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December 26, Ashwell Prince again stood firm for South Africa on the first day of the second Test at Kingsmead. Graeme Smith had won the toss and elected to bat. Prince made 98 not out as South Africa struggled to 257/8 at the close. He shared stands of 94 with Herschelle Gibbs (63) and 100 with Mark Boucher (53). South Africa lost their first three wickets for 28.

Prince underlined his value to the side and had two substantial stands of 94 and 100 for the fourth and fifth wickets with Gibbs and Mark Boucher. He batted for 226 minutes and hit 13 fours from 181 balls. Boucher made his 53 off 91 balls.

Gibbs underedged a pull off Sreesanth into the hands of wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. His 63-run knock came off 88 balls and 143 minutes, including 13 fours. Captain Greme smith top-edged a pull against Khan, the ball went high in the air and caught by Tendulkar.

Boucher had just steered Sreesanth to third-man boundary for his half-century before his stumps were sent cartwheeling by the feisty Kerala youngster. Shaun Pollack’s two fours which were bowled by VRV Singh, his ball was caught brilliantly by virender Sehwag.

Zaheer Khan and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth took the first five wickets. Khan took 2/61 and Sreesanth 3/74, and Kumble took 2/48.

The Tamil Nadu government is exploring the construction of a second airport for Chennai, near the temple town of Kancheepuram. For this, the state government is acquiring 583 hectares of land (1150 acres) adjoining the existing airport in Meenambakkam. which is located in the southern part of Chennai.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) sources said in New Delhi that the Tamil Nadu government was examining the feasibility of constructing a second airport for Chennaion the site 70 kms south of Chennai near Kancheepuram. The existing Meenambakkam airport is being managed and operated by the state-run AAI which comes under the purview of the Civil aviation ministry.

Sources said that if 583 hectares of land adjoining the existing airport at Meenambakkam was acquitted, a parral runway could be built at Chennai airport, there was no need to build a second airport, otherwise, a parrel runway could not be built during airport expansion and modernisation, there is a need for building a second airport.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel had recently met communications minister Dayanidhi Maran in New Delhi and discussed the issue of modernisation of Chennai airport. Mr.Patel also told that the issue of land acquition had to be decided by the Tamil Nadu government.

Even so far as the existing Meenambakkam airport is concerned, Prime Minister Manmohan singh has already accorded “in-principle” approval for its modernisation through the joint venture route.

December 26, The Sensex opened at 13501 with a positive of 29 points. Tech, auto and banks saw the index zoom to an intra-day high of 13727. The Sensex closed at 13708 with a gain of 237 points. The market breadth on the NSE was positive with 654 stocks ending in the green and 322 negative.

Markets moved the final hour of trade as buying activity intensified amongst index heavy weights, like stocks from the software, banking and auto sectors. The Nifty closed at 3940.50, up 69.35 points. At close, major gainers from the Nifty included Zee (5 percent), SAIL and WIPRO (each 4 percent). On the other hand, selling was seen in BPCL and Hero Honda (each one percent down).

The BSE Teck index zoomed over 2 percent (80 ponts) to 3601. The BSE auto, FMCG and Bankex also finished with sharp gains. Advances finished of declines - out of 2671 scrips traded, 1649 moved up and 955 declined.

Wipro gained over 4 percent (Rs.24) to Rs.597. TCS added over 3 percent (Rs.39) to Rs.1190. Satyam moved up 3 percent (Rs14) to Rs.476. Infosys advanced over 2 percent (Rs.48) to Rs.2220. ONGC gained 2.6 percent (Rs.23) to Rs.888, RIL up Rs.5.40 after the board announced an interim dividend of Rs.18 per share.

SBI was up Rs.31.85, PNB Rs.10.60, ICICI Bank Rs.15.70 and HDFC Bank Rs.25.30. Tata motors added nearly 3 percent (Rs.25) to Rs.884. Bajaj was up 2 percent (Rs.51) at Rs.2642. ITC, Cipla, HDFC and HDFC Bank also finished with gins today.