Crisil's board of directors has reccommended a dividend of Rs 4.50 per share of Rs 10 (inclusive of a special 10th anniversary dividend of Re 1 per share) against Rs 3 in the previous year.

The earning per share (EPS) stood at Rs 16 in March 1998 against Rs 12.33 in the previous year.

Crisil's stock nosedived by over 9.9 per cent on the local bourses to be locked on the lower end of the price band.

On the NSE, the stock was locked at Rs 650.70 having hit the upper end of the weekly settlement price-band, where a volume of 7,700 shares was recorded. Similarly, on the BSE, the stock was locked at Rs 608, with a volume of 8,700 shares.

According to market sources, the stock had been overvalued in anticipation of a liberal bonus which did not materialise.

The knee-jerk reactionmirrored the negative sentiment of the market.The rating agency's total income grew by 35 per cent to Rs 36.01 crore while total expenditure rose by wider margin--from Rs 9.54 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 16.45 crore in 1997-98.

Gross profit after interest, but before depreciation and taxation stood at Rs 19.56 crore (Rs 17.06 crore).

Provisioning on account of depreciation was for Rs 4.11 crore (previous fiscal: Rs 4.36 crore) and that for taxes, Rs 5.53 crore (5.07 crore).

A Crisil release, issued on Tuesday, said: "it had registered a healthy growth in revenues despite widespread difficulty in the economy and industry. The increase in infrastructure related debt mobilisation, rating of commercial papers and diversification into reaserch and advisory services, contributed significantly to the growth." The agency had rated 568 instruments during the year as against the 351 in the preceding fiscal, a growth of 62 per cent.

During the year, the Crisil Research & Inormation Services (Cris) launched aretainership research service christened Criservice and a bond valuation service to price non-traded corporate bonds of mutual funds. The division also announced a joint venture with the National Stock Exchange and Standard & Poor's to carry out index business.