Market extended gains in mid-afternoon trade on the back of rally in State Bank of India. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) held firm. Capital goods, automobile and sugar stocks were in demand. IT stock remained weak. European markets were trading firm, while Asian stocks were mixed.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 102.93 points or, 0.53% at 19,503.60. It touched a high of 19,678.50 in early trade, which was a gain of 277.83 points for the day. Sensex touched a low of 19,285.49 in early afternoon trade, at which it had lost 115.18 points for the day.

The broader S&P; CNX Nifty was up 56 points, or, 0.97% at 5842.50.

The market breadth was negative. On BSE, 1059 stocks advanced, while 1570 stocks declined and 77 stocks remained unchanged. 17 out of 30 stocks declined from the Sensex pack.

State Bank of India was up 2.13% to Rs 2255.70. NTPC (up 1.86% to Rs 244), Cipla (up 1.69% to Rs 180.80), Tata Steel (up 1.78% to Rs 875.10), Ambuja Cement (up 1.94% to Rs 146.85), moved higher.

The BSE Auto index was up 58.72 points or, 1.11% at 5,335.96. Mahindra & Mahindra was up 3.11% to Rs 764, Hero Honda Motors rose 3.09% to Rs 688.65, Maruti Suzuki India gained 3.17% to Rs 1004, and Tata Motors rose 0.96% to Rs 729.55.

ICICI Bank was down 1.92% to Rs 1217. HDFC bank (down 3.98% to Rs 1638), Hindustan Unilever (down 1.64% to Rs 192.30), Dr Reddys Laboaratories (down 1.36% to Rs 605), edged lower.

The BSE Oil & Gas index soared, following a surge in crude oil prices. The index was up 395.93 points or, 3.48% at 11,785.14. Oil & Natural Gas Corporation gained was up 0.56% to Rs 1308.

GAIL India was up 7.60% to Rs 463 on reports that the company is looking at acquiring stake in a Nigerian LNG plant and has expressed interest in setting up a gas-based petrochemical plant in Nigeria.

Reliance Industries soared 4.74% to Rs 2781.50. The company has struck gas in its block KG-OSN-2001/1 (KG-III-5) in the Krishna Godavari offshore basin. The company is still evaluating the commerciality of the discovery.

The BSE Capital Goods index was up 392.88 points or, 1.99% at 20,090.17. Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) was up 4.54% to Rs 2843, Larsen & Toubro was up 3.13% to Rs 4245 and Jaiprakash Associates was up 3.47% to Rs 1578.80.

Sugar stocks firmed up. Bajaj Hindustan surged 13% to Rs 212.50, Balrampur Chini rose 9.37% to Rs 87 and Triveni Engineering gained 7.25% to Rs 136.15.

IT pivotals declined as rupee climbed to its highest level since March 1998. The BSE IT index was down 179.08 points or, 3.94% at 4,361.61.

Infosys Techonogies was down 5.61% to Rs 1747. Wipro (down 2.53% to Rs 475), and Satyam Computer (down 2.99% to Rs 439.55), edged lower. TCS, Indias largest software exporter by sales, was down 0.85% to Rs 996.20. The stock came off from session's low of Rs 987. A rise in rupee hits IT companies as they get more than half of their revenue from the United States.

Telecom stocks recovered a bit from earlier steep fall. Reliance Communications was down 1.44% to Rs 734.65, off session's low of Rs 711. Bharti Airtel was down 1.80% to Rs 901.90, off session's low of Rs 888.

The Department of Telecom (DoT), on Tuesday, 6 November 2007, announced setting up of a committee to revise the spectrum allocation criterion for existing operators in a scientific and practicable manner. It may be recalled that Telecom Engineering Centre had recently finalised spectrum allocation criterion, which had made it significantly more difficult for operators to get additional spectrum.

The European markets were firm. Frances CAC 40 was up 0.70% to 5,749.29, UKs FTSE 100 was up 0.51% to 6,507.60 and Germanys DAX was up 0.26% to Rs 7,847.85.

Asian markets were mixed. Hong Kongs Hang Seng was up 0.92% at 29,708.93. Taiwans Taiwan Weighted was up 0.08% at 9,300.22. Singapores Straits Times was down 0.23% at 3,674.73. Japans Nikkei 225 was down 0.94% at 16,096.68. South Koreas Seoul Composite was down 0.54% at 2,043.19.

On Wall Street, energy stocks such as Exxon Mobil gained ground on Tuesday, 6 November 2007, helping send the blue chip Dow up 0.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1%.

Yesterday, 6 November 2007, the Indian market had failed to participate in rally in Asian stocks on Tuesday, 6 November 2007, when Sensex lost 190.11 points or 0.97% to 19,400.67, in contrast to a 1% rise in MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks ex-Japan.

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