German promoters likely to hike stake in Epic through rights: Feinchemie Schwebda GmbH (FCS), the German promoter of Epic Enzymes, Pharmaceuticals & Industrial Chemicals Ltd (Epic), is likely to hike its stake in Epic whose rights offer priced at Rs 15 is at a marginal premium to the scrip's current market price of Rs 14. FCS currently holds the controlling stake of 51 per cent in Epic's Rs 5.73-crore equity and has already expressed their intentions to subscribe to the unsubscribed portion, if any.

Chola Freedom Growth 2.5pcnegative return: The Chola Freedom Growth Fund has given a negative return of 2.5 per cent for the 11-months ended October 30, 1998. The fund has, however, outperformed its benchmark index, NSE-50, which lost a whopping 19.5 per cent during the same period. As per the portfolio composition of this Rs 1.2 crore fund, equities constitute 93.04 per cent while the rest is held in cash and money-market instruments. The fund was launched in November 1997. Vanishing companies expose loopholes in statutory regulations: Encouraged by lack of adequate regulatory powers at the hands of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), dubious promoters of companies have defrauded public of their hard earned money amounting to several crores of rupees during the last five years.

DSE trading session on Saturday: The Delhi Stock Exchange will remain open this Saturday, which would be considered as the first trading day of the next settlement week. Trading would be held as usual from 9.45am to 3.45 pm. Covering of bad delivery not rectified cases which was scheduled for Friday shall be held on Saturday between 4.15 pm 4.45 pm, DSE sources told UNI.

ISE in talks with NSDL to start demat trade: The Interconnected Stock Exchange of India Ltd (ISE), promoted by 15 regional stock exchanges of India, is in talks with the National Stock Depository Ltd (NSDL) to commence trading in electronic shares. The exchange is slated to go live in mid-December.

Sebi suspends Ahmedabad broker: The Securities and Exchange Board ofIndia has suspended Paresh M Banker, member of the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange, for indulging in unauthorised carry forward transactions. He has been suspended for a period of three months coming into effect from November 27. Following an enquiry into the sudden fall in index between October 1995 and January 1996, it was noticed that some brokers were indulging in unauthorised carry forward of transactions and subsequently the broker was found guilty ofviolating Sebi Regulations, 1992 pertaining to stock brokers and sub brokers.

BSE declares broker defaulter: The Bombay Stock Exchange has declareds Inderlal Agarwal as a defaulter for non rectification of bad deliveries and non-payment of clearing house dues. The declaration would have no impact on the trade guarantee fund as the transactions under which he has been declared defaulter are not covered by the fund. As a disciplinary measure, his trading terminal was deactivated and the member was refrained from carrying on his business on the exchange from May 13, 1996. The member has since then not implemented arbitration awards obtained against him by various members and investors.

OTC to revises settlement cycle: The OTCEI will revise the settlement cycle in the permitted securities segment from the present Friday-Thursday to Saturday-Friday from December 5, 1998. This change has been made on the request of the brokers who are active in this segment. The new cycle will be beneficial to thebrokers as they will be able to trade on Saturdays also. While the trading hours for Monday to Friday will be 10 am to 4 pm, the trading hours on Saturdays will be from 10 am to 1 pm. The settlement cycle number 1998048 commencing Friday, November 27, 1998 to Thursday, December 3, 1998 will be extended by one day and thus will end on Friday, December 4, 1998. The new cycle may begin afresh on Saturday, December 5, 1998.

Further steep fall in share prices on heavy FII selling at NSE: Share prices continued to fall sharply on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday due to sustained heavy selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in view of the present political uncertainty in the country. The S&P CNX Nifty fell further sharply by 12.00 to 812.45 as against the previous close of 824.45. CNX Nifty Junior dropped to 1378.25 from the last close of 1394.65. S&P CNX Defty dropped by 10.10 to 661.95 from 672.05. S&P CNX 500 declined by 7.59 to 557.97 from Thursday's level of 565.56. CNX Midcap 200eased by 4.84 to 502.15 from 506.99. The market witnessed a total turnover of Rs 1,250.37 crore from 585.39 lakh shares in 1,87,998 trades. Debentures traded value was Rs 42.65 lakh.

DSE stocks slide further on political developments: The sentiment remained distinctly weak as stock prices continued to decline on the Delhi Stock Exchange on Friday following sustained nervous offerings by all operators amidst bear hammerings largely on political uncertainties. Marketmen said exit poll results which predicted that the ruling BJP is likely to suffer severe setback in the assembly elections mainly unnerved the market sentiments. The DSE sensitive index fell by another 9.51 points for or almost 1.5 per cent to close at 614.11 points following sharp fall in heavy-weighted stock prices.

Indian GDR decreases 2.94%: The Skindia GDR index, representing GDRs of 18 actively trading companies decreased by 2.94 per cent from 545.89 to 529.85 on November 26, 1998 as per the Skindia GDR index with a baseJanuary 3, 1995 equal to 1000. The Skindia GDR index P/E ratio was 14.58 as compared to 14.94. There were 5 gainers, 27 losers and 28 unchanged as compared to only one gainer, 26 losers, and 33 unchanged on November 25.

OTC completes 5th settlement in the new cycle: The OTC Exchange of India has successfully completed its 5th settlement since re-launch of trading in the permitted securities segment with weekly netting numbered N1998046 on November 27, 1998. The total value of the settlement was Rs 44.80 lakh for securities and Rs 23.27 lakh in funds. The pay-out has been completed and all shortages to the extent of 0.77 per cent have been successfully auctioned.