Haldia Petrochem's IPO likely in May-June '04
Kolkata: Haldia Petrochem's IPO, is likely to take place around May-June 2004, according to company sources, and the company will in all likelihood go for the book-building route. The IPO would be part of the fresh equity infusion of Rs 600 crore required under the CDR. Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) is also considering an expansion programme that will take its ethylene production capacity to six lakh tonnes per annum. HPL has a annual capacity of 5.2 lakh tonnes of ethylene. The cost of the proposed expansion plan is estimated at Rs 500 crore.
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January: Mutual Funds asset base
Kolkata: According to figures for end-January supplied by the Association of Mutual Funds in India indicate once again that open-ended income schemes, with Rs 68,973 crore in their kitty, constitute the single-largest category of funds. Liquid and money market schemes, whose assets stood at Rs 40,112 crore as on January 31, made up the second-biggest category, while growth-oriented equity schemes had Rs 23,143 crore under their management. These included Rs 21,651 crore managed by open-ended growth funds. Close-end income schemes managed a minuscule Rs 242 crore, with assured return income products accounting for merely Rs 105 crore.

The Gilt funds had Rs 6,617 crore with them, and ELSS (equity-linked savings schemes, better known as tax-saving schemes) products managed Rs 1,776 crore. In the ELSS category, the close-ended variety manages Rs 1,235 crore. While the UTI MF is the clear leader, there are three fund houses which are operating more than Rs 15,000 crore each. While the UTI has Rs 19,661 crore under management, Templeton with Rs 15,994 crore, Prudential ICICI with Rs 15,673 crore and HDFC with Rs 15,320 crore are the other majors.
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DSP Merrill Lynch: New diversified equity fund
Mumbai: DSP Merrill Lynch is launching a diversified equity fund that would invest in shares of corporates that stand to benefit from liberalisation of economic policies and investments in infrastructure. The scheme has been christened DSP Merrill Lynch India T.I.G.E.R fund. The scheme also plans to invest in ADRs and GDRs. This would be in accordance with guidelines stipulated by the SEBI and the RBI.

Under normal circumstances, the scheme shall not have an exposure of more than 25 per cent of its net assets in foreign securities subject to regulatory limits, according to the document. The fund is targeting to raise a corpus of Rs 1 crore during the initial public offer. The scheme would be divided into units having an initial value of Rs 10 each, with a minimum investment requirement of Rs 1,000. It offers both growth and dividend options.
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Sensex recovers
Mumbai: The BSE's 30-share Sensex, closed at 5,667.51, 100 points or 1.8 per cent above its previous close. S&P CNX Nifty, the 50-share benchmark of the NSE, gained 1.95 per cent over its previous close of 1,765.80 to end at 1,800.30.

Strong showing by Nasdaq has brought interest to tech shares.
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Counters:
Mumbai: Infosys up about 4.5 per cent to Rs 5,071.90 at close.
Satyam up seven per cent on the BSE to end the day at Rs 309.60. Jammu and Kashmir Bank stock rose nearly 10 per cent to close at Rs 497.10 on the BSE. Ucal closed at Rs 302, marginally up.
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NSE issues notice: Derivative contracts revision
Mumbai: The National Stock Exchange has issued notice to revise the size of derivative contracts. This is in compliance with the Securities and Exchanges Board of India's regulation seeking to maintain the size of derivative contracts at manageable levels. NSE has specified that for derivative contracts, which have a contract value of Rs 4 lakh but less than Rs 8 lakh, the revised market lot size would be arrived at by dividing the existing market lot by two.
Similarly, for derivative contracts that have a contract size of Rs 8 lakh and above, the revised market lot size would be arrived at by dividing the existing market lot by four. These would be applicable for contracts that are as on February 24, 2004, according to the NSE circular.

Derivatives that have a value of less than Rs 2 lakh, the value would be arrived at by multiplying the existing market lot in multiples of two. This would be applicable only for contracts that have maturity after May.

The date of implementation for downward revision of market lot will be March 15, and the date of implementation of upward revision of market lot would be effective from March 26, for the far month contracts having maturity of June 2004 and onwards, according to the circular.
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PSU offers oversubscribed
Mumbai: The Government's disinvestment process gained momentum with all the five issues being oversubscribed. With this subscription, the government will be able to mop-up around Rs 3,500 crore from the disinvestment process in the current fiscal. However, the biggest issue of around Rs 10,000 crore of ONGC is slated to hit the primary market on March 5. The government has already mobilised around Rs 800 crore by selling its shares to the public in Maruti Udyog.

The IPCL issue was oversubscribed three times. The GAIL issue was oversubscribed 1.08 times The CMC public offer which closes on the 28th Feb has already been over-subscribed 6.27 times. The IBP issue, which received lukewarm response on the first three days, was also oversubscribed 1.1 times. Dredging Corporation too found support with the issue being oversubscribed 1.39 times.
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GAIL employees to get loan for IPO subscription
New Delhi: GAIL (India) Ltd has offered its employees a loan from State Bank of India (SBI) to invest in the company's public issue. Each employee can buy a maximum of 1,200 shares at the minimum reserve price and SBI will provide a maximum loan of Rs 2.5 lakh per employee, depending on the grade. The rate of interest will be 7.25 per cent per annum and the maximum repayment period is 36 months. There will be no pre-payment penalty and no processing fee required. The equated monthly instalment has been fixed at Rs 3,099 per lakh.
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MphasiS: Overseas listing and buy-out of subsidiary
Bangalore: The board of directors of MphasiS, has approved the company's plans to increase its stake in MsourcE and has also decided to go for an overseas listing through the issue of ADRs.
The proposed overseas float is likely to be listed at the New York Stock Exchange, though the company is yet to decide on the timeline and the corpus of the float.

MphasiS-BFL will acquire the minority shareholding of about 25.26 per cent in its business process-outsourcing arm, MsourcE Corporation, to make it a wholly owned subsidiary. This buy-out will be through a mix of stock and cash. MphasiS, which currently owns 75 per cent of MsourcE, will buy out 20 per cent from the Barings Pvt Equity Fund and five per cent from individual investors. MphasiS also plans to convert about 5.6 per cent stake held by employees of MsourcE as stock options by paying cash and issuing its own shares. The approximate valuation of MsourcE Corporation under the proposal works out to $145 million.
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