Market interest in SBI continues
Mumbai: Shares of State Bank of India continued to rule firm amidst good volumes on the bourses. From the old favourite GDR relaxation theory to expectations of consolidation of its subsidiaries into the parent SBI, the stock has been news driven, hitting new highs consecutively in the recent past. On the BSE the stock ended the day at Rs 375.45, up 1.10 per cent with around 11.88 lakh shares traded. On the NSE, the stock ended the day at Rs 377, up 1.44 per cent with around 31.72 lakh shares traded."There is considerable fund interest in the counter. And anyone who is positive on the Indian economy, is positive on SBI. Its more of proxy buying that has been
driving the counter," said Prashant Nair, vice-president equities, Pranav Securities. A section of the market is also of the view that the stock, in comparison to other public sector banks, has been undervalued. "It has been a laggard in the rise. At a time when other banks have doubled from their levels, this stock has only moved up by 50 per cent or so," Mr Arun Kejriwal, market analyst, said.
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Pharma stocks perk up on passage of US Medicare Bill
Mumbai: The Indian pharmaceutical industry seems to have struck gold with the US House of Representatives and Senate approving the Bill on Medicare drug benefits on Friday. The news led to a rally in stocks of most pharmaceutical companies which either already have a presence in the US markets or are preparing for the entry. The BSE's healthcare index hit its 52-week high today at 1471 levels and a market capitalisation of Rs 48,521.39 crore. The expanded medicare programme will facilitate low-cost prescription drugs into the government insurance programme. The Bills call for an expenditure of about $400 billion in 10 years to encourage seniors to enrol in privately managed health plans that may offer more benefits than basic Medicare coverage.
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Himachal Futuristic in limelight
Mumbai: The stock of Himachal Futuristic Ltd is in the limelight with the rumours of a probable buying interest from a prominent operator. There is also talk of the company receiving orders from some of the bigwigs of the telecom industry including Reliance, MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd), Tata Infocomm and BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd). Dealers say that the quantum of the order could be around Rs 1,400 crore. There are rumours that the company is close to bagging export orders from West Asia and South Africa. The stock of HFCL closed on Friday higher by 4.85 per cent at Rs 32.40 with volumes of 56.43 lakh shares on the BSE. On the NSE, the share price went up by 4.86 per cent to close at Rs 32.35
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As bourses postpone ex-dividend date of 15 companies
Mumbai: Several small shareholders burnt their fingers in early trade when they sold shares of some companies, including Tata Engineering, ACC and Apollo Tyres, that were entering the no-delivery period without realising that the NSE and the BSE had postponed the `ex-dividend' date of 15 companies from June 27 to June 30. In a notification that was reportedly released quite late in the evening on Thursday, the two exchanges informed that the settlements scheduled for Monday have been rescheduled to Tuesday because the RBI is closed on June 30 owing to half-yearly closing of accounts. The circular also added that the no-delivery period of 15 stocks that would have begun on Friday has been shifted to Monday. The investors who sold in these counters hoping to cull the dividend amount realised later that they would be able to settle only on Tuesday, July 1, instead of Monday. Not only did they lose out on the dividend, they also missed the day's rally in some of these stocks. Dealers said even though the pay-in and pay-out were shifted, there was no need to push the `ex' date as it had nothing to do with banks. "Timing of information flow is very important in the stock market," said a dealer adding that it could have been a goof-up by the exchanges.
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SEBI notifies ad norms for MFs
Kolkata: All performance advertisements issued by mutual funds, ones that disclose statistics relating to returns, must also mention the returns on the benchmark indices during the same time periods, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has stipulated.

SEBI, in a directive issued on Thursday, referred to its earlier guidelines that prescribed the type of benchmark indices that can be used in performance advertisements. Subsequently, disclosure of the benchmarks in offer documents and comparison of returns with benchmarks were made mandatory while publishing half-yearly results. As for money market schemes, the regulator has acknowledged that investors have very short investment horizon. While advertising simple annualised returns of these schemes based on 30-day periods, funds can also advertise returns based on 15-day periods. Funds will be required to furnish a couple of details in advertisements concerning dividends. One, exclusion of distribution taxes while calculating returns (assuming dividends are re-invested). Two, in the case of pay-out, it needs to be disclosed that after the payment of dividend, the NAV will fall to the extent of the payout and distribution taxes, if applicable. SEBI has further stated that any ranking mentioned in advertisements must be "current to the most recent quarter ended or such periodicity/frequency of ranking as may be applicable".
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CVC Capital told to make open offer
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ordered CVC Capital Partners, a Citigroup associate, to make a public offer to buy 20 per cent equity of Century Enka with reference date as July 30, 1999. It has also asked the private equity firm to pay interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum from that date. According to analysts, the open offer would not be of much benefit to the shareholders now as the price would be less than the current market price of the stock. Century Enka shares closed at Rs 92.10 on the National Stock Exchange on Friday. In 1999, CVC Capital Partners acquired indirect control of Century Enka when Akzo Nobel transferred its control of Acordis, its fibres division, to Acordis BV controlled by CVC Cap. The fibres division held 36.5 per cent holding in Century Enka, which Akzo had co-promoted with the BK Birla group.
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Rupee gains 13 paise; securities buoyant
Mumbai: The domestic currency closed strong at 46.39/40 on Friday, its highest in over two and a half years, and around 13 paise firmer against the previous close of 46.5375. According to dealers, after opening the day at 46.55/56, the rupee strengthened on the back of abundant dollar liquidity and absence of demand for the greenback.
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