SKINDIA INDIAN GDR MONITOR
Volume VI No 47	Nov 19-Nov 25, 1999	26-Nov-99

GDR Markets resumed trading on a positive note this week too. Information technology ADRs 'Infy' & 'Sify' continued to gallop, touching new highs. The feel good sentiment rubbed on the domestic market also & on the back of renewed buying in IT scrips, the market bounced back after a weak start on friday. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha's prediction of a 6.5% plus economic growth for FY 1999-00 compared with a 5.8% a year ago helped the upbeat sentiment. But the run up for 'infy' on Nasdaq could not go beyond US $235 on Nov 22 & it started to slide, ending the week at US $212.06, and so did the Skindia GDR Index. Inspite of a fall of 4.13% in 'Infy' ADR on Nov 24, Infosys scrip in the domestic bourse continued to surge forward & on the news of a possible stock split touched its all time high of Rs.9773. Infosys board is scheduled to meet on Nov 29. Infosys has a weightage of 14.10% in Skindia GDR Index while its weightage in the BSE Sensex is around 12%. Over the week the Skindia GDR Index gained 8.09 points & BSE sensex gained 134.52 points. During the week the average premiums of the 66 DRs fell down to 7.63% on Nov 25 from 10.08% on Nov.18 & the spreads between the 41 most actively traded DRs narrowed to 7.91% on Nov 25 from 8.36% on Nov 18. Over the week the 66 DRs on an average gained 1.03% & the underlying shares 2.67%. In DRs the the top gainer was the IT sector gaining 19.09% followed by steel & auto sectors gaining 5.37% & 5.31% respectively. The top three losers were telecom textiles & cement sectors losing 3.79%.,3.43% & 0.96% respectively. On the other hand in the underlying shares the top gainer was the aluminum sector rising 7.70% followed by steel & IT sectors gaining 7.38% & 6.48% respectively. The losers were cable losing 2.64% textiles losing 1.50% and telecom losing 0.28%. Telecom Sector - During the calendar year 1999-2000 upto Nov 25, telecom GDRs on an average appreciated 18.31% against a rise of 57.62% in the Skindia GDR Index while its underlying shares recorded a gain of 64.65% compared to a gain of 53.12% in the BSE sensex. Out of the two Telecom majors VSNL continued to rise through out the year and its GDR gained 65.31% till date. Although comparatively its performance during the second half was much better than the first half . In H1 while VSNL GDR & shares gained 4.61% and 24.35% respectively it gained 51.12% and 84.44% in H2. Interestingly after the closing of its domestic issue on Sep 24 VSNL GDR experienced a major gain of 53.99% till date. On the other hand during calendar year 1999-2000 MTNL GDR has consistently been losing & has lost 28.69% till date. MTNL GDR depreciated 18.85% in H1 and 11.90% in H2 while its shares gained 2.76% and 2.94% over the same periods.

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.