The Hindu Business Line : HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank hit 52-week high

IT was a lacklustre trading session for the US markets during the last week of 2004; a flurry of profit-bookings in index heavyweights checked the market movement. The last week of the year was pretty flat for stocks; nonetheless the year overall was fairly upbeat. For the week, the Dow closed slightly lower, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed slightly higher.

In contrast, the domestic markets witnessed hectic activities, with the BSE Sensex and the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty closing at their historic heights.

Robust foreign institutional investors' buying apart, expectations of strong earnings growth from corporate majors and hopes on economy triggered heavy buying across all sectors. Piercing the 6600-mark, the Sensex surged to the highest ever close of 6602.69 on the last session of 2004, a gain of 1.61 per cent during the week. The Nifty closed at 2080.50, a gain of 0.8 per cent.

Among the ADRs, only VSNL and Wipro closed last week in the negative territory. On the other hand, banking counters - ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank - continued to attract market fancy. Both registered their 52-week highs during the week at $20.6 and $45.88 respectively but closed a tad weak from that level.

ICICI Bank announced that it will sell as much as $216.3 million worth of stock in the form of ADRs. In a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the bank, however, didn't say how many depository shares would be sold and at what price.

Infosys closed at $69.31 against the previous week close of $68.85. Hopes that Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd might win orders from ABN Amro Holding NV seemed to have influenced the counter. Satyam also ended slightly higher at $24.13 ($23.92), while Wipro finished weak at $24.65 ($25.4).

It was a flat trend on premium front.

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