MUMBAI, June 23: SEBI has prohibited CRB Share Custodian Services from undertaking any activity as a debenture trustee until further orders. This action, effective from May 28, 1997, has been taken by the SEBI chairman under section 11(B) of the SEBI Act, to prevent its functioning as debenture trustee being conducted in a manner detrimental to the interest of the securities market. Following newspaper reports with regard to various irregularities committed by CR Bhansali and CRB Capital Markets, the board is of the opinion that the functioning of CRB Share Custodian as debenture trustee under the SEBI (Debenture Trustees) Rules and Regulations, 1993, is not in the interest of investors.

ITC Threadneedle's Top 200 billed best fund: The Top 200 fund from ITC Threadneedle has been billed the best performing open-ended growth fund in the nine months since its launch in September 1996 by Micropal, the global fund monitoring company. The fund has seen a 13.40 per cent rise in its net asset value (NAV) since launch. On June 20, the NAV was Rs 12.27.

During the same period, the Crisil 500 index appreciated by only 1.46 per cent, the study says. The fund is open for subscription on a daily basis. Effective August 1, the sales charge on the units will rise from one per cent to three per cent, while redemptions will be at NAV. Meanwhile, the latest NAV of the high interest fund, the income scheme from the fund is Rs.10.32.

Dead phones force MSE back to open outcry: A fire at a local telephone exchange in Chennai snapped 30,000 connections, forcing the Madras Stock Exchange (MSE) to revert to the outcry system when its on-line system failed to take off. With only nine brokers managing to log into Mantra, MSE's automated trading system, the exchange authorities decided to make a quick switch to physical trading at the bourse's old office. Trading started at 1.00 pm, but volumes showed signs of a drastic fall with only five scrips quoted in the first hour of trading.

Private debt mop up at Rs 18,104 cr: Private placement of debt has notched a 82 per cent rise in mobilisation for fiscal 1996-97 at Rs 18,104 crore (excluding IDBI's on-tap bonds) as against Rs 9,964 crore registered in the previous year. According to a study conducted by Prime, a database on primary markets, 90 per cent of the total amount was mobilised by government organisations such as IDBI (Rs 2,250 crore), IFCI (Rs 1,833 crore), SAIL (Rs 965 crore), ICICI (Rs 930 crore) IRFC (Rs 768 crore), MKVDC (Rs 658 crore), Power Grid (Rs 407 crore), RSEB (Rs 400 crore) and Coal India (Rs 400 crore). Mobilisation by the private sector grew to Rs 1,766 crore in 1996-97 from Rs 448 crore in the previous year.

PSE confident of BOLT expansion: The Pune Stock Exchange (PSE), which has sent a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to the BSE for the implementation of BOLT, is confident that 30 PSE brokers will eventually opt for the facility although at present, only 17 have applied, J.N.Gupta, president, PSE, said. The PSE Council had already approved the implementation of BOLT. The BSE has not yet received clearance for connectivity from DoT.

Prime's capital market directory: Prime, a database on the primary market, has come out with `The Prime Directory-1997' which enlists information about the capital market intermediaries such as merchant bankers, brokers, registrars, financial advertising agencies and collecting bankers. The directory also lists all Euro and mutual fund issues besides providing an overview of the primary market from 1992-93 to 1996-97.

Sensex gains 6.16 points: After a better spell, pivotals declined slightly on the BSE on profit-taking coupled with selling pressure by domestic financial institutions. The Sensex closed at 4089.20, gaining 6.16 points over the previous close. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made negligible purchases. Reliance advanced further up by Rs 7 to Rs 367 on speculative support. TELCO shot up by Rs 13.25 to Rs 464.25, ACC Rs 23 at Rs 1235 and IPCL Rs 7 at Rs 137.50.

NSE pivotal declines as a member is arrested: On the NSE, pivotal prices declined following the arrest of its member and operator on charges of allegedly introducing fake and forged shares in the market. The NSE-50 index ended at 1153.70 points, losing 4.65 points. The top gainers were Tata Chemicals, IFCI Ltd, IPCL, Reliance Petroleum and BHEL.

Downtrend on OTC continues: The downtrend continued on the OTCEI as equity prices came down marginally on lack of buying support from bull operators and general investors. The OTC Composite Index closed at 78.44 points, losing 0.60 points over the previous close. The total turnover reported during the day was Rs.67.84 lakh in 2.67 lakh shares and debentures.

Pak launches open-ended investment firm: A group of companies will launch Pakistan's first privately-sponsored open-ended investment company, the Unit Trust of Pakistan (UTP), next month, leading stock dealer Jahangir Siddiqui said on Monday. Singapore shares close strong: Singapore shares rallied to a strong close on Monday, boosted by some late fund buying notably of banking and index-linked stocks.

Call ends at 4.50-4.75%: The interbank call rate opened at 5.0-5.5 per cent and slipped marginally to touch an intra-day low of 4.5 per cent on Monday, dealers said. Despite the ample liquidity in the system, call rates remained rangebound. This was because there was an equal demand for overnight funds. The call rate ended at 4.50-4.75 per cent. Banks were largely borrowing in call to fund their government bond purchases, a dealer said. This prevented a steep fall in call rates.

Rupee narrow vs dollar: The rupee remained in a narrow range of 35.8075-35.8225 to a dollar on Monday, dealers said. Opening at its previous day's closing range of 35.8175-35.8225 per dollar, the rupee strengthened marginally on some dollar-selling. The rupee topped 35.8075 to a dollar during the day before closing weaker at 35.8100-35.8150.

Bullion lacklustre: Prices of both the precious metals reacted marginally on lack of fresh buying support from local operators and better inflow from the global market. Silver .999 and raw declined by Rs 35 each to Rs 6,735 and Rs 6,635 per kg respectively following poor demand from the industrial consumers and weak upcountry advices. Gold standard mint and 22-carat came down by Rs 5 each to Rs 4600 and Rs 4255 per 10 gms on account of slack purchasing by the local operators and better inflow of yellow metals from abroad.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.