Major share prices harden
Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange witnessed  intense activity on Monday. The lower badla rates enabled equities to firm up and resulted in hectic trading. The BSE Sensex moved up after opening at 4605 points to close at 4639 points. Intra-day it touched a high of 4653 points. The net gain was 64 points from the previous close or around 1.39 per cent.

On the average, the badla rates on Saturday were around 22 per cent. Some of the stocks to hit the circuit breaker were Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Motors, Bajaj Auto, Escorts and  TVS Suzuki.

Cement stocks also continued their uptrend on the basis of reports that cement despatches would increase by 12 per cent in this financial year. Market sources said there was heavy buying in Global Telesystems scrip by a foreign institutional investor. The scrip move to Rs.264.3, up Rs.20.
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Y2K – reason enough to shut down bourses on 31 December 1999, says Sebi
Mumbai: The Indian stock exchanges will have the last trading day of this calendar year on 30 December 1999, as the Securities and Exchange Board of India is wary of glitches that may occur on account of the Y2K bug.

A Y2K compliance testing will be done on 1 January 2000 for two hours at all the Indian stock exchanges. This will include mock trading and settlement sessions and connectivity to the depositories.
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Special margin on 21 BSE scrips
Mumbai: With effect from 9 August 1999, special margins will be imposed on 21 BSE scrips, owing to volatility in the share price of the scrips. Margin rates have been fixed based on the closing price on the last trading day of the previous settlement.
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Rs 360 crore raised by ICICI’s safety bonds
Mumbai: The bond issue that closed on 2 August 1999 has enabled ICICI to garner Rs.360 crore through 90,600 applications. In May this year, ICICI had managed to gather Rs.329 crore through 25,000 applications. The Safety Bonds have helped ICICI raise around Rs.689 crore in the year.

The four categories of instruments to investors were Encash Bonds, Regular Income Bonds, Tax Saving Bonds and Money Multiplier Bonds.
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Private and unlisted companies cannot use FI funds for buyback
Mumbai: As per guidelines issued by the ministry of law, justice and company affairs, unlisted public limited companies and private limited companies cannot use funds raised from financial institutions or banks for buyback of shares.

The rules regarding private limited companies and unlisted public limited companies were notified on 6 July 1999. Public listed companies are in any case bound by the Sebi guidelines in this regard.

Private limited companies and unlisted public limited companies can buy back shares either from existing shareholders on a proportionate basis or from employees who have been offered employee stock option plans.
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Rolling settlement planned for 10 scrips
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India may introduce a rolling settlement for at least 10 companies’ shares by the first week of December 1999, subject to approval from its board.

A working group has been formed which will select the first list of scrips.
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Rs. 70 crore raised by Coal India
Calcutta: Coal India Ltd has placed Rs.70 crore worth of one-year bullet bonds with banks at around 11.5 per cent per annum. SBI, ABN Amro, ICICI Bank, BNP and Canara Bank were some of the banks that participated in the private placement.

Crisil had rated these bonds as P1+. Coal India will be using the funds for its working capital requirements, which had earlier in the year raised Rs.180 crore through a commercial paper issue worth Rs.180 crore below 10 per cent per annum.
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GIC Growth Plus II performing well
Calcutta: GIC Mutual Fund’s GIC Growth Plus II scheme has more than a 42 per cent exposure in information technology (16.8%), pharmaceuticals (11.9%) and fast moving consumer goods (14.5%) segment. The total amount invested in these segments in 1998-99 was more than Rs.80 crore.

The net asset value of the open-ended scheme was Rs.11.68 as on 31 March 1999. The scheme used to be a closed-ended one, which was converted to open-ended on 23 April 1998.
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Prime says primary markets are inactive
Mumbai: According to Prithvi Haldea of Prime Database, the primary markets in India were dormant in the last financial year. The market saw issues only from infotech and banking companies.

Even in the current year, between April and June 1999, only nine issues have hit the market. Three debt issues from ICICI and one from IDBI mobilised Rs.1,445 crore, which formed 95 per cent of the total amount mobilised during the current fiscal.
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