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Prices rise on insurance hopes; Telecom, auto and pharma sectors gain; Skindia index up 6.53 per cent to 569.86 points

During the week, Skindia GDR Index gained by 34.91 points and the BSE Sensex by 175.14 points. With the GDR market appreciating more than six and half per cent, the overall average premia of the 60 GDRs moved up from 5.90 per cent on December 3 to 7.21 per cent on December 10 and the spreads of the 37 most actively traded GDRs eased from 10.11 per cent on December 3 to 9.13 per cent on December 10.

With the Fortune magazine identifying Telco as one of the top ten investment opportunities in Asia, its GDRs went up by US dollar 0.50 or 18.53 per cent.

During the week ended, the Skindia GDR Index rose by 6.53 per cent to 569.86 points on December 10 as compared to last week's close of 534.95 points. The Skindia GDR Index P/E ratio also increased by 5.90 per cent to 15.97 from 15.08 and the Skindia GDR Index premium shot up by 17.31 per cent to 18.45 per cent from 15.72 per cent.

The top gainers for the week were Core Healthcare, Crompton Greaves and Telco which profited by 33.33 per cent, 18.92 per cent and 18.53 per cent respectively while the losers for the week were Sanghi Polyester, Tube Invest and Kesoram India which lost by 12.50 per cent, 18.92 per cent and 18.53 per cent respectively.

During the week, there were 40 GDR gainers, seven losers while 13 remained steady.

In a statement, Skindia Finance said that, over the week, the 60 GDRs on an average gained by 4.76 per cent and the shares by 3.91 per cent. In the GDRs, telecom sector appreciated the highest, rising by 9.25 per cent, followed by auto that rose by 9.18 per cent and pharma (8.44 per cent).

Steel sector was the only loser which fell by two per cent. In shares, the top gainers were pharma, auto and cement industries with an appreciation of 16.93 per cent, 8.62 per cent and 5.40 per cent respectively. The top losers were steel and fertiliser with a decline of 2.41 per cent and 2.16 per cent in that order.

MTNL was the last GDR issued by any Indian company. The GDR issued at a price of $ 11.96 started to trade on December 4, 1997 at a price of $ 13.25. Currently trading at $ 11.50, it is 3.76 per cent below its issue price and 13.28 per cent below the listing price. The GDR touched the 52-week low of $ 7.75 on June 22, 1998 and the 52-week high of $ 19.13 on April 9, 1998.

The GDRs on an average traded at a premium of 23.66 per cent to the underlying share since the issue. A further study revealed that the GDRs witnessed a volatility of 3.76 per cent as compared to 2.91 per cent for the share.

UNI

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