SEBI asks AMFI to draft guidelines on MF investments overseas
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to form draft guidelines for mutual fund investments in overseas equity. The market regulators move comes on the back of the union budget for 2006-07 relaxing norms for Indian mutual funds' investment in overseas securities.

The national budget for 2006-07 has proposed the removal of 10 per cent reciprocal shareholding requirement for mutual funds to invest in overseas instruments. Up till now foreign investments by mutual funds were restricted to those companies that had a minimum 10 per cent stake in a listed entity in India.

The budget has also raised cumulative exposure of domestic mutual funds in overseas instruments to $2 billion from the current $1 billion.
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Indian ADRs: IT counters turn weak
New York: The week experienced a mixed show by Indian ADRs, with tech counters being the worst hit. The counters took a hit on the back of reports that CLSA Asia-Pacific has downgraded Indian software stocks due to concern over higher-than-expected wage inflation and on more intense competition.

Infosys, which announced plans to consider a bonus issue on April 14 when the company's board meets for full-year and Q4 results, finished weak at $75.85 against the previous week close of $77.86.

Satyam was the worst hit among the IT stocks with the ADR crashing by over 10 per cent and its premium halved to 7.24 per cent (14.97 per cent). Wipro and Patni Computers also finished weak at $19.95 ($20.45) and $14.55 ($14.87) respectively.

Among the gainers was Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, whose ADR gained marginally at $31.75 ($31.40). The company announced that it received tentative approval from the US FDA to sell an altered version of Pfizer Inc.'s hypertension drug Norvasc in the US.

The big gainers were the banking counters, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, with the former moving up to $28.2 ($27.68) and the latter gaining sharply to $56.93 ($54.50).

Intra-week, MTNL recorded its 52-week high, at $9.12 before ending on Friday at $8.6 ($8.3). VSNL also registered its new year high. Tata Motors hit a new year high at $21.99 before settling for the week at $21 ($20.84). It reported a record sale of 4.54 lakh vehicles (including exports) for the fiscal year 2005-06.
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