Infosys floats 16 million ARD's
Bangalore: Infosys Technologies has announced a secondary overseas float of 16 million equity shares, which will increase the company's stock of American Depository Shares (ADS) by six per cent on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

An official from Infosys said after its board meeting that the company has listed 21.2 million shares on the Nasdaq out of 267.8 million shares it has in the secondary market, constituting 7.9 per cent of the total stock.

The official said that the secondary offering of 16 million shares would increase Infosys' stock liquidity on the Nasdaq by six per cent to 13.9 per cent with 16 million additional AD. Each ordinary equity share represents two ADS.

The company has notified the stock exchange that it would hold an extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders on December 18 to seek their approval for the secondary floatation.

The company will inform the shareholders the specified date for eligibility to tender their equity shares in the offering on a pari-passu basis, the company added.

"After the extraordinary general meeting, the company will hold road shows in January and February 2005 and the price will be fixed in mid-March in consultation with the lead managers.," an Infosys official disclosed.

The company plans to complete the entire exercise by the end of the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2005.
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Flex witnesses large purchases
Flex Industries,' manufacturer of flexible packaging products, stock is witnessing large purchases due to optimism surrounding the new products launched by the company recently.

Dealers said the company has recently launched zip lock pouches targeted at households that would be sold through retail outlets. These packs can be used for storing vegetables, food items and other household uses.

Market players seem optimistic about the product, as this is the first time Flex has come into the consumer market. Till now, Flex was making packing material for FMCG and other companies.
The market is upbeat about the fact that the zip-lock pouch has no competitor in India and other players are currently importing it.

On Monday, the stock price of Flex gained 4.01 per cent at Rs47.95 on BSE with volume of 1.57 lakh shares and on NSE it closed at Rs47.95, up 3.90 per cent with volume of 4.07 lakh shares.
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Kajaria Ceramics up
The boom in the housing industry has resulted in the stock of Kajaria Ceramics going up. The company is the market leader in ceramic tiles and other ceramic items used in home construction.
Kajaria Ceramics is understood to have tied up with various builders across the country for its ceramic products and has received export orders.

On Monday, the stock price of the company gained 6.58 per cent at Rs 111 on BSE with volumes of 3.40 lakh shares; on the NSE, it closed at Rs 110.55, up 6.20 per cent, with volumes of 5.11 lakh shares.
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Spanco Tele System sees buying
Telecom and BPO company Spanco Tele System's stock has been seeing some buying in the secondary market. Buyers are seen picking up the stock from the secondary market despite it being quoted at Rs25 in the primary markets.

The public issue of the company closed on Monday. Dealers said the stock has huge growth prospects in the next couple of years and market players are investing in the stock on this hope.

On Monday, the stock gained 9.36 per cent at Rs52.60 on BSE with volume of 6.43 lakh shares.
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Sensex powers ahead
Mumbai: The Sensex rose 39.11 points to breach the 5,900-point mark and end at 5930.47 points. The Nifty rose 10.50 points to finish at 1862.80 points.

Infosys was in the limelight after its board approved a sponsored ADS (American Depository Shares) issue involving the conversion of about 16 million shares as the move is seen to benefit shareholders. The stock surged past the Rs 2,000-mark on trading volumes of about nine-lakh shares.

Private sector banking stocks were also heavily traded. HDFC Bank enjoyed another day of sizeable gains. The stock has been on a relentless uptrend with FII interest. a likely factor behind the rise. Post-trading hours, the company announced that it would consider raising $300 million in the form of an ADS offering. ING Vysya Bank and UTI Bank were the other prominent gainers in this space.

There was firm undertone in the stocks of State Bank of India and its associates. State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Mysore ended day with sizeable gains.

Other PSU banks' stocks were marked lower. Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and Vijaya Bank suffered losses that ranged between 1.3 per cent and 4 per cent. The only exception was Allahabad Bank, which notched up a gain of 6 per cent.

The Blue Dart stock continued its upward march on news that the DHL group is to gain control with the acquisition of a 68 per cent stake in the equity. It is acquiring the stake at a price of Rs350 per share and an open offer is in the offing. The gap between the market price and offer price may narrow in near-term trading.

