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Textiles, aluminium, fertilisers gain; pharma, infotech dip; Skindia GDR Index down 34.24 points to 619.08

The Indian Global Depository Receipts declined moderately while the BSE Sensex appreciated marginally during the week ended March 25.

The week started on a positive note, thanks to funds' purchases. The markets took a downturn as big operators began to square up positions before the public holiday on March 25. The suspension of BSE president J C Parekh by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and high badla (rate of carry-forward deals) rates further pushed the markets down.

The high badla rates were not on account of demand but due to the paucity of funds, as the money was being paid towards advance taxes, hence unavailable for badla financing.

Expecting that the badla rates will go up further, the operators did not wish to keep their long positions open, pushing the markets down further.

As a result, the Skindia GDR index ended the week with a loss of 34.24 points, while the BSE Sensex managed to end the week with a marginal gain of 9.98 points.

During the week, the premia of the 63 depository receipts on an average fell down to 0.64 per cent on March 25 from 1.16 per cent on March 18 and the spreads between the bid and ask of the 39 most actively traded Indian GDRs widened to 19.99 per cent from 9.40 per cent on March 18.

During the week, there were 26 gainers, 19 losers while 18 remained unchanged. The top gainers for the week were Flex Industries 50 per cent ($ 0.60), Raymond Woollen 40.16 per cent ($ 4.28) and Videocon International 37.78 per cent ($ 1.55), while the top losers were United Phosporous 13.79 per cent ($ 2.50), ITC 11.62 per cent ($ 25.30) and Reliance 11.36 per cent ($ 5.85).

According to a Skindia Finance statement, by the end of the week, as the domestic and foreign institutions refrained from any fresh buying, the 63 GDRs on an average lost by 5.24 per cent while the shares gained marginally by 0.27 per cent. Owing to the March 25 holiday, the institutions were unable to close their positions, forcing the markets downwards.

In the industry-wise break-up, the GDRs of textile sector were the top gainers appreciating by 14.42 per cent, followed by aluminium and fertilisers with 13.11 per cent and 8.92 per cent.

Fertiliser and textile sectors were the top gainers in the shares as well with a rise of 17.92 per cent and 13.02 per cent. The other top gainer in the shares was cement with a rise of 11.19 per cent.

In GDRs, the pharma and infotech sectors which have been gaining consistently since the beginning of 1999 were among the top losers this week. The pharma lost by 2.05 per cent and infotech lost by 1.01 per cent.

The loss in the infotech sector got limited to 1.01 per cent as Pentafour Software did not show any movement this week while Infosys Technologies has lost by 2.02 per cent. In shares, it was the top loser with a loss of 12.28 per cent. Infosys fell by 9.35 per cent and Pentafour by 15.22 per cent, in the week. The steel and hotel sectors were the other losers depreciating by 6.81 per cent and 0.77 per cent respectively.

UNI

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