• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Thanks to US Federal Reserve’s move to cut the benchmark interest rate to one per cent from 1.5 per cent the sentiment for equities across the world was boosted. The S&P 500 climbed 10 per cent to 968.75 this week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11 per cent to 9,325.01. According to Bloomberg, both rallied the most since October 1974 after closing at five-year lows on October 27. The tech-focussed Nasdaq advanced 10.9 per cent, its best weekly percentage gain since April 2001.

Back home, Diwali brought some cheers to the market participants. After registering its three-year low, the BSE Sensex bounced back on strong global cues and ended the week with sharp gains of 12.5 per cent. The broader S&P CNX NSE Nifty gained 11.7 per cent.

Indian ADRs also surged on the back of heavy buying. Sterlite Industries was the biggest gainer as the ADR jumped a whopping 54 per cent to end at $6.19 against the previous week close of $4.01.

Tata Communications was the next big gainer despite the company announced a sharp drop in net profits for the September quarter. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 32.64 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, compared with Rs 87.69 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2007. However, the ADR jumped by about 50 per cent to end at $23.92 (15.9).

Similarly, ADR of Tata Motors jumped 47.7 per cent despite the company posting a drop in net profits; foreign exchange loss of Rs 285 crore dented auto-major Tata Motors’ profits, down 34 per cent at Rs 347 crore for the June-September quarter.

Banking counters, which until now treated with vengeance by market players, also displayed firm trends. While HDFC Bank jumped 23.8 per cent at $65.6 ($53.01), ICICI Bank surged 39.2 per cent at $17.32 ($12.44). Hit by higher provisioning and mark-to-market losses on its overseas books, ICICI Bank reported a 27.44 per cent decline in net profit on a consolidated basis to Rs 651.48 crore during the second quarter ending September 30, against Rs 897.92 crore in the same period last year. However, on a standalone basis, net profit rose marginally by 1.16 per cent to Rs 1,014.21 crore against Rs 1,004.60 crore during July-September 2007.

Compared with these gains, ADRs of infotech majors displayed only a modest show; ADR of Infosys Technologies jumped 16.3 per cent, Satyam Computer moved up by 17.5 per cent, Wipro surged 19.1 per cent and Patni Computer gained 5.8 per cent.

Internet counters Rediff.com and Sify also finished on firm note. While the former climbed 19.8 per cent, the latter climbed by 11.2 per cent.

More Stories on : Commentary | ADR Watch

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

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line