SKINDIA INDIAN GDR MONITOR
Volume VI No 05	Jan 29-Feb 04, 1999	05-Feb-99

Political uncertainty lowers the trading interest Amidst rumours that the Telugu Desam Party a key ally of the coalition government has withdrawn its support to the BJP led ruling party the market operators lost their interest in trading. As the political uncerainty prevailed in the country, as a result the Skindia GDR index ended the week with a minor change. The Skindia GDR index fell 0.76 points and the BSE Sensex 56.53 points moving in the band of 1.77% and 2.45% respectively. As the fall registered by the underlying shares was much more, the premiums of the 60 GDRs jumped up to 9.52% on Feb 04 from 4.64% on Jan 28 and the average spreads of the 37 most actively traded GDRs widened to 8.65% on Feb 04 from 8.08% on Jan 28. Overall, during the week the 60 GDRs on an average lost marginally 0.12% and the shares 1.72%. In GDRs, hotels and fertilisers were the only gainers with a gain of 5.60% and 4.21%. the top losers were cement, auto and textiles dropping 8.17% 3.54%, and 3.46% respectively. In shares the hotel sector was the only gainer with 0.13%, the top loser was cables depreciating 15.42% while fertiliser sector remained unchanged. Pharma sector gaining strength After a not so good final quarter of the calendar year 1998, the pharma sector has gained in strength in the first month of the year 1999. During the fourth quarter the pharma GDR on an average lost 2.43% while the Skindia GDR Index gained 3.49% in the same period. Out of the four GDR pharma stocks only Ranbaxy was able to provide positive returns of 5.32% in Q4, whereas Core Health, Dr. Reddy's and Wockhardt had 7.69%, 4.35% and 2.99% depreciation in their values, respectively. With the turn of the year the fortunes of the pharma stocks also turned around. In the first month of this year, the GDRs of this sector have registered an average gain of 13.84%. The gain has been contributed by all the pharma GDR scrips. The highest gain has been made by Wockhardt which appreciated 19.23% to $7.75 followed by Ranbaxy at 14.75% to $10.50, Dr. Reddy's and Core Health moved 11.36% and 10.00% respectively. The rising interest in the pharma stocks could also been seen from the fact that NASDAQ is targeting Indian pharma companies for listing. In shares also the story is more or less the same. In Q3 the shares on an average fell 0.24% against a fall of 1.51% in the BSE Sensex. In the first month of 1999, the shares have appreciated an average of 15.25% as compared to a gain of 5.75% in the BSE Sensex. Here again, Wockhardt is the top gainer, with a rise of 27.74% to Rs 337.50, followed by Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddy's, appreciating 20.13% to Rs 321.00 and 15.24% to Rs 563.50. Core Health was a loser in shares shedding 2.13% to Rs 13.80.

DISCLAIMER : Factual material is obtained from sources believed to be reliable and SkindiaFinance is not responsible for any errors and omissions contained herein. Any recommendation contained in this report may not be suitable for all issuers.