The Hindu Business Line : Infosys declines sharply

US stocks recovered to end on a flat note last week after the global crude prices witnessed downtrend from historic high levels. Besides, better-than-expected financial performance from Alcoa also boosted the sentiment.

As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 per cent last week at 10,461.34; the S&P 500 increased 0.7 per cent to 1181.20 and the tech-focussed Nasdaq added 0.7 per cent to 1999.35.

On the other hand, equities at the domestic markets suffered ahead of announcement of quarterly results. The BSE Sensex shed 1.9 per cent to close the week at 6479.54 and the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty suffered 1.76 per cent at 2031.2 despite the foreign institutional investors' (albeit low) and local mutual funds backing.

Among the ADRs, only Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, HDFC Bank and VSNL closed last week in positive territory.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories announced that it began selling a drug to treat diabetic foot ulcers. Following the announcement, the ADR finished on a firm note at $17.42 against the previous week close of $17.20.

Infosys was the biggest loser at $68.26 ($73.8) on apprehensions that the company might forecast more conservative figure for fiscal 2006 than expected because of the fringe benefit tax. According to the Budget proposal, the fringe benefit tax - a levy of tax on perquisites for employees - would be imposed on conferences, local and overseas travel, hotel and phone bills, pension contributions by companies, fuel charges, gifts and tuition fees paid by companies for employees' children.

The company is scheduled to disclose its financial performance for the FY2004-05 and for the January-March quarter on April 14.

Wipro also suffered on account of theRs 261.70-crore tax notice served on it by the Income-Tax Department. It closed the week at $20.43 ($20.88).

Satyam Computer also ended a tad weak at $23.3 ($24.05).

Tata Motors recovered to close the week at $9.7 after it touched an intra-week low of $9.25. The company said its vehicle sales in March rose 28 per cent. The Tata Motors ADR had finished at $9.99 previous week.

Bharti Tele-ventures: Meanwhile, one more company planning to join the ADRs list is Bharti Tele-ventures. It is planning to float secondary sponsored ADRs and a decision about its size will be taken at the board meeting scheduled for April 27.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
ICI meeting to deliberate on `Shareholders First'

Superman of finance warns Spidermen of Mum-boy

Infosys declines sharply

`Penny stocks' making good show in CSE

`Prices of many scrips seem reasonable'

Liquidity may decide market direction