Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Sep 30, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Sep 30, 2002 |
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Markets
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Commentary Columns - ADR Watch Wipro bucks trend K.S. Badri Narayanan
THE resoluteness of the US President, George Bush to wage a war against Iraq and concerns over falling corporate profits seemed to have affected the sentiment at the US markets. Both the S&P-500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had their fifth straight week of declines. The S&P 500 slipped 2.1 per cent while the Dow, which slumped to a four-year low on Tuesday, slid 3.6 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.8 per cent last week and touched its lowest in six years on Monday. In contract, the Indian markets were range-bound. In fact, the terrorist attack on a temple in Gujarat did not evoke any nervousness as the market ended in positive territory. The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive index closed the week at 3037.26 over the previous week close of 3024.35 and the National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty at 976.45 (969.90). Among the ADRs, ICICI Bank, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Wipro finished the week on a firm note while VSNL ended flat. ICICI Bank, which witnessed heavy activity for quite some particularly on the domestic bourses, came out with stake sale announcement. Accordingly, foreign investors, including the Government of Singapore and a Lombard Insurance (Canada) affiliate, picked up 16.5 per cent stake in the bank. The counter finished at $5.93 against the previous week close of $5.75. However, the stock closed weak at Rs 137.85 (Rs 140.20), resulting in improving the ADR's premium. ICICI Bank now trades at a premium of 4.05 per cent compared to the last weekend negative premium (discount) of 1.23 per cent. Tech counters were definitely not in favour even though Wipro closed better at $27.40 ($27.06). Other tech majors — Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer — closed weak at $55 ($57.5) and $9.09 ($9.67) respectively. Silverline Technologies continued its downward slide to register its new 52-week low at $.61. It closed the week just above that level at $.66 (.80). Pharma major Dr. Reddy's also ended the week on firm note at $16.95 ($16.65) ahead of the 42nd annual Interscience Conference on Anti-microbial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), which is currently under way at San Diego, California, US (September 27-30). The ICAAC annual conference is the world's premier meeting on infectious diseases and anti-microbial agents and is organised by the American Society for Microbiology. Dr. Reddy's is expected to present as many as 10 posters on its anti-infective discovery programme in the conference. Six of these posters will showcase the company's new lead antibacterial molecule DRF 8417. The new Satyam Infoway (after the 1:4 reverse split) witnessed a sharp fall. After touching a low of $.88, Sify closed at $1.08 ($1.80). If the slide continues, the counter could go to its pre-split level of less than a dollar. There were not much deviation in the premiums of most ADRs.
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