The Hindu Business Line : Indian counters make merry

THANKS to an unexpected plunge in oil prices, the US equity markets jumped sharply last week. Besides, Intel's announcement raising its fourth quarter sales' forecast also augured well for the market. On the back of these positive developments, the S&P 500 reached a three-year high last week.

While the S&P 500 added 0.7 per cent to 1191.17 last week, the Nasdaq climbed 2.2 per cent to 2147.96 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.7 per cent to 10,592.21.

For the domestic markets, it was an historic week. The continuous faith showed by foreign institutional investors took the benchmarks to new highs in their history; the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty registered its all-time high at 2011.90 and the BSE Sensex at 6361.53. Last week, the Nifty gained over five per cent while the Sensex 4.76 per cent.

Thanks to the bullish undertone, the Indian ADRs were on song at the US bourses. Five counters touched new 52-week highs including banking counters HDFC Bank at $43.15 and ICICI Bank at $19.

HDFC Bank announcement that it has received shareholders approval for further issue of ADS appeared to have affected the sentiment as it slipped from higher levels to close at $41.74 ($40.40).

However, ICICI Bank Ltd finished firm at $19 after it announced plans to expand in Sri Lanka and Russia next year as it seeks to boost international sales.

Market talk that Indian software majors have increased their prices they charge to customers has taken the IT counters to new highs. While Infosys (at $72) and Wipro (at $25.68) registered fresh highs for the year, Satyam also registered a sharp gain during intra-week. However, the weakening of the US dollar against Indian rupee, which now trades at 7-month high against the former, spoiled the mood for them, as all the counters tumbled from peak levels. Infosys closed at $67.91 ($65.7) and Wipro at $24.84 ($23.66) while Satyam Computer finished the week in the negative zone at $26.56 ($26.84).

Tata Motors Ltd rose to $11.56 ($10.51) after the company posted a 31-per cent gain in sales of its trucks and cars in October.

VSNL also registered its new 52-week high at $10.32 after it said that it has received $26 million as a first instalment from the sale of a stake in New Skies Satellite NV. The company will get the rest of the payment for the stake in New Skies in two months, it further said. VSNL closed the week at $10.09 ($9.62).

Apart from Satyam Computer, MTNL was the other counter to end the week in negative territory; MTNL closed weak at $8.5 ($8.6).

On the premium/discount front, there were not much deviations except for Satyam ADR, whose premium widened to 42.16 per cent (38.74 per cent).

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