The market moved between positive and negative zone in mid-afternoon trade. Select pharmaceutical scrips were in demand. ITC surged further. Market breadth was strong. Asian and European markets were in the red.

India's wholesale price index rose 3.11% in the 12 months to 3 November 2007, above the previous week's rise of 2.97%, government data released today afternoon showed. The annual inflation rate was 5.45% during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The market had opened lower today extending Thursday (15 November 2007)s losses on worries that credit losses from US mortgage defaults and slumping US home prices would grow worse, hurting US economy and US corporate profits. It had bounced back from lower level after initial sharp fall.

Chief Executive John Stumpf of Wells Fargo & Co, the No. 2 US mortgage lender, told a conference on Thursday, 15 November 2007, that the US housing slump was far from over and was the worst since the Great Depression.

The market has been volatile in recent sessions, caught between jitters about the US housing problems and optimism about Indias economic outlook.

At 14:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 2.45 points or 0.01% at 19,787.34. Sensex hit a high of 19,838.03 in afternoon trade. At day's high, Sensex had risen 53.14 points. Sensex had lost as much as 312.38 points in early trade to a low of 19,472.51.

The broader CNX S&P; Nifty was up 22.4 points or 0.38% at 5934.50.

The market breadth was strong. On BSE, 2016 stocks advanced, while 764 stocks declined and 48 stocks were unchanged. 16 out of 30 stocks from the Sensex pack were in green.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.61% to 8,549.83 and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.94% to 10,426.08.

Indias largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries moved up 0.25% to 2879.

Indias largest cigarette maker ITC jumped 6.54% to Rs 202.05. The stock has been rising ever since Citigroup came out with a buy rating on the stock recently, with a target price of Rs 215.

Pharmaceuticals stocks moved up. Dr Reddys Laboratories moved up 3% to Rs 618 and Cipla moved up 1.53% to Rs 183.50.

Indias top drug maker by market share Ranbaxy Laboratories declined 2.51% to Rs 413 after the drugmaker said it was recalling 600 mili gram (mg) and 800 mg tablets of its gabapentin drug from the US retail market.

Software stocks declined further as fears about possible US recession lingered. The BSE IT index fell 0.96% to 4,156.10. Satyam Computers dropped 1.80% to Rs 421.15, Infosys Technologies fell 1.42% to Rs 1629.50, TCS declined 0.60% to Rs 973. Indian IT firms rely on US market for more than 50% of their revenue.

Indias third largest software exporter by revenue Wipro gained 0.53% to Rs 458.85.

The BSE Consumer Durables index jumped 3.30% to 5,236.88. Videocon Industries soared 13.98% to Rs 399.50, Lloyd Electric and Engineering moved up 3.60% to Rs 180.

Cement stocks edged higher. J K Cements soared 4.53% to Rs 200.65, Grasim Industries jumped 4.04% to Rs 3765.10, JK Lakshmi Cements gained 3.33% to Rs 192.50, ACC rose 0.08% to Rs 1045.15, and Ambuja Cements gained 0.10% to Rs 147.

The BSE Bankex fell 0.30% to 11,019.33. Indias second largest private sector bank in terms of net profit HDFC Bank dropped 0.19% to Rs 1696, off sessions low of Rs 1640.

ICICI Bank, India's largest private sector bank by assets, was down 1.57% to Rs 1229.05, off session's low of Rs 1201.25.

Indias largest commercial bank State bank of India fell 0.87% to Rs 2287.95, off sessions low of Rs 2270. The stock recovered on hopes the government would soon approve its right issue. SBI, 59.73% owned by the government, said last month it was planning to raise Rs 18000 crore by selling new equity around the end of 2007. On Wednesday, 14 November 2007, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said there was a strong case for the rights issue.

India's top mobile firm by market share Bharti Airtel moved up 1.32% to Rs 911.95 on reports that the company is not concerned about a drop in minutes of usage seen in the fiscal second quarter as new costumer additions are picking up well.

The stocks of the oil marketing companies soared for second consecutive day on hopes that the government may give some tax benefits or increase oil bonds, which will bring down under recovery on sale of petrol and diesel. The BSE Oil & Gas index was up 1.63% to 12,516.80. HPCL was up 7.05% to Rs 320.15, BPCL moved up 4.61% to Rs 447.70 and Indian Oil Corporation moved up 4.36% to Rs 622.

Stand alone refiner Bongaigaon Refinery moved up 2.05% to Rs 107.10.

State-run oil refiner, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) rose 4.81% to Rs 134.10. As per reports UK's British Petroleum (BP) and Japanese trading firms have shown an interest in buying the entire paraxylene output of an aromatic unit planned by the company.

Private sector refiner Essar Oil extended rally. It surged 25.21% to Rs 197.40. The stock appreciated 137.78% to Rs 157.65 in the last one week to 15 November 2007. The board of directors of the company will meet today, 16 November 2007 to consider further issue of securities to promoters.

Jindal Photo was locked at upper limit of 10% at Rs 269 after it said it plans to set up a 600 mega watt power project in the first phase in Orissa, to be expanded to over 1,000 megawatt in the second phase.

Phillips Carbon Black was up 1.80% to Rs 215 on reports that the company plans to invest Rs 500 crore over 16 months, to boost capacity by 60%.

Southern Online Bio Technologies was up 2.90% to Rs 53.30 after its board approved raising up to Rs 50 crore for a bio-diesel unit in Visakhapatnam.

Among side counters, Hinduja TMT surged 30% to Rs 562, Mirc Electronics soared 17.30% to Rs 29.50, Chambal Fertilisers & Petrochemicals spurted 15.41% to Rs 65.15, HTMT Global sprout 14.37% to Rs 534 and Chennai Petroleum moved up 13.48% to Rs 455.

Dredging Corporation of India slumped 5% to Rs 1,275.20, Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren dropped 4.33% to Rs 402, Ramco Systems declined 3.25% to Rs 149, Punjab Tractors fell 3.03% to Rs 200 and Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare fell 2.85% to Rs 632.10.

Major European indices UKs FTSE 100, Germanys DAX and Frances CAC 40 were down by between 0.54% to 0.80%.

Asian stocks sank today, 16 November 2007, tracking overnight fall in US stocks. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were down by between 1.08% to 3.95%.

US stocks nose-dived on Thursday, 15 November 2007, as investors grappled with concerns about the strength of consumer spending and the overall economy after downbeat comments from Wells Fargo & Co. and J.C. Penney Co. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 120.96 points, or 0.91%, to finish at 13,110.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 19.43 points, or 1.32%, to close at 1,451.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 25.81 points, or 0.98%, to 2,618.51.

US crude for December delivery settled down 66 cents, or 0.7%, at $93.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. The catalyst for the drop in oil prices was data showing a surprising increase in US crude inventories in the latest week.

Meanwhile, as per media reports, private equity firm Blackstone Group, is said to have a huge pipeline of deals in India.

As per provisional data, FIIs sold shares worth a net Rs 153 crore on Thursday, 15 November 2007, when Sensex had lost 144.17 points or 0.72% to 19,784.89. FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 999.50 crore this month (till 14 November 2007).

Massive FII inflow had send the market surging in September 2007 and October 2007. FII inflow was a robust in those two months - at Rs 16132.60 crore in September 2007 and Rs 20590.90 crore in October 2007. FII inflow had surged as huge liquidity infused by a steep 50 basis points cut in Fed funds rates in mid-September 2007 found its way into emerging markets.