Weekly Report: Sensex absorbs Reliance mess - thus far…
Mumbai: Sustained inflow of funds from foreign institutional investors, allowed the market to ignore some strong negative factors during the week ended 25 November 2004.

Concerns over the 'ownership issues' of the Reliance group, resulted in stock prices of Reliance group companies, plummeting to new lows. A sharp hike in freight rates resorted to by the Indian railways, sustained rise of global crude oil prices over the last few sessions and the expiry of November series derivative contracts were the other factors that contributed to some amount of profit taking on a host of large and mid cap counters cutting across sectors.

The benchmark indices Sensex and the Nifty ended the week with gains of 73.32 points (1.22%) and 28.70 points (1.53%) at 6035.03 and 1901.05 respectively.

The major factor in the markets successful stay in positive territory was due to the inflow from foreign institutional investors which crossed a whopping Rs31,250 crore, well past the inflow of Rs30,458.70 crore recorded in year 2003.

The foreign institutional investors recorded net purchases of Rs1,695.7 crore ($370.5 million) in equities for the week ended November 26 while mutual funds were net sellers at Rs237.6 crore. Overseas funds were net buyers in equities on all four trading days of the week.

The foreign funds were net sellers at Rs250.6 crore ($54.70 million) in the debt market for the period under review, according to the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India here. The mutual funds were net purchasers in the debt market at Rs321.65 crore.

During November 2004 alone, FIIs have pumped in around Rs5,713 crore. The fact that the interest of FIIs in Indian equity markets remains undiminished has helped keep the sentiment upbeat.

Reliance Energy went down by as much as 11.5 per cent to Rs549.10. Reliance Industries lost over 7.6 per cent. Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital and IPCL too registered sharp losses.

Refinery stocks Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation lost ground following the government's decision to refrain from hiking cooking gas prices at monthly intervals and on its decision to defer a move to raise administered prices of natural gas.

ITC, HDFC Bank, Wipro, Hindustan Lever and HDFC were the top performers for the week gone by. Cement stocks had a fair run up the charts before the Indian railways hiked the freight rates for cement by 3.7 per cent. ACC, Ultra Tech Cement, Gujarat Ambuja Cement and a host of second rung stocks from the sector nevertheless posted impressive gains.

Automobiles stocks such as Maruti Udyog, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Honda and Ashok Leyland were among the sharp gainers. Auto ancillaries stocks continued to be favoured and many of them recorded their 52 week or all-time highs.

Sector heavyweights Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories posted sharp gains. Sun Pharma, Panacea Biotech, FDC, Matrix Laboratories, Dabur Pharma, Divi's Laboratories, Orchid Chemicals, Kopran and IPCA Laboratories surged higher.

Among textile stocks, Nahar Exports, Nahar Spinning, Arvind Mills, Mahavir Spinning, Alok Industries and Century Textiles were in consistent demand. Shares from metal, shipping and FMCG sectors recorded impressive gains. Liquor stocks McDowell, United Breweries, Radico Khaitan and Godfrey Philips went up on frenzied buying.
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ADRs - Indian companies as of November 26
US Index Report

INDIAN ADRS on NASDAQ and NYSE

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BSE special margin on 33 scrips
Chennai: The Bombay Stock Exchange has imposed a special margin of 25 per cent on 33 scrips with effect from Monday. The rates of special margins have been revised keeping view the closing price of the scrip on the last trading day, a BSE Statement said.

"Members are informed that special margins will be imposed on the basis of member-wise gross purchase or sales position (client-wise net)," the BSE statement added

The scrips on which the special margins revised are Aarvee Denims, Artilegence Bio-Innovations, Avantel Softech, Carnation Industries, Carnation Nutra-Analogue Foods, Choksi Lab, Elegant Marbles & Grani Ind, Fast Track Entertainment, Fem Care Pharma, Gemini Communication, Geojit Securities, HBL Nife Power Systems, Hester Pharma, ICSA India, Indo Asian Fusegear, Indsil Electrosemlts, JMT Auto, K Sera Sera Productions, Madhucon Projects, Mather & Platt Fire Systems, Nagarjuna Agri Tech, Nile, Orbit Multimedia, PG Foils, Sadhana Nitro Chem, Syschem India, T Spiritual World, Themis Medicare, Vijay Textiles, Vimta Labs, Visistha Traders & Fin, Wellworth Overseas and Zyden Gentec.
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