SKINDIA INDIAN GDR MONITOR Volume VI No 51 Dec 17-Dec 23, 1999 24-Dec-99 Cheerful Christmas - Merry markets :Sustained buying prior to Christmas holidays sparked a bull run this week. Mirroring the buoyant mood the Skindia GDR Index touched a new 52 week high of 1160.41 on Dec 23 & ended the week with a gain of 11.44%. FII's continued to be net buyers in the domestic markets . The report of the US govt's decision to lift sanctions on 51 Indian entities acted as the trigger and gave boost to the markets. Software stocks continued to attract good buying with 'Infy' making new all time highs on Nasdaq as well as on domestic bourse. The software sector is expected to get a further boost from govt's IT bill, providing the legal framework for electronic commerce. Govt placed the bill in the parliament last thursday. Over the week the Skindia GDR Index gained 117.01 points & the BSE sensex 258.73 points. In the week the 66 DRs gained 4.40% & the underlying shares gained 7.21%. IT sector was the top gainer in the DRs with a rise of 16.75% followed by hotel & steel gaining 11.17% and 6.46% respectively. The only three losers were the cement, finance & telecom sectors falling 16.99%, 5.55% and 0.83%. On the other hand in the underlying shares the top gainer was the fertiliser sector gaining 22.04% followed by steel gaining 18.77% & textile gaining 18.28% . Cement, finance and telecom sectors were the top three losers shedding 20.00%, 15.29% & 1.12% respectively. Sify ADS- a 4 for 1 split : To facilitate broader participation and to provide more liquidity on Nasdaq, Satyam Infoway announced a 4 for 1 split in its existing ADS. Its holders as of January 5, 2000 will be getting 3 additional ADS for each held. Satyam infoway has also sought for government's approval for raising upto US $115m, including a greenshoe option of $15m, through a fresh ADS issue in order to part fund its recent acquisition of IndiaWorld. Wipro plans ADR Issue : As part of its major expansion plan for its e-commerce business, IT major Wipro too is planning an ADR issue in the next 12 months, to fund its takeovers and acquisitions. It plans to get it listed on the Nasdaq. Wipro has bagged new e-commerce orders worth $35m from its end users and infrastructure providers in the US and expects to execute these by March 2001. Wipro's mkt.cap soared to $12.1bn on Dec.23 and accounted for 5% of BSE total. IOC GDR Deferred : Indian Oil Corporation postponed its GDR issue scheduled for January end to early march 2000, as Petro China, another Asian oil & gas major from China, is entering the ADR markets at that time. Following this GDR issue the government's stake in IOC will come down to 82% from 91%. IOC is also planning for a domestic public offer to increase its equity base.It plans to invest in expansion and diversification into areas like petrochemicals & power. IOC currently has Rs.10000 cr worth of projects under implementation. 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.