The Hindu Business Line : A booming stock market beckons sunrise sectors

Broadcasting as an industry, may be as old as the hills. But for the stock market at least, it is certainly a sunrise industry. And so when Entertainment Network India (Radio Mirchi), which got listed on the Indian stock exchanges recently, it became, according to Mr Vishal Kampani, Executive Director and Head of Corporate Finance of JM Morgan Stanley, "the first radio company outside Australia to trade on a stock exchange".

The halo of a pioneer listed stock is bound to shine on the commodity exchange, MCX when it goes public by April-end. Itwill not only join an exclusive club of stock exchanges that include New York Stock Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade and Atlanta-based energy bourse Intercontinental Exchange to be themselves trading on on the bourses, but also add to the expanding list of sunrise industries in the community of listed stocks in the country.

As the Indian stock markets scale new peaks everyday, companies from new and emerging sectors - retail to multiplexes, aviation to BPO, realty to radio and wind energy to print media - jump on the IPO (initial public offerings) bandwagon, cashing in on the seemingly unending demand for Indian stocks from foreign and local investors.

"Many of the new IPOs are coming from sectors that were not even in the picture during the 90s. The times are really exciting," says Mr S Ramesh, Executive Director (Equity Product Group), Kotak Mahindra Capital.

Some of the stocks from the sunrise industry have done spectacularly well for the investors. Gateway Distriparks (from organised logistics management business) and Suzlon Energy (from wind energy sector) have multiplied investors' wealth ever since their listing in recent times. Suzlon Energy, in fact, is bidding to become a player on a global scale. The pioneer status of the company (from a listing perspective, that is) staking a claim to their monies thus doesn't deter many investors.

Indeed, experts say Internet or dotcom companies, which were battered out of existence in the wake of the tech bubble that burst some years ago, now feel emboldened to contemplate a foray into the capital market.

According to them, Naukri.com' and `Shaadi.com' which have made a name for themselves in the employment and matrimonial space respectively, are likely candidates for an IPO. "Several BPOs, which are doing extremely well, are lining up IPOs," said Mr Naresh Kothari, Head (Institutional Sales), Edelweiss Capital.

Mr Kampani thinks there is a bull market, so to speak, in the sunrise sector stocks. "Companies from new sectors are sure to tap the capital markets going forward," he says.