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K.S. Badri Narayanan

IT was one of the pleasant weeks for the US markets as investors displayed growing confidence in the stocks. The markets rebounded on strong note on better-than-expected earnings by corporate majors such as Wal-Mart Stores, Dell Computer Corp and Applied Materials. The surge in April retail sales also revived sentiment for the equity markets at the US.

The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.9 per cent last week at 1106.59 (1054.99), its biggest rise since September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 4.3 per cent at 10,358.08 (9939.92) and the tech-focussed Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 8.8 per cent at 1741.39 (1600.85).

The scenario was diametrically opposite in the domestic markets. Even before the Gujarat imbroglio could die down, border tension took its toll on the stock markets. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index slipped to 3333.76 (3431.32), a drop of 2.84 per cent and the National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty shed 2.30 per cent to 1090.65 (1116.40).

Despite a sharp rally in the US markets, most ADRs finished on a flat note. However, Infosys Technologies (Infy) closed the week on a strong note. Infy closed at $66.99 ($61.15) after hitting an intra-week high of $67.90. The counter also widened its premium to the underlying domestic stock sharply. It now trades at a premium of 73.59 per cent over the previous week-end premium of 56.92 per cent. This was mainly due to the performance of the underlying stock in the domestic market. The Infosys stock finished on a poor note at Rs 3,782.05 (Rs 3,818.45).

Another IT major Wipro also ended in the positive zone. The ADR closed at $35 ($33.44) while the domestic stock finished weak at Rs 1,593.20 (Rs 1,607.20). It now trades at an improved premium of 7.66 per cent (1.66 per cent). However, Satyam Computer and Silverline Technologies finished the week on a dull note at $10.80 ($11.15) and $1.65 ($1.86) respectively.

After registering a high of $8.10 intra-week, the ICICI Bank ADR finished flat at $7.10. It may be mentioned here that ICICI had merged with ICICI Bank in the US market during the previous week though in the domestic market the merger is yet to be functionalised.

The ADR of HDFC Bank closed higher at $15.31 ($14.75) and now trades at an improved premium of 14.22 per cent (8.68 per cent).

Rediff.com also finished in positive territory at $0.761 ($0.66), possibly due to an improved performance. The company last week reported a 340-per cent jump in its revenues for the year ended March 2002 at $24.76 million ($5.62 million). For the last quarter of previous fiscal, its revenues jumped 335 per cent to $6.67 million compared to $1.53 million registered in the same quarter last fiscal. It reported a loss of $1.19 million ($2.56 million) for the last quarter.

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