The trading volume and value of stocks was lighter than the weekly average but index still managed to gain a new high of 10,950.30 on the rise of 109.71 points. Foreign investors led the buying activity for the week as reported in the latest data. With the international copper price trading at peak levels local metals companies enjoyed robust gains led by rise of 6% in Hindalco to Rs. 170 and Sterlite Industries to Rs. 1,555 and jump of 12% in SAIL to Rs. 82 on heavy volume.

State Bank affiliates enjoyed run for the second day on the news that State Banks of Mysore, Bikaner and Jaipur and Travancore received approval from Union cabinet to raise capital and issue new shares to shareholders. Pharmaceutical stock Cipla rose 4.6% to Rs. 634.65 on the news that the company has set stock bonus of 3:2 on April 25th and Ranbaxy rose 2% to Rs. 401 on the release of asthma treatment inhaler product.


[R]8:00 AM European averages traded higher on deal talk.[/R]
European markets advanced at mid-day dealings, lifted by merger-and-acquisition activity which helped markets largely ignore the weak close on Wall Street yesterday. German drug makers and the French telecommunication company Alcatel were in the spotlight with Bayer offering 16.3 billion euro to Schering and Alcatel getting into talk with Lucent Technologies about a prospective merger deal. The German DAX 30 gained 0.2%, the French CAC 40 rose 0.4%, and London FTSE 100 climbed 0.6%.

[R]7:45AM Asian markets broadly advanced the Nikkei up on property stocks.[/R]
Asian-Pacific benchmarks finished broadly higher with the Nikkei rising 0.4% to 16.560.87, lead by gains in real-estate and railway issues. Property stocks advanced on economic data which showed that commercial land prices rose for the first time in 15 years, giving signal that the country is getting out of deflation. The biggest property developer Mitsui Fudosan gained 0.4%, while Sumitomo Realty & Development rose 2.6%. Across the region, South Korea’s Kospi recovered from early losses to climb 0.7%, Taiwan Weighted index gained 0.2%, supported by steel stocks and expectations of higher steel prices. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.4%, despite solid earnings. Shanghai Composite dropped 0.6%, ending a four-session gaining streak.