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Chidambaram: Markets being closely monitored
New Delhi: The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, on Tuesday assured the Rajya Sabha that the price movements in the bourses were being closely monitored. His comments come on the back of a steep rally in the capital markets.

He also said 731 foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India till June as against 685 as on March 31. The total number of FIIs registered with SEBI as on March 31, 2004 stood at 540, he said.

Chidambaram said the positive FII inflows in the recent past could be attributed to continued economic reforms, strong economic fundamentals, improved prudential and regulatory standards and attractive valuation of companies.

To curb malpractices in trading and to ensure integrity of markets, he said a regular system of weekly surveillance meetings with major stock exchanges - Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange - and the depositories had been put in place.

This has been done to provide a confidential platform for exchange of views on areas of emerging concerns, specific abnormalities and to consider pre-emptive actions and discuss general surveillance issues, Chidambaram said.
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FIIs pick up Bank BeEs as limit in key bank stocks is reached
Mumbai: There has been a sudden inflow of funds in the Bank BeEs, a passively managed exchange traded mutual fund scheme tracking the NSE's CNX Banking index, as FIIs have reached the maximum limit in major banks.

Bank BeEs are traded like any other securities on the NSE. It closed the day at Rs437 against the previous day's close of Rs435.75 with 2,028 units changing hands.

In July alone, more than Rs1,100 crore has come into this scheme. The corpus of this scheme increased to Rs1,470.87 crore at the end of July from Rs369.36 crore at the end of June.

Due to the large inflows in this scheme, the total corpus of Benchmark Mutual Fund has increased to Rs1,724.43 crore in July (Rs619.67 crore), a rise of 178 per cent.

The banking index rose 19.87 per cent in July to 4361.15 (3638.40).

The sudden interest of FIIs in Bank BEes has happened as the FIIs reached the maximum 20 per cent limit in key bank stocks such as State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Baroda and fresh purchase in these stocks cannot be undertaken.

The caution limit has been reached in key stocks, ICICI Bank and Union Bank of India, which are part of the CNX Banking index, which requires FIIs to take RBI permission in order to buy their shares. All these stocks constitute more than 70 per cent of weightage in CNX Banking Index. However, the remaining six stocks in this list have not reached the maximum FII limit.
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Sasken fixes IPO price band at Rs 230-260
Bangalore: Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd is making a public offer of 50 lakh equity shares of Rs10 each for cash through a proposed issue and has fixed a price-band of Rs230-260 per share for the same.

The company expects to raise around Rs115-130 crore through the IPO, which would be 100 per cent book built.

Enam Financial Consultants Pvt Ltd is the sole book running lead manager to the issue.
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Aurobindo chief converts warrants
Hyderabad: The Chairman of Aurobindo Pharma Ltd, P.V. Ramaprasad Reddy, has on Tuesday converted his balance 15 lakh outstanding convertible share warrants into 15 lakh equity shares of Rs5 each.

In a release to stock exchanges here on Tuesday, the company said these shares were allotted at a premium of Rs370 per share to Reddy on exercise of his conversion right.

Subsequent to the conversion, the issued and paid-up equity share capital of the company now stands at Rs26,63,50,000 divided into 5,32,70,000 equity shares of Rs5 each, the company said.
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