Advancers

Ranbaxy Laboratories surged nearly 4% to Rs 385.60, with the stock rallying in late-trading after the company announced the acquisition of Be-Tabs Pharmaceuticals, the fifth largest generic drugs company in South Africa, for $70 million.

Auto shares dominated the proceedings on decent-to-strong sales numbers for November. Bajaj Auto rose 4% to Rs 2,751, after its total sales rose 33% in November 2006, to 2,43,713 units from a year ago. Hero Honda rose nearly 2% to Rs 757.35. Hero Honda today launched two new versions of its CD series motorcycles.

Tata Motors surged 4% to Rs 844.25, on expectations of strong sales for November 2006. Tata Motors is likely to disclose its monthly sales figures today. Maruti Udyog added nearly 3% to Rs 952.60. In early-trade today, the car major reported selling 55,033 vehicles in November, a 16.1% rise from a year earlier.

Private bank stocks were in demand after the latest data showed lower-than- expected rise in inflation. State Bank India jumped 4% to Rs 1,369.90. Cellular services provider Reliance Communications rose 3.7% to Rs 445.25. Reliance Energy gained 2.2% to Rs 540.05. As per reports, Maharashtra Electricity Regulation Commission has directed the company to discontinue levy of load management charges. Reliance Industries advanced 1.3% to Rs 1,262.25.

A number of energy companies surged. Alstom Projects jumped 9.7% to Rs 468.90, Bharat Bijlee gained 7.9% to Rs 1,205, ABB surged 7% to Rs 3,747, Voltamp Transformers gained 5.8% to Rs 631.80, Areva T&D rose 5% to Rs 972.10, Siemens advanced 4.7% to Rs 1,182, and KEC International gained 3% to Rs 390.

Construction firm Punj Lloyd jumped 7.6% to Rs 1,112, after the firm said it had an order worth Rs 1,000 crore. Gas cylinder maker Everest Kanto Cylinder jumped 10% to Rs 606.50, on expectation that the firm will announce a large order in the next few days.

Decliners

Hindalco declined 0.81% to Rs 171.95, TCS fell 0.72% to Rs 1,183.30, Gujarat Ambuja was down 0.59% to Rs 143.30 and Grasim shed 0.08% to Rs 2,762.

Other news

Salaries in India rose faster than any other major country in Asia this year, companies in India and in the Asian region are under pressure to retain talent and spend more to compensate employees, a global resource company has said.

10:20AM October construction activity report and manufacturing activity survey drag market averages lower.
S&P 500 down 5.12, Nasdaq down 19.2 and Dow down 39.2
Market averages turned negatively on the heels of two reports. October manufacturing activity survey index fell to 49.5 fro 51.2 according ISM and construction in the month fell 1% according to Department of Commerce. This drop was on top of revised 0.8% drop in September activity. Residential construction fell 1.9%, biggest decline since June of this year. However, government construction rose 0.8% to $273.1 billion annual rate. Residential construction fell for the seventh month in a row.


9:30AM London benchmark index advances on Friday on mining stocks.
The FTSE 100 in London advanced 31.7 points or 0.5% to 6,080.5 in mid-morning exchanges.

Advancers

Vedanta Resources gained 2.3% and Xstrata traded 3.3% higher. Xstrata was also lifted after Xstrata Nickel announced the first phase of development of its Fraser Morgan nickel project in Ontario. Rio Tinto rose 1.40%, while BHP Billiton advanced 0.52%.

International Power shares added 3.8% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target. Fellow utilities followed suit with Kelda Group up 2.4% and United Utilities 2.3 % higher.

In corporate news, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries shares climbed 3.8% after it reported solid full-year results.

UK insurer Prudential was trading 1.4% to the good on a positive Asia outlook. The company said it expects at least to double 2005 asian life new business profits by 2009. Morgan Crucible rose 1.2% on the back of a broker upgrade. Credit Suisse raised its price target on the engineer.

Decliners