S&P Up 14%, Nasdaq Up 10%

123jump.com Staff
29 Dec, 2006
New York City

Markets around the world rose on higher prices of commodity, metals and oil during the year 2006. Profits of companies rose at the fastest pace in Asia and Western European nations. Peruvian and Chilean stock markets beenefited from rising metal prices and Brazil gained on higher exports. Mexico, Venezuela and Russia rose on higher oil price. India rose for the fourth year and China registered gain of more than 100%. Gold advanced 23%, crude oil closed flat and natural gas fell 44% in the year.

[R]5:00PM NY – 11:00PM Frankfurt – 3:30AM Mumbai[/R]
Latin American and Asian Markets led the rise in global stock markets. Sustained prices of oil, metals, iron ore and agricultural exports supported markets in Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. India rose on higher GDP growth and China sustained export growth.

Yield on 10-year bond closed at 4.704% and the 30-year bond closed at 4.813%.

Gold gained $1.40 to close at $638.30 a troy ounce, silver increased 4.5 cents to end at $12.985 a troy ounce and copper lost 4.25 cents to close at 285.25 cents per pound.

Oil advanced 47 cents to close at $61 a barrel and heating oil declined 2.520 cents to finish at 159.790 cents a gallon. Gasoline was down 4.02 cents to end at 154.190 cents a gallon. Natural gas advanced 5.2 cents to close at $6.300 per mBtu.

Asian markets closed mostly higher led by Philippines with a gain of 1.33%, Taiwan with an increase of 1.17% and Singapore with an advance of 0.75%. The decliners were India with a decrease of 0.43%, Hong Kong with a loss of 0.19% and Thailand with a decline of 0.08%.Australia hit a record high as investors snapped up blue chips.

European markets closed lower with the banking sector in focus on the last trading of the year after ABN Amro announced U.S. job cuts and Credit Agricole said it will issue discounted shares to help fund the acquisition of bank branches in Italy. The decliners were led by Netherlands with a loss of 0.37%, U.K. with a decrease of 0.32% and Germany with a decline of 0.23%. The advancers were Belgium with a gain of 0.49% and France with an increase of 0.15%.

Latin America markets closed mostly higher led by Mexico with again of 0.46% and Canada with an increase of 0.22%. The only decliner was Brazil with a decrease of 0.12%, while Argentina finished flat.

[R]12:30PM NY – 6:30PM Frankfurt[/R]
[R]Global markets gained in the year. Asian and Latin American markets led world markets in the year.[/R]

Markets around the world closed higher, led by a steep rise in Peru, Vietnam, Venezuela, China, Russia and India. Middle Eastern markets fell despite higher crude oil prices. Peru registered a gain of more than 180%, Vietnam rose 130%, Venezuela advanced more than 140%, China surged 101%, Russia jumped 65% and India added 47% for the year. Rising prices of copper, iron ore and oil helped stocks markets in the countries exporting commodities. Markets in the Saudi Arabia suffered a sharp fall of 53% and in UAE fell 40%.

The three popular indexes in the U.S. have scored double digit gains for the year. S&P500 is up 14%, Nasdaq is up 10% and Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 175.

Market averages are trading near the unchanged level in New York. In the day’s trading Apple Computer ((AAPL)) is up 5% or $4.10 to $84.95. The company said that the CEO Steve Jobs was awarded stock options worth $84 million at a board meeting that did not occur. Mr. Jobs never cashed the options. The company investigation found no wrong doing by Mr. Jobs. The stock rose on the news.

[R]10:30 AM The Sensex declined on Friday on last-minute selling pressure.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 59.43 points, or 0.43%, lower to 13,786.91. Despite the loss, the market-breadth was strong as 1,386 shares advanced, 1,233 shares declined and 71 shares were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex , 22 declined while the rest advanced. The turnover on BSE was Rs 3,419 crore, lower than Rs 4,193 crore on Thursday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 7,556.12 crore, much lower than Rs 9,966.62 crore on Thursday.

Economic news

The annual Wholesale Price Index in India advanced to 5.43% in the week ending December 16, higher than the previous week increase of 5.32%.

The best performing large-cap stocks in the year 2006 were cement maker ACC Ltd. and Grasim Industries which gained more than 100%, while Reliance Industries Ltd. advanced almost 89% over the year.

In trade today

Nissan Copper IPO was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 556 crore followed by Indiabulls, Tech Mahindra and Reliance Industries.

