Sebi lets off Credit Suisse, Indiabulls
Mumbai: Market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has let off foreign brokerage house Credit Suisse with a warning for its alleged role in share price manipulations in DSQ Biotech scrip during December 1999 to March 2000.

Sebi said it took a lenient view in DSQ Biotech price manipulation case after taking into consideration the two-year ban served by the foreign broking firm from April 18, 2001, for price manipulations during the same period.

Sebi also dismissed its interim order against Indiabulls Securities, barring the depository participant from dealing in securities market for alleged involvement in the initial public offering (IPO) share allotment manipulation scam, dubbed as the Roopalben Panchal case.

In separate case relating to alleged short selling in Reliance Industries stocks during December 2002, the capital market regulator had imposed a ban of Rs10 lakh on Credit Suisse last year.

Sebi's investigations found irregular transactions in the shares of DSQ Biotech and it was found that Credit Suisse, a registered broker on the NSE and the BSE, had entered into transactions "which were in the nature of synchoronization of trades/matched orders.
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Probe IPOs since 1999, panel tells Sebi, finmin
New Delhi: The Parliamentary standing committee on finance has recommended a probe into all initial public offers (IPOs) that have hit the market since 1999.

In its report on the efficacy of reform process in reference to the recent IPO-demat scam, the panel said there was enough scope for further investigation.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) observed irregularities only in 21 IPOs between 2003 and 2005. Between 1999-2000 and 2002-03, there have been as many as 182 IPOs. In 1999-2000, there were 51 IPOs for Rs2,587 crore and in 2000-01, 109 IPOs for Rs2,375 crore. In the following two years, there were just a dozen listings. In 2003-04 there were 19 IPOs while 2004-05 saw 23 and 2005-06, 76.

The committee also said that the finance ministry has failed to furnish information about IPOs where irregularities were noticed.
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Crisil begins to grade broking outfits
Mumbai: Crisil has now begun grading broking outfits and has assigned a `BQ-2' grading to Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd.

Brokers are graded on a five-point scale ranging between `BQ-1' and `BQ-5', with `BQ-1' being the highest.

The grading is solicited and is an opinion on the risk management, client servicing, financial strength, quality of operations and services provided by the stock broking company.
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DSP Merrill launches tax saver fund
Mumbai: DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers Ltd has launched DSP Merrill Lynch Tax Saver Fund, an open-ended equity linked savings scheme (ELSS).

The new fund offer will open on November 27 and close on December 21. The fund seeks to generate medium to long-term capital appreciation from a diversified portfolio of equity and equity related securities (80-100 per cent) and debt markets (0-20 per cent).

Investment in an ELSS allows deductions of up to Rs1 lakh from total income in a financial year. The fund has a three-year lock-in period.
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UTI Mutual declares dividend
New Delhi: UTI Mutual Fund has declared dividends in two of its schemes. UTI-Growth Sector Fund-Petro (UTI-GSF-Petro) declared tax-free dividend of 20 per cent, and UTI Dividend Yield Fund has declared tax-free dividend of 8 per cent.

Pursuant to the payment of dividend, the NAV of the dividend option of the schemes would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy, if any.

The record date for the dividend in both the schemes is December 1. On November 27, NAV of UTI-GSF-Petro was Rs20.21 and of UTI Dividend Yield Fund was Rs13.07, under the dividend option.
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SBI Mutual schemes to be sold through UAE Exchange
Kochi: The various products of SBI Mutual Fund will soon be distributed through the UAE Exchange's various branches. The SBI One India Fund, which was primarily meant to invest in diversified equity stocks of companies spread across all geographical locations of India and in debt and money market instruments, would be the first product to come up for distribution through UAE Exchange Company.

The scheme, which opened up for subscription on November 24 would close on December 22.

With a corpus of Rs15,000 crore and an investor base of 25 lakh spread over 30 schemes, SBI Mutual Fund constantly endeavours to get closer to its growing family of investors.

The Abu Dhabi-based UAE Exchange Centre LLC is the largest remittance house in West Asia and has direct offices across the globe in Asia, Africa, Australia, the US, the UK and the Gulf region. The company plans to extend its line of operations from foreign exchange, money transfer, air ticketing, insurance, share trading, tours and investment to mutual fund distribution as well.
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Fidelity's fund receives highest rating from ICRA
Mumbai: Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) has assigned the highest credit quality risk rating `mfAAA' to Fidelity Short Term Income Fund. The mfAAA rating indicates that the fund carries the lowest credit risk, similar to that associated with long-term debt obligations rated in the highest-credit-quality category.

Fidelity Short Term Income Fund is an open-ended income scheme aiming to generate reasonable returns through a diversified portfolio of fixed income securities. The benchmark index for the Fund is the Crisil Short Term Bond Index.
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Reliance Capital sells stake in DTDC
Bangalore: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-controlled Reliance Capital has sold 4 per cent from the 44 per cent stake it acquired from DTDC in February in favour of the latter's employees.

The dilution was part of the initial agreement for the acquisition of the stake offered by one of the promoter brothers of DTDC.

Reliance Capital paid Rs70 crore for the acquisition.

The Bangalore-based DTDC is a privately held company in which Subhashish Chakraborty, chairman and managing director, continued to hold management control with 56 per cent stake.
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Ess Dee Aluminium to float public issue
Mumbai: End-to-end pharmaceutical packaging solutions provider Ess Dee Aluminium (EDAL), will enter the capital market with an initial public issue of 69.60 lakh equity shares of Rs10 each at a premium to be decided by the book building process. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs200-Rs225 per share.

The company has reserved 1.5 lakh equity shares for eligible employees and the net offer to the public would be 68.10 lakh equity shares. The net issue to the public constitutes 25.79 per cent of the post-issue fully diluted equity capital.

The issue opens on 4 December, 2006, and closes on
8 December, 2006. Of the net issue to the public, 50 per cent will be allocated to QIBs, of which mutual funds will receive 5 per cent.
Non-institutional bidders will receive 15 per cent while 35 per cent of the net issue will be allocated to retail individual bidders on a proportionate basis.
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Lumax Auto to tap capital market
Mumbai: Auto component manufacturer Lumax Auto Technologies is planning a public issue of 30,12,000 equity shares of Rs10 each at a premium of Rs65 per share, to raise Rs22.59 crore.

The proceeds of the issue will fund capacity expansion and modernisation of existing facilities. The issue, which opens on December 14 and closes on December 21, will constitute 25.90 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company. About 50 per cent of the issue has been allocated to retail investors.

Lumax Auto manufactures sheet metal products and lighting systems components for two- and three-wheeler industries. The company's main customers are Bajaj Auto Ltd and Maharashtra Scooters Ltd. Centrum Capital Ltd and SB&T Finance Pvt Ltd are the book running lead managers to the issue.
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