Stocks marginally up
Mumbai: Breathtaking volumes and moderate volatility were the features of the stock markets on 24 September 1999. Though there were not much institutional participation, The Bombay Stock Exchange index of 30 shares rose 22 points to close at 4,758. The National Stock Exchange index of 50 shares closed at 1,412, again up 14 points.

The turnover of the BSE and NSE together reached a new high of Rs 6,431 crore on 24 September 1999. The BSE breached its all time record to touch a turnover of Rs.3,181 crore. Reliance Industries aggregated a turnover of Rs.283 crore and Rs.351 crore on the BSE and NSE respectively.

Software stocks, which have been hogging the limelight for quite some time now, bucked the trend. Satyam Computers, Infosys Technologies Pentafour Software and HCL Infosytems were prominent losers. NIIT was one of the major gainers of the day, which recorded a rise of 5.15 per cent.

At the fag end of the trading session, the markets came down, thus offsetting initial gains. With the volumes also being heavy, the markets may some reaction at the current levels, according to some sources. Particularly, the 4,800 point mark is considered to be technically significant on the BSE.
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NSE to set foot into IT
Mumbai: The National Stock Excahnge will set up a software company, that will provide solutions to the stock markets and its players. To start with, the company will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NSE.

NSE also plans to strike an alliance with Tata Consultancy Services. The association between the NSE and TCS has been quite a long with the latter being one of the prime vendors of the former. In the words of Ravi Narain, deputy managing director, NSE, "It will be a marriage of business skills and IT skills."

TCS would link NSE’s current mainframe with the another mainframe. Trades would then be routed through two mainframes that would enhance capacity. NSE is seeking an increase in its capacity by about 40 to 50 per cent. Currently, the NSE system has a capacity to handle 6 lakh trades per day. Peak trading so far witnessed on the exchange has been about 4 lakh trades, when the system was generally seen to buckle.

Initially, the staff strength of the new, so far unnamed, company will be about 200. Out of the existing staff strength of the NSE, 150 will be transferred and the rest of the 50 will fresh recruits.
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GAIL GDR issue
New Delhi: Gas Authority of India Ltd. will come out with its maiden global depository receipts issue by the end of 1999. The merchant bankers, Morgan Stanley and Jardine Fleming will give their reports to Gail in the next few days.

The government wants the Gail GDR issue to go through in October 1999. Gail will divest around 17 crore shares through the GDR route, while 1 crore shares will offered to the domestic public. It may be worth noting that Gail had first planned a GDR issue in the beginning of 1998, but had to shelve its plans owing to a bad market scenario.

The company has made a net profit of Rs.1,060 crore and a turnover of Rs.6,647 crore for the financial year 1998-99.
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MSE yet to permit trading in Polaris scrip
Chennai: Polaris Software, which had recently come out with its maiden public issue and got listed at the Madras and Bombay stock exchanges, is yet to be given permission to be traded on the Madras Stock Exchange.

This is because the Bombay Stock Exchange is said to be verifying the allotment procedure of the company in its public issue. Since the MSE does not want to take any risks, it is withholding its permission so as to protect investor interests.
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UTI fixes 11% return for MIP (II)
Mumbai: The Unit Trust of India has fixed a return of 11 per cent for the first year of the Monthly Income Plan (II), 1999. This is UTI’s first MIP without an assured return for five years. Like its previous plans, MIP (II) will also give an assurance that the redemption will not be below par value.
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CMS plans public issue
Mumbai: CMS Computers Ltd., A Rs.300 crore third party maintenance company will come out with its maiden public issue in the next few months.

Ramesh Grover, chairman and managing director, CMS, has said that the company plans to cross a turnover of Rs.1,000 crore in the next four years. He added that CMS requires about Rs.200 crore for building up its infrastructure.

CMS is 23-year old private company with an equity of around Rs.20 crore. It has two subsidiaries – CMS Traffic Systems and Systime Computer Systems (India) Ltd. Its businesses are systems integration, computer education and information technology consulting. CMS will focus on the telecommunications, manufacturing, banking and services sectors in the future.

The company has research and development centres at Thiruvananthapuram, Pune and Mumbai and has a staff strength of about 1,100.
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FIIs frown upon Sebi move
Mumbai: Foreign institutional investors seem to be peeved at the Securities and Exchange Board of India move to make compulsory settlement of trades through clearing houses or clearing corporations of the stock exchanges. The regulation is expected to be effective 15 January 2000.

According to informed sources, Some FIIs may even lower their India exposure if Sebi were not to relax the regulation. Written requests have already been written by several FIIs to Sebi, to protest against the move.
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UTI to float venture capital fund
Mumbai: The Unit Trust of India has sought permission from the regulators to float a $65 million venture capital fund for the information technology and pharmaceutical sectors. The trust will raise $40 million overseas and the balance $20 million through a domestic institutional investors.

The fund will be called India Technology Venture Unit Scheme. About 25 per cent of the overseas contribution will be invested domestically, while the rest will be invested in Indian companies operating abroad.
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VSNL issue oversubscribed
Mumbai: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., which had come out with a Rs.75 crore public issue has received an oversubscription of about four to five times. The issue was for one million shares at Rs.750 per share and it received quite a good response of about 70,000 applications. The issue is part of the government’s disinvestment programme.
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