Mumbai, Nov 22: A weakening rupee and continued political uncertainty saw the Skindia GDR index drop to its six-month low of 880.68. The GDR index lost 12.08 per cent during the week ended November 20 to close at 888.18 as against the November 12 close of 1,001.67. Out of a total of 64 GDRs, 24 touched their 52-week lows during the week.

During the same week the Skindia GDR index premium lost 30.14 per cent to close at 14.23 per cent while the index price/earnings figure lost 11.83 per cent to close at 17.17 points. The 64 GDRs fell by 8.01 per cent on an average as against a fall of 5.55 per cent in the underlying 64 shares on the BSE.

The top gainer in the GDR market was Core Parenterals which logged an 80 per cent increase to close at US $0.90 as against the previous close of $0.50. GDRs of Grasim and Videocon International recorded an 11 per cent and eight per cent rise respectively.

Top losers included Flex Industries which lost 50 per cent over the week to quote at $1.50 as against $3 last week. Over the week, GDRs of Siel and IPCL lost 33.33 per cent and 23.33 per cent respectively.

During a week when the GDR of Reliance was trading at a discount, the GDR of NEPC India was trading at a premium of 246.85 per cent while Core Healthcare was trading at a premium of 177.48 per cent and Oriental Hotels 146.99 per cent. During the same period Ashok Leyland was trading at a discount of 11.05 per cent, Siel 8.12 per cent and JCT Ltd 6.78 per cent. Mahindra & Mahindra was quoting at its 52-week low falling by 17.78 per cent to $9.25 while its underlying share dropped by 9.86 per cent to Rs 320 despite reporting a good performance. The company recorded a jump of 21.65 per cent in net profit. Although Raymond Ltd managed to book profit after recording losses in the second half of 1996-97, the GDR remained unchanged. IPCL has fallen 36.11 per cent to $5.75 since the beginning of this month following a fall in its margins.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.