Date:12/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/11/12/stories/2007111251860400.htm

Back Steep decline for Indian counters; Infy hits 52-wk low

K.S. Badri Narayanan

With the financial service majors – Citigroup, Morgan Stanley – disclosing huge losses on account of bad home loans, the US stocks tumbled to two-month low. According to Bloomberg, the S&P 500 retreated 3.7 per cent this week to 1,453.70, the lowest since September 10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4.1 per cent, the most since July, to 13,042.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 6.5 per cent, the steepest weekly loss since April 2002, to 2,627.94.

The jittery global cues also affected the sentiment of the domestic bourses. The BSE Sensex tumbled 5.35 per cent and the NSE’s S&P CNX Nifty dwindled by 4.54, mainly due to foreign institutions’ selling.

Indian ADRs witnessed severe decline as their average fall stood at 10.47 per cent. Infosys led the decliners as it fell by whopping 17 per cent during the week; the ADR, in fact, registered its 52-week low at $41.54 but closed a tad better at $42.01 (50.62).

Counters that fell in excess of 10 per cent were: Wipro (17.56 per cent), Rediff.com (15.1 per cent), VSNL (13.9 per cent), Sify (13.8 per cent), ICICI Bank (12.6 per cent), HDFC Bank (11.3 per cent) and MTNL (11.2 per cent).

Dr. Reddy’s was the better performer among the ADR, as the counter declined by 0.49 per cent.

Premium declined for all the ADRs except for HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. Satyam Computer ADR commands highest premium of 20 per cent (fell from last week’s 27.1 per cent) followed by Wipro 15 per cent (31 per cent).