Advancers

Tata Steel led the advancers, gaining 1.76% to Rs 484.90 on hopes that there will be further consolidation in the steel industry. Ratan Tata, Tata group chairman, said in an interview that the Tata group sees a limit to how far it can stretch to buy Anglo-Dutch steel-maker Corus Group Plc without any damage done to shareholders.

Dr Reddy’s Lab advanced, ending 1.43% higher to Rs 811 on the final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make generic drug for cholesterol tablets. ACC, cement maker, added 1% to Rs 1,085 and traded between Rs 1,072 and Rs 1,095.

Nissan Copper IPO finished at Rs 128.80, up 230% from the IPO price of Rs 39 on a volume of 7 crore shares.


The capital goods sector surged today, as companies like BEML gained 7.63% to Rs 1,015.60, Areva T&D rose 5.12% to Rs 1,043 and Jyoti Structures surged 5.10% to Rs 132.45.

Decliners

Hindustan Lever led the decliners, slipping 1.82% to Rs 216.30 while Reliance Communications was down 1.34% to Rs 471. Reliance Communications announced on Thursday, that it was still mulling over the opportunity to buy a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar. The acquisition cost may be as high as $21 billion.

Other major decliners included, Tata Motors 1.36% lower to Rs 893 and Gujarat Ambuja down 1.15% to Rs 141.90, while ONGC shed 1.20% to Rs 867. Reliance Industries dipped 0.52% to Rs 1,270 on 7.45 lakh shares. It hit an intraday high of Rs 1,288.40.

Stocks of private sector banks saw fresh buying interest but state run banks closed lower. Punjab National Bank shed 1.30% to Rs 506, Indian Overseas Bank came off 0.30% to Rs 111.70, Bank of Baroda slipped 1.82% to Rs 240.15 and HDFC Bank was down 0.86% to Rs 1,069.70. State Bank of India advanced, though, up 0.75% to Rs 1,245.35, Kotak Mahindra Bank was 5.35% higher to Rs 399.90 and Bank of India edged 0.80% higher to Rs 207.


[R]9:30 AM London declined on Friday in thin trade on weak gas and oil stocks.[/R]
The FTSE 100 Index in London shed 20.1, or 0.3%, to 6220.80.

Advancers

Property groups shone again on their movement to real estate investment trust status on January 1, which should yield tax benefits. Persimmon, Land Securities and Hammerson were higher, 1.06%, 0.26% and 0.13% respectively. Amvescap Plc, owner of Aim and Invesco funds, gained 1.5%.

Decliners

BP, the second-largest oil company in Europe, shed 0.7%. Shell slipped 0.4%. The decline can be attributed to crude oil drop due to milder-than-average U.S. temperatures which outweigh concern about diminishing inventories in the US.

Vedanta Resources, the largest copper and zinc producer of India, gave up 0.3%. Copper futures in Shanghai were virtually unchanged on worries that high stocks and slowing economic growth in the U.S. and China will extend a three-month losing streak.

Scottish & Southern Energy declined 1.58% and financial stocks Northern Rock and Royal & Sun Alliance also declined, 0.76% and 1.13% respectively.

PartyGaming Plc dropped 0.8%. The biggest Internet poker company in the world has struck a deal to buy gambling Web sites from Empire Online Ltd. and Intercontinental Online Gaming Ltd.


[R]9:00AM Stock futures pointed to a flat start, with Apple providing help.[/R]
U.S. stock market futures traded near the unchanged mark, as an advance by Apple Computer offset worries about an end-of-year sell-off. Trading volume was expected to be light on Friday, as most of the institutions are not going to trade. Investors expect the three major U.S. averages to post double-digit percentage gains for 2006, as it has been a very good year with generally strong economy.

Apple ((AAPL)) jumped 4% to $84.15 before market opening as the company said in a regulatory filing with the SEC that CEO Steve Jobs was aware of certain favorable stock options grant dates, but did not personally benefit from improper option grants.

In other corporate news, AT&T ((T)) offered additional concessions on Thursday to the Federal Communications Commission to win approval for its $85 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. ((BLS)). Shares of Alltel Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. wireless operator, rose 3.2% on reports that private-equity firms are exploring the idea of a leveraged buyout for the company. Exxon Mobil Corp. ((XOM)) filed a legal appeal challenging Alaska''s decision to start revoking leases for a natural gas field in the North Slope of the state. Standard & Poor''s 500 futures were up 0.2 points, about even with fair value. Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 8 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 3.5 points.


