The Hindu Business Line : Banking majors sizzle

Thanks to better-than-expected financial performance by corporates, both the US and Indian markets gained smartly. While the S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent to a three-month high of 1,397.84 this week, the Dow Average added 0.3 per cent to 12,891.86 and the tech-focussed Nasdaq gained 0.8 per cent to 2722.93. The BSE Sensex jumped 3.91 per cent and the broader NSE’s S&P CNX Nifty jumped 3.09 per cent.

The ADRs of Indian companies also witnessed sharp gains at the US bourses. Among them, banking counters ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained the most — 11.9 per cent and 9.06 per cent respectively thanks to stellar financial performance by them. HDFC Bank posted 37 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 471.11 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 as compared with Rs 343.57 crore for the year-ago period. For the year-ended March 2008, the bank posted a net profit of Rs 1,590.18 crore (Rs 1,141.45 crore). On Saturday, ICICI Bank announced a 39 per cent jump in its net profit for the quarter ended March 2008.

However, the gain was muted only in the case of IT stocks. Infy gained 0.09 per cent and Wipro jumped 2.74 per cent. Satyam Computer and Patni Computers ended weak.

The other counters that ended the week on weak note are Sterlite Industries (9.59 per cent), Rediff.com (3.13 per cent) and Sify 1.16 per cent.

MTNL was the big gainer as the ADR jumped by 6.6 per cent, while Tata Communications moved up by 0.53 per cent.

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