Essar Shipping stock was marked down sharply as markets were not happy about the news of the sale of a substantial part of its fleet by Essar Shipping. The company has sold its five Suezmax tankers for Rs 1150 crore and is now left with just a very large crude carrier and dry cargo carriers.

It was an indifferent day for Ranbaxy Laboratories. The decision of Schwarz Pharma to discontinue Phase II trials on a molecule licensed to it by Ranbaxy has clearly been perceived as a setback. The stock shed 2.5 per cent.

Arvind Mills, Raymond and Zodiac Clothing sported gains. The placement of equity with institutional investors at Rs400 per share on a preferential basis by Zodiac Clothing appears to have been viewed positively by investors.

Engineering sector stocks, which have been on a bull run were quiet. Alfa Laval, Atlas Copco, ABB, BHEL, Alstom Projects and Thermax ruled weak. Mercator Lines, Ondeo Nalco, Ind Swift, Mirza Tanners, L.G.Balakrishnan Brothers and Jaiprakash, continued to notch gains.

Tata Infomedia, Pudumjee Pulp, Colgate Palmolive, Asian Electronics, Financial Technologies, Skanska Cementation, CG Igarashi Motors, Abhishek Industries, Visakha Industries and Syngenta were all up.

Notable losers were Solectron Centum, Amtek Auto, Kochi Refineries, Nirma, Seshasayee Paper, Pearl Global, K Sera Sera, Asian Hotels, Indiabulls and Albright Wilson.
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Blue Dart stock price surge
Mumbai: In a movement that smells of insider trading, over the past three months, the Blue Dart stock has jumped a staggering 92.3 per cent- or Rs153.75 - with massive volumes changing hands on the The Stock Exchange Mumbai (BSE).

From a volume of 2,216 shares on August 6 on BSE, volumes in the stock surged to 2,37,163 shares on Monday. The stock recorded a volume of 84,879 shares on Friday. On the National Stock Exchange, from a volume of 9,788 shares on August 6, the stock saw massive volumes of 5,76,103 shares on Monday. On Friday, the last trading day prior to the deal being announced, the volume was 1,60,615 shares. On Monday, the stock rose 5.59 per cent.

On the National Stock Exchange, the stock gained 5.83 percent to close at Rs 320.5 on a volume of 5,76,103 shares.
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MFs' Oct returns take a hit
New Delhi: Mutual funds returns took a hit during October after an impressive show for the previous two months. While equity dedicated schemes saw a fall in returns, bond funds gave negative returns of 0.32 per cent in October after giving positive returns for two months in a row.

Analysts say the turmoil in bond markets is due to rising inflation, spiralling global crude prices and hardening of interest rates. JP Morgan G-Sec Index crashed 64 basis points in October, which shows the bearishness in bond markets.

Gilt funds, which have also been aggressively investing in papers with shorter maturities and floating rate instruments, performance has been worse with a negative return of 0.91 per cent. Monthly income plans (MIPs), which also have a sizeable portion of its assets in equity, have also received a battering due to the bearishness in debt markets. MIPs' return fell from a high of 1.06 percent in September to a low of 0.15 percent in October.

Floating rate funds however, have been stable performers among the debt category of mutual funds. Equity funds which showed impressive performance for August and September, have seen returns plunging to 1.38 per cent in October compared with a high of 6 per cent in the previous month, underperforming markets by a wide margin. S&P CNX Nifty gained 2.37 per cent in October.

Tax planning equity schemes also fell during the month. From a high of 6.37 per cent in September, average monthly return in these funds dipped to 1.76 percent in October.
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FIIs pour in $6 bn into Indian stocks
New Delhi: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) poured in funds to the tune of $6 billion till Monday into the Indian stock markets. This is almost half a billion short of the all-time high FII inflow of $6.6 billion last year. The majority of the investment has gone into the recent issue of public offers.

According to data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), net funds inflow by FIIs during the same period (January 1 to November 7) last year was about $5 billion.

Also the number of FIIs registered with Sebi has also gone up substantially, from 521 on December 31, 2003, to 623 at present with most of the new entrants being hedge funds, said a top official at a foreign brokerage.

FIIs seem to be buying the India story of a 6.5 per cent expected rate of growth and a higher projected growth for most of the leading Indian companies.
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