The Hindu Business Line : VSNL zooms; infotech suffers

IT was a volatile week for the US equities amidst reports showing a slower-than-expected pace of growth in the first quarter and the drop in oil prices below the crucial $50 per barrel. The DJ Industrial Average closed the week with a gain of 0.34 per cent at 10,192.51 while the S&P's 500 added 0.41 per cent at 1,156.85. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the week with a loss of 0.55 per cent at 1921.65.

But nothing seems to have worked in favour for the domestic markets - Be it the ownership battle in the Reliance group or the RBI's 25 basis point hike in reverse repo rate; negative FII activity; and announcements of poor results by some major corporates. As a result, the BSE Sensex tanked 3.02 per cent and the Nifty suffered 3.29 per cent.

Among the ADRs, tech majors - Infosys, Wipro and Satyam Computer - continued their slide ever since Infosys issued a cautious outlook for the current financial year.

Except VSNL, HDFC Bank and Rediff.com the rest ended in negative territory.

The decision of the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal to set aside the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's order to reduce international bandwidth tariff by 70 per cent seemed to have acted in favour of VSNL. The company is the largest international bandwidth provider in the country and a reduction in tariffs would have had serious revenue implications for it.

ICICI Bank announced on Saturday a 35-per cent jump net profit for the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal. However, it closed last week at $18.08 against the previous week close of $19.29

Dr Reddy's Laboratories which will announce its financial performance on May 6, closed week at $15.16 ($15.87).

However, Rediff.com, which launched Rediff web hosting, a Web presence management tool for young entrepreneurs, finished firm at $6.67 ($6.54).

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