[R]8:00AM Apple said CEO Jobs knew of favorable grant dates.[/R]
Apple Computer ((AAPL)) said that the special committee, appointed to carry out the investigation of its stock option granting practices, concluded that there was no evidence of misconduct by current management. However, it did find that CEO Steve Jobs was aware or recommended the selection of some favorable grant dates but he didn’t personally benefit from them. In a joint statement, Al Gore, chair of the special committee, and Jerome York, chair of Apple''s audit and finance committee, said the board is confident that the company has solved the problems relating to the restatement and has ‘complete confidence’ in Steve Jobs and the senior management team.
The maker of the iPod music player and Macintosh computers is one of the nearly 200 companies that were investigated for backdating stock options. The company initiated its own stock options probe in June and delayed its quarterly report for the period ending July 1 and its annual report for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Apple said on Friday that its options mishandling will result in an additional noncash charge of $84 million. The stock rose 4.5% in pre-market trading.
[R]7:30 AM Asian markets finished higher with Japan, Australia leading advance.[/R]
Asian markets ended higher on Friday. Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index ended up 0.01% to finish a half-day session at 17,225.83. Exporters such as Matsushita Electric Industrial, Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor led the advance, as the yen recent weakness buoyed traders to buy autos and electronics. Matsushita Electric gained 1.93%, Toyota reported a 0.51% gain and Nissan added 0.85%. Steelmakers also finished higher, with Nippon Steel gaining 1.03%. Canon, the largest maker of digital cameras in the world, rose 0.8%.

In Australia, stocks reached a record high as traders squared positions with some month-end buying in large-cap stocks that did not do well in the market during the year. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.2% to end at 5,669.9 on strong gains in financials and property trusts. Westfield Group, the largest operator of shopping malls in the world, made the biggest contribution to the overall market, increasing 1.1%.

In China, shares surged to a new record high for a fifth consecutive day, boosted by sharp increase in bank and airline stocks. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 4.2% to close at 2,675.47. Bank and airline stocks were lifted by an increase in the yuan against the dollar. Air China and China Southern Airlines advanced by the daily limit of 10%, while Shanghai Airlines rose 8.5%. Bank of China soared 9.9% and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China added 6%. BOC has gained 36% and ICBC 31% this week.

Hong Kong bucked the uptrend, closing lower on profit-booking in Chinese banks and index large-caps. The Hang Seng Index shed 0.2% to 19,970.88, while the Weighted Price Index of the Taiwan Stock Exchange advanced 1.2% to end at 7823.72.


[R]6:30 AM European markets were almost flat Friday as traders take to the sidelines.[/R]
European markets were nearly flat on Friday. By mid morning, London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.2% to 6,226.8, Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax was virtually unchanged at 6,609.2 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.1% to 5,539.64.

Advancers

ABN Amro was in early focus. Its shares moved 0.1% higher after it said late Thursday it was reducing 900 jobs at its LaSalle operations in Chicago. ABN added that the move was part of a plan to cut expenses and enhance the operational performance of businesses in mature markets such as the U.S.

Although ABN Amro was much talked about, it was Suez which led the gainers, up 3.1%, following market talk of a bid for the French utility. Rumors that French billionaire Francois Pinault was considering a 70 billion euros bid spurred little response from Suez, save for declining to comment on market speculation.

Ferrovial, Spanish construction group, was another advancer, gaining 1.2% as it announced on Thursday night it had sold its property division for 1.6 billion euros to unlisted Promociones Habitat.

Decliners

As oil prices failed on Thursday to respond to the much larger than expected depletion in US crude stockpiles had a negative impact on energy stocks. BP shed 0.8%, while Royal Dutch Shell dipped 0.8 %. Repsol of Spain slipped 0.7%.

Credit Agricole was another decliner in Paris, shedding 0.4%, as it said it was about to issue 4 billion euros in cheaper shares to finance the acquisition of 663 Italian bank branches, including 202 branches of Banca Intesa.

Oil and gold

Oil prices retreated toward $60 a barrel on Friday on account of the unusually mild weather which reduced trade. U.S. crude oil futures shed nine cents to $60.44 a barrel in early trade in London. Brent crude gave up two cents to $60.65. Gold opened Friday at a bid price of $634.10 a troy ounce, up from $633.50 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro traded a little higher on Friday versus the dollar, which slipped in spite of better-than-expected U.S. economic data the previous day. The euro bought $1.3163 in morning European trading, up from $1.3146 in New York late Thursday. The British pound, however, slipped to $1.9613 from $1.9628. The dollar was little changed.