Jai Balaji to float Rs 10-crore IPO
Hyderabad: The Kolkata-based Jai Balaji Sponge Ltd is coming out with its maiden public issue of one crore equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at par. The Rs 10-crore issue opens on October 21 and closes by the month-end. The amount payable on application is Rs 2.50 per share. Rakesh Sony, executive director (investment banking), Microsec India, the lead manager of the issue, said the proceeds of the public issue will be utilised to part-finance the installation of pollution control equipment and to augment the long-term working capital requirement of the company.

The installation of PCE will facilitate the setting up of a 12-MW waste heat recovery-based captive power plant that will reduce future power cost of the company substantially. Sony said the company has a 1.05-lakh tonne per annum capacity sponge iron producing unit in Ranigunj and 85,000-tonne capacity M S ingots producing unit in Durgapur in West Bengal. The group, promoted by Sanjiv, Rajiv and Aditya Jajodia, has a combined turnover of Rs 125 crore per annum. He said the company's current net asset value per share was Rs 15 and cash earnings per share stood at Rs 4.
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US-64 wipes out shortfall in NAV
Mumbai: The steep rise of stock valuations in the equity market has helped Unit Scheme 1964, flagship of the erstwhile Unit Trust of India, to wipe out the entire shortfall in its net asset value. On 15 October the net asset value of the scheme stood at Rs 100.20 (Rs 10.02 if expressed in Rs 10 units), a little over the face value of the special US-64 bonds. The total assets under management (AUM) of US-64 now stands at a little over Rs 8,500 crore or equivalent to the aggregate face value (at Rs 100 per bond) of the outstanding US-64 bonds issued at redemption of the scheme.

This means the burden of the Government, the sole owner of the entire portfolio now, has come down to zero, officials at the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India said, say reports. According to the UTI officials, the scheme has outperformed the BSE Sensex over the past four months that it has been a "Government portfolio". Since June 2, the NAV of the scheme has gone up more than 66 per cent compared to a 51 per cent rise in the Sensex. The top 20 stocks in the portfolio accounted for most of the appreciation. The top rung includes blue chips such as Reliance Industries, ITC, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Lever, Infosys, BPCL, L&T, Tata Steel and Nalco.
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Sundaram MF seeks SEBI nod for monthly income plan
Chennai: Sundaram Mutual Fund has sought SEBI's approval to launch a Monthly Income Plan (MIP). The fund submitted a draft offer document to SEBI last week, and it expects to finish with the regulatory formalities by November. The MIP would provide itself room to invest up to 25 per cent of its corpus in equities, said Sundaram Mutual managing director T P Raman.

Raman said the sales team at the fund had been prepared to market the product. A long internal debate on the MIP preceded the current stage, he added. Sundaram's MIP plan follows the introduction of a pension product with assured returns by LIC. Raman said that LIC's pension product had not forced any significant change in Sundaram Mutual's marketing plans for the MIP.
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Reliance witnesses active buying
Mumbai: The counter of index heavyweight Reliance Industries saw active buying in the last couple of hours of trading on Wednesday. The purchase was mainly from select informed buyers. Active buying in the counter was ahead of the company's second quarter results to be announced on Thursday.

Dealers said Reliance Industries is expected to report sharp growth in net profits of around 35 per cent in the second quarter compared to the corresponding period last year. In September 2002 quarter, the company has reported net profit of Rs 1,002 crore. On expectations of good results, several FIIs bought the shares of the company. The stock gained 2.82 per cent at Rs 480 on the BSE with volume of 36.06 lakh shares and on the NSE it closed at Rs 478.65, up 2.22 per cent with volume of 63.96 lakh shares.
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Vanguard buy lifts Sensex
Mumbai: The sudden and sharp rise in the BSE Sensex in the last few hours of the trading surprised most of the market players. Dealers said the rise in the BSE Sensex was due to active buying by FII, Vanguard Fund that bought the entire Sensex through basket trading. Dealers said another factor for the rise in the Sensex was due to some players going short on the index and when the Vanguard Fund started buying the index, all these players started covering their short position.
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Rupee volatile
Mumbai: The rupee ended on Wednesday at 45.69/70 similar to Tuesday's closing levels, but intra-day movements were as high as 22 paise. With rupee no longer a one-way street, many market participants were seen to be nervous.

On Tuesday the rupee had lost as much as 27 paise with no dollar inflow and a huge demand for dollars from Indian corporates. The domestic currency went as high as 45.5750 with some dollar inflows but went as low as 45.79 when inter-bank dollar demand peaked.
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