SKINDIA INDIAN GDR MONITOR
Volume VI No 26	Jun 25-Jul 01, 1999	02-Jul-99

Skindia GDR Index touches 52 week high On the hope of early solution to the Kargil solution the Skindia GDR Index touched 52 week high of 835.70 on Jul 02, in mid-day trade. After a long week of dull trading, confidence seemed to have bounced back into the GDR market, but the domestic market continued to remain sluggish. The backing of the international community particularly the US, to India 's stand on the Kargil issue, and Pakistan being isolated buoyed the sentiments as a result of which the Skindia GDR Index gained 38.35 points while the BSE Sensex gained 24.79 points. The recovery was also aided, mainly on short covering by punters, while institutions bought into index-weighted cylicals. During the week as the GDR markets raced ahead of the domestic market the average premiums moved up to 9.70% on July 01 from 7.60% on June 24 while the average spreads between the bid and ask of the 40 most actively traded DRs narrowed to 7.99% on July 01 from 8.18% on June 24. In the week the 63 depository receipts gained 2.06% and the shares gained 0.72%. IT sector was the top gainer in the DRs with a rise of 7.35% followed by fertiliser and pharma gaining 5.14% and 4.14% respectively. The only two losers were the Cement and the Hotel sector each falling 5.77% and 2.81% respectively. On the other hand in the underlying shares the top gainer was the Textile sector gaining 5.79% followed by Pharma and IT sector each gaining 3.93% and 3.70% respectively. The top losers were Cement , Auto and Hotels shedding 7.70%, 1.64% and 1.41% respectively. This week saw four GDRs touching the 52-week highs with Hindalco touching a high of 20.25$, State Bank 13.45$ on July 01 while L&T reaching 16.98$, Usha Beltron 2.50$ and Indo Gulf 1.25$ as on July 01. New Issues This year more than 7 companies have announced their DR programs. This time a number of companies are planning to go for ADR issues after a successful ADR issue of Infosys. Pentafour Software has already got its GDR program at London on June 21, 1999 and plans a second issue either of ADR or GDR. It plans to raise $60 million through its DR program.

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.