Thursday's Asia ADR Recap

Indian stocks advanced slightly Thursday as investors squared up futures positions or rolled them over on expiration day, which falls on the last Thursday of every month. Analysts in the region said an above-average percentage of futures positions were rolled over for another month and Far East investors held off from making new commitments on either the buy or sell side.

"I see the market trying to stabilize for the next two to three sessions," said Raj Bhandai, director and derivatives trader at Networth Stock Broking.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensex Index added 23 points, or 0.1%, to 16,721.

Indian banking giant HDFC Bank(HDB Quote) reported a 37% rise in fourth-quarter profits but cautioned investors on the future of loan growth in India. The bank reported that net profits jumped to 4.71 billion rupees ($117 million) for the fourth quarter, vs. 3.44 billion from the previous year. Net interest income jumped 56% to 16.42 billion rupees, vs. 10.55 billion from a year ago. The company forecasts its loan growth to be 25% to 30%. American depositary shares of HDFC traded up 2.7% to $109.73.

Indian information technology service provider Infosys(INFY Quote) announced it will invest 5 billion rupees ($125 million) in a new development center in the eastern city of Kolkata. The company plans to create 5,000 jobs over a period of time to staff the center. Shares of Infosys rose 2.1% to $43.08.

Elsewhere in the information technology sector, Syntel(SYNT Quote), a U.S. firm that has a large exposure to the Indian IT market, reported a 30.6% rise in revenue to $98.5 million, vs. Wall Street estimates of $96.9 million. The company sees full-year 2008 EPS of $1.69 to $1.78, vs. estimates of $1.69 and full-year 2008 revenue of $407 million to $420 million, vs. estimates $418.82 million. Shares of Syntel ripped 10% higher to $32.11 on twice the average-daily volume.