The Hindu Business Line : Indian counters make merry

THE US stock markets witnessed a smart gain last week after reports on third-quarter economic expansion, durable goods, consumer confidence and manufacturing in the Chicago area painted a rosy picture for the US economy. Thanks to the reports, the S&P 500 gained 2.2 per cent last week; the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.6 per cent; and the tech-focussed Nasdaq jumped 3.5 per cent.

Back home, the Indian equities also witnessed a sharp jump in values thanks to the increased support from the domestic mutual funds coupled with active participation from the retail investors. As a result, the BSE Sensitive Index or Sensex soared to end the week at 5044.82, as against last weekend's close of 4838.54, netting a gain of 206.28 points. The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) jumped 74.55 points (4.83 per cent) to end at 1,615.25. Moving on to ADR, the Indian counters, particularly infotech, rose after a survey showed that the US business economists are raising forecasts for growth in the world's largest economy. Anything which bodes well for the US economy is bound to help the Indian infotech companies, as they generate about 70 per cent of their revenues from that country. On the back of these positive developments, Infosys closed the week higher at $83.05 as against the previous week close of ($78.09). Wipro finished up at $38.65 ($36.41) and Satyam Computer at $20.98 ($19.44).

Besides the positive news flow from the US, the Infosys counter appeared to be benefited on reported news that the company has bagged $25 million-$30 million orders from ING group and Eastman Kodak.

It was not only IT counters, but also the other counters closed last week in a positive territory thanks to the bullish sentiment at the US bourses.

Sify, which announced the launch of its video conferencing service, also finished higher at $5.29 ($4.31).

Despite reports that VSNL has not applied for licenses to connect a proposed undersea fibre-optic cable from Chennai to Singapore, it closed the week on positive note at $6 ($5.83). Earlier, the company had said it plans to build a 3,100-kilometer (1,927-mile) cable between India and Singapore by the end of 2004, to carry voice and data traffic.

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