COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Cable, pharma, steel up; hotels, aluminum, textiles down; Skindia GDR index steady, 603.56

The Skindia GDR index and BSE Sensex recovered marginally during the week ended February 18.

The global depository receipts market wavered due to the pressure of expectations from Budget and political uncertainty in spite of foreign institutional investors' support.

The Skindia GDR index gained by just 2.29 points to 603.56 points on February 18 as compared to last week's close of 601.26 points or by 0.38 per cent. During the week, the BSE Sensex gained by 37.65 points (1.14 per cent).

The Skindia GDR Index P/E ratio and the Skindia GDR index premium declined by 1.74 per cent and 13.97 per cent to 25.17 and 14.91 per cent respectively. Out of 61 GDRs, there were 20 gainers and 33 losers while eight remained unchanged.

The top gainers for the week in GDRs were IPCL which was quoted at $ 7.53 ($5.63), Mahindra and Mahindra $ 5.65 ($4.70) and Usha Beltron $ 1.75 ($ 1.50) while the top losers for the week were Hindustan Dev $ 0.10 ($ 0.18), JCT Limited $ 0.75 ($ 1) and Flex Industries $ 0.40 ($ 0.50).

In the underlying shares, Jain Irrigation, Usha Beltron and IPCL which appreciated by 60.53 per cent, 40.00 per cent and 39.15 per cent respectively while Garden Silk, Oriental Hotels and Arvind Mills eased by 17.82 per cent, 7.87 per cent and 6.99 per cent respectively.

Skindia Finance stated that the cable sector was the highest gainer, appreciating by 13.25 per cent, followed by pharma and steel with 5.40 per cent and 3.32 per cent respectively. The top losers were hotels, aluminum and textiles that depreciated by 8.46 per cent, 6.39 per cent and 4.65 per cent respectively.

In underlying shares, cable sector further moved up by 24.47 per cent followed by steel and pharma with 16 per cent and 8.83 per cent respectively. The top losers maintained the same sequence as in GDR: hotels, aluminum and textiles eased by 5.64 per cent, 3.84 per cent and 2.65 per cent respectively.

The week saw two GDRs touching the 52-week highs with Finolex Cables's GDR touching a high of $r 6.97 on February 18, while Dr Reddy's reached $ 14 as on February 18.

The fourth quarter of 1998 saw the auto sector's GDRs gaining by 23.99 per cent on an average while the Skindia GDR index gained by 3.49 per cent. Telco and Ashok Leyland GDRs were up by 29.87 per cent and 81.71 per cent respectively while Mahindra and Mahindra and Bajaj Auto GDRs were negative by 4.94 per cent and 10.69 per cent respectively during the fourth quarter of 1998.

This grim situation brightened in the first one-and-a-half months of 1999 as only Bajaj Auto GDRs were negative. The remaining three managed to stay positive though Ashok Leyland showed no change. The auto industry average for underlying shares was 15.24 per cent rise as compared to the Sensex which moved down by 1.51 per cent in the last quarter of 1998.

The first one-and-a-half months of 1999 saw the industry average marginally rise to 17.71 per cent while the Sensex moved up by 9.51 per cent.

UNI

